Training conditions

 Much outline detail is available concerning the presence of troops in training both in and around St Albans during the First World War. Photographs of soldiers marching along Hatfield Road, and encampments which were set up at Cunningham, Beech Road, Verulam Road, north of Sandpit Lane and at Oaklands.  However, specific details of daily routines are sparse.

A friend has just passed to me a copy of an article written in 1914 and published in a newspaper called the Woman's Dreadnought.  It was published by London East End groups led by Sylvia Pankhurst, and in this article the article's author came to the east end of St Albans where battalions of troops from Bow, Poplar and Stepney were billeted. So, already we know these weren't just "men"; they were groups from the same home areas and many were probably friends, or even siblings. The article gave accounts of the men's living conditions two inform their families back home in the East End and wider London.

The County hall north of St Peter's Street and close to Drovers Way was one billet for soldiers in
training.

The Salvation Army Citadel had the advantage of containing a former private swimming
pool.  A frequent comment was over inadequate bathing facilities, so use of a pool 
would be a distinct benefit for the men.

This building was the employees' club before the war for those who worked at Smith's
Printing Works.  A large number of soldiers were billeted at the Fleetville Institute, which, 
in this picture looks very much as it did during the First World War.

We are informed of the kinds of accommodation being used: the County Hall (behind St Peter's Street), the Town Hall, Salvation Army accommodation (possibly the Citadel itself), schools (Camp, Fleetville and Hatfield Road), garages, stables, and empty and private houses. There were many large villas some of which would have been vacant, although a very small number may have been accommodated in even modest terraced dwellings.  The Fleetville Institute contained a considerable number, and Oaklands Mansion had been handed over by the occupiers, Mrs and the Misses Fish, having the additional benefit of being the location of a tented training camp.  Hatfield too was busy with troops.

This frequently seen postcard photograph shows a company of troops approaching the 
recreation ground en-route to Oaklands training camp or Hatfield.

Some quarters had satisfactory health and sanitary conditions but the author was concerned about many of the accommodations.  "Many of the men are quartered in empty houses, eight in a room.  We each have two blankets and a waterproof sheet.  The sheet is spread out on the floor and we use our kitbags for pillows.  We get used to lying on the hard boards, but what we can't put up with is the cold.  If we want a fire we have to buy our own coal and wood.  As for light we find it very hard sometimes to get candles, unless we buy them also. Twenty-four men sleep in the house where I am, and we all have to wash under one tap."

School premises were used in the early days of training.  A number of soldiers, both on and off
duty were being photographed outside Camp School.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

Rations were a restricted range and quantity.  "For breakfast we get two 1-lb pots of jam, two loaves, a pound of cheese and boiled bacon between eight men, with half a pint of tea each. The bread and jam is supposed to last for tea time, but it seldom does.  At dinner time we sometimes get roast mutton and sometimes shackles (stew minus the carrots and onions), and potatoes served up in their skins.  Anything else in the way of chicken, lamb, butter, milk and eggs we buy (when we ain't broke)."

Remembering these are soldiers in training the days are long and were intended to prepare the men for arduous activity on the battlefield. "We rise at 5.30, breakfast at 6 and parade at Hatfield Park at 7.30." So that means reaching there on foot from their billets. "Some days the whole battalion goes out for a field day; other times our own companies for drill.  We generally go out for five or six miles out of the town and arrive home about one o'clock."

More parading and marching takes up the afternoon with the day finishing at about 8 in the evening.  As an example of something different one day was described as digging trenches and standing in them all night until the following morning, when a practice battle took place.  A 25 mile march was referred to and presumably this was also a regular feature of training.

Wet conditions at the lower end of Cunningham Field adjoining London Road.

A camp set up for training on the town side of Beech Road.  In telling the story of the WW1
training camps we should remember that each man shown had left behind family members, and for many this might be the last photograph taken to remind future generations of their 
contribution to society.

For the benefit of the wives and families at home mention was made of the YMCA who had erected a large tent for the benefit of the men during their down time.  No mention of its location was made in the article.

