Pageviews reach 2500

It may not sound a very large a number for a blog, but the number 2500 appeared this afternoon, to record the number of times a link to this blog had been clicked, indicating an increasing interest in the east side of St Albans.  Possibly, even probably, the majority arrived here directly from the Welcome page of the St Albans' Own East End website.  Welcome all.

I usually aim to update the blog each weekend, but the arrival of the Volume 2 books last Thursday – just too late for a Fleetville Diaries meeting at which a number of Subscribers would have collected their copies – has meant much delivering around the district during the past few days.  If you still have not received your copy, it should be with you by Friday; and that also applies to books which were sent out by post, in the form of Hermes courier deliveries.

Between the frenetic activity during the last few days I did manage to pause awhile at the Garden of Rest, the triangular cemetery at the former Hill End Hospital, and now managed by Highfield Park Trust.

I had heard that interpretation panels had been fixed next to the arch and was anxious to see them for myself.  Their arrival will do much to inform visitors of the role the triangle played during the lifetime of the hospital, and its near neighbour Cell Barnes Hospital.   One panel demonstrates the density of pauper burials at this ground, with the names and former occupations of up to eight patients in a single grave; number twenty-four in this case.  A second panel explains the management plan for the ground, which will be retained as a meadow.

I am certain that the information provided on the beautifully-illustrated panels will enrich the experience of all visitors to what was a remote corner of Hill End.

The unconsecrated spot in Hill End Lane relates very poignantly with The East End in 100 Objects feature in chapter 1959 of Volume 2.  It is not the kind of link which succeeds in being reported; for its full impact the feature must be read.  Maybe even read while sitting on the bench within the ground,  opposite the arch, through which beds of roses colour the scene in season.