Cover Picture 10

Cunningham Hill Farm

Watercolour painting by John Buckingham showing Guernsey cattle grazing in one of the
home fields at Cunningham Farm.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS.

The story of the farm is an ancient one; and probably not unusually it also is short in the supply of available photographs and paintings, prints and  drawings from periods before the late 19th century.  In this post we will focus on the farm's story, for that is the reason it features as a cover image on Volume 1 of St Albans' Own East End. The painting featured here was painted in water colour by mid 19th century local artist John Cunningham.

Surviving home buildings now converted into residential accommodation.

The farm lost its acres shortly after the Second World War for residential development, but its history is long and impressive.  While many of the medieval manors can be fairly accurately placed, that of Thanccton (various spellings) may have been associated with extensive areas of woodland with a more modern translation of Fawn Wood.  No-one can be certain where either name was located.  Where other fairly well distributed manors have been identified around St Albans, that part known as Cunningham Hill, or Cunnynehame, has not been previously identified as an ancient manor site, its link with Thanccton is no more than suggestive, and the name Cunnynehame was still in modest use well into the twentieth century.

Following the Dissolution, the land, along with Sopwell along with land surrounding with the earlier monastery, named into the hands of Sir Richard Lee and then the Grimston family with lane extending north towards Hatfield Road and southwards into Sopwell.  On the western boundary had flowed from the St Albans Hill and joining the River Ver.

It was only at the end of the eighteenth century that a new boundary arrived in the form of Thomas Telford's New London Road, which was not based on any previous boundary.

Part of Springfield, now public open space for the wider Camp district.

A corner of the Springfield Allotment Gardens.

The Cunningham farm homestead lay on the upper slopes close to the Camp track towards Hill End and Cell Barnes, with most of its fields lying on sloping ground between the track and the New London Road; and lying on chalk was well suited to grazing.

From the eighteenth century some of lower slopes were periodically used for military training, the most recent period being during the First World War.  These encampments gave the later residential occupations at the top end of the farm the name The Camp.

World War One training camp in 1915 on part of Cunningham's lower slopes adjacent to
London Road.

On the steeper slopes were developed allotment garden.  Photograph taken in 1917
and showing a group of children having been prizewinners for their tending of a group of 
allotment gardens; probably connected with a senior school in St Albans.
COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER

During the twentieth century, the lower slopes were occupied as community allotments, and in the early twentieth century the Bath Agricultural Society, held more local and highly successful versions of its agricultural shows, including at Cunnynehame.  Both animals, farmers and spectators accessed the showground direct via the former London Road Station, crossing the New London Road and climbing the lower entrance of the farmer where now is Cunningham Hill Road.

While the above particular events are recorded at and near the farm, there is a considerable shortage of drawings and photographs of the same events, and pictures which provide a general overview of some of its boundaries, fields, barns and entrance ways.

Squeezing Through

 Fleetville's Infant School and Nursery has always been problematically sited.  For a start, it wasn't intended to be located where it is.  If the developer had got his way there would have been homes in both Woodstock Road South and in Royal Way.  If two different developers had agreed to work together Royal Road would have joined with Burnham Road.  If the County Council had thought more carefully – well, the parents of Fleetville, formed into an association as early as 1906, could have pressed for a school site in a better location.  If.  

The build-out to provide t he narrowest distance for pedestrians to cross and ensure
pedestrians are not hidden between parked vehicles.  The truck was following the signed 
instruction to give way to oncoming traffic – not easy as the road ahead begins with
a blind bend and  hill.

This road is also part of the Green Ring around St Albans.  This makes it rather challenging for
cyclists to use in both directions.  Nevertheless, the Green Ring is sign-posted.

The function of the pavement post may be well-intentioned, but of limited value
if vehicles are in a position to move it from its intended position.

Access to the school has always been problematic.  Children have always accessed the school grounds from both the front or the back, that is, Royal Road and Woodstock Road South. Parking in both roads was always limited  and large vehicles are a regular requirement – waste lorries, lack of turning facilities in  Royal Road, and at one time in Woodstock Road double-deck buses were routed its full length, although only towards Hatfield Road from Brampton Road.  At the beginning and end of the school day the level of pedestrian (and buggy) traffic mushrooms.

