James Halsey Sawmills

 Last month I began a new series of posts under the name Rescue Mission, where frequent searching over a period of time has failed to locate buildings, sites or events, where photographic evidence appeared to have been lost, if indeed it was present in the first place.  In March I began with the nurseries of Sear & Carter at Smallford, today seen only in a 1946 aerial photograph.  Today Notcutts occupies  the site.  On the site now known as Morrison's, the first supermarket following the closure of Ballito Hosiery Mill was the Co-operative in a smaller and quite different building from the more expansive Safeway retail building that Morrison's now uses.

James Halsey Sawmills

Today, I wish to explore an early building on the Butterwick land  between Oaklands and Smallford.  Today the location it is variously termed an industrial estate although its occupants also include retail and services, including churches.  You will find it called Butterwick Wood, Lyon Way, Acrewood Way, Pearce's; Alban Point, even the Ballito Sports Ground and the "Banana place/meat store!" – though that was sixty and eighty years ago!

Butterwick Wood as is was represented on the Ordnance Survey map of 1939.  The limit of
Hatfield Road houses is to the left, and Smallford Brook is a thin line on the right edge.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The extent of Butterwick Trading Estate in 2016.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

One of the earliest occupiers of what had still been part of Butterwick Farm was a saw mill – possibly a convenient location since the majority of land between Hatfield Road and the branch railway (now Alban Way) was woodland, much of which would eventually be replaced by industrial buildings displaced from the central parts of St Albans; and, as it turns out, locations in Hatfield, which is where the timber firm of James Halsey comes into the account.

Butterwick was one of four zones identified by St Albans for future use as industrial zones – the others being Porters Wood, Ashley Road and Napsbury Lane.  The earliest occupants of Butterwick were Frankipile, Lacre, Pearce Waste, followed by Smallford Planters, but James Halsey was undoubtedly the first being established there in the 1930s, possibly even earlier.  The second largest structure was a government building completed c 1939 for the storage of chilled meats and later converted for the ripening of bananas.

Butterwick Wood from 1939. Industrial usage had already begun to east away at some of the
woodland by the early post-war period.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

A number of meat cold stores were constructed in the 1930s, all virtually identical.  This one was from Goldsborough, but the one in St Albans was connected to the branch railway (now Alban Way).
Now the site is replaced by Alban Point, at the western end of Butterwick, and close to the
original track to the former Butterwick Farm
COURTESY NICK CATFORD

As far as I can tell its location was where today's Tool Station and Halfords are, together with the Stevenson's clothing site.  It would be great to raise the name of James Halsey once more and show where it used to be among the trees of Butterwick Wood, then significantly larger than the woodland remaining beside Hatfield Road today.

Cover Pictures 4

When designing the front cover of a book we could reduce it to the essentials: the chosen title and the name of the person or people responsible for writing or editing the book.  However, an illustration brings an extra dimension of promise to the reader, So a montage of drawings or photographs demonstrates the breadth of content within the covers.

We have this month reached the end of the top row: the chapel which lies within the Hatfield Road Cemetery.  Only one other building lies behind the front wall: the Superintendent's house by the front gate.  As an aside, there is more modern accommodation which functions as the administration centre for the city's burial grounds.

The cemetery came about because the council at the time – around 1880 – inquired of the four parishes whether they had sufficient available burial plots in their churchyards.  Three reported various levels of shortage from modest to critical; only one, St Peter's, stated it  owned  a number of potential grave plots.  The  proposed cemetery which would result from the survey perversely ended up being located in St Peter's itself,  just outside the borough boundary in Hatfield Road.

Hatfield Road crosses the top of the photograph left-to-right.  The chapel is circled in yellow.

Although the design of the cemetery layout was quite typical of the time and would have been very attractive, only the Hatfield Road end conformed to what had been proposed.  For cost reasons you might not be surprised to hear, including the apparent need to continue  harvesting a crop until the space was required for burials, the stop-start laying out of the site resulted in the abandonment of the original design.

But the chapel survived.  It is believed this building was under threat from the beginning as questions were asked of the church authorities.  Do we really need a chapel, or two?  But the chapel went ahead, and the cost cutting went instead on retaining the stonework boundary wall only at the front; all other boundaries were downgraded to fencing.

