Thank you for your interest in my self published books. The following books are currently in print, and can be ordered by email from aroundcoldchristmas@coldchristmas.net
Copies of Be Ware and Be Prepared are also available in local schools and Ware and HALS libraries.
Around Cold Christmas, A personal history, is now in its 4th edition. Following the route from Barwick to Wadesmill, it is filled with hundred of years of documented and family stories of life in Thundridge, collected over 20 years. Illustrated throughout with family photographs of past residents and locations. Contains family trees for the Aldridge, Day, Worby and Wrenn/Penn families of Cold Christmas.
A4 100 pages £18
Be Ware and Be Prepared: The Boys of St Mary’s and The First World War presents 2nd Ware Scout, Hertford Grammar (Richard Hale) School and family archives and photographs, alongside Hertfordshire Mercury articles to follow the origins and fates of the youth groups and friendships of St Mary’s, Ware prior to and through the First World War. There is a volume of short biographies, organised by community group, for those referenced.
Be Ware and Be Prepared: The Boys of St Mary’s and The First World War 2nd Edition A4 Spiral Bound 80 pages £15
Be Ware and Be Prepared: Biographies of The Boys of St Mary’s During The First World War A4 37 pages £8 (or both for £20)
The Posy Ring, A Victorian Tale of Thundridgebury Manor Through the Civil War and Plague Years, 2nd edition.
The Posy Ring was originally written and published anonymously in the Hertfordshire Mercury in 1878. It tells an imagined tale of the Pettiwards and Gardiners of Thundridgebury and the Meritons of Sacombe Old Vicarage, Sacombe Green; based on memorial inscriptions at Little St Mary’s and All Hallows’, Thundridge and St Catherine’s, Sacombe. Illustrations and footnotes add historical context to the Stuart era narrative centered on the Manor of Thundridge; from the year of James Stuart’s coronation in 1567, through the English Civil War and until The London Plague of 1665.
A5 68 pages £13
In 2022, footage of the old church for Thundridge Old Church Action Group (TOCAG) by drone operator Jon Robbins re-discovered details of the carved quatrefoil dated to around 1400 mounted on the south wall of the medieval tower of Little St Mary’s and All Hallows’, Old Thundridge Church. Clearly visible on the left-hand border and to a lesser degree in the central rosette are two Pelham Buckles. Pelham Buckle Towers and the buckle symbol are otherwise limited to church properties and remains in Sussex. So why do these symbols appear in Thundridge?
The book is an annotated transcript of the original ‘Observations on the Buckle: the Badge of the Family of Pelham, and its application to various ecclesiastical buildings in Sussex’ published by Mark Anthony Lower in Sussex Archaeological Collections Volume 3 1850.
A5 24 pages £5
These three plays, all produced by Hertfordshire based community theatre Pins and Feathers, tell extraordinary stories of ordinary people. With emotion and humour, they bring history to life, portraying characters challenged by events beyond their control, whose defiant voices resonate today.
The Last Witch, by Kate Miller
Seeing it Through, by Kate Miller, Emma Blowers and Erin Thompson Characters featured include Ware’s scouts, suffragist Louisa Puller of Youngsbury alongside W E ‘Biggles’ Johns!
The March, by Kate Miller
A5 285 pages £10 Very limited stock
Copies are printed in small batches, and currently as priced. Pre-ordered copies can be collected from Emma Blowers or posted at Royal Mail prices by prior arrangement. Copies may also be explored and purchased at TOCAG’s events stall.