As the greenery on the school site is vulnerable to growing across the footpath both at
low height and outwards as tree branches, the footpath is less useful, especially in wet and
wintery conditions.

It is not just a placement post when becomes damaged, but the very fences designed
to protect children when leaving the school and from running into the road.

So, what do we make of the recent incident of a large truck trying to make its way from Hatfield Road northwards past the school.  The St Albans' Times online paper recently published photos of young children and parents squeezing through a partly blocked footpath to reach the school gate.

The truck, being where it was, had its nearside wheels on the pavement,  as shown on a photograph taken by a pedestrian.  It was there to allow a vehicle though the pedestrian crossing build-out in the opposite direction.  A protective post on the footpath was sufficiently distant from the build-out to accommodate the truck, but it is not clear how it manoeuvred there.  The accompanying photographs above, however, and taken at times between 2014 and 2024.are sufficient to show the scene on an otherwise cleared road.  We can make our own mind up!

Photographs above courtesy GOOGLE STREETVIEW

Original article ST ALBANS TIMES.co.uk 26 September 2026

DROPPING IN

 Wherever we live there will locations not too far away where risks exist in the course of our daily lives.  Often risks we would not normally be aware of – until something happens to make us suddenly more alert.  A vehicle leaving the road at speed and making a dent in your front living room; a train leaving the tracks and ending up in your back garden at the foot of an embankment; an aeroplane losing a landing wheel or depositing a block of its ice in a nearby park.

St Albans' own east end has received its own share of transport incidents through time, and because it is close to airfields, among them Harpsfield airfield (known as de Havilland) and Handley Page's former airfield, known at the beginning of aero history as St Julian's airfield, we received our fair share of visits from the sky.

When air incidents were considered "novel" photographs could almost be guaranteed for publication in the Herts Advertiser.  Even a special edition had been known on such an occasion. Here is a selection of what might be called rough landings from the 1930s, in no particular chronological sequence.

Original headline:  Aeroplane Crash

The wreckage of a two-seater aeroplane which crashed at Hammonds Wood, near Sandridge.  The pilot was only slightly injured.

Original headline: Monoplane Crash at Hatfield

An instructional plane which crashed in a field adjoining the Hatfield and St Albans Road near Hatfield.  The pilot, Flying Officer, W B Wilson, was injured.  His passenger, Mr J R Denny, escaped injury.

Original headline: 'Plane wrecked at Hatfield (1935)

Crashed into a tree when landing. Two airmen were slightly injured when their plane crashed into a field adjoining Hatfield Aerodrome.  The machine, a dual control Avro Cadet used for Flying Officers' training,  is owned by the Civil Training Company of Hamble Hants. It collided with a tree on the Harpsfield Hall Estate.

Original headline: None (1938)

Three men lost their lives when two aeroplanes collided in mid-air and burst into flames at Smallford.  This picture was reprinted from a Special Edition of the Herts Advertiser published last Friday.

 

Original headline: Aeroplane at Hatfield (1932)

The wreckage of an aeroplane which crashed at Hatfield on Sunday.  The pilot, Mr F W Marshall of the Royal Air Force Reserve, escaped serious injury.

Original headline: Bombing 'Plane Crash (1931)

Royal Air Force bombing plane which crashed while landing at the Handley Page aerodrome, Colney Street near StAlbans on Tuesday.  The pilot and his passenger escaped injury.

Original headline: Fatal Aeroplane Crash near Hatfield (1937)

Mr R J Waight, chief test pilot of the de Havilland Aircraft Co Ltd in the TK4 machine which crashed into a field near the Aerodrome on Friday.  Mr Waight was fatally injured.

 Original headline: Plane Crash at Sandridge (1935)

The wreckage of an instructional aeroplane from the de Havilland School of Flying, Hatfield, which crashed at Sandridge, on Friday.  The pilot, Mr L C Cheetham of Darby, escaped injury.

