The Parish Council with support from DBC Councillor Terry Douris have funded the restoration of the Lady Marian Alford Memorial and to celebrate the completion of the works a little ceremony of thanks and rededication of the memorial was held on Tuesday 19th June 2018. Roger Bolton explained to the gathered audience a little of the history of Lady Marian and the Vicar John Russell re-dedicated the memorial, then Councillors Rachel Heaphy and Lyn Hyde offered everyone cream teas
Lady Marian died in 1888 and a collection was taken for a memorial. The donors ranged from Victorian nobility to her estate workers. The cross and seat at the entrance to Ashridge Park were erected in her memory and were unveiled three years later in 1891 on her birthday, Sunday 21st June. For some years after Mrs Wheatley, wife of Lord Brownlow’s Estate Agent, kept alive the memory of Lady Marian’s goodness among the children of Little Gaddesden by distributing bags of sweets each year to children gathered near the cross on the anniversary.