For the People of Fleetville

Red: three fields formerly owned by the Grammar School.
Blue: field purchased by T E Smith for the Fleet Printing Works.
Orange: field purchased by T E Smith for his Fleet Ville housing.
Green: Part of the same field left undeveloped and acquired by Charles Woollam.

Recent aerial of the recreation ground during a dry summer period.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

 We have now reached the end of St Peter's Farm where the property boundary lines up obliquely from the main road.  The former fields outlined in red on the above map identifies land which was owned by St Albans Grammar School and managed for it by the Verulam Estate.  The blue field was acquired by Thomas E Smith for his printing works in 1897 and he acquired the green and orange field opposite to lay out a hamlet for his employees.  

Others were also laying out streets and houses nearby on the former St Peter's Farm, and so Smith did not use all of his land – the green part of the field on the north side of Hatfield Road – otherwise there may have been a further street of two of small homes had the demand evolved.  You will see that there were no homes on the west side of Royal Road.

William Bennett, well known in the building trade, had rented at least part of the green field to store building materials, including bricks, which he needed for his construction activities in the Slade building estate.

In 1912 Charles Woollam, mill owner and a trustee of the Grammar School that had sold two of the three fields to Thomas E Smith in order to fund the expansion of the school adjacent to the Gateway, purchased the green field from the Smith estate using his own funds.  He had noted with some concern that Fleetville was growing quickly and no land had been allocated specifically as open space for the use of this district's residents. He gifted this land to the City Council in 1913, the year in which the authority had taken over responsibility for Fleetville from the Rural Council. A covenant protected the use to which it could be deployed, for the recreation of the people of Fleetville in perpetuity.  By name it was initially called Fleetville Pleasure Ground or Playing Field; later became known as Fleetville Recreation Ground, or Rec, but is now sometimes referred to as Fleetville Park.

No sooner had the council prepared the ground, built retaining walls and installed railings (some of which remain in place) than there was a call to dig it up for emergency allotments.  After some disagreements the allotments went instead to the field where Fleetville Junior School is today.

Pre-WW2 family photo, with the school as a backdrop.  This was before the recreation ground
railings were removed on this side.  Today the seat is occupied by part of the front of the
Community Centre.
COURTESY FLEETVILLE INFANT SCHOOL & NURSERY

For the next 25 years the Rec was rather bland with just one set of children's swings near the Royal Road corner (chain locked on Sundays as was the custom in St Albans); and a public toilet block added in 1938, the same year in which emergency zig-zag trenches were excavated in preparation for war.  Gates in the fencing at bottom of Burnham Road gardens enabled quick access to the trenches.  Additional trenches were added in 1939 and 1940 for the benefit of the school; all were deepened to 8 feet, bricklined and covered, and fitted with electricity, heating and telephone.  They were accessed from steel doors at Royal Road with an emergency exit in the rec field, the latter can still be noticed in parched grass in hot dry summers.  A temporary day nursery arrived in 1942 for the benefit of mothers who worked in the munitions factories locally – this building is still in use as the Community Centre.  

A 1939 aerial of the recreation ground in the middle.  The 1938 open zig-zag trenches are visible.
So too is the diagonal footpath between the Hatfield Road and Royal Road gates. Within that
triangle is the new public toilets block and the children's swings.  Also clear is the grass wear from games of football!
COURTESY HERITAGE ENGLAND

The temporary wartime children's nursery, today used by Fleetville Community Centre. The car is
parked where once a ramp and steel door led below ground level to emergency shelters for the
use of children at the school.

Two further installations during the war were an ARP hut next to the newly opened toilets, and an emergency water tank located where the zip wire is today.

Recent photo of the recreation ground without its original pre-war hedge line resulting from
road widening in the 1960s.

Plan prepared by Design Team Partnership in 1989 for a proposed underground car park for 194 cars under the recreation ground.  It would have occupied the southern end, but the proposal was not taken forward.

Post-war the junior children took to using the field for games lessons, but this was frowned on by the city council who wanted their bit field back from the County Council. A line of young trees were planted beside the shops, and in the 1960s a corner of the main road was shaved off and widened on safety grounds; resulting in the loss of the original field hedge with partial replacement of the original boundary wall.  Children living west of the rec will recollect an informal access point via a couple of missing railings next to Andrews' greengrocery.  That short cut disappeared with the improvements!

A scheme came to light in 1989 for a 200-car underground car park with ramp and six emergency staircases emerging at regular points in the field, as well as a number of light wells.  No one appeared to have considered the impact on organised events and team games.  Anyway, the plan was abandoned.

In more recent times there has been activity equipment for children and young people right across the park, and although the toilets were closed a popular cafe and seating area has appeared.

Next time we shall continue moving eastwards to the later developments between Royal Road and Tess Road (now Woodstock Road south). It might have become an entertainment hub!