All of the above photographs are printed courtesy the Herts Advertiser.

RESCUE MISSION 9

 Smallford Speedway

Our series of locations with a shortage of publicly available photographs with buildings and sites in their early days is quite extensive; in many cases we have already passed the point of no return.  Buildings can change their functions of course, but what if the site contained no permanent building in the first place?  Yes, it might offer the opportunity to explore some archaeology courtesy of the current land owner, but that is very different from a photograph.

East of Notcutt's Garden Centre at Smallford was a site with an entrance directly from the Hatfield Road about which almost no-one has any memory.  There is a public footpath leading from the road northwards past the Radio Estate and you could walk the path and fail to point to a clue that large numbers of people had once gathered there.

Footpath from Hatfield Road northwards towards the former Radio Station, now the Radio Estate.

But in the decade leading up to 1939 you might have occasionally spotted a panelled advertisement in the Herts Advertiser similar to the one below.  This was a period in which motor-cycle speedway races were popular, and no doubt large numbers of St Albans' residents walked along the main road to enjoy an afternoon excitedly watching motorcyclists careering around an oval track in pursuit of a trophy or other prize.

COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER

It was quite "a thing" pre-war and many towns had their own clubs in the same way most towns of any size were proud to own their own local football clubs.

Modern aerial photographs still indicate the location, and the size and shape of the field used for speedway at Smallford, as shown in the photograph below, courtesy Google Earth.   Next to the boundary of the garden centre is the above mentioned footpath; to the right of which is a field within a field and beyond that is the former homestead of Popefield Farm.  The vegetation growing in the field within is scrubby, but indicates the location of  the speedway track.

Notcutt's Garden Centre is in the bottom left corner, east of which is a footpath.  Hatfield Road
passes across the bottom of the photo towards Popefield Farm.  In between is the
scrubby area which used to be the Smallford Speedway track.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

The infrastructure was known to have been minimal, and on the eastern side was a raised platform, perhaps covered.  Not much else.

St Albans may have punched above its weight for the time, but its closure undoubtedly came about rather suddenly because of the onset of the Second World War, rather than a loss of interest among spectators or competitors.  It seems the site has remained unused ever since, although the home ground for the Eastbourne club is still operational at Arlington just outside the town, is floodlit, and until recently still ran meetings for stock-car racing.  It had opened for speedway in the same year, 1929, as Smallford.

Still-open Arlington Stadium near Hailsham/Eastbourne.
COURTESY ARLINGTON STADIUM

Of all the unusual or rare images surviving in our Rescue Mission series, the most difficult to find has been this location; in fact not a single example has yet to be discovered!

Unless, of course a blog reader knows otherwise!

Near Cell Barnes Lane was an example of a less formal vehicular sport, cycle speedway.  Fortunately we do have examples of this short-lived entertainment, courtesy of Bill Gadsby who provided photographs, and evidence of programmes which were available.

Post-war cycle speedway at Cell Barnes before modern development.
COURTESY BILL GADSBY

COVER PICTURES 9

Private A Hopkins and family

Who is this uniformed man who stands proudly on the front cover of St Albans' Own East End Volume 1?  We might have considered Mr Hopkins to be just another resident of Fleetville in the early years of the twentieth century.  He might have agreed.  But the view of Fleetville residents was elevated after the First World War.

He was one of many soldiers whose photos appeared in the Herts Advertiser in those years, and also occupied the pages of several chapters of St Albans' Own East End.  They may have gained honours for bravery, or, more likely commemorated for giving their lives in the service of their country.

Pte A T Hopkins, KIA 1917
COURTESY DAVID PAYNE COLLECTION

If we walk, or drive, along Hatfield Road we can remember where Alfred and his family had lived, exactly. A house on the corner of Hatfield Road and Cavendish Road, where early residents of the growing district had engaged Alfred to carry out internal improvements to their homes; he and one of his brothers ran a decorating business.

Home of the Hopkins family, 1 Horndean Villas, Hatfield Road,
as seen in the present day.

