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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
  • Postcards from the Past
    Postcards from the Past
    The postcards shown below represent just a small selection from the extensive collection held at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies ...
  • Stevenage Road (Fulham)
    Stevenage Road (Fulham)
    Edward Bulwer Lytton* of Knebworth House appears to have kept most of the letters he received.  There is certainly an ...
  • 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 Lambs of Brocket Hall
    The Lambs of Brocket Hall
    Papers held at HALS reveal some aspects of the life of Lord Melbourne and his wife, Lady Caroline Lamb.
  • 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)

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    Workhouse records can be an invaluable source for researching Disability history. An extract from Barley Parish records, dated January 1800 from ...
  • Oaks and Oaklands
    Just an oak tree?  There is one at Oaklands College which is part of history. To celebrate the London 2012 Olympic ...
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