Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Lena Isobel Ashby (682)

1882 –25/03/1913

Daughter of William and Angeline Nash; married butcher Henry Ashby; died at age of 30 years

Relatives

William Nash (682) — father

Angeline Nash — mother

• Christopher Dolton

LENA ISOBEL ASHBY; 1882 -1913

Lena was born during the second quarter of 1882. She was the fifth of six children[1] born to William Nash, a farrier, and his wife Angeline. Lena’s birth was registered in Berkhamsted and the family lived at Farrier’s Hall just behind Berkhamsted’s High Street. (Farrier’s Hall is today occupied by the British Legion.) Sadly, of the six children, only Lena was still living by 1911; the others had all died at young ages[2].

Lena married in 1907 at the age of 25. The marriage was celebrated in St Peter’s Church. She married Henry Ashby. The Ashby family lived in Northchurch and Henry’s father was a butcher and farmer and by 1901 Henry was working in the family business alongside his father and brothers.[3] Following their marriage, Lena and Henry moved to Hemel Hempstead where Henry set up in business on his account as a butcher at 18 High Street. Lena and Henry employed a live in domestic servant, Jane Ghost, and also a cashier for the butcher’s shop. [4]

Lena gave birth to a son, also named Henry, in the second quarter of 1912, but Lena sadly died the following year on 25^th March 1913. She died at her parents’ home, Farrier’s Hall,[5] and she was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery.  

William Nash (682)

18/04/1846 –09/11/1919

Third generation of Nash family to trade as Farrier and Blacksmith in Berkhamsted

Relatives

Angeline Nash — wife

Lena Isobel Ashby (682) — daughter

• Christopher Dolton

WILLIAM NASH; 1846 – 1919

“Right in the heart of Berkhamsted, the ring of the anvil is often heard above the roar of the traffic. It is a pleasant nostalgic sound… No less pleasant is the knowledge that this forge has been owned by the Nash family for nearly 170 years.”[1] So wrote local historian Percy Birtchnall in 1961.

Birtchnell relates that the story of the Nash family began “…at Ashley Green, where James Nash kept the village forge. On his death in 1792 the business was carried on by his son Thomas, and in the following year another son, James, decided to seek fortune, if not fame, in Berkhamsted.”

James had picked a good time to establish his business in Berkhamsted. The coaching days had made Berkhamsted a busy town and James opened his forge next door to an ancient butcher’s shop which was demolished to make way for the construction of William Hazell’s new shop. A new forge and Farriers Hall, were built on an orchard further down the yard.

Customers included Rev. George Nugent of the Red House, the Dorrien family, John Page, landlord of the Kings Arms, the Hon. General Finch of Berkhamsted Place, Augustus Smith M.P. and William Cooper.[2]

William, born on 14^th April 1846, was the third generation of the Nash family who carried on the family business of farrier and blacksmith in Berkhamsted.  His father, also named, William, was the eldest of five children born to James Nash and his wife Mary.[3]

William senior and Mary had a large family of eleven children.[4] Whilst William was not the oldest child, he was the oldest son, and as such he succeeded to the family business. However, when his father died in 1860, William was only 14 years old and initially it was his widowed mother, Mary, who kept the business going. In the census of 1861 Mary is named as the head of the family and her occupation is given as blacksmith. She was still recorded as the head of the family and a farrier in the 1871 census. Although certainly not a common occupation for a woman, female blacksmiths are not unknown in history. As early as the 14th century blacksmith guilds began inviting widowed wives of craftsmen to continue running the family business in the place of their husbands.

William married on 13^th March 1875 at Netherwitton Church in Northumberland. His bride was Angeline Young. She was the daughter of a boot and shoemaker and she and her family lived in Northumberland. In 1871, four years before her marriage to William, she was 20 years old and living with her family in Longwitton.[5] She worked a s kitchen maid. How she and William met is not known.

It is interesting that the notice of the wedding carried by the Morpeth Herald[6] described William not as blacksmith or farrier but rather as a “veterinary surgeon.” Was this an attempt on William’s part to portray himself as having a higher social standing than the occupation of blacksmith or farrier would suggest? In fairness to William, it should perhaps be noted at that time the distinction between a farrier and a veterinary surgeon was blurred. Birtchnell commented that “Farriers were also horse doctors in those days…”[7]

Following William’s wedding, his mother, Mary, retired from the business and William, then 34, took it over; the 1881 census reveals William in occupation of the premises in the High Street and named as head. His occupation is recorded as “Farrier employs 1 man.”