Walking along Alma road where now is a new housing development, was a printing works called Dangerfield's, later Evershed's.  This is where Alfred's father worked.  Alfred's brothers, Robert and James together fought and were injured.  However, Alfred lost his life.

His Company diary for 20th September 1917 in the Passchendale-Ypres Offensive, recorded that fire was opened and lifted to the various barrage lines.  During the programme on that day casualties included five killed (A T Hopkins among this number) and three wounded from shellfire.

According to a descendant of Alfred, David Payne, Alfred has no known grave but his name is among those commemorated on the wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery.

Helen and her children Enda, Alfred jar and Vera.
COURTESY DAVID PAYNE COLLECTION

Among those not so far mentioned in this account was Helen, Alfred's widow and their three young children, who we might imagine continued their Fleetville lives struggling emotionally and finding great difficulty financially.

However, as probably occurred in many communities, a small group of men living nearby in Clarence, Blandford, Glenferrie and Brampton roads raised a fund for the benefit of Helen and her children to spare them from the worst hardships of the following years.

Parking Patch

 One of the pressing current Fleetville issues concerns spaces for parking. No surprise there. Specifically, the area between Hatfield Road and Alban Way, and between Ashley Road and Sutton Road.  A little context might be helpful, although that certainly won't help to solve what has become a critical problem for many of that locality's residents; difficulty in finding a satisfactory place to park the family car.

What is, however, a certainty: the issue resulted from the way in which the development took place way beck in the early 1900s.  When the first tranche of Beaumont Farm acres was sold in 1899 the field on the western edge of the farm and the then limit of building in the rural district, was known as Rats' Castle Field.  Apart from a little shop (Primrose Cottage), which replaced an early turnpike toll house, the turn of the century was marked by an empty field, bounded by an empty Hatfield Road, a modest little railway, and a pair of occupation trackways both owned by the farm – now Ashley Road and Sutton Road.

The closing years of Co-operative milk bottling in Burleigh Road.

Stanton's specialised in log fuel for domestic fires.
COURTESY THE KENDALL COLLECTION

         

The first road linking those tracks was Castle Road, named after the common name for the field which was in turn named after the general name for the thatched roofed toll house in which were said to live vermin.

The eastern end of Castle Road in the 1920s, showing the undeveloped Ashley Road.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES AND LOCAL STUDIES

Castle Road homes grew steadily until the First World War and were fully occupied by the early 1930s.  But there was an awkward strip between Castle Road and the railway line, part of which was developed by a useful trading yard for building materials, access to which was made possible by creating two roadways from Castle Road.  Both roadways were made profitable by building and renting houses.

It should be clarified that as a former part of Beaumonts Farm an unknown section of this development land had been used as a nursery for perhaps twenty years – in today's terms we would probably label it allotment gardens.

The site of the former RAOB and St John's long-standing "temporary" building fronting
Ashley Road, now newly constructed residential accommodation.

Most of the homes in the three roads were, and of course still are, terraced without garage spaces.  This was largely immaterial until the acquisition of cars was popularised.  But cars grew in size and one-car families occasionally grew to become two, or even three-car families! 

As far back as the 1930s there had been iterations of Town and Planning acts to bring order to urban developments in  towns large and small.  St Albans City Council had been determined to tidy up the east end of St Albans and remove the many workshops and factories which previously occupied large or small spaces amongst otherwise residential streets. The presumption was that factories which changed hands and were rebuilt needed planning consents which had not previously been required. It was a slow process.

So, the firms which began as W Halsey and W G Bennett, timber and building yards respectively, and which later became Pratt Ltd, PSR and Jewson, have now become residential enclaves, because that was what planning requires.

The Co-operative Bakery which had premises fronting Hatfield Road and Castle Road (as did the same firm's Dairy when the bakery moved) morphed into housing; hence the development known as Dairy Mews, which as long confused many people who recall another dairy development below.

Broken pavements, some of which had been created from heavy vehicles accessing the 
former Jewson site.  The far hedge hides the local railway line, now Alban Way.

