Our May meeting was a talk by Patrick Streeter on the highlights of the History of Matching and the Lavers. For Matching he highlighted a local painting of the assembled hunt in 1751 where the attendees names are known but not their position on the painting. The background farms and buildings are still extant. For High Laver he concentrated on Otes Manor (demolished in the 1960’s), which had hosted John Lock, founder of modern political Liberalism, who came to visit in 1690 along with his servant and 50000 books, staying 13 years! Later in 1714 Abigail Masham retired from Court life to the manor, having been Keeper of the Privy Purse for Queen Anne (and dramatized in the film The Favourite). Later in the 1900’s the artist Augustus John rented Elm House for over a year and moved in with his wife, 2 children, 1 dog, 10 cats, 6 chickens and a parrot. They were later joined by his mistress Dorelia McNeill and she gave birth to another child! After the grandeur of High Laver, Low Laver lived up to its description with the tales of Rev. Beaucham, vicar in the early 1900’s, who started to act strangely, at one stage chasing a maid through the vicarage until she jumped out of a first floor sash window to escape. His attempt to follow resulted in the window closing on his head. The maid Lilly Rolfe lived in Hatfield Heath until 1975. Patrick then returned to Matching and the influence of the Quare family. Starting with the first Daniel Quare, a celebrated London clockmaker (1648-1724) whose fortune and influence allowed his grandson Daniel Quare (3) to purchase Stock Hall in Matching and his descendants stayed in the area for 180 years. The last was Ernest Quare (1847-1936) was a keen cricketer and huntsman and he sold his farming interests to fund the hunting later in life. He built Honington House which was the only house in the village to be bombed in WW2 and had to be rebuilt. It was an interesting review of the history that an apparently quiet rural backwater can hold and allowed Patrick to write a well illustrated book on his research – An Account of Daniel Quare, 1648-1724 which fleshes out the family trees (with repeated names in each generation), personalities and houses lived in by different branches of the family. Congratulations to our Vice Chairman Mark Ratcliff for putting together an excellent exhibition on a dozen topics from the Society Archives for the Jubilee weekend celebrations. The footfall and conversations with villagers and visitors made it the best yet. Our next meeting is the visit to the Bishops Stortford Museum for a guided tour on Saturday 25 June at 11am. Contact David Parish (07483 276543) to book a place. Quentin Spear
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