"Paper, ink and pens are provided free of charge, as also are games and books.  There is a platform and piano and concerts are frequently given.  A lady gives lessons to men desiring to learn French, also free of charge.  A canteen is next door where the men can get food and drinks."  It was not stated whether these were also provided free.

The report makes it clear the majority of the men were fed up with the period they have spent in St Albans and were anxious to make progress to "abroad".  But while here they have received formal visits from the Mayor of Poplar and the Town Clerk.  Lord Kitchener also arrived to review the battalion.

Simply recording that certain battalions and companies were in training at given locations tells a poor story on its own.  To be in a position to relate what the men were doing for their training, what they thought about their day to day circumstances and how they occupied themselves in their limited spare time, adds much fullness to what we can record of their period in St Albans.  And how appropriate to know where the homes of the men were.  In 1913 Councillor and the manager of Smith's Printing Works, Ernest Townson, compared the circumstances of Fleetville's untidiness to London's East End.  Now, this district was hosting thousands of soldiers whose homes were in Bow, Stepney and Poplar, very much part of London's East End. 

Private Learning

 The SAOEE website contains pages on most of the current primary and secondary schools in our East End. But there are and were other schools available to the children of the east side of the city – under the right circumstances.  The wider history of schools in the city is a much more complex structure than the establishments which are open today, wherever the are, and for the most part is focused on the three parts of St Albans at the centre of the 1920s education re-organisation: West, Central and East.  The latter was heavily delayed, however, and wasn't completed until 1932. We will review this re-organisation in later posts.

What might be more interesting initially is to explore a number of privately run establishments.  Most of these were to be found in the central and inner wards; only two were known to have operated in the East End, specifically Beaumont Avenue and Elm Drive.  I would urge readers not to expect much detail in what follows – I have relied heavily on display advertisements in the Herts Advertiser, and although parents throughout the city could have taken advantage of any of the establishments, their ability to do so was determined largely by their private incomes.   What follows is arranged in no particular order and does not express a complete statement of what is known about each school.

An infants classroom at Oxford House school.
COURTESY ANDY LAWRENCE

Oxford House Schools was in existence before 1880; a boys' establishment under the tutorship of Mr G James Nettleton in Alma Road.  Later moving to possibly larger premises, it found accommodation  in Bricket Road.  After this move it offered an education to girls in separate accommodation, and to day pupils as well as boarders.

Rochester House School, quickly retitling it to Rochester House High School, was owned by Miss Clara Bamforth. First noted in London Road in the 1890s it later moved to 101 St Peter's Street, next to The White House.  Miss Bamforth specialised in elocution training.

Gentlemen's Preparatory School was in one of the Hatfield Road villas in St Peter's Park. In 1900 it is associated with Mr J Harrington, but by 1919 it was advertised for "young gentlemen from 5 to 13" and in the charge of Mr W Millington at Wellington House, Bricket Road.

Rowlatts.  First spotted in advertisements in 1886 when Miss Lewin announced it as The High School for Girls in London Road, but within the year Miss Lewin had purchased a villa named Rowlatts in The Avenue.  The advertisements are linked to a separate school named Lyndale on the corner of Hillside and St Peter's roads.  Lyndale was kept by the three Sheehan sisters but was then a school for boys.

A day visit made by children of Lyndale School
COURTESY DIANA DEVEREUX

Manor Lodge was in Upper Lattimore Road and run by Miss Palmer, who gave a Ramsgate address, and Miss Miskin, who offered a Paris address!  It began as "a high class school for girls" (1886); by 1907 it was able to add "with classes for little boys."

Loreto College began in a private house – a large one – in Hatfield Road where they are still located.  This successful school was soon able to expand (in the 1920s) by taking over a garden nursery, and the house and land of Marlborough House which had belonged to Samuel Ryder, before his family moved to Clarence Road.

Merrilands. A later arrival on the private scene, it was opened in 1933 in a bungalow by Miss I M Kell in Elm Drive.  The pupils wore orange and grey uniforms.  The school had closed by 1960.

The impressive buildings and grounds of Birklands in London Road on a pictorial postcard.

Few private schools were identified by name on maps.  The expansive Birklands College for Girls is shown on the OS 1924 map.  The main road shown on the right is London Road before the lower
end was diverted to leave this section as a cut-de-sac in the 1960s.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Birklands. Probably grew to be the finest school building and site, Birklands moved into a substantial house built for wealthy Henry Jenkin Gotto in 1883, partly on land acquired from Newhouse Park.  The property was sold to Miss Elizabeth Cox, who moved her small girls' school there from Highgate.  Although moving out during 1939 the school re-opened in 1945.  Part of the site was sold for housing as Whitecroft, and later Hertfordshire County Council purchased the main property for Hatfield Polytechnic, later becoming the University.  It is now a range of apartments.

Clare House began life in Stanhope Road in the 1890s, but by WW1 it had moved to Lemsford Road.  It was still listed in Kelly's 1932 directory as a girls' school.  The boys' prep class which was part of the original school was not, it appears, included in the move.

Claremont House had began life under the name College House in College Street, then moved to Alma Road. Advertisements had been appearing in the Herts Advertiser since 1872 under the rather long name of Mr C Root's Middle Class Boarding and Day School for Young Gentlemen.  In this year Claremont House was described as The Classical Commercial and Scientific School intended for day boys and boarders.  Mr Wroot was still the owner in 1898, by which time the 13-bedroomed building was taken over by Mr J. Harrington.

Russell House.  The final advertisement for this school appeared in 1932 Kelly's Directory.  Opened c1914 in premises formerly occupied by the High School for Girls at the former cottage hospital  in Holywell Hill.  Russell House was owned and run by three sisters, the Misses Cloute.

Aylesford House. This boys' school was begun by Mr W Hanford Turner from a villa on the country side of the London Road railway bridge. Ownership later passed to Mr C Leighton.  A second villa was later purchased next door, and in the 1930s ownership was transferred to Mr and Mrs Bayley, who announced that it was their intention to "take boys from 7 to 14 for acceptance to public schools and the Royal Navy."  The uniform was grey with pink edging.  The school moved to part of Sandridgebury House in 1947, and from 1958 it was jointly run by Mr J Thompson and Mr R H Lee.

The Hall. For a short time around 1930 a small school "for young children" under this name was opened at 20 London Road, supervised by Miss Elsie Bodkin.  This was the address of the former Temperance Hotel.

Verulam School. Not the establishment in Brampton Road, but one of the villas overlooking Clarence Park at 88 Hatfield Road.  Owned by Mr J W Cassels it espoused "a modern and practical education". It was first spotted in 1903, and by 1919 had moved to Upper Lattimore Road.  While beginning as a boys' school the move appeared to coincide with a change of ownership to a Miss Collier, where the emphasis shifted to a girls' school with a boys' prep class attached.

Dirleston House School.  It opened its doors c1901 in a quite new house at the Sandpit Lane end of Battlefield Road, owned by Mr John Henderson.  It is thought the school had closed by 1911.

Athalls. Housed in what was probably new accommodation in Hall Place Gardens in 1907; pre-empting the arrival of the High School for Girls by some two years. "A boarding and day school for young ladies."  It is directory listed after the junction with Townsend Drive; if correct then Maple School occupies this site today.  Mrs Brumleu was in charge and lived in the house next door.

Grosvenor House. A girls' boarding and day school "with classes for little boys", run by the Misses Garlick from a house in Bricket Road. It advertised a "resident French mistress and fully qualified visiting staff." The school was c1908 vintage but the length of its tenure is unknown.

Home School for Girls:  Probably opened c1898 "for yearly, weekly and daily boarders".  Owned by Mr and Mrs Baird at Worley House.

Windcliffe advertised in 1898 as "a school for the daughters of gentlemen." Owned by Miss Elizabeth Sheehan from a house in Hatfield Road.

St Albans Kindergarten and Preparatory School. Open around 1930 from 26 Beaconsfield Road, and owned by Miss Kathleen Kidd.

Holywell House School from a house formerly owned by Mr and Mrs Wix.  In 1931 it was purchased by the Misses Cloute who converted the house into a school – for boarding and day girls, and a boys' prep class.  Even evening classes were advertised. The school closed c1960 when it became commercial premises for S Lander, architects.

Durnford House opened in 1951 in part of the Liberal Club building at 9 Hatfield Road.  The principal was Mrs Ruby E Holby.  Its  uniform colours were wine and blue, with the initials DH in the centre of the blazer badge.  There was space for 10 day pupils from 6 years upwards; by 1953 it had moved to occupy The White House in St Peter's Street north while retaining the Liberal Club and a house at 19 Hall Place Gardens.  Pupil numbers quickly increased to 150 three to 18 year olds.  However, the establishment was thought to be effectively bankrupt and was looking to consolidate its use of accommodation.  Last referenced in 1955 but may have lasted longer.

The Misses Wright School for Young Ladies, Shanklin House, 38 Victoria Street, opened in 1877 and appeared to have a short life.

Battlefield House School.  Miss Mason opened the school at 4 Chequer Street, and was advertising between 1880 and 1886.

Mr Hawkes' High Grade Elementary School advertised at 13 Verulam Road in 1886. "Mr Hawkes will be preparing boys for Oxford and Cambridge entrance examinations, and the College of Preceptors and Post Office exams.  Mrs Hawkes looks after the under sevens."

Miss Hestor's School advertised in 1887 at 3 Victoria Street and was probably one of the shortest lived establishments.

The Ladies' School advertised in 1872 stating that it was located at Alban House, under the care of Miss Upton. It is not known where Alban House was located.

Alma Road Girls' School.  This may have been an early iteration of Clare House School in Alma Road.  An advert appeared in a low circulation newspaper called The Clocktower in which the Head was named as Mrs Deed.

St John's Lodge, formerly Avenue House, in Beaumont Avenue, part of which was occupied by
St John's School.
COURTESY HALS

St John's Prep School, accommodated in part of St John's Lodge, Beaumont Avenue (now the site of St John's Court) by the Misses Blackwood in the 1920s.  How successful this school was is not certain, but when the Blackwoods moved c1936, the school transferred to a house on the north side of Jennings Road.

Well, that's a substantial list of educational establishments!  Within  that total may have existed the occasional school which was essentially one place of learning, but with a changed name, especially if it was taken on by a new owner.  Many owners possessed brave ideas which failed to live up to promise; others carved out small reputations for themselves with names that have lived on in our local history.  And it is probable readers got to know one or two of them, or they or their relatives may have attended as pupils. I am not claiming either that the above is a complete list. So contributions from readers will be welcomed.

Hailing the Bus

 Are we being spoiled by the availability of personal vehicular travel opportunities, or the public equivalent, a bus?  Or do we still demand more instant availability?

Anyone needing to travel anywhere in the days before most of us possessed a car, were not, it has to be admitted, well served.  Let's suggest before World War One, so that would be in the period of our families' previous generations. Personal transport may have included a pony and cart, possibly a bicycle, or probably reliant on walking. Limited horse-drawn vehicles were available to carry passengers between Hatfield and other stations to St Albans High Street or St Peter's Street.  It took until the 1920s for a mix of private operators to enter the streets and ply their trade on one or two local routes.

An early St Albans and Fleetville Express pictured in 1931 at the Stanhope Road shops,
having been involved in a crash.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

However, enterprising combines grew: The General, which saw one route (number 84 and still running today) taking passengers between north London and St Albans.  By the mid twenties routes had grown between a number of Home Counties towns under the National brand.  One of these routes was the National route N10 between St Albans Market Place, Hatfield Station and Hertford Post Office on 13 journeys per day in 1926.  A circular service was thought to be useful to serve passengers in an anti-clockwise direction between Market Place, the Midland Station, The Cricketers and Market Place, presumably using Victoria Street, Beaconsfield Road, Hatfield Road and St Peter's Street.

While these 1920s services largely connected neighbouring towns,  Arthur Blowers ran local buses to Fleetville, Camp, Hill End and Tyttenhanger Green.  A partnership of Etches & Flowers based at Oaklands observed the growth of houses along Hatfield Road and at Wynchlands, choosing to compete with the National services which tended to have fixed stopping points.  Local services found it easier to pick up and set down wherever it was convenient for passengers.

