Thank you, St Paul's

St Paul's Church hit on a first class idea when it threw open its doors to welcome the world on the completion of its magnificent set of new and renovated areas.  So great was the enthusiasm, the church decided to repeat the event, and now has a Community Day, as it is styled, each year.

Share Your Photos, before visitors
arrived.

Home From Home, before visitors
arrived.

At this year's event Fleetville Diaries and St Albans' Own East End were represented and we had the opportunity of chatting with a considerable number of people.  Our 2013 exhibitions, Home From Home, and Share Your Photos were warmly received and lots of people obtained their first glimpse of Volume 2 of the book, as the ring-binder proof copy was available for inspection.

We shared the church building with a number of fantastic musicians and entertainment acts.  May we take this opportunity of thanking the many people whose hard work resulted in such a successful day.

A question:

Do you have a photo of this
building when it was a shop?

Among the several corner shops in the district which are no longer open for business is one on the corner of Cambridge and Royston roads.  Number 64 has undergone alterations recently, but in 1960 it was a wholesale tobacconist run by Mr A T Smith, according to the Kelly's Directory of that year.  There is a possibility of a temporary building on the site, or nearby, from as early as 1910, and the earliest reference to the current semi-detached structure is c1932.  In our continuing search for photos of the district's corner shops (even if they weren't all actually on corners), does anyone know the whereabouts of any pictures of the corner shop which was 64 Cambridge Road?

Another question:
At the northern end of Charmouth Road the homes which became known locally as the Marconi houses, were constructed further back from the road than their neighbours further south.  They stand behind a rectangular depression in the impressing grass frontage; a large sunken lawn.  Given the cost constraints after WW2, it is unlikely that it was a deliberate design feature, which also left the homes with shortened rear gardens.

The firm of W G Bennett, brick makers, occupied at least some of the land between the railway and what would later be Charmouth Road, from c1907 and through to the 1920s.  Could it be a remnant of its working of the land?  Might it have been something left from an earlier period, part of the grounds of Marshalls wick House?  Or is there another explanation?  If you know the answer to this conundrum, please email saoee@me.com and let us know.