As far as is known the chapel has received only one internal refresh during its time, and that was in 1945.  Bishop Bernard Heywood's dedication to cemetery chapels which he often labelled "drab and dreary" was well-known, with the result that most people preferred to hold the first part of a funeral service at a local church. The Bishop wanted cemetery chapels to be beautiful, suggesting the beauty of the Christian belief in the life to come.

The result at Hatfield Road was a light and bright paintwork theme and a more modern design to the alter piece.  The outstanding architectural feature of the original building being the richly colourful windows.  However, that refresh was now 81 years ago!

The Herts Advertiser gave space occasionally to the burial events of well-known and well-regarded citizens of the time.  The photographer present took an impressive picture of man hundreds of mourners who had walked along the road from other parts of the town to pay their respects to the now departed citizen.  The dominant feature of these images was always the chapel.  It was irrelevant that the little building was unable to accommodate the crowds, but these people surrounded the chapel, held it tight within the crowd's collective arms in a measure of protection and support for the family grieving.

There are few buildings within our east end which went up to represent the people who live in its vicinity.  The exception would have been the fine St Paul's Church on the opposite site of the road.  But when the chapel first appeared, St Paul's was nearly fifty years in the future.

The chapel is still in use, although these days as much for film shoots and recordings as for services of committal.  It is, however, a comforting building in a setting very much appreciated by visitors who arrive for the tranquility of a short time within the parkland-style setting. 

Invisible Streams

 We might have been featuring today's blog within the series of features for which there are no known surviving photographs.  The topic of invisible streams in our East End has been aired previously during the past twelve years; and strictly writing there two streams still flowing between Oaklands and Ellenbrook – evidence is in these first two photographs taken recently.

Extant stream Boggy Mead crosses Hatfield Road at the eastern end of Oaklands.

Extant stream the Ellen Brook crosses under Hatfield Road
at Ellenbrook.

But today I am featuring one former stream for which there is no present day evidence – and I am not referring to the often-mentioned stream which once flowed across today's Eaton Road, as can still be evidenced after long periods of heavy rain.  I am, though, able to show a map on which has been drawn a moat (in blue) which once surrounded a medieval house – which we definitely haven't seen.  This location I have also referenced previously at the corner of Woodland Drive south and Central Drive, the location of Beaumonts Manor.

The road crossing the map left-right is Central Drive. The former moat is 
coloured blue with an engineered channel, also in blue, and was dug from the
moat towards a former manor house.  Woodland Drive has been built
over the left arm of the moat.

The moat cannot have existed without a source to replenish it on occasions.  So, where did the water come from?  The map suggested there seemed to be a spring at the Elm Drive end of Woodland Drive.  In the same way as the rivers Colne and Ver were, centuries ago, more significant water courses compared with their present capacities, and since streams and rivers in our area are reliant on the storage of water in what are known as aquifers within the underlying chalk, The more stored water in the aquifer the closer it reaches the ground surface. And when it does so, especially on a gradient, the water emerges, perhaps only as a trickle, but still it naturally finds its way down hill.

Taking a walk with a camera (or your smartphone) soon reveals where there are gradients along our roads and pavements, and it is not difficult to discover where the highest ground is. Surrounding this point we may once have found sufficient water in the ground for it to dribble out onto the surface in a useful quanta for people to use.

Elm Drive appears to be the highest level, forming a wide flattened dome.  The following images identify the local gradients, and early 19th century maps provide a little extra evidence.  More of that shortly.

a. Stand at Central Drive and look eastwards towards Elm Drive; the gradient is uphill.

The camera is beside the former moat and facing uphill towards Elm Drive.

b. From Beechwood Avenue face Elm Drive; the immediate gradient is up hill.

The camera is at Beechwood Avenue at its junction with Elm Drive.  The rising
gradient in Elm Drive levels out when the distant cars are reached.  This is the
junction with Woodland Drive.

c.  From Hatfield Road at the junction with Beaumont Avenue; once again the view along Hatfield Road toward Oaklands is uphill before levelling out as we would pass Elm Drive behind the Hatfield Road houses on our left.

