A History of Preston
in Hertfordshire
Robert was born in 1941, the son of Edward Morris and Olive Joan (nee Winfield) Sunderland. Edward and Olive married at St Martin, Preston on 10 February 1940.
Robert attended Preston School from 30 September 1946.
His father and grandfather were carpenters and his grandfather, Frank Sunderland, was living at The Wilderness, Preston when he died at Lister Hospital, Hitchin on 9 September 1956.
Frank Thomas Sunderland (1879 -
Lucy Kate Sunderland (nee Clifton) (1878 -
Edward Morris and Olive Joan (nee Winfield) Sunderland
Robert F Sunderland (1941 -
The Wilderness
(l to r) Rose Cottage and The Wilderness viewed from a pond at Pond Farm
The well-
Preston Hill Farm
Note the cruck cottage (far left) and the pond
People of Preston
A charming photograph of Rachel Brown of Pond Farm
Either James or Alec Brown of Pond Farm
(l to r) Frank T Sunderland, Paul Edwin ‘Eddie’ Murray of 24 Chequers Lane 1950s and Tony Lines
Working at Preston Hill Farm. (l to r) Geof Hedger, Robert Sunderland, ?, ?
(l to r) Tony Lines (?), ‘Eddie’ Murray, Edward Sunderland and Mamie Clough
My family lived at The Wilderness from 1934 to 1961. There is a well there which is not mentioned in your list.
An excellent photograph of the well shows it to be rough chalk-
Wells are very rare in Preston because it is a long way to dig for water and ponds are easier to create. The well may be very old predating the cottage and may be a relic of nearby Hunsden House, Preston Castle. By the way, Butchers Lane is so called because The Wilderness was a butcher’s shop, possibly after being a tailor's.
My mother came to Preston to work as a Land Girl at Castle Farm in 1940. I believe
she lodged with Mrs Worthington. She met my father (who lived at The Wilderness)
and they married at St Martin.
I attended Preston School which, alas, is long gone from its original site. Together
with Tony Smith of Temple Dinsley Cottages and Nick Murray of 24 Chequers Lane, we
were the first to pass the eleven-
In the school holidays, I worked for Fred Maybrick at Preston Hill Farm and got to know and respect him and Anne and also Alec Currell their foreman – a lovely man, who lived next door to the Crawleys.
I moved to Baldock in 1961 to work for The Admiralty and lived at its staff hotel
there and also The Wilderness. After my grandmother died (she was buried at St Martin
on 23 November 1961) the house and land was sold to Derek Seebohm for his newly-
(I am in the photo on the 'Mardell page' during the Best Kept Village Award outside
the Red Lion in 1961. Towards the back on the left-
In 1967, I returned to Preston where my wife, Janet, and I built a house on Church
Road. Our children were born when we lived in Preston and were christened at St Martin.
Although we had to move to Berkhamsted because of a change of job in 1971, we visited the village practically every weekend to see Frank and Marjorie Pugh, who had come to live with my grandparents during the war. Incidentally, you didn’t mention the doodlebug that fell in the corner of Hearnsfield Wood, Preston Hill Farm. Parts of it were still there when I worked for Fred Maybrick. There was another one that came down between Austage End and Preston.
I don't live in Preston today -
three-
There were at least seven ponds from the Green to the crossroads of Church Lane
and Back Lane/ Butchers Lane. The pond at that corner was excavated for the sewage
pumping station in 1969. All the rest filled in during the house building programme
of the 1950's/1960's. I’m pleased to see the village pond is back. There were also
two ponds at Pond Farm, but both are now gone and a pond at Preston Hill Farm – also
gone. All were dew ponds and are a sad loss to our environment.
I was very pleased to read the recent account of Offley Holes House. I remember visiting
the site when I was a boy and poking about in the still-
The outline of the House’s foundations were still clear in the early 1950’s, but
they are far too overgrown to see anything now -
I was always under the impression that the House had been built on much older foundations.
