For most of last month, just as we seemed, as a nation, to move a little further away from the United States, we were actually an hour closer. American clocks went forward on 8th March and ours not until on 29th March. This meant that the Oscars in Hollywood on 15th March started an hour earlier than usual in the UK, at 11pm. For the first time since I was very much younger I was tempted to stay up and watch them into the early hours of Monday morning. They say it was a good year for films, but I’m not convinced. Lots of violence and horror and grief was thrown into perspective for me when Barbara Streisand paid tribute Robert Redford by singing a chorus of “The Way We Were”, from their 1973 film – the kind of Romantic film that is nowhere to be seen in the 2020s. I hope someday soon we can pull ourselves out of this Romance recession.
However just as violence and horror and grief were being handed awards in Hollywood, here in Hertfordshire, awards were being handed out for happier, more wholesome reasons. The Hertfordshire Association of Museums gave their 2026 Award for Object of the Year to my Grandfather’s teddy bear. This much-loved childhood companion of Cameron ‘Kim’ Cobbold (1904-1987) was brilliantly rescued by Alan & Jackie Primett when my Grandmother was downsizing towards the end of her life, and now resides on display as a gem amongst generations of much-loved Lytton family toys in the Hampden Room of Knebworth House.
But no time for speeches, as hot on its heels was another Award for one of our own. Clare Fleck, Knebworth House’s Archivist for 30 years – before she retired to one day’s volunteering a week – was honoured with the Hertfordshire Association of Museums’ 2026 Heritage Hero Award. Long a hero of ours, for her transformative work in the Knebworth House Archive, it was a great pleasure to see the so-deserving Clare celebrated in this way.
So, Clare, for sorting all the scattered pictures, and Bear, for all the smiles you left behind, we stand in ovation and celebration of you in 2026 for The Way You Are!
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH
@HenryCobbold
