Is it possible that sks could do a lookup for me in the 1891 census for Cheshunt. I'm looking for the HOLDSWORTH family who have a child, Walter, aged 3. I'm sorry this is a bit of a long shot but I cannot get to see the census very easily. Any help would be appreciated. Also, I know that the HOLDSWORTH family (maybe another branch) were mineral water manufacturers in Cheshunt - the 1881 census gives the address as: Waltham Cross Shop, Cheshunt, Hertford, England. Any information on this family would be appreciated as well. Regards Rita Rainbird

Hi Rita, I have found the other family: Cheshunt - RG 12/1091 Folio 65 Page 5 George Holdsworth - 46 - Mineral Water Manufacturer - London, Aldgate Alice - 35 - London, Kingsland George - 23 - Assistant - Waltham Cross Fredrick - 20 - Assistant " Harriett - 18 - " Emily - 16 - " Mark - 14 - Scholar " Frank - 12 - Scholar " Walter - 2 - " Regards, Penny -----Original Message----- From: RitaERainbird@aol.com [mailto:RitaERainbird@aol.com] Sent: 17 October 2005 16:41 To: ENG-HERTFORDSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [HRT] Holdsworth Family in Cheshunt, Herts Is it possible that sks could do a lookup for me in the 1891 census for Cheshunt. I'm looking for the HOLDSWORTH family who have a child, Walter, aged 3. I'm sorry this is a bit of a long shot but I cannot get to see the census very easily. Any help would be appreciated. Also, I know that the HOLDSWORTH family (maybe another branch) were mineral water manufacturers in Cheshunt - the 1881 census gives the address as: Waltham Cross Shop, Cheshunt, Hertford, England. Any information on this family would be appreciated as well. Regards Rita Rainbird ==== ENG-HERTFORDSHIRE Mailing List ==== TRY to keep quoting to a minimum. "Quoting" is repeating text of the message you are replying to. Some quoting is necessary to remind other readers what the thread is about but do try to use good judgement.

A further thought for you: today, Cheshunt and Waltham Cross are very much perceived as separate and distinct towns, even though one merges into the other. But this was not always so. Whilst Cheshunt has a long and detailed history as a town and parish, Waltham Cross was once little more than a very old coaching inn next to the Eleanor Cross which stood by the side road leading to the old Abbey of Waltham across some particularly gooey marshes, and after which cross this tiny outpost took its name. Waltham Cross was for a very long time effectively little more than the gateway into Cheshunt up the old Roman road from London, and was also a small corner of the parish of Cheshunt, until the coming of the railways in the 1830s led to rapid local expansion and an autonomous identity for Waltham Cross as a 'market town' in its own right (especially as part of the Lea Valley's burgeoning market gardening industry); it received its own ecclesiastical status in 1857 (or thereabouts - from memory). Perhaps its most famous resident was the 'postman' Anthony Trollope who also wrote a bit I have been told. In 1859 he moved into the very grand Waltham House with its sweeping gardens and driveways, which was demolished in 1929 to make way for a bypass, a few years after Country Life had produced a special feature on it. In his Autobiography (see below), A.T. tries to downplay its status out of modesty. It was truly one of the last of the grandest. But the status of the two towns took on a further twist, not entirely unconnected with Trollope or at least with the organisation he worked for: up until maybe the middle of the 19th century, Waltham Cross had for centuries been considered as an insignificant part of Cheshunt. But then Waltham Cross developed so rapidly and comprehensively as a commercial centre round its extremely convenient railway station (Cheshunt railway station is, after all, quite a fair way from the town's centre), and from the 1890s round its second even more convenient railway station (Theobalds Grove which actually straddles the main road), that it also became the home of the local main post office which served quite an area, including Cheshunt (it still is today, even for this resident of an entirely different county, being Essex). I can illustrate the increasingly commercial nature of 'the Cross' (as we locals call it) with one small bit of trivia; when Trollope tried to sell his town house in 1871 no-one would take it off his hands as the local area had changed its character so much; gone were the coaching days when the nobility lived in grand mansions lining the main roads out of London; now they retreated to the wilds of the country while the 'yuppies' of the period clustered in their rows of almost identical 'noble villas' around the train stations. After two years of lying empty, A.T.'s house was eventually sold at a knock-down price to William Paul, a local nurseryman and rose-grower who had recently been enjoying meteoric success both with his hybrid roses and his nurseries (in Trinity Road, Waltham Cross - behind the new parish church - Nursery Road, Loughton, and High Beech, Epping Forest, both in Essex), though his book 'The Rose' first published in 1848 brought him international acclaim; it went through 10-odd editions and the first one can fetch three or four figures today. But ever the canny Scotsman, he still enjoyed a true bargain - especially if he could house all his large family in it. Consequently, from the third quarter of the 19th century until at least WW1 or even the 1920s, local postal addresses took the form of either "Waltham Cross, Herts" or, if they were in Cheshunt, "Cheshunt, Waltham Cross, Herts" as they had to be sent to the Waltham Cross sorting office (which is almost next to the train station) before being delivered locally in Cheshunt. This official way of describing the correct location of places also made its way into the directories and censuses of the time, where you will find Cheshunt described as being part of Waltham Cross in the late 19th and early 20th century. In other words, the two places had - at least in this sense - swapped their relative standing. Today of course, both places come under the jurisdiction of a town in yet another county - Enfield, Middlesex, as all the local postcodes begin with EN. __________________________ "I will now go back to the year 1867, in which I was still living at Waltham Cross. I had some time since bought the house there which I had at first hired, and added rooms to it, and made it for our purposes very comfortable. It was, however, a rickety old place, requiring much repair, and occasionally not as weathertight as it should be. We had a domain there sufficient for the cows, and for the making of our butter and hay. For strawberries, asparagus, green peas, out-of-door peaches, for roses especially, and such everyday luxuries, no place was ever more excellent. It was only twelve miles from London, and admitted therefore of frequent intercourse with the metropolis. It was also near enough to the Roothing country for hunting purposes. No doubt the Shoreditch Station, by which it had to be reached, had its drawbacks. My average distance also to the Essex meets was twenty miles. But the place combined as much or more than I had a right to expect. It was within my own postal district, and had, upon the whole, been well chosen. "The work that I did during the twelve years that I remained there, from 1859 to 1871, was certainly very great. I feel confident that in amount no other writer contributed so much during that time to English literature. Over and above my novels, I wrote political articles, critical, social, and sporting articles, for periodicals, without number. I did the work of a surveyor of the General Post Office, and so did it as to give the authorities of the department no slightest pretext for fault-finding. I hunted always at least twice a week. I was frequent in the whist-room at the Garrick. I lived much in society in London, and was made happy by the presence of many friends at Waltham Cross. In addition to this we always spent six weeks at least out of England. Few men, I think, ever lived a fuller life. And I attribute the power of doing this altogether to the virtue of early hours. It was my practice to be at my table every morning at 5.30 A. M.; and it was also my practice to allow myself no mercy. An old groom, whose business it was to call me, and to whom I paid £5 a year extra for the duty, allowed himself no mercy. During all those years at Waltham Cross he was never once late with the coffee which it was his duty to bring me. I do not know that I ought not to feel that I owe more to him than to any one else for the success I have had. By beginning at that hour I could complete my literary work before I dressed for breakfast." - Anthony Trollope, Autobiography, Chapter XV. Regards, Lawrence Greenall. P.S. the "old groom" is identifiable in the censuses! > -----Original Message----- > From: RitaERainbird@aol.com [mailto:RitaERainbird@aol.com] > Sent: 17 October 2005 16:41 > To: ENG-HERTFORDSHIRE-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [HRT] Holdsworth Family in Cheshunt, Herts > > > Is it possible that sks could do a lookup for me in the 1891 > census for > Cheshunt. I'm looking for the HOLDSWORTH family who have a > child, Walter, aged > 3. I'm sorry this is a bit of a long shot but I cannot get > to see the census > very easily. Any help would be appreciated. > > Also, I know that the HOLDSWORTH family (maybe another > branch) were mineral > water manufacturers in Cheshunt - the 1881 census gives the > address as: > Waltham Cross Shop, Cheshunt, Hertford, England. Any > information on this family > would be appreciated as well. > > Regards > Rita Rainbird > > > > > > ==== ENG-HERTFORDSHIRE Mailing List ==== > TRY to keep quoting to a minimum. "Quoting" is repeating text > of the message you are replying to. Some quoting is necessary > to remind other readers what the thread is about but do try > to use good judgement. > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.12.2/137 - Release > Date: 16/10/2005 > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Ha Haa! Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.12.2/140 - Release Date: 18/10/2005