Getting Noticed

Our enforced change in routines recently has been encouraging us to take more notice of our surroundings while we take our daily exercise walks.  Observations and inquiries have been received on matters such as the lettering on boundary posts, how buildings sit on their plots, the age of trees, houses which stand out, typefaces on street plates, and so on.  

One walker observed a house of post-war red-brick design among a pre-war pebbledash row in Hazelwood Drive.  To be clear, Hazelwood Drive south.  As with many homes in Beechwood Avenue south and all of Woodland Drive south this 1930s development was the preserve of builder A A Welch.  He had completed Woodland Drive south, both sides, and the odds of Hazelwood Drive south, temporarily reserving plots in each road for a work site which today would be called a compound.  A wedge shape at 1 and 3 Woodland Drive and a larger rectangle between 1 and 11 Hazelwood Drive.

Hazelwood Drive south - a post-war house nestles among the Welch-built
1930s homes; a former builders' compound.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

Having completed all of the odds – but just four pairs on the opposite side – Welch began filling his compound with numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7.  That is as far as was possible before all work stopped for the war.  The sideways between the homes were shared, but the owners of 7 and 13 took an early opportunity to negotiate an extra few feet, biting into the remains of the compound intended to be 9 and 11 when they were eventually built.

Aerial phone taken in March 1939.  Hazelwood Drive is extreme right.
Rectangular builders' compound near bottom end with historic oak tree
in top left corner.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

In the 1950s both the former compounds were finally sold for building, two houses in Woodland, but only one in Hazelwood, thanks to the narrower site resulting from the earlier land transfers.  So we have a post-war red brick home here as well as almost a complete set of evens which were more modern.  And it also answers the other question which has been posed more than once: why is there no number 11 Hazelwood Drive?

A similar query was raised a while back about house numbering in Beechwood Avenue, for which a certain answer is not clear; and for a development which progressed along the road in sequence, is rather puzzling.  From Beaumont Avenue we have numbers 1 and 3, then 3a and 5, 7 and 9 and so on.  Why was 3a necessary?  The most logical answer might come from the way the first pair face towards the junction instead of parallel with Beechwood Avenue.  It is possible the developer initially intended the first plot to be for a detached house.  The Post Office seems to have been prompt in allocating numbers, perhaps too prompt for a builder whose change of mind resulted in a pair of semis instead.  It would certainly be the reason for the resulting awkward plot boundaries and the need for a 3a in the sequence.  Of course, if there is a different account ...

Junction of Beechwood and Beaumont avenues.  Two former builders'
compounds are in this photo.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

While referring earlier to builders' compounds, H C Janes, which constructed homes on the opposite side of Beechwood and in Elm Drive in the early 1930s, had a compound where number 267 Hatfield Road appeared in the 1960s.  A similar compound had been left in Beaumont Avenue which is today the location of number 2.

All that from a pair of queries resulting from everyday walks!

Not the Only Ones

Two previous posts have highlighted the adventures of two schools from Camden which were evacuated to St Albans during the Second World War.  To be in a position to tell those stories sufficient snippets of information from the time were pieced together.

Other schools came to the city as well, but we know less about them; and it is possible that one or more schools arrived, about which we are aware of nothing, not even their name or names.

Close to Haverstock Hill (see previous post) is Rhyl Primary School, given the address as Malden Road NW5, but in fact the school fronts onto Rhyl Street.  Rhyl Girls' School arrived with other Camden schools in September 1939, and they come to our attention because the Herts Advertiser ran an article soon afterwards under the headline "We Did Not Want to Come."  A number of children were interviewed to discover how they had settled.

Rhyl School as it appears along Rhyl Street today.

"I am staying with very nice people (Scottish) and I think St Albans is a very nice place, but I think I would rather be back in London.  The lady I am staying with has not got any pets.  On September 1st we had to leave our homes and families in the morning, not knowing where we would sleep that night.  We all carried our belongings on our backs, and we each had to look after one infant on the journey."

Parliament Hill School, Hampstead, was allocated St Albans Girls' Grammar School.  In 1939 STAGGS occupied the building today's Fleetville Junior School, Hatfield Road.  For the first time we have become aware of a little personal information, in that two of the girls from that evacuated school were billeted at a house near the Wynchlands shops.  And after all those years, courtesy of a former neighbour, we know their names were Betty Penny and Monica Neagle who were about 14 when they arrived; they probably would not have remained beyond their school leaving age.

A workshop in use by Northampton Junior Technical College, London.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

A London junior technical college named, confusingly Northampton, took up residence at St Albans School.  It is the workshops which were put to good use by the college.  In 1940, when south coast schools were relocating to safer areas, including Hertfordshire, Hastings Boys' Grammar School moved into the brand new buildings of the Boys' County Grammar School, Brampton Road and probably remained until 1942.  As with many evacuated schools Hastings School was allocated a hall elsewhere as the host school buildings would only have been available in the afternoons.  In Hastings' case they were offered and accepted the Independent Chapel in Spicer Street.

Other schools and colleges may have come to St Albans in 1939 or 1940, and if they did their names and other details are unknown to us so far.

Readers might wish to follow up a more detailed article by the author about the removal of Eastbourne schools to Bishops Stortford. https://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/herts-history/places/schools/eastbourne-bishops-stortford

Changing Our Name

In the previous post we heard of a primary school from Camden, Princess Road, which spent the entire period from 1939 to 1945, nesting in Fleetville while their homes near Regents Park were at risk of bombing.

Another school, Haverstock Hill Senior Schools, also spent time with us, but having a rather different outcome.  The school was formed from earlier establishments in new purpose-designed buildings at the foot of Haverstock Hill in 1911.  In 1939 the girls' section was led by Mrs Pearce, while the Head of the boys' school was Mr H J Blackwell.  At the beginning of September 1939 the schools, en-masse, boarded a train from nearby St Pancras and arrived at St Albans "for the duration," as the rather vague expression was often phrased.

The 1911 building of Haverstock Hill School, Chalk Farm, since replaced
by a more modern and extensive estate.

Their school home would be Beaumont which had barely been completed and its own pupils and staff moved in under their head teachers Miss Ellis and Mr T H McGuffie.  As with Haverstock Hill, the girls' school and boys' school shared the building but were administered completely separately – interesting when there was only one telephone!

The initial arrangement, common everywhere, was for Beaumont pupils to occupy the school in the mornings and Haverstock Hill in the afternoons.  It is possible that the Beaumont school roll was below capacity enabling some flexibility in the occupation of classrooms and halls.  As the Haverstock pupils were older than their primary peers some of the older ones may have returned home to look after family members or undertake work even though they may have been below leaving age.

At a presentation event in 1942: L-R Mrs Pearce (Head of HH Girls' School); Joan Parry (Head Girl Beaumont Girls' School); Colin Taylor (Senior Prefect Beaumont Boys' School); Mr T H McGuffie (Head of Beaumont Boys' School); Elsie Bridges (Haverstock Hill School); Mr H J Blackwell (Head Haverstock Hill Boys' School); Miss Ellis (Head Beaumont Girls' School).
HERTS ADVERTISER

However, between friendships made at school and friendships formed with their billet families it seems that many of the evacuees saw Fleetville as a second home.  In 1942 the Heads of Haverstock Hill at Beaumont had a decision to make.  We are not in a position to understand the trigger but it is possible that a number of pupils were still being enrolled at the Camden premises, and as the oldest pupils at Beaumont left at the end of their schooling, to have four separate heads in charge of a set of buildings probably seemed unnecessary.  Mrs Pearce and Mr Blackwell therefore closed their  two sections at Fleetville, but they gave the parents of their pupils the choice of remaining at Beaumont, transferring to the Beaumont roll.  Of course, this would also have relied on the co-operation of the billet families with whom they had stayed so far.  It is also likely that fewer top-up children arrived in 1941 and 1942 to replace those who had left.

We know that this offer was taken up by a number of Haverstock pupils, but there seems to be no record of how many or how long they remained with their host school and family.  Could a small number of leavers have remained in St Albans, taking up essential war-time jobs, remaining with their billet families?

At the close of the summer term in 1942 a collection was taken among the pupils of Haverstock Boys' and presented to Mr McGuffie so that a sports cup could be purchased.  This request was honoured as the author recalled the Haverstock Cup being fought for among the house teams in the 1950s.  But no-one seemed to think it important that the pupils might benefit from understanding why the trophy was so-named.

Sports cup winners at Beaumont Boys' School in 1959.  One of these trophies
may well have been the Haverstock Cup.

Mr Blackwell, in a letter to the Herts Advertiser, commented: "Will you permit me to express to the citizens of St Albans the heartfelt thanks of the children and staff who, during these three years and more, have enjoyed the hospitality of the city.  We owe more to the kindness, helpfulness and forbearance of its citizens than we shall ever be able to repay.  Each of us, I know, will have a warm corner in his heart for them."

Since this post was first published the Fleetville Diaries' Beaumont Avenue project has identified that Head Teacher Mr Herbert Blackwell, his wife Elizabeth, and their young son Michael, had obtained accommodation in a house called Elmwood, now number 43 Beaumont Avenue.  Also residing there were John and Lilian Rowe, and George Twigg.

All are described as being "in charge of children of government evacuation scheme."  Although not stated, it is likely that the other adults were also Haverstock Hill teachers at Beaumont.

We have focused on the billeting of evacuated children with local families; their teachers also needed accommodation and this is the first reference to the adults given the awesome educational and caring responsibility for the young people and where they lived – although Hertfordshire County Council accepted overall legal responsibility, and there are extensive reports on how it carried out its role.

Source: 1939 England & Wales Register.
Fleetville Diaries Right Up Our Street: Beaumont Avenue.