Part way along this track, now Camp View Road, a pair of cottages existed, set a short way back from the track. In the 1860s a hay dealer by the name of John Constable, lived in one of them. The dwellings were probably behind numbers 15 to 19.
The owner of Beaumonts Farm was brewer and farmer Thomas Kinder. His health deteriorated in the latter part of his life and four of his five daughters survived him in 1881. In order to support them in their intended marriages, there being no male heir, the estate was eventually sold in stages Thomas's trustees.
The part of the farm south of Hatfield Road was sold by auction in 1899 to a pair of local businessmen: Francis Giffen and Arthur Ekins, local solicitor and chemist respectively. The developer pair laid out the two fields south of the branch railway as the Camp Estate, upgrading the existing track as Sutton Road and Camp View Road.
Some of this blog's readers will recall a highly successful project in 2016, in which residents of Cambridge Road explored the history of their street, the growth of its shops and the comings and goings of its residents. The new project team have already begun to collect useful data for the Right Up Our Street: Camp View Road project.
Residents of the road, as well as former residents and those who live in nearby roads, are being invited to a Camp View Road Drop-in Afternoon at Fleetville Community Centre on Saturday 4th February, from 2.30pm to 4pm. The afternoon is very informal. If the drop-in event for Cambridge Road is anything to go by, the time will be very engaging and much conversation and enjoyment will be had by all.
If you have your own photographs of life in Camp View Road which you would like to share with others, bring them along. We can scan them so that you can take the originals back home with you. By the end of the afternoon you will undoubtedly leave with new friends.
If you have never visited Fleetville Community Centre before, you will find it in Royal Road, next to Fleetville Recreation Ground. The team look forward to meeting you there.
4 comments:
My Grandparents on my mother's side lived at 32 Camp View Road from around 1914.
They were Harold and Florence Billington and they had 8 children: Blanche, Irene, Fred, Vera, Gwen & Harold (the twins), Joyce and Christine. My mother was Irene who married Arthur Valentine from Hatfield at St. Paul's Church in February 1936.
I well recall Gordon Price's shop and the butchers shop (Hathaway's?) opposite. There was also Miss Collin's sweet shop in Cambridge Road just around the corner and the Fish Shop, which is now the only shop there.
My Grandad died in 1959 and my Grandmother in 1975. Our family lived in Royston Road until 1973, but I married and moved to Hitchin in 1965.
Thanks for the comments about your family in Camp View Road. We still frequent the corner fish shop! There was also the twin premises of the Co-op grocery and butchery. Divi number 11487!
The following is for the attention of the poster, Unknown, above. It is sent from romayne.hutchison@gmail.com because she has found it impossible to leave a comment directly on her device:
Hello! It's lovely to hear from a member of the Billington family. I'm one of the Fleetville Diaries team researching the history of Camp View Road. We have found out quite a lot about the early residents using Kellys Directory, the 1911 census, 1939 National Register and other online sources, but it would be so much better to hear from a family member directly. From these sources I've gathered that your grandfather moved here from London and initially worked at Days hat factory before serving as a soldier in the Middlesex Regiment. The 1939 Register describes his occupation by then as a bus conductor. I do hope we've got this right - please tell us if not. And from Kellys Directory it looks as if the family actually began their life in St Albans at 34 CVR and moved in the 1930s to 32. 32 isn't any larger than 34, so I'm curious to know if we've got this right and, if so, why they might have moved next door. I'd love to hear more of your grandparents' lives and that of your mother and siblings in the 1920s and 1930s. And it would be wonderful to hear what you know of Gordon Price's shop - lots of people have mentioned it, but nobody has told us much about the man himself. Do please tell us more if you can - we haven't come across many family members of the early residents and it would be so good to hear what you remember or what earlier generations have told you.
Romayne Hutchison
Hi Romayne,
I was born at 46 Royston Road on 3rd December 1940. my mother, Irene Billington, married Arthur Valentine who lived on the Gt. North Road in Hatfield. His older brother Cyril married my mother's older sister Blanche and they then lived in Hatfield.
My Grandfather certainly worked in the hat industry before service in WW1, where he was in the trenches and wounded being treated at Napsbury Hospital.
After the war he worked 'on the buses' as a conductor, eventually working on the GreenLine Coaches out of Hatfield Garage. He suffered from TB and died in April 1959.
My uncle Fred was killed on 16th February at Monte Cassino. Vera married Harry and Gwen married Alec Ferguson from Belfast. Harold married Maud and their son John worked as a surveyor with St. Albans Council. Joyce married Len Jones who was a regular soldier and Christine married Ron Henderson,
I have a sister, Sylvia, who lives in Swaffham.
I was married in April 1965 to Margaret Preece from Hitchin then, in 1979, to Sharon Lacey. I have one son by Margaret, Michael, who lives in Upper Boddington, near Daventry. He is a design engineer in Formula 1.
We bought from Gordon Price and he was something of a family friend.
I delivered newspapers for Ken & Stan Hills shop on Camp Road for 5 years, doing the round that covered Glenlyn, Windermere, Lynton & Oxford Avenues. Initially I went to Camp School, the the Boy's Grammar School until 1957 when I became an Engineering Apprentice at de Havilland Aircraft. My father was a fitter at Handley Page Aircraft until they closed down in 1970-ish, then briefly he worked at the Rubber Company on Camp Hill before taking retirement and he and my mother moved to Caister, near Gt. Yarmouth in 1973.
I hope this helps your research.
Peter Valentine
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