From 1886 to 1907 she was headmistress of the Froebelian Lady Barn House School,[2] which her father had founded in 1873.

[5] Caring for her father until his death in 1908, Herford then lectured for a short time at University College, Reading.

[1] In World War I she was a Red Cross Commandant, organizing university students to meet ambulance trains.

[6] In 1924, Herford married Robert Blake (died 1931), and left Manchester to live with him in Somerset.

After his death she lived with a Manchester friend, Julia Sharpe, in Great Missenden.