The coach-
My grandfather reckoned that there had been animal slaughtering on the site. I’m
not sure when the cottage between The Wilderness and Rose Cottage came down, but
it was well before my grandparents and the Blanchards moved in during the early 1930’s.
Blanchard’s barn was thatched but it was re-
My grandparents used to say that The Wilderness and Rose Cottage were part of the
Offley Holes Estate and that ‘the Templetons’ had owned Offley Holes before it burnt
down -
In the event, The Wilderness did not come onto the market until late 1963 -
I have also re-
I have also looked again at the old photographs of Preston. No doubt it was a much
more attractive village than the clean, sanitized and up-
Re the Newells: they ran the village Post Office at 6 Chequers Cottages until it went to the Worthingtons on the Green after the Second World War. Eileen Newell delivered the telegram which announced my birth (my father was working for GW King on hanger doors at Blackpool Airfield at the time) to my grandparents with the words “It’s a boy”. They were not pleased to thus informed!
There was a wind-
Hill Farm had a similar pump -
There was plenty of evidence of about six cottages which had been behind Preston
Hill Farm. The old road down to Frogmore Bottom ran between them. It is ploughed
over now, as are the cottage ruins. There was also evidence of cottages below Reeves
Cottage -
Mardells lived in Reeves Cottage when they first fled from the bombing of London early in the War. They moved to the end council cottage at Chequers Lane, nearest Castle Farm, just after the War ended.
Concerning the Swedish Houses. The village was amazed to see them go up so fast –
in the late 1940’s, if memory serves. Murrays were at No 24. Paul was a close friend
of my father. They had lived with my grandparents at the end of the war. Paul worked
for Derek Seebohm after being de-
I have fond memories of Preston School, cold in winter, outside toilets and a very scary headmistress, Miss Dawkins, notwithstanding. Her successor Mr Luck was a breath of fresh air!
I was sorry to see the building torn down and two smart, linked-
A note about Dick Middleditch: I knew him well. He took over my pet goat and looked after it at his cottage in Wain Wood after I went off to boarding school.
When we were building our house (now Thurlaston) on a piece of land in Church Road
we had bought from Reuben Freeman (not an easy man to do business with...) in 1967-
Above:(l to r) Edward M Sunderland
and Paul E Murray
Above: Olive J Sunderland
Above: (l to r) Paul E Murray and Edward M Sunderland at Butchers Lane after a snow storm circa1936
Robert Sunderland at Preston Hill Farm circa 1964 (note the cruck cottage far left)
Robert with his brothers, Steve and Tim at Preston Hill Farm circa 1964 (Rickyard Field ?)
The Wilderness
Preston Hill Farm -
Addendum
Later, I sent Robert a page from the National Farm Survey of 1941 which reported his grandfather’s small holding at The Wilderness. Eight poles (about 44 sq yards) were given over to potatoes; four poles (about 22 sq yds) to an orchard. Half an acre was grass that was mowed; a quarter of an acre was grass for grazing. He kept ten fowls aged over six months, seventeen ducks and six goats.
Robert responded: My grandparents’ smallholding was about two acres. Although this Return was made around the time of my birth, I well remember Grandpa being very concerned later on that the land would be taken out of his hands and farmed by someone else.
They kept goats, ducks and chickens and one of Taylor’s farm labourers, Mr Nunn,
who lived at Pond Farm after the war, cultivated quite a large area for vegetables.
The produce was shared. Mr Bonfield (a Whitwell milkman) would come along with his
little Ferguson T20 and side-
Interesting that the beehives were not included. One of my jobs was to turn the handle of the honey separator.
Eggs were stored in an isinglass solution. Lots of jam was made from our plums and
fruit picked along the hedges. Apples, pears were stored until about March. Plus
wonderful ‘horse’ mushrooms from the meadow opposite us on Pond Farm. One would fill
a frying pan. Grandma pickled much of the garden produce and baked her own bread.
They were pretty nearly self-