The museum project is moving forward rapidly.  When the Newsletter last reported, we still had work to do to remove the floor screed.  This is now done, thanks to a Kango hammer kindly loaned by Grace Hire, with added brawn from Ron Spiers, Roger Hopkins and Philip Cartwright, and sent away in a skip kindly paid for by the family of  the late Benjamin Tomkins (see March newsletter).  We were awaiting builders’ tenders, which came in at the end of March and were assessed by Bob Tucker and Roger Emery.  Although every effort had been made to provide for cost increases when we made our lottery bid, the tenders were all substantially higher than expected, which has caused us to look very carefully at all the available options to keep the cost down.   The Heritage Lottery Fund will not increase its grant, so if things cost more, we have to fund the difference.

There are four more fundraising events that have definitely been planned for the rest of the year, so perhaps you would please put them in your diaries.

Saturday 20^th September

Quiz Evening with Fish and Chip Supper at Victoria Hall, Tring. (Bring your own drinks and nibbles.) This is kindly being organised for us by Sandy Clarke.

Saturday 15^th November

Beetle Drive and Fish and Chip Supper (again bring your own drinks and nibbles) at Victoria Hall.

Friday 28^th November

We will also be having a Tombola stall at Tring’s Christmas event. Last year we had well over 100 prizes to play for so if you have any unwanted Birthday or Christmas presents tucked away anywhere in cupboards or drawers, we would be very pleased to have them for the Tombola – we are already collecting for this event so please let us have them as soon as you like.

Saturday 6^th December

Christmas Miscellany at St. Peter’s & St. Paul’s Church, Tring.

Venues in Tring are now taking bookings for well into 2009 so some thought is being given to next year’s fundraising programme. If you have any ideas regarding fundraising or would like to join our small happy band we would be pleased to hear from you -

If your interest is in tracing your family history you will find that the old days of heaving very heavy books about in the various record offices are almost gone. There is now a mass of information on the internet. For myself, I had been tracing my family history the hard way in record offices. I bought a computer, and after a few years I found an unknown cousin in France, he was French and had the family history, except for what I had on the English side of the family, back to 1700 in Glasgow. We were all actually of Scots descent. We corresponded by email until we actually met in France.

The area of land now covered with modern houses and bordered by Christchurch Road, Friars Walk, Dunston Hill, part of Dundale Road and part of Frogmore Street, was once owned by Frederick Butcher who also owned the bank in the High Street which is now the National Westminster Bank, and other branches, one at Chesham and another in Aylesbury. My memories of that family are from the end of the nineteen twenties and the early thirties and at that time, the son of Frederick Butcher, Arthur Butcher was in residence at the family home, Frogmore, the entrance to which was in Frogmore Street, opposite the Black Horse public house. Arthur Butcher had two sisters who also lived in Frogmore and known to my family and other employees as Miss Ellen and Miss Gertrude. In the grounds around the house was a very neat and well kept cottage and when I was about five or six, my grandfather's Aunt Annie and his uncle Jo lived there with their two daughters, Nell and Lou. Aunt Annie was the cook and uncle Jo was the head gardener. My grandfather, Frederick Reeve, was uncle Jo's under gardener; the other gardener was Fred Brackley and sometimes a  Mr. Emery. Aunt Annie was a very kind lady and when I visited, would always sit me down and give me a glass of milk. Her cottage was always beautifully kept and comfortably furnished and had a lovely peaceful air about it.

 The other staff at Frogmore were the parlour maid Kate Bridges and another maid was my grandmothers brother's daughter Kath Fitkin whose father Charles Fitkin was the caretaker at the cemetery and lived in the cottage at the entrance with his wife my great Aunt Bella the butler/handyman was Charlie Warr and the cowman Daniel Johnson who was assisted by Bert Flitney. Extra cleaning staff were employed during spring cleaning time and several times I understand my mother worked in that capacity.

I have many happy memories of Frogmore and its staff from my childhood but one not so happy when I think I must have been about three or four years old, when I recall stroking the gun dogs, Dan and Piper, I was a little frightened of Piper as I understand that he had tried to bite the fur from my bonnet no doubt intending to carry it to his master!

In the fields around the house were cows and I believe that they were Jerseys and whenever a calf was born, my grand father would take me to the cow shed to see the calf with it's mother. I can also remember going into the dairy and seeing the large bowls of milk ready for the cream to be skimmed off by Nell, one of my great-great Uncle Joe's daughters, who became cook after the retirement of her mother and father. With Joe's retirement my grandfather became head gardener following in the footsteps of his uncle.

The Butcher family were strict Baptists who regularly went to Akeman Street Baptist Chapel; they were on good terms with their employees and treated them in a very friendly manner and looking back, I can recall that their kitchen, drawing room and lovely conservatory, were very familiar to me. Miss Ellen and Miss Gertrude often chatted to me although I vaguely remember Miss Gertrude was the more relaxed of the two. One year she went to Switzerland for a winter holiday and she brought back a lovely doll for me and a carved wooden dog for my younger brother, how I wish that we had kept them!

The herd of cows obviously produced far more milk than they could use in the Butcher household and every morning people who lived in Frogmore street would go, with their milk cans and jugs, to the yard of Frogmore which opened off the street and Daniel Johnson or Bert Flitney would measure out pints and quarts into their cans from a large milk churn; the cost I believe was cheaper than the bottled milk from the dairy. As you would imagine all of our milk would be brought home by my grandfather although we still had to pay for it.

Luckily we lived near Frogmore as grandfather often went in during the evening to check the temperature in the greenhouse and sometimes in the summer he would take me. I loved it in the greenhouse which seemed to me to be full of flowers and I imagine tomatoes, grapes etc.

In the Old Vicarage, which is now Sutton Court, in the thirties lived a Mr and Mrs Kemp; Mr Kemp had been headmaster of Harrow School before he retired and he was a friend of Mr Arthur Butcher. Once Mr Kemp and Arthur Butcher went shooting, I am not sure where, but grandfather acted as a beater for them, as a reward Mr Butcher provided us with a turkey for our Christmas dinner. I must confess I cannot say with any certainty but I think this was a regular Christmas present.

As I grew older, with other interests, I visited Frogmore less and less but my grandfather worked there until his retirement in 1938. Miss Ellen died first then Miss Gertrude needed a nurse companion. The companion was obviously a friendly lady who eventually married Arthur Butcher, who by then was quite an elderly gentleman and who sadly died in 1955. The new Mrs Butcher was left an allowance to maintain herself comfortably following his death but the estate reverted to the Butcher family.

The estate was subsequently sold, the house and buildings demolished to make way for the modem houses that we now have.

Contributions for inclusion in future issues of the Newsletter will be most welcome and should be sent to Mike Bass at 19/20 Charles Street, Tring, Tel: 01442 - 825047 email: mike@oldtring.co.uk or George Turner at 12 Friars Walk, Tring, 823344 george.btsa@btinternet.com . Authors should make it clear whether they give editorial freedom to the compilers or a preference for their submission(s) to be verbatim or ipsissima verba even!