We also discover from the 1881 census that his mother had moved to Northchurch where she was living with her eldest daughter, Mary Ann, a draper and grocer. Mary was to remain living with her daughter until her death on 16^th January 1892 at the age of 79.[8]

William and Angeline had six children[9], but sadly none of them lived to see old age. In fact, of those six children five had died by 1911;[10] only one daughter, Lena, was still alive. She had married Henry Ashby in 1907 and was herself to die in 1913.

With no son to continue the business, William asked his grand-nephew Albert Nash to take the forge over.[11]

William died on 9^th November 1919 at the London Temperance Hospital, although his home address remained Farriers’ Hall.

William’s widow, Angeline, remained living in Farriers Hall until her death in 1927. Following her death, the Hall, forge and yard were advertised for sale by auction by the trustees of William’s estate on 19^th October 1927.[12] Farriers Hall was purchased by the British Legion at auction for £550[13] and the British Legion remains there today. Albert continued to work from the remainder of the yard until his death in December 1961 when the forge finally closed.[14]

Angeline Nash

06/03/1851 –04/07/1927

Kitchen maid from Northumberland; married Berkhamsted farrier William Nash

Relatives

Lena Isobel Ashby (682) — daughter

William Nash (682) — husband

• Christopher Dolton

ANGELINE NASH; 1851 -1927.

Angeline was born on 6^th March 1851in Northumberland. She was one of nine children[1] born to Walter and Mary Young. In 1861, Walter, Mary and the children then born to them, were living in Wallington demesne in Northumberland. Although Angeline’s father was a shoemaker, the family seem to have been reasonably well off. The head of the family was Walter’s 78 year old father, Matthew, who was described as a “Boot and shoemaker, master of two men.” The two men employed by Matthew were Walter, “shoemaker”, and one Thomas Brown, who also lived with the family and appears to have fulfilled the dual roles of both servant and journeyman shoemaker.[2] By 1871 Matthew had died and Walter had become head of the family. One of Walter’s sons, Thomas, was then working alongside him, as was a journeyman bootmaker, William Thornton. The family had moved and were living in Longwitton in Northumberland. [3]

Angeline was 20 years old in 1871 and worked as a kitchen maid. Unlike many domestic servants who lived in the homes of their employers, Angeline remained living with her family. The preceding household to that of the Young’s on the 1871 census return was that of the Snowdon family who lived at  Longwitton Farm, suggesting that it must have been close to where the Young family lived and it may have been at the farm that Angeline was kitchen maid.

Angeline married at Netherwitton Church in Northumberland on 13^th March 1875. She married William Nash, a farrier who lived in Berkhamsted. How she and William came to meet living as they did at opposite ends of the country, is not apparent.

Following the wedding, Angeline left Northumberland to move to Berkhamsted with William and in 1881 she and William were living at Farriers House just off Berkhamsted’s Street.[4] Angeline had then given birth to the first three of six children[5], but sadly none of them lived long lives and by 1911 five of the six had died[6]. Only Lena, born in 1882 survived to 1911 and she died in 1913.

Angeline’s husband, William died on 19^th November 1919. With no surviving children to take over his business, his grand-nephew, Albert Nash, took over the running of the business which continued until Albert’s death in 1961. Following William’s death, Angeline remained living in Farrier’s Hall until her own death on 17^th July 1927. Farrier’s House was acquired by the British Legion which remains there today.

The story is told that Farrier’s House was left to the British Legion by “… the widow of the old farrier some time back before living memory.” She had originally intended to leave to the club not just the house but the entire yard. However “…after being refused a cup of coffee at the then club the farrier’s widow took umbrage. She informed the ‘official’ who had refused her the cup of coffee that she had originally intended to leave the club not only Farrier’s Hall but also all the land and buildings behind it stretching down to the River Bulbourne (the land now occupied by the Water Board). She went on to say that she had been so upset by the incident that she would reduce her legacy accordingly.”[7]

Colourful though this story is, sadly it is not true. William’s will left the house and the yard to trustees with the direction that Angeline was to have the right to occupy Farriers Hall during her life and that it was to be sold on her death. Neither the Hall nor the yard were therefore hers to bequeath. Following her death in July 1927, Farriers Hall, the forge, yard and three shops fronting the High Street were sold by William’s trustees at auction on 19^th October that year. The British Legion bought Farrier’s Hall for £550 and the deed conveying the property to the club is on display in the club today.