It was 20 years ago today… well, this month, that I started writing a monthly piece for the Parish News. That’s 240 contributions, and this the 241st. The past paragraphs are all on line on the Knebworth House website, and I trust will keep future historians busy one day collecting snapshots across the generations. It has been a privilege all these years to have in print what’s been going on at Knebworth House and Country Park and in the life of the 19th generation of the Lytton family to live here.
The idea for a regular contribution from Knebworth House came from Major Robin Wordsworth who was leading the ‘community’ chapter of the 2007 Knebworth Parish Plan, on which I and a group of spirited volunteers under the leadership of Linda Brookes began work in 2004. The years of work on that Parish Plan were done under the auspices of the Parish Council, at that time under the chairmanship of John Bantick.
Being away at the end of the summer I was late to the sad news that we lost John in August. As a community we are indebted to him for the many years that he devoted to the Parish Council, and Knebworth House for the many years he spent on the Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust. John was known beyond our parish as a singer and musician. Amongst many splendid music projects he was chorus master of the Welwyn Garden City Music Society. As a friend, my fondest memory of John will always be his beautiful rendition of my great-great-grandfather’s song “‘Twas Eve And May”. I treasure my recording of John playing piano and singing this song as a particularly evocative snapshot of Knebworth generations meeting across the centuries.
Happy Christmas one and all,
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH
