The Cavendish Sandwich

 In the previous post mention was made of the narrow width of Hatfield Road as the carriageway descends from the cemetery to The Crown.  The first development occurred here from the 1880s – but only on the south side; it would be nearly two decades before the north side followed suit.

The OS map published in 1898 shows a mainly fully developed Cavendish estate, formerly
a tree and shrub nursery managed by John Watson. The properties described in this blog
are within the red rectangle.  For a few years occupants of this part of Hatfield Road 
would have the benefit of a view across to St Peter's Farm and the laurel grove.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND.

We have laid out the picture of the road as far as Cavendish Road, named after William Cavendish, the Sixth Duke of Devonshire and President of the Horticultural Society (before Royal embellished the title).  The Duke developed one of the country's finest orchid collections, and the street was named in his honour by St Albans' own Orchid King, Frederick Sander.

The next parallel road on Sander's development estate, is Albion Road.  Orchid specialists might wish to confirm whether Albion or Alba was an early variety of orchid named before 1921. The buildings standing on the corner of these two roads sandwich a terrace of homes named 1 to 5 Whitbread Terrace, now 168 to 160 Hatfield Road, and Laurel Cottage, now 158.

The forecourt of Butler's Garage on the Cavendish Road corner.  The workshop behind
incorporated the earlier saddlery and the boot manufactory.
COURTESY BRIAN BUTLER.

The site of Butler's Garage became homes in recent times.

On the Cavendish Road corner the plot, which has only become  housing in recent years, may well have been part of the land belonging to Shakespeare House (later renamed Shakespeare Cottage).  Since being released from nursery use in the late 1870s and being typical mixed development, the land may have remained a building yard for a few years before being taken into occupation by engineer Thomas Hurst. William Jenkinson then constructed a saddlery business on the site in a workshop which remained on the site until the new houses appeared.  A small but busy boot manufactory moved in and during the leather-working downtime a new Methodist mission occupied what spaces remained  on Sundays and in the evenings.  When that factory moved to new premises in Grosvenor Road tailor Daniel Mitchell arrived, and the site later  upgraded for use as a motor garage and workshop for Robb Butler in 1938.  Changing to Swan Car Hire in the 1960s the site was finally relinquished for domestic use by the  millennium.

Numbers 2 to 5 Whitbread Cottages.  The name plate for this terrace is at the top of the
righthand house.

Beyond the modern homes is a terrace of five small dwellings, originally named Whitbread Terrace,  erected in 1883 and benefiting from a view over the "lane" to the farm yard and homestead of St Peter's Farm. Most of the occupants remained here for many years. The owner of the terrace, revealed in the Valuation Office records of 1910 to 1915, was Caroline Shillitoe of Radcliffe Square London SW.  The name plate is fixed to the righthand dwelling.

The two detached houses as viewed in 1912.  On the left is Laurel Cottage, but though they began
as identical buildings the ID panel on the right house has the date 1889 and not Albion Villa, which suggests it was rebuilt on a slightly wider footprint, but otherwise reflecting its partner and the
date both houses were first built.

At the lower end of this terrace stand two identical detached properties with porched entrances and front bays. Today, while you can see the similarities there are also significant differences; it is not just the bay of the righthand house which was lost on conversion for commercial use.  In the eaves are inset panels naming the homes as Laurel Cottage and Albion Villa.  The upper part of the farm field opposite was a laurel grove, which offered the house its name, which  proceeded the naming of the short Laurel Road nearby.

Albion Villa in the era of E E Hooker Ltd, the glass specialists.  First floor windows have
designs of coloured glass which remain today.  This 1964 view shows all of the described
 buildings from Butler's Garage on the far left to the impressive frontage of E Hooker Ltd.
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William Willoughby and Charles Hooker preparing a portion of coloured glass window; a 1960
photograph to celebrate the commission to supply a window for Coventry Cathedral.
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A member of the glassmaking E Hooker family moved into number 3 Albion Road around 1932 and the formative glass business was carried on in a workshop to the left of the house.  A few years later Albion Villa was a acquired and the ground floor converted into a sales area, with upstairs accommodation used for designing the richly coloured designs and motifs used in the company's work in commissions widely in this country and in churches and cathedrals around the world.