The advertised new range of bus services by the integrated London Transport St Albans district
network in 1934.

A rather mixed picture of services, owners, prices, timings and gaps in areas served continued until 1933, after which St Albans benefited from the re-organisation under a new corporate network under London Transport (LT).  LT acquired almost all of the former private and combine companies and began the major task of re-organising a more systematic series of connecting routes and fares, all with stopping points and available timetables.  So how did our East End benefit from the new format?

A previous route between Hemel Hempstead and St Albans was extended to provide a service to Fleetville (314) but it is not clear where the terminus was, maybe it was Sutton Road.  An earlier route along Hatfield Road to Oaklands would have given a through route to Watford, but LT chose instead to link Watford with Luton (321) which is largely retained today.  Instead Oaklands was linked with St Stephens and St Julians as a local service.

Other routes arriving in St Albans and using Hatfield Road had started out in more distant places: Welwyn Garden City (330 and 350), Bishops Stortford (340), Stanstead (341), and Enfield via Smallford and Colney Heath (343).  All of these services terminated at Townsend, which may have been intended to provide connections with the hospital via Waverley Road. Even if each route offered only one service per hour, we could say for the time Hatfield Road was comparatively well served.

The route map for the 1930s labels Marshalswick estate to the north of Sandpit Lane.  The route 338 linked London Colney, St Albans and Blenheim Road, probably the triangle at Gurney Court Road which would have been laid out by then, even if most of the homes nearby had yet to be constructed.  Later Sandpit Lane would form part of a future Circular route (354) between Fleetville and Marshalswick.  An very early rural route had a future under the  route number 382 via Sandpit Lane, Lemsford, Ayot and Welwyn (not Garden City!)

Winning entry in a Herts Advertiser children's competition in 1933.  We can assume the
pictured vehicle to be typical of the vehicles using Hatfield Road.  The young artist 
probably lived  somewhere along Hatfield Road in our East End.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

The previous Blower's route to Camp, Hill End and Tyttenhanger was partly protected for staff transport to the mental hospitals, and for residents of Tyttenhanger Green this was a benefit which would not otherwise have been provided.  For generation it served Camp Road and was therefore that district's only regular service.

Even in 1933 no service along Clarence Road was provided; perhaps it was considered not to be a good fare road.  And it was only after the Second World War that other parts of Fleetville became connected, for example, Blandford Road, Brampton Road, Woodstock Road south and north, and a small part of the Beaumonts estate (Chestnut Drive) before being diverted to Marshalswick Lane and the newly finished The Ridgeway south (354 Circular route). Can you imagine a large bus turning into Blandford Road at St Paul's (with a request stop half way along), and then making a right turn into Brampton Road (two stops), before connecting with Hatfield Road once more via Woodstock Road south.  Later the service ventured into the newer housing of Marshalswick.  Even in pre-war days the Blandford Road section was only one-way!

The former long-distance route from Stanstead (341) was later shortened as Hertford and Hatfield to St Albans, and was eventually extended out to Marshalswick via Sandridge Road and Marshalswick Lane to serve the mainly pre-war Nash estate (Kingsfield Avenue).  However, the delay in launching this service was due to the late arrival of the widening and making up of upper Marshalswick Lane, which remained a narrow and unmade lane until the mid 1950s.

Of the array of Green Line coach routes, none served Hatfield Road before the Second World War.  The first to appear was a reinvention of the National route linking Essex, St Albans and Watford (321).  It appeared from 1955 as an ordinary double-decker weekday peak time to Rickmansworth and Uxbridge (803) limited stop.  An actual  Green Line service was launched along Hatfield Road linked Harlow and Romford (724). Like the 803 you could only board and alight at a small number of stops, so the journey times were much improved.

Although in more recent decades the S routes and the University-linked routes have altered the patterns of routes and level of services, it is still possible to trace a few of the early routes.  Our expectations may be left wanting if travelling in the evenings or on Sundays.  But then it probably always was.

