Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Eliza Wood

d.23/11/1908

Wife of William James Wood on one of Berkhamsted's first car owners

Relatives

Elizabeth Jane Hurst — other

Emma Hurst Lingard — daughter

Eleanor Sarah Wood — other

James William Wood — husband

Emily Hurst — other

• Melanie Hilton (great-great-granddaughter of James & Eliza Wood)

Eliza Wood was born Eliza Hurst on 6th September 1823 in Berkhamsted and baptised on the same day at St Peter’s Church.  She was the daughter of Thomas Hurst, cordwiner and shoe maker, who was born in 1779 in Aylesbury and died in 1869 in Berkhamsted and Lydia nee Barnes (1780 – 1869) and granddaughter of William Hurst and Hannah Maria (nee Webb).  See Hurst family history for grave number 48.

On 25th December 1844 Eliza Hurst married Berkhamsted baker William James Wood at St John’s, Waterloo, Lambeth.  They had seven children, including Emma Hurst Wood (1845-1925) who married George Lingard the stonemason (1838-1901). (Emma and George are buried in Grave number 603).

By 1901 William had started a family business, the Music Warehouse shop in Berkhamsted.

Eliza and William were a pioneering couple, the first owners of a motorcar in Berkhamsted!

“It was just sixty years after the railway was opened at Berkhamsted that a pioneer local motorist, Mr. J.W. Wood, bought a second-hand 4.5 h.p. Benz from a St. Albans doctor. If it wasn’t the first car seen in Berkhamsted, it was almost certainly the first car owned by a Berkhamstedian. It was tall, sturdy, noisy, with solid tyres, large wire suspension wheels, coach-style brass lanterns with candles, and no windscreen. The whole town turned out to see this strange contraption. Mr. Wood’s car tackled the steepest Chiltern hills and then disgraced itself on a level stretch of the road at Broadway. After a damaging swerve into the roadside verge, it was necessary to hire one horse to tow 4.5 horse-power to Berkhamsted’s first garage, a greenhouse. Neddy was still supreme.”

Beorcham, Berkhamsted Review, Nov 1967). 
With thanks to Berkhamsted Local History and Museum Society for this article and the photograph.

Eliza Wood died on 23rd November 1908 and William on 21st March 1918.

James William Wood

21/07/1824 –21/03/1918

Owner of Music Warehouse shop and Berkhamsted's first car owner

Relatives

Eliza Wood — wife

Emma Hurst Lingard — daughter

Eleanor Sarah Wood — other

• Melanie Hilton (great-great-granddaughter of James & Eliza Wood)

Born on 21st July 1824, William James Wood was baptised as James William on 24th September at St Peters, Berkhamsted.  He was the son of James Wood, ‘Servant of the Duke of Bridgewater’ 1819, labourer 1822, chair maker/caner from 1823 onwards. (b. Ivinghoe, Bucks c 1790 – d. Dec 1871 Berkhamsted.) Baptist. Buried Berkhamsted Baptist Chapel graveyard & Mary (nee Baldwin) (bc 1797 – ?) and grand-son of Thomas Wood (bc 1760 – dead by 1841) ‘Of Edlesborough’ at marriage & Rebecca (nee Hawkins).

He married Eliza Hurst on 25th December 1844 at St John’s, Waterloo, Lambeth.

His profession was variously baker (in 1844); baker and grocer (1851); and piano tuner (1861 onward).  By 1901 he was the owner of Music Warehouse at 90, Berkhamsted High Street (next to Manor Road) and 36, St Albans Road Watford. They were the agents for Brinsmead, Collard & Collard, Chappell etc.   By 1911 he and his wife were living at 13, Kitsbury Road. By 1914 the Music Warehouse had moved to Lower King’s Road, Berkhamsted, where his son Willam and subsequently his grandson Gilbert carried on the business.

Eliza Hurst was born  on 6th Sepember 1823 in Berkhamsted and baptised on the same day at St Peter’s Church.  She was the daughter of Thomas Hurst, cordwiner and shoe maker, who was born in 1779 in Aylesbury and died in 1869 in Berkhamsted and Lydia nee Barnes (1780 – 1869) and granddaughter of William Hurst and Hannah Maria (nee Webb).  See Hurst family history for grave number 48.

Together with William they had seven children, including Emma Hurst Wood (1845-1925) who married George Lingard the stonemason (1838-1901). (Emma and George are buried in Grave number 603).

They were a pioneering couple, the proud owners of a motorcar!

“It was just sixty years after the railway was opened at Berkhamsted that a pioneer local motorist, Mr. J.W. Wood, bought a second-hand 4.5 h.p. Benz from a St. Albans doctor. If it wasn’t the first car seen in Berkhamsted, it was almost certainly the first car owned by a Berkhamstedian. It was tall, sturdy, noisy, with solid tyres, large wire suspension wheels, coach-style brass lanterns with candles, and no windscreen. The whole town turned out to see this strange contraption. Mr. Wood’s car tackled the steepest Chiltern hills and then disgraced itself on a level stretch of the road at Broadway. After a damaging swerve into the roadside verge, it was necessary to hire one horse to tow 4.5 horse-power to Berkhamsted’s first garage, a greenhouse. Neddy was still supreme.”

Beorcham, Berkhamsted Review, Nov 1967
With thanks to Berkhamsted Local History and Museum Society for this article and the photograph.

Eliza Wood died on 23rd November 1908 and William on 21st March 1918.

Researched by Melanie Hilton, their great-great-grandaughter, who is having the grave restored by our stone mason.

Eleanor Sarah Wood

12/11/1866 –10/04/1941

Daughter in law of James William and Eliza Wood

Relatives

James William Wood — other

Eliza Wood — other

• Melanie Hilton

Eleanor Sarah Wood (née Dettmer) Plot FHS 656

Eleanor was born 12 November 1866 at 56, Willes Road, Kentish Town, Middlesex. She was the third child of Charles Atto Dettmer (1835-96), of German origin and from a large family of piano makers, and Elizabeth Ann Wood (1838-1920) who was no relation to the Wood family that Eleanor married into. The family moved to the St Pancras area, centre of the piano making industry in London.

On 209 November 1886 she married James William (also known as William James) Wood (1863-1960), the son of William James and Eliza Wood, with whom she is buried. Her husband was a piano tuner working with his father in their music business.

In 1891 she and her husband with their son Gilbert Dettmer Wood (born 1888) were living in the High Street next door to her brother-in-law Alfred and his wife Elizabeth (buried in plot 203). By 1901 her husband had taken over the family music business on his father’s retirement and they were living at 90, High Street at the Music Warehouse, built by her father-in-law and still standing on the corner of Manor Street (now a pharmacy).

Her second son Harold Arthur was born in 1895 and by 1911 the family had moved to Lower King’s Road where they occupied a house built around the music shop, occupying what is now 14-20.

When her husband retired they moved to Adeyfield Road in Hemel Hempstead.

Eleanor died 10 April 1941. William James outlived her by many years and died in Broadstairs in 1960 at the age of 97.