• Skip to content
  • Websites in the network
  • Herts Memories
  • Herts Past Policing
  • Our Dacorum
  • Our Hatfield
  • Our Hertford and Ware
  • Our Oxhey
  • Our Stevenage
  • Our Welwyn Garden City
  • Out of Sight, Out of Mind
  • Herts Memories
  • Herts Past Policing
  • Our Dacorum
  • Our Hatfield
  • Our Hertford and Ware
  • Our Oxhey
  • Our Stevenage
  • Our Welwyn Garden City
  • Out of Sight, Out of Mind
 
  • Log in
  • Contact us
Herts Memories
Herts Memories
Gateway to Hertfordshire's community archive network
  • Home
  • About us
  • Herts history
  • Advice and Resources
  • Noticeboard
  • Blog
  • Get involved
  • Follow us on Twitter
You are here: Home>Herts history>Diaries and Letters

Diaries and Letters

In the pre-digital age, almost the only way for generations of Hertfordshire inhabitants to record their lives and thoughts was through the diaries and letters they wrote. The documents recorded here range from great affairs of state to the lives of ordinary working people.

  • 1727: The Siege of Gibralter - An Eyewitness Account
    1727: The Siege of Gibralter - An Eyewitness Account
    Gibraltar has been under British control since at least 1713 when the Treaty of Utrecht, signed between France and the ...
  • A casualty of Passchendaele, 1917
    A casualty of Passchendaele, 1917
    Algernon Villiers was a young, married, man who was keen to volunteer in 1914. Amongst so many, he was killed in 1917.
  • A Family Dispute
    A Family Dispute
    The two ilegitimate children of William, first earl Cowper, and his near neighbour, the heiress Elizabeth Culling survived their mother and ...
  • A Politician in Fear for his Freedom
    A Politician in Fear for his Freedom
    Reading letters from one major statesman to another can reveal more than just the plain facts of a political change ...
  • An inhuman neighbourhood
    An inhuman neighbourhood
    A grateful survivor comments on rapacious villagers
  • Ann Wickham's Day Book
    Ann Wickham's Day Book
    D/EX/126/F1
  • Designing the Great Seal for the Act of Union
    Designing the Great Seal for the Act of Union
    What are the little things (and not so little) that have to be decided before you join one independent nation ...
  • Humphry Repton in Hertfordshire
    Humphry Repton in Hertfordshire
    The landscape gardener, Humphry Repton, died 200 years ago on 24 March 1818.  Among the events commemorating his life and ...
  • Letters from America
    Letters from America
      In the early eighteenth century the land of America was wild and dangerous. This was particularly true when the War ...
  • Letters of Winnie Seebohm
    Letters of Winnie Seebohm
    January - December 1885 D/ESo/C2
  • Margaret Tyrwhitt Drake's Reference Book
    Margaret Tyrwhitt Drake's Reference Book
    Her diary from 1883 to 1923
  • The Diary of a Vicar's Wife at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries
    The Diary of a Vicar's Wife at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries
    The diaries and notebooks of Harriet Susanna Tyrwhitt Drake provide a picture of the duties of a vicar's wife and also chart the growth of the Mothers' Union in the St Albans diocese.
  • The Diary of Amy Wright, 1935 - 1995
    The Diary of Amy Wright, 1935 - 1995
    The Amy Wright (1910 – 1997) was a wife and mother of six who, originally from Yorkshire, moved to Watford ...
  • The mob at its worst
    The mob at its worst
    Eighteenth century anger against immigrants.
  • The Reverend Samuel Briercliffe in Africa
    The Reverend Samuel Briercliffe in Africa
    It is always worth looking at how attitudes have evolved and the HALS archives are a rich resource in documentary ...
  • Hertfordshire Voices

    Hertfordshire Voices (264)

    Excerpts of Hertfordshire letters and diaries with audio readings
  • HERTS Yeomanry doings as far as they concerned T. Holland-Hibbert between 1912 and Feb 1916

    HERTS Yeomanry doings as far as they concerned T. Holland-Hibbert between 1912 and Feb 1916 (12)

  • The Diary of E. B. Sheppard, 1914 - 1916

    The Diary of E. B. Sheppard, 1914 - 1916 (23)

  • The First World War Diary Wilfred Holland-Hibbert

    The First World War Diary Wilfred Holland-Hibbert (4)

Herts history
  • A Brief History of Hitchin’s Train Station
  • Diaries and Letters
  • Leisure
  • People
  • Places
  • Topics
  • Towns and Villages
  • Work
What's new
  • The Coronation of Elizabeth II
    The coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 was a momentous occasion, and Hertfordshire celebrated in style.
  • Hailey
    A small village just within the north-western boundaries of the Borough of Broxbourne, Hailey is associated with the well-known public ...
More new pages
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Accessibility
  • Copyright
Designed and built by Community Sites

Copyright Hertfordshire County Council. All rights reserved.

Heritage Lottery Fund (opens in new window) Hertfordshire County Council (opens in new window)