THE LEGACY OF GEORGE WOOD

Georgewood Road and the lower half of Chambersbury Land are located in vicinity of Nash Mills in Hemel Hempstead; this area was once home to a beautiful, wooded area where local mathematician, George Wood, could often be found working on his mathematical equations.

George was considered to be a genius, but he still gave up his time to help children at Nash Mills school learn how to do monetary calculations, which was very difficult at that time.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the pound was divided into twenty shillings or 240 pennies. It remained so until decimalization on 15 February 1971. Some of your family might still remember this, so ask them about it.

At the time:

One pound was divided into 20 shillings.

One shilling was divided into 12 pennies.

One penny was divided into two halfpennies, or four farthings. 

There were therefore 240 pennies in a pound.

Decimalization made calculations very easy to do, but in the old days three pounds, six shillings and six pence would be written as £3 6s 3d!

Access to the woods is no longer possible, unless they form part of your garden, but it is believed that George’s lessons took place under the trees, where children would eagerly learn. During this time many coins were lost as the children always enjoyed a game of hide ‘n’ seek before returning to school, and the money in their laps would drop to the floor in their eagerness to play. It is thought that some of these coins date back to the time of Queen Victoria.