Yellow lines remove parking opportunities in places.

Front garden parking precludes street parking in both Burleigh and Castle roads; passing
and blind bends also add to driving issues.

Residential development anticipated at an early stage on the former building yard site
adjacent to the former railway.  Residents' parking planned for each dwelling.

Co-operative Dairy had its main premises in Burleigh Road between 1930 and c1960, when it changed to more centralised acquisition of milk supplies and distribution.  Stanton's, the early wood log suppliers with premises on the border of Castle and Burleigh roads became residential when their yards converted.

Many of these firms included a mix of local and more distant employees, and for each yard or factory which closed more houses were added to the locality and more overnight car parking was added to the lines of vehicles along the kerb lines.  Kerbside parking is of course not possible wherever homes which have replaced former commercial premises offer off-street car parking with direct access to the road space.

With an increasingly congested Hatfield Road has slowly developed an increase in short-cutting by using Castle Road.  This may prove to increase congestion at Hatfield Road's junctions with Ashley Road and Sutton Road and additional difficulties for passing vehicles along parts of Castle Road itself.  These flows will continue to exacerbate road life within this now almost exclusively residential enclave.

Obstacles in the Road part 2

RESCUE MISSION 8

Obstacles in the Road 2

Last month I featured a church, St Pauls, which began as a temporary building,  then moved on, while the permanent building in Blandford Road was made permanent and grew in size.  I then extended the survey to other buildings of various sizes which remained temporary structures and on the whole had extensive lives.

This month I am searching for temporary structures which necessarily retained short lives because they had been built for temporary war time usage and were intended to defend routes across country especially on the approaches to towns and cities, and were manned by the Civil Defence in the form of the Home Guard, also known as "Dads' Army".

We will follow Hatfield Road as an example from the junction at Smallford crossroads – as it was then.  On the St Albans side of the junction was a series of concrete road blocks; most were large blocks of concrete which which blocked much of the road width and concrete pillars for protecting the footpath space while still permitting pedestrians to pass.  A shelter of some kind, perhaps a concrete pill box, housing a gun emplacement preventing enemy passage onto the road towards St Albans.

We are left, we think, with no photographic evidence of this installation, but we do have a brief description that the emplacement also protected  large water and oil tanks for the purpose of supplying Nielson's nurseries which lay alongside Station Road.

A road block prevented access from Hatfield Road over the original Ashley Road railway bridge and along Hedley Road.

At Crown Corner, a complex and strategic road block arrangement was set up on Hatfield Road east of Cavendish Road, across Granville Road, across Clarence Park Road and opposite the cinema in Stanhope Road.  But oddly the top of Camp Road did not appear to have been protected.  This complex was manned by a detachment whose base was inside The Crown Public House, which was most convenient.

A similar blockage protected St Peter's Street and Catherine Street, where the duties were based at The Blacksmith's Arms Public House.

Although we have no evidence of manned road blockages at Beaumont Avenue/Beechwood Avenue and at Sutton Road, there were police telephones at these two locations and references to a box at these locations.  Blocks would have been removed promptly at the end of the war or even before it, and deposited at one or more locations unknown.

You may find yourself sitting on or leaning against a concrete block.  I regularly passed
a former block with short lengths of rail poke out from the top and sides.  Not defended for
85 years.  They can still be located if we know where to look.

During the lifetimes of the installations no photographs appear to have been taken, but not because it would have been for security reasons impossible, because such photos were taken at other locations; but presumably no-one thought to do so. Newspapers would have been prohibited from publishing such images, and in any case space for text would have been considered far more important than for photographs when both ink and paper were in short supply.

Road blocks would also have been removed as soon as practically possible and to relieve the Home Guard which was disbanded during 1944.  Opportunities for taking a photograph were therefore not there for the taking, and I doubt whether most people owning cameras when film stocks were in short supply would have thought of clicking a road block "for history's sake" or "for the archives".

But the odd concrete block is occasionally located in a hedgerow or near a field gate, simply because it is still useful.  That does not, however, mean no photographs of local road blocks were taken and still survive.