Measuring the Electronic World

Tech industries were thriving during the 20th century's first quarter, and Guglielmo Marconi was ahead of the game when in 1896 he brought to the world the concept of wireless telegraphy.  He delivered and set up the first Marconi Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company in Chelmsford the following year.  

St Albans folk are, of course familiar with the name Marconi as one of its companies was a major employer here, but we are perhaps short on the detail as the company was associated with several sites.  So, we will explore exactly where in our East End and elsewhere, the Marconi name came to rest.

Result of the blaze which destroyed the Hill End Brick Works in December 1928.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

The first homes to be advertised in Longacres in 1937.

Making way for new buildings at Longacres HQ by inventive manoeuvring of the portable canteen building to its new location on the site.
MARCONI STAFF JOURNAL VOLUME 1    

The completed Longacres HQ buildings on the former brickworks site.
COURTESY MARCONI HERITAGE GROUP

An early commercial connection Marconi made was not in St Albans at all, but in Southend.  This was the home of E K Cole, the sole manufacturers of electronic testing instruments in the UK. Many of us may remember their radios under the EKCO brand name.  As electronic equipment became more sophisticated the need for more complex testing instruments proved increasingly essential.  In 1936 the two firms joined forces, but in 1939 the E K Cole/Marconi team were moved, on government instruction, away from Southend's potential enemy danger to a temporary works site in High Wycombe.  A short time later the two teams became one as Marconi purchased Cole shares and a new company formed as Marconi Instruments Limited (MI).

Manager's Secretary Hilda Wallace who was featured
in the staff journal's first edition in 1951.

This is where St Albans enters the story – well almost.  A young song and dance lady by the name of Hilda Wallace – ex Cook's Tours – joined the formative MI as the Manager's Secretary, working from a small house in Radlett.  Whether this cottage was also Hilda's home I'm not certain. Remember, this was wartime and business space was where it was available, not where you would like it to be.

Within a short period space was found in part of a large house in Hatfield Road, St Albans, called Elmhurst, later simply number 29.  This building will be familiar to many citizens as it became the formative home of St Albans College of Further Education – before all the 1959 new buildings went up.  Hilda led a small team of Marconi typists from here and it is from this point that the very necessary company departmentalising was formulated to develop efficiency over multiple sites.

Former straw hat factory featured in a Heather & Heather promotional brochure. Here looking
rather more attractive than the actual building shortly after WW2.

The manufacture of electronic instruments and equipment required the availability of a huge variety of components in ever-increasing quantities and sourced from all over the UK.  But a number were made from scratch at a building in Ridgmont Road.  Not one of the sizeable villas which fill both sides of that road, but the very much  larger former straw hat manufactory which many commuters would have remembered as Heath & Heather (H&H), the herb specialists, whose four-storey building stood next to the Midland railway line by the the City Station.

The work of H&H had been downsized or squeezed into smaller spaces, and Marconi assemblers were installed wherever space could be found. And storage space was required for a large range of components prior to shipping to the High Wycombe works.

Back at the end of 1928 a serious fire had resulted in the closure of the Hill End brick works between Hatfield Road and Hill End Lane (Station Road).  [see top photo] The site remained desolate and unused for some time.  Nearby, housebuilding had begun nearby in 1936 to provide residential accommodation in a new road named Longacres. Work was undertaken in 1939 to clear and level the brickworks site next door and temporary buildings were brought in to become the company's warehouse.  There is no connection between the 1936 Longacres housing development and the Marconi Instruments factory site adjacent to that road, other than the street name.

Day-to-day operation of the company was hardly efficient under such dispersed war-time arrangements, as Miss Wallace discovered; therefore no sooner had the Longacres' residents' 1945 street party taken place than two years of building and moving began on the brickworks site to add the first generation of works buildings to the existing stores.  The entire company of Marconi Instruments Ltd came under one set of roofs for the first time in mid 1947.