At this point the camera is facing east from the junction with Beechwood Avenue.
Although gradients don't look significant in this series of photos, but only a
gentle gradient is enough to keep water flowing.

d.  Walk to the Oaklands end of Hatfield Road and note the gradient looking west from the Wynchlands shops; once more the gradient levels out.

Having passed Oakwood Drive, Hatfield Road drops in gradient as it passes the Speckled 
Hen PH and Wynchlands shops on its way eastwards.

e. The higher ground southwards from our starting point continues and appears to change as Ashley Road crosses Camp Road and becomes Drakes Drive.  We have often discovered that as the road gradient descends, heavy rains cause surface water to collect and requires mediation to improve the run-off.  But here we are some way from Elm Drive where we began.

From Hatfield Road and the length of Ashley Road, the road falls in level after a short
distance of Drakes Drive.  This is where standing water can occasionally be found.

f. Along Ashley road we passed Brick Knoll Park where the former brick works were located.  Here the chalk was capped by a layer of clay, and two fields, part of Beaumonts Farm, were named Hither Bridge Field and Further Bridge Field.  So a bridge of some kind was undoubtedly formed across wet ground. 

On the right were former brick works standing on clay above the chalk.  As earlier farming
land there were two fields with names referring to a bridge.  Why would a bridge
have been required?  Water dribbling from the fields made its way along and downhill at
Cambridge Road, then Campfield Road, eventually to a confluence with the river Ver.

Various commentaries have suggested the trickles (though not sure how much water makes a trickle) created a semi-permanent flow down today's Cambridge Road and Sutton Road before joining the stream already flowing, whether permanently or seasonally, along  Campfield Road, avoiding Camp Hill and crossing through Dellfield and via London Road towards river Ver.  It is also likely to have been joined by a stream following to it from Camp Road, forming a small network of waterways all confluencing at the Ver.

Remember the first question I posed?  How did the medieval house at Beaumonts Farm receive the water to fill the moat, keep it replenished, as well as provide water for domestic use and farming activity?  In chalk country nature stores our water for us, so long as we use less water than the underground chalk can store.  Our consumption is of course significantly greater today; and probably offers us lower rainfall.  Most of our streams are therefore invisible.

Rescue mission 1

 As long-standing readers of this blog will recall, I try to remind readers occasionally of landscape features which at one time existed somewhere in our district, or perhaps still exist but may have changed since they were last known to exist.  Of course there is a real possibility that a particular feature, well-known as it might have been, was nevertheless never knowingly photographed, except remaining as an incidental part of a scene taken for a quite different reason.  

The Sear & Carter partnership had a shop with a side and rear nursery plot next to St Paul's Church
until it was replaced by St Paul's Place.

In many cases a part of the landscape may be retained uniquely, having been photographed once, and only once, the result remaining the sole survivor of a place which at one time would have been quite common or well frequented. Photos in the form of private collections of paper pictures –  even glass slides from the early days of photography, or card mounted slides from the "popular post-war" period of colour photography.  All have been resilient over time and have survived multiple house moves and changes of family owner.  Until ...  Most end up the subject of a decision, whether to retain or throw, or perhaps pass to a relative in the hope of extending a collection's life.

We may believe that modern digital photographs stand the best chance of survival considering the vast number of clicks.  Not so, as most digitals are considered temporary, and their sheer quantity makes sorting and sifting a challenging task for even the most fastidious of us.

So here are the first two challenges to establish whether their subjects still form a small part of someone's collection somewhere ... anywhere!

Sear & Carter Nursery, Smallford

The company had several trial grounds, their largest being at the former New Zealand 
Nurseries.  Sear & Carter opened the Smallford site as their main sales nursery until 1967.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Sear & Carter used the field in the centre.  Hatfield Road crosses the picture from left to right 
right.  The photograph was from the 1946 RAF aerial survey.

Photo shows Hatfield Road looking to the east.  On the left is the former toll house and
the old Four Horseshoes Beer House, beyond which was the entrance to Sear &
Carter's Nursery; the same entrance used by Notcutts today.

