Category Archives: 2023

Two images from St Mary’s Church taken in the last couple of months, which to me offer a positive thought at this Christmastime of dreadful, seemingly unresolvable, conflict in the world, particularly in Gaza and Ukraine.  The first, a tribute … Continue reading →

Knebworth House’s Sherlockian Archivist Jill Campbell just happened to be reading the newspaper the other day – the newspaper from Saturday 25th September 1909 (as you do) – and came across this photo and caption which resonated.  This is my … Continue reading →

The responsibility of Knebworth House and Country Park is not a job for one.  Whoever takes on the golden handcuffs had better find a partner willing to commit their life to its treasures and its troubles.  I only needed to … Continue reading →

How important to Knebworth is Lutyens?  Very, I say.  The eminent Edwardian architect is behind the 1909 plan for the creation of Knebworth (see the background of the diagram below) – then ‘Knebworth Garden Village’ – planned as history’s second … Continue reading →

“When the number of charming residential localities that exist around London is taken into consideration, it is a remarkable fact that so many thousands of people are content to reside in those monotonous, dreary streets of uninspired houses that constitute … Continue reading →

What a wonderful event Knebworth Twinning Association’s Open Gardens Day was on the beautiful sunny day that was Sunday 11th June.  Our village looked its very best, and the love and hard work that had demonstrably gone into all of … Continue reading →

A column with perennial themes that I’ve been writing every month since 2005 is bound to repeat itself on occasion, so excuse me this month – in response to the sad news of the death of ‘Wocko’ Watkins on 24th … Continue reading →

Not my ticket to the Coronation – that clearly got stuck in the post – but a beautiful papercut designed as a Valentine card by the remarkable Georgian polymath Elizabeth Cobbold (1767-1824), matriarch of the third of nine generations of … Continue reading →

So here’s a course of events that’s as convoluted as… well, the plumbing in Knebworth House.  A film company wants an antique silk-topped dressing table removed from a bedroom that’s to play the part of a hotel room.  The dressing … Continue reading →

It’s that exciting time of year when large boxes cram the Reception of our Estate Office.  This is the arrival of new stock for the Knebworth Park Gift Shop.  Boxes and boxes of fluffy dinosaurs and medieval knight-wear for the … Continue reading →