Work stations at the Hedley Road service department.
MARCONI STAFF JOURNAL VOLUME 8

Except, that the one roof concept was short lived for a company whose reputation and size kept expanding. The next site which came into the frame; behind Beaumont Works, which was the Nicholson coat factory, was a single storey brick building with its own former basement air raid shelter and ready for new occupants.  MI opened its service department here.  It was quite a complex operation, where equipment arrived for repairs, replacement of parts and investigations about reliability.  The department was undoubtedly hugely significant, as its proved the baseline for all departments. The experience garnered here fed back to improve designs, increase standards and create modifications leading to new models at the main works at Longacres.

Left: part of the Ballito building originally built by T E Smith's Fleet Printing Works.  Right:
the post war expansion building of Ballito and subsequently taken over by Marconi Instruments.
COURTESY MARCONI HERITAGE GROUP

Probably the first of the company's post-war advertising in 1945, and too early to add
the name Longacres to the street address.
    COURTESY GRACIES GUIDE

We're not finished yet, because Fleetville featured more than just Hedley Road.  Even during the dispersed period of wartime the embryonic MI was using space at the large Ballito factory, which itself had turned over to shell casing manufacture.  Later, the post-war Ballito multi-floor block built for new ranges of woollen wear and nylon products, was partly, and then entirely used for MI components and assembly.  Finally, when Courtaulds acquired ownership of the main Ballito mill by acquisition, the site, but  was promptly sold again to MI.

While 1970 was the high-point of MI's occupation of buildings in St Albans' Own East End, the company continued to run a successful business.  There is, of course much more to the MI story, but the only part which remains to be included here, is a mention of prefabs brought to Hill End Lane and St Julians for key workers from the High Wycombe works, who for a few years had commuted to St Albans by special coaches laid on each day. As  building licenses became available a number of permanent homes in Charmouth Road and other locations were made available for a number of MI key employees.

Probably the most well known of the company's buildings, Marconi House on the corner of The Strand and Aldwych, has not been further mentioned, along with buildings in Stevenage, Colchester and Chelmsford.  They might make a blog on another occasion.

Finally, there may be a number of former MI employees who are able to fill in gaps in the firm's location story – for example, whereabouts in High Wycombe were the two entities sent at the beginning of hostilities?  Or perhaps that is still a state secret!

Business Honeypots

 At the start of the new year may I take this opportunity of wishing everyone New Year Greetings, and hope you continue to enjoy exploring with me another thirty or more stories about our East End during the coming twelve months.

Herts Advertiser front page 13 February 1866
COURTESY NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE

Just before Christmas a fellow researcher forwarded a file depicting the front page of a very differently designed Herts Advertiser dated 3rd February 1866.  It was full of detail as can be seen here, above, and very different from today's newspaper of the same name.  The purpose of sending me the file was the publication of the opening of Springfield Station along the freshly completed Hatfield & St Albans Railway.

Or, to make it clearer to read:

THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY HATFIED & ST ALBANS BRANCH

Notice is hereby given that a NEW STATION is now open for public traffic AT SPRINGFIELD on the above branch between St Albans and Hatfield. London February 1866.

Two points to mention before continuing with the account: the station name was later changed to Smallford; and the route, now closed, can today be walked as Alban Way, with the station building still extant behind its platform.  I will return to this station later in the post.

Smallford Station, opened as Springfield Station
COURTESY ROGER TAYLOR

Yard from which businesses worked at Smallford Station.
COURTESY ROGER TAYLOR

London Road Station.
COURTESY ROGER TAYLOR

What was not brought to my attention, and which is equally interesting, are two further advertisements on the same front page about another station – in fact the only other original station on the branch line – St Albans, which much later was better known as St Albans London Road.

The full advertisement highlighting the station's opening is shown earlier, but the advert above is also an astute piece of joint enterprise; the company advertised the opening of the station, and Mr Fordham, who had promptly opened his coal sales business at the station yard, announced his products in terms of types of coal and their prices.  It is likely that the standard terms of business were that Mr Fordham's prices included delivery to customer's premises.  An additional offer to potential customers states:

An allowance will be made for the toll gate to purchasers sending their own carts.  

Today we would call it a discount!  Mr Fordham may have considered this to be a brilliant way to pull in customers.  But he was not the only business