The partnership of Frank Sear and Thomas Carter had become established in the early years of Fleetville.  They had a shop and a small nursery next to St Paul's Church, the church being on the corner  of Hatfield and Blandford roads.  When the business moved in 1960 it was to a significantly larger location opposite the Three Horseshoes public house and near to what used to be known as Smallford Crossroads (but of course that became a roundabout many decades ago).  This little location had been home to several market gardening and plant nurseries, the largest survivor, once called Nielsen's, has arguably become the most successful in still trading as Glinwell.

However, another had been called (or perhaps sent would be more appropriate after their council eviction) to the New Zealand Nurseries. The New Zealand had, in the late 19th century, having moved there from where Loreto College was later established. S&C then acquired the Smallford site, at which time a bungalow was recalled at the end of a long drive from Hatfield Road.  Later in the sixties the Sear & Carter nursery finally sold out to Notcutts, a firm already trading with other garden centres.  Notcutts, of course is even more successful today, as Smallford was the second of what is now a network of nineteen garden centres.

Notcutt's entrance drive today.  In the 1960's you would have used the same turning when
the owning company was Sear & Carter.

Even today the Sear & Carter era is believed to remain in a small number of memories, of which the bungalow appears to have become the dominant feature of the site; the entrance being in the same place we drive in to the modern centre today.  Does a photograph exist, perhaps with the name board which may not be recalled by everyone.  Indeed, this period is beyond the lifetimes of a large swathe of the population!  It may help to be reminded that a short collection of roadside buildings were then on that side of the road, including a beer house named the Four Horseshoes – not be be confused with the Three Horseshoes on the other side of the road!

Co-operative Supermarket, Hatfield Road

Today, probably the most well-known location in Fleetville is that of Morrison's Supermarket; no need to describe it in much detail.  Before the 1890s it was a field between the branch railway and the recently de-tolled turnpike Hatfield Road, and in 1897 work was seriously underway to build a printing works of significant size for the Fleet Street business of Thomas E Smith.  No doubt as a firm it would have lasted for much longer and didn't even make it until the end of the First World War.  But as a building it was occupied by Grubb Telescopes for a few years, before being acquired by the Cotzin brothers for the hugely successful Ballington Hosiery Mill, also known as Ballito, the brand name of its product range.  Only in 1967 was the original structure vacated and eventually torn down.

The Bindery department in the T E Smith printing works taken c1906.

The same building was taken on in some secrecy during the First World War for submarine
periscope work and later for the construction of large telescopes.  The company name was
Howard Grubb.

The site had reached maximum capacity after the Second World War as Ballito and
Marconi Instruments both used the original structure "with a few additions".

Then St Albans Co-operative Society changed its provisions policy of peppering single-unit shops around the town in favour of a more central supermarket in a building specifically designed for it.  The Co-op Supermarket was the focus of the 1980s, but in less than a decade the company sold out to the giant of the day, Safeway, in a larger new building.  Finally the giant of the North invaded; Morrison's took over Safeway's existing building and then extended further.  So, in the space of 130 years six businesses have traded here in three different buildings.  

The missing sequence is St Albans Co-operative Society.  Safeway redeveloped the site
before being taken on and further enlarged by Morrison's.

Photography has given us a number of images of the printing works in use, and of the telescope assembly within the same building.  Archives are overflowing with pictures; Ballito's use of photography to help sell its product range is well known.  Even Safeway and Morrison have their building styles which can be identified wherever you are.  But after that, what can you say?  A supermarket is just a supermarket.

But the Co-op should have stood out in the smaller food shop style manual.  It was before today's standard boxes, more human in processing its customers through their visits, and it helped to lead the way towards creating bespoke localised regional supermarket brands now found across the country.  You wouldn't class the Co-op building as stylish but then it didn't spend unnecessary amounts on the bricks, mortar and glass.

What I have failed to locate, however, are photos of Fleetville's first supermarket: the Co-op, was to have been at its own vehicle maintenance depot in Sutton Road, until turned down by Planning.  Did anyone take their camera with them on the store's opening day, for example; or even on the final day of trading before the 'dozers moved in to level the ground once more .  Or, of course on any day between. 

