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The Teddy Appeal

We were collecting Teddies for charity in 2019 and are pleased to tell you, they have now been sent off to The Teddy Trust and are all terribly happy together!

The Teddy Trust, a charity formed in 2015 have already sent over 90,000 Teddies to children who have suffered severe trauma or abuse. They have gone to children in South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Fiji, Romania and refugee camps in Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Kurdistan and Greece.

The Trust go on to say, "your teddy bear given with love, can bring comfort and some healing for a suffering child." So they are definitely going to a good place....all 72 of them.

Thank you so much to all those throughout our Hartford Hundred Group who donated Teddies who needed a new home. They will be well looked after.

The Group wood yard evolved in 2012 as a means of raising funds for the five churches. Volunteers collect wood, chop it into logs and sell it around the group. It has grown into a sizeable

activity and in the 2017 season was able to distribute £1100 around the group of Parishes. Deliveries are also made to St Albans, Hatfield and Welwyn, as well as Hertford.

WE NEED YOUR TREES! It relies on homeowners being kind enough to donate fallen trees that may be of use. The age of the tree or the length of time it has been down usually makes no difference, if the wood is still combustible and not too deteriorated and we are always looking for our raw material. Some woods just do not burn such as willow, but usually we can take most species wet or dry and sometimes we have enough space for green wood that we age and dry on site.

The yard now boasts a special log cutting bench, electric splitter and two chainsaws. We able to supply small, medium and large logs and delivery does not consist of dump and run! We will always stack where we can.

All logs are well aged and dry on delivery. Loads come in a half trailer, around 3/4's of a cubic metre and a full load is 1.5 cubic meters with a £5 discount on the larger size. There is no delivery charge, but some customers like to donate to the church, some do not. All income is donated to the Parishes.

If you need logs, please think about supporting your church in this way. Our church buildings cost large sums to keep the doors open every year. Please help by donating trees and buying from us.

Please phone 01707 261258, or e-mail colin4444@yahoo.com.

Whenever you read this, we are open now!

Wood Yard

Sir Gilbert Thomas Morgan

In Essendon Churchyard is the grave of Thomas Morgan and Mary-Louise Corday, the parents of Sir Gilbert Morgan who was born in Essendon on 20th October 1872. It was here he spent the early years of his life and here was fostered an appreciation of country things which he retained throughout the rest of his life.

Below is an article from The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Sir Gilbert Thomas Morgan (1872-1940) provided a bequest to establish the Corday-Morgan Prizes in memory of his parents, Thomas Morgan and Mary-Louise Corday. A condition of his bequest, upheld to this day, is to keep their graves in good repair with flowers placed on 4th June each year.

Sir Gilbert Morgan was the first Director of the Government Chemical Research Laboratory, and a dedicated academic and industrial chemist, as well as a passionate teacher. Born in Essendon in Hertfordshire, Gilbert studied at the Finsbury Technical Institute, where he developed interests in azo dyes and rare earth metals, fields which had a major impact on his later career. His first industrial experience, working for Read Holliday and Sons in Huddersfìeld, allowed him to study a wide variety of chemical problems.

While working there Morgan produced a best-selling dye, Titan Como Blue, and discovered a clear amber resin, later to be commercialised by Baekeland as a component in the first synthetic plastics.

After working in industry for a number of years, Morgan returned to study at the Royal College of Science in London, with subsequent promotion. There, as throughout his career, his interests were wide-ranging.

It was during this time that his involvement with the Chemical Society began, firstly as Editor of the Journal and then Secretary. In 1912 the Royal College of Science, Dublin, appointed Morgan as Chair of Chemistry.

When the First World War began, Morgan helped to rebuild the British Dye Industry, and worked closely with the Chemical Warfare Committee. As the Mason Professor at Birmingham in 1919, Morgan dedicated himself to inspiring and teaching his students, as well as undertaking all the administrative work involved in the role. The Government Chemical Research Laboratory appointed Morgan as the first Director in 1925. There he instigated three long-term research projects with industrial applications, as well as fundamental research, and the laboratory under his leadership was a demonstration of how pure and applied research could be brought together.

Morgan was honoured with a knighthood in 1937, and served as President of the Chemical Society and the Society of Chemical Industry.