The Dream Wall

With apologies to all lovers of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the title actually refers to a less human wall, which, at least until now, may or may not have existed as a complete and outstretched "character" in the story of Hatfield Road Cemetery.

It is certainly known that each of its four boundaries were treated in a different way when the cemetery was laid out in the early 1880s.  The finest boundary was, naturally, at the front, facing Hatfield Road.  This is the stone and iron gate frontage still there today.  But it does not extend the full length of the frontage.  Which begs the question, was it built like that or had part of it been removed?  Or was this a dream plan, too costly to realise?

We know that Hatfield Road was widened to its present width in 1927, and that 12 feet of cemetery land was acquired to accommodate the works.  We are also informed that consequently the wall and gateway was to be demolished and rebuilt.  So what we see today is the rebuilt version.  But what about the two end sections of the frontage?  What happened to them?  When the 1881 specification told us that the front elevation would be a stone wall, we naturally assumed that to mean all of it, from the eastern boundary to the west.  The one photograph (above) in the public realm and which was taken cWW1, does not show any part of the wall which is not visible today, so that does not help to solve the conundrum.

Until recently we considered two options: either that, in spite of the original specification, only the central part of the wall and gateway was approved, the council being able to save on the cost of the cemetery project by purchasing iron railings where better was not required (as along the eastern boundary).  Or when the demolition and rebuilding came in 1927, only the central section was rebuilt; the surplus stone being sold to help pay for the rebuild and the provision of iron railing fencing, which, of course, is in position today.

I am grateful to the eagle eyes of Andy who has discovered a previously unseen (at least by me) picture of Hatfield Road (right), taken from outside the former Liberal Club, again cWW1.  It is striking how narrow the road was – the same as the width of the hill down to the Crown.  But look to the right and we see a thick hedge.  Now, if there had been a wall here there would not have been room for a hedge, and the council would certainly not have wanted its expensive wall to be hidden, would it?

I think we can conclusively state that the wall was never built where it does not stand today, whatever the building specification stated.  The written record is not always the complete truth!