Cover pictures 3

The Camp public house

This week's post features the Camp PH on the centre of the top row
of the book's first volume cover.

Striking out through the East End from Hatfield to St Albans we would pass by, or call in at, the Comet Hotel, the Three Horseshoes PH, the Bunch of Cherries (now the Speckled Hen PH), the Rats' Castle PH (now the Old Toll House PH), the Crown PH (formerly hotel), the Mermaid PH, the Peacock PH – at which the turnpike road began or ended – and the final pair, the Cock PH and the Blacksmith's Arms PH both guarding the entry to St Peter's Street.  All but the final four are firmly within the limits of our East End.  The arrival of the Midland Railway produced the Hatfield Road Bridge which produced in turn the extension of the built-up town in the East End.

The traditional names of the remainder were related to their locations: The Comet Hotel signalled the de Havilland Aircraft Company on it new site in the 1930s; the Three Horseshoes located the farrier's trade, the restaurant how very much a part of the blacksmith's shop; the Bunch of Cherries was built immediately after the Second War adjacent to the cherry orchard leading towards Winches farm homestead; the Rats' Castle was named after the sobriquet of the previous toll house on the site; and finally, although there was no Crown nearby, the hotel/PH was able to locate here because of the transfer of its license from its earlier site in Holywell Hill of today's Abbey Court.

The illustrator's imaginative mind of Camp Hill some two centuries too late and
out of geographic area!
COURTESY HALS

One public house – on two different sites – were situated to the south of Hatfield Road and one to the north of that road, even though neither is now trading: the Camp PH and the Baton PH.  The photograph on the front cover is the hanging sign which was taken outside the former.  Its picture depicts a tented camp scene, and so we should look back to discover more of its location.  We enter the Camp story at its end, for the public house has now closed. It was at the corner of Roland Street and Camp Road.  Ah! Camp Road; that's definitely a Camp, then?

The Camp PH until its demolition c 2016 on the corner of Camp Road and Roland Street

The Old Camp Beer House nearby at the top of Camp Hill; closed c1914.

The social scene at the New Camp PH included darts and football teams, and outings.
COURTESY ALISON MANN

The Ordnance Survey's First Edition 1830 map marks a single building at Camp Hill.
Camp House, near the top of this extract.

The pub, initially titled the New Camp PH, definitely moved from the top of Camp Hill where there had been a watering hole named the Old Camp Beer House.  But if searching older maps of this little corner at the top of the hill we will first of all discover a squarish building named Camp House.  That might have given the impression of a domestic premises at the junction of Camp Road and Cell Barnes Lane. And a dwelling it may have been. The field on the Cunningham side of the road had been the extensive site of a  military training camp during the period before there was a national standing army.  It is presumed that the only available building appropriate for provisioning large numbers of men for short periods of time was the the camp house as named on maps of the 19th century maps.  The last occasion on which training manoeuvres are known to have taken place here was at the beginning of World War One, and the tents used were conical in shape – just like those on the pub sign.  

A postcard photograph of a tented village at the lower, London Road, end of the Springfield
training ground early in the 1914-18 war.  The illustrator used similar designs for his 
"Roman" scene.

But where does the centurion, also depicted on the sign, come into the story?  Well, of course, it doesn't.  The illustrator's imagination and historical knowledge of Roman Verulamium are definitely mis-aligned.  Soldiers and their officers would have no business being billeted at the top of a hill some way beyond there Roman city; no town of St Albans then.

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The fact that a modern commercial building halfway up Camp Hill gave its name to the recent flats and has been named Centurion Court is also a distraction and no link at all to our story. But no verifiable information about a field at Cunningham, otherwise known as Springfield, being used for military training nearly two millennia ago.  But there is, of course, nothing wrong with combining imaginative events.

This image earns its place on the cover of Volume One of St Albans' Own East End  simply because it combines fact and fiction and is part of the local story of our part of St Albans.

