Cissi Pratt - Memories of St Ippolyts and Gosmore

Cissi Pratt was born in 1899 and spent her childhood before the First World War in St Ippolyts (apparently then pronounced “Sniplets”) and the next-door village of Gosmore, just south of Hitchin.

In the 1970s, her family recorded her chatting about memories of her childhood, and her grandson Mick Nye has very kindly supplied these recordings for use on Herts Memories

Cissi’s memories cover local characters, pre-war farming and village pastimes and entertainment, including Cissi singing the local version of the Hertfordshire Mayers’ Song. I’ve divided the recordings roughly by theme, though Cissi talks about things as they come up and each section includes a variety of topics.

Besides the invaluable memories of a lost age, we also have the pleasure of listening to Cissi’s lovely traditional Hertfordshire accent. Cissi passed away in 1987, but she lives on in these recordings.

This page was added on 19/09/2018.

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  • so nice to hear that accent again ,my grand parents came from Hitchen and Gosmore (baron and Williamson ) and it brings back so many memorious they came out to New Zealand in the 1920s

    By michael williamson (11/12/2022)
  • lovely to hear that accent ,my grandad came from GOSMORE , I was very young when he died but my dad and Aunt had that accent, brought tears to my eyes.

    By maxine HARRIS ,NEE maxwell (03/09/2020)