Rossway

Christmas at Rossway…
“I am indebted to Major Adrian Hadden-Paton for the information that in hard winters friends from miles around flocked to Rossway to skate on the moat, some of the parties arriving in sleighs, with bells jingling on the harness. Gregory, the butler, handed round claret cup and mulled wine to the skaters, a tricky job on the slippery banks of the moat. That was over a century ago. Rossway was rebuilt in 1866, and in that year a charming tradition, continued for many years, was born. On Christmas morn, at 7 o’clock, the servants assembled in the hall and sang ‘Christians, awake,’ to the strains of a concertina played by Gregory.” (Beorcham, Berkhamsted Review, Dec 1972).

Runaway success at the Hemel Hempstead Horse Show & Agricultural Society, with Mr. T.F. Halsey, “perhaps the most popular president that could be found in West Herts.” Awards were given for class 3 (pair of draught horses), class 5 (cart mare or gelding), class 7 (cart mare and foal), class 8 (cart foal, colt or filly) and class 9 (yearling cart colt or filly), all “the property of a tenant farmer residing within the limits of the Hertfordshire and Old Berkeley (East) Hunts, and the Berkhampstead Buckhounds.” (Bucks Herald, Aug 1906).