Cover Pictures 2

 

This week's visit to the St Albans' Own East End book cover is represented by 
a former turnpike milepost, this one at Fleetville Recreation ground.,

We cannot be unaware of a number of mile posts along Hatfield Road, as well as a surviving one on St Stephens Hill.  They are certainly not current types, quite apart from the reason we no longer mark miles along ordinary roads.  This second of a series, as shown above, appeared on the front cover of the first volume of the book St Albans' Own East End. It had appeared on the top row, and many residents of the Fleetville locality may recognise it standing outside the Fleetville Recreation Ground.  Many people today refer to it as Fleetville Park.

One side of the Fleetville milepost which was altered at some point
when the work of two trusts were extended as far as Ware. 

There was nothing particularly special about this, and other mile markers, for, all over the country, there were what were known as Turnpike Roads, generally operated by trusts, and in most cases built by them when not maintained by the parishes through which they passed.  The theory was that turnpike roads would be maintained to a reasonably common standard using funds collected by those who travelled along them according to the distance with their animals and vehicles; not necessarily for every single journey, but sufficiently regularly to encourage income.

You would not recognise the place today but this was how the Peacock PH looked in the mid
19th century.  It is possible the toll payment booth was on the left; travellers leaving
St Albans for Hatfield would pay here, but travel from here across the town was not
chargeable.
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The road which interests us is the Reading and Hatfield Turnpike for the obvious reason a single Trust was responsible for collecting the fees, or tolls between these two towns.  While it was eventually a legal responsibility for trusts to set up a labelled mile post for each mile of roadway, the number and location of toll charging points did not always compare with the location of mile markers.  In a similar  way we may be charged to travel today by bus or coach a given distance, and it might be for a single journey, a return journey, perhaps with an animal, luggage or child!  There may be no charge at all through the centre of a town – but only by agreement between the borough authority and the road trust; as happened in St Albans.

The letter of the law might prevail to maintain good order, either to ensure travellers are charged correctly, or that travellers do not pass along nearby private land to avoid payment.  Many newspapers carried reports of such contraventions.  There was also reportage of trusts not maintaining their road sections correctly, and the roads might have been just as potholed as they can be today!

This was a tolled road between Colney Heath and the Great North Road; the clue lies
in the name of the farm!
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The Great North Road, along London Road, for example was an example of one of our Turnpike Roads, although there is now little or no evidence of its 19th century existence.

The building on the left at Horseshoes, now Smallford, protected a gated
road opposite the Three Horseshoes PH.  The gates were removed
shortly before the final tolls were charged in 1890.
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The Reading and Hatfield , however, still shows evidence of a continuous line of mile markers from Ellenbrook, Popefield, Oaklands, Fleetville, The Peacock PH and St Stephen's Hill.  All others are probably now buried on the spot at the beginning of World War 2 when signs were removed to confuse the enemy if they invaded.  The above remaining examples either evaded removal or were promptly returned when Peace was restored.

The change from Turnpike Trusts (and privately owned sections of roads) to local highway boards and then highway authorities took place nationally over a lengthy period of time; Hatfield Road and St Albans Road East was one of the last in 1890.  We also know that the Fleetville Milepost today is not in its original location, having been moved "along the road" from halfway along Bycullah Terrace when one of its properties was altered to create a new shop frontage.

Along this same stretch of toll road there were also toll collecting  cottages at side road entrances to Camp Road, Sutton Road and Colney Heath Lane, and across the main road at Roe Hyde, Horseshoes (Smallford) and Peacock Public House. Payment tree-commenced at the foot of Holywell Hill for onward travel towards Rickmansworth.

On a new section of the North Orbital road just south of the Hummingbird Junction (the former
Noke Hotel) in the 1930s.  Children are being escorted across the road on their way home
from their new school in Bricket Wood back to Chiswell Green.  Along the verge on the right
is the Noke Lane/Lye Lane white mile marker indicating the presence of mileposts south of
the city before World War Two though none remains today.
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Many accounts and stories (which may or may not be true) here recorded of travel along the local turnpike; not all of which have satisfactory or true conclusions, including the most commonly repeated suggestions concerning members of the Salisbury family.

Portion of a painting by John Westall showing the Hut Toll gate and house in Colney Heath
Lane near its junction with Hatfield Road.  There is no evidence of it today.