We now arrive at Albion Road and it seems appropriate that its name, like Cavendish, should have a link to orchids.  So the question deserves repeating: is there an orchid variety with the Albion name before a 1921 hybrid of the same name?

So we have nearly completed our exploration of Hatfield Road, there remaining one block to reach a conclusion, and possibly a pint, at The Crown.

Outside the boundary

 In the previous post we had reached the western boundary of the Hatfield Road Cemetery on our walk towards The Crown.  St Albans had remained fairly constrained until the arrival of the Midland Railway when development produced estates which took advantage of the new mode of transport.  The boundary of the town was stretched to land at Cavendish Road in 1879, although there is no sign of the boundary marker today, possibly removed when the 1880s Cavendish estate was created.  Houses on the estate strode over the new "edge" no sooner than the boundary had been plotted on the town's maps.

The Lucern Field and Nine Field which made up Ninedells nursery, bounded by Hatfield Road (top), Camp Road (left) and branch railway (bottom right corner).  The nursery drives appear to have
become repurposed as Cavendish Road and Albion Road.
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The pair of fields which lost its green functions first lay between the former Kinder field, by 1880 being prepared for use as a civic cemetery, and Camp Road.  The tithe map of 1840 names them as Lucerne Field and Nine Field and together they had extended to the Camp Fields (now Campfield Road) until the branch railway arrived and sliced away the lower end.

Ordnance Survey map 1897 shows Sander's nursery below Cecil Road and fully occupied. 
The housing estate, begin in the early 1880s is shown significantly fully built.
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Until the 1870s these fields were used by John Watson as a nursery, mainly for the propagation of shrubs and trees.  They were acquired by Frederick Sander in 1878 for his expansion of the orchid business he ran from premises in George Street.  Sander created his specialised orchid nursery on the lower section between Cecil Road ad the railway – he probably wished he had reserved rather more space given the success of the operation!  The remaining portion between Cecil and Hatfield roads was developed for housing, the profit from which was used to help pay for the nursery.  Cecil Road connected two parallel streets, Cavendish and Albion roads, and although the layout was intended for houses a few commercial premises found their way here, especially along Albion Road.

Rose Cottage with its name tablet just visible to the right of the upstairs bay window.  The
cemetery is to the left.  The photo was taken in 2012.

Our focus is along Hatfield Road, with space for four premises between the cemetery hedge and the newly laid Cavendish Road: Rose Cottage and the three Horndean Villas, now numbered 176 to 170.  The name Rose Cottage was appropriate in the early days, for until around 1904 it was a modest house on the very edge of countryside, with a larger first floor to allow for the passage of carts or small carriages into space at the rear, occupied by a stable and cow house.  Upstairs were four bedrooms with a parlour, scullery and kitchen on the ground floor.

After twenty years the opportunity was seized by Edwin Seymour who acquired the cottage and converted it into a monumental mason's business.  Since the 1950s it has variously been Fireplace Services, a machine tools business and Radio Rentals, before returning to domestic occupation.

The three Horndean Villas pictured in 2012, designed with attic accommodation.

Here is just beyond the easternmost boundary of St Albans c1912 and in a few years after the 
Horndean Villas were completed (far right) right on the edge of the expanding urban area,
Fleetville has spread all the way to Beaumont Avenue.  The narrow road continues into the
distance and would not be widened beyond Rose Cottage, with the removal of the trees,
until the 1930s.
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The hill descending to The Crown junction, still in its unwidened state.

Next are the three Horndean Villas, on land purchased by and built on by John Gurney from London Colney.  Although at various times owners had carried on business such as a house agent, insurance agent, decorator and furrier, the villas have remained splendidly unconverted.

Because of its early development it has remained the section of Hatfield Road impossible to widen as Fleetville grew.  Inexplicably, in spite of the volume of traffic parking is still permitted, and this on the approach to a complex light-controlled junction.

Aerial photo of the Cavendish estate today.  The cemetery is on the left; The Crown PH
is the large building behind the grassed frontage on the extreme right.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

Next time we will follow the changes which have taken place between Cavendish and Albion road.