16 Aug 2026
A bound volume of Herts Advertiser newspapers from 1957 to 1958 has been returned to the family of its original recipient – former Mayor of St Albans Cllr Cecil J Preece.
This particular book was found by St Albans charity Emmaus during a house clearance, and acquired by the St Albans Times following a donation to the charity.
It was originally donated by the directors of the Herts Advertiser Printing Co Ltd as part of an annual tradition commemorating Mayoral tenures.
Cllr Preece, who ran St Albans’ very own building society, the St Albans Permanent Benefit Building Society, based at 6 Spencer Street, assumed the role in May 1957, but because he was ill with shingles at the time, was not formerly invested until that July.
As part of our weekly Flashback feature, the St Albans Times ran photos and articles from editions of the Herts Ad contained in the book, which brought it to the attention of Cllr Preece’s maternal grandson Jeremy Bromfield, who still lives locally.
Having completed our coverage of the content of that particular volume, and moved onto a second for 1962-1963, we felt it only fitting to return the book to Cllr Preece’s family.
The very large tome was handed over to Jeremy by St Albans Times editor Matt Adams last week, and Jeremy recalled his memories of his grandfather while sharing a selection of photos from his time as the city’s first citizen.
“He was the first Mayor to be elected to office in absentia. I have a note signed by the aldermen and councillors regretting his absence through illness from mayor-making – the Mayor in those days being a much more significant local figure.
“I remember being driven around in the Mayor’s car, which I think was a Rolls Royce.
“My grandfather lived in The Park [Marshalswick]. My grandmother died when I was a baby and he remarried. The Park was built by my uncle’s building firm, which also built the Abbey Theatre.
“The photos of grandpa in his Mayoral robes were by Julia Haddon, she was the big photographer in St Albans at the time.
“My grandfather and his father were also the Vestry Clerks of the Abbey Parish for about 60 years.”
Jeremy has no idea how the bound volume came to end up in an Emmaus house clearance, but highlighted close links between Cllr Preece and the newspaper: “Gibbs, the owner of the Herts Ad, lived about three doors down from my grandfather at the end of The Park. They knew each other very well, especially as my grandfather’s firm had moved into Spencer Street, where there’s now a restaurant and computer shop, and Gibbs and Bamforth – the printers of the Herts Ad – were between Spencer Street and Spicer Street.”
Cllr Preece died in December 1968, just 10 years after his term in office as Mayor, at the age of 82, and although the record of his tenure vanished from the family for years it has now been returned to where it rightfully belongs.
Photos below from the Mayoral tenure of Cllr Preece, courtesy of the family archives.