Whatever we do or don't know about the turnpike roads they were all part of our east end local story – including incidents of embezzlement, favouritism, laziness in office, and more.

What life might have been different if payment in the 18th and 19th century could have made using an early day version of a travel Oyster card!

Fleetville is ...

 Yes, Fleetville is busy; the district is crowded and expensive.  If you have children and you would like to enrol your child to one of the schools here you will find buying a home nearby will cost you high prices.  If your home is without a private driveway parking on a nearby roadside can be nigh-on impossible.  For these and other issues Fleetville can also be attractive for all sorts of businesses.  And businesses also need land; they also search for opportunities to land-share in inventive ways.

The style of Hanley's grocery store between Albion Road and The Crown Hotel
in 1904!

When Fleetville was young – the first half of the 20th century – shops were small and, in the main, lined almost a mile-length of Hatfield Road's north side.  Then retail changed; motor trades moved out, the Co-op lead the way in the supermarket stakes – the same site becoming Safeway and later Morrison's – but there seemed no further opportunity for others to move in; supermarkets are land-hungry.  As it was, Morrison's arrived on the site of by far the largest former factory in the form of a printing works followed by a hosiery mill.

The Co-op was first, followed on the same site by Safeway. The yellow egg of
Morrison's grew even larger.

Eyes have firmly centred on what used to be known as factory estates.  Three of them were identified in the late 1930s to help de-factory the inner streets of St Albans.  Porters Wood, previously intended as a cemetery; a roadside strip left from gravel working on Butterwick Farm and renamed Butterwick Wood; and the brick-works site in Ashley Road and now known as Brick Knoll Park.  Notice how all three gained "green" descriptors for what were intended to be industrial processes, or at least businesses for employment on an extensive scale.

Bricks were first made at Brick Knoll Park in 1899 (at least that is when the land exchange
took place); the site was vacated around 1948.

Business have been coming and going ever since; the latest to disappear was the 
Vauxhall car sales; all part of the gradual change.

At Brick Knoll Park access had previously been poor: unmade roads, low and narrow railway bridges and pot-holed by a generation of clay abstraction. Completion of what was then identified as the "ring road" helped to improve access, yet even before that was in place the brickworks site became the corporation's domestic waste depository of the day, the day being the 1940s and 1950s.

The urgent post-war requirement was to locate heavy plant businesses to focus on road building and similar infrastructure schemes for London and site preparations for factories elsewhere.  So this St Albans factory estate played its part.  Remember, there was then no made up Ashley Road south of the branch railway, no Drakes Drive and only minor Hill End Lane (Station Road), Cambridge Road and Hedley Road for heavy vehicles to negotiate.

Leisure has arrived at the site in the form of Battlekart – and a stage school.
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The mature years of Brick Knoll Park developed from the 1960s with a mixture of vehicle-hungry sites such as letter sorting, car repairs and sales, and light engineering.  More recently any business which could be accommodated within an easily erected warehouse became attracted to the location.  So we now seem to have added two leisure addresses: Top Hat Stage School and BattleKart, the latter open for business away-days and weekends for the leisure market.  Howdens, who might have previously been a street side location, have a kitchen and furniture display warehouse at Brick Knoll Park. 

A typical Lidl store.

Now, preparations are proceeding to bring food retailing just inside the gates.  Lidl are to open a supermarket with over 120 car-parking spaces, most being for fast-turnaround occupation, the downside is likely to be increased occupation of the public road space and local junctions which are not possessed with high capacity anyway.  Although there are bus stops along Ashley Road the route 305 buses which use them cannot be defined as frequent and certainly not adequate.

Many churches have put down their roots on factory estates and business parks.

A further opportunity grabbed in the modern era is for church organisations – Christian and others – to acquire existing warehouses for use, especially on Sundays but also weekday evenings, for their meetings and services.  The benefit, of course, is lower land costs and plentiful parking released from daytime business use.  Central locations used to be sought but for the majority of members who have family cars centrality can be a turn-off as non-chargeable parking is rarely available.  To finish on a personal note, a mile long walk from home to church twice each Sunday was a given, our insurance being there was a bus for seriously wet weather!  

Let us hope that Lidl will succeed along Ashley Road.