The Aladdin’s Cave of Local History that is the Knebworth House Archive received another fine magic lamp for the summoning up of the stories of the past when it took possession of three Minute Books of Knebworth Tenants Ltd, covering the period from 1912 to 1976. Knebworth Tenants Ltd was set up in 1912 as a co-partnership scheme that would purchase houses being built in Knebworth Garden Village. It still exists as a non-profit Housing Society.
The minutes from 21 March 1912 give us a glimpse of its beginnings, when a number of tenders “for building cottages to Mr Peplar’s plans and specification were considered, and it was decided to accept (Mr) Dearman’s price of £665 for the block of four and £369.6.0 for the pair with (an) extra parlour, of which two pairs were ordered.” These are now 44-56 Stockens Green. On 18 April 1912 Mr Peplar reported that Garden Villages Ltd had arranged a ceremony to include “the cutting of the first sod for the Knebworth Tenants cottages, provision of tea, etc.” By 1916, in the midst of World War One, some of the cottages were rented by the Belgian Relief Committee of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies to house Belgian refugees. In August 1919, the Committee was informed of “a report of overcrowding at one of the Society’s cottages, and also of alleged illegal practices of a visitor at the same cottage. With regard to the former the Secretary was instructed to enquire discretely into the actual facts, and as regards the latter to report the matter at Scotland Yard”!
As I say, the books are a precious resource of Knebworth stories, but to me the most splendid story they bring is that the genie behind the magic lamp, the Society’s current secretary Lynne Farr, has been in post doing that work for an extraordinary 50 years of Knebworth’s history.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH
