Continuing Research into Leverstock Green's History
Researches into Leverstock Green's history for the Leverstock Green Chronicle continues, though I estimate it could be many years before the main work is complete; with the basic text alone standing at over 350 typed A4 pages to date, with supporting material, transcripts of original documents etc. running to many times that amount. The time I have for research is now limited given my family, teaching, and LGVA commitments so that progress is necessarily slow. Nevertheless, I always find time to do just a little more.
Recent research, mostly undertaken either at home on documents in my possession, or at Dacorum's Heritage Store in Berkhamsted, ( why not view their web site on www.hertsmuseums.org.uk/dacorum) has been primarily involved in trawling the microfilms of the Hemel Hempstead Gazette for information on Leverstock Green in general and the Parish Room Trust in particular, and there is much further work to be done. It can take between 3 - 8 hours to view and make notes on one year's Gazette entries. The Gazette being first published in 1859.
The Buglass & LGVA Archives.
I have also been fortunate since the death of LGVA President Fred Buglass, (August 1998) to have been given all the papers, minute books etc. of the Leverstock Green Parish Room Trust, discovered at his home. These are proving a veritable mine of information, and I have undertaken the painstaking task of cataloguing the collection so future generations can appreciate their heritage. I presented the completed catalogue to the present Chairman of the Parish Trust, Ron Harris in July 1999; with the original documents being deposited at HALS (Hertfordshire Archive and Local Studies, previously known as the Hertfordshire Record Office), at County Hall Hertfordshire. Copies of the catalogue are available at Leverstock Green and Hemel Hempstead Libraries and at Dacorum Heritage Store in Berkhamsted as well as at HALS.
Since then, and when time permits which is not often, I have started to catalogue in a similar manner all the past documents connected with LGVA and which have been stored at the village hall. Some of this will undoubtedly be duplicates of some of the documents in the Buglass Archive.
For further information on these archives or any other matter concerning Leverstock Green's history please e-mail me at barbara@bachapman.freeserve.co.uk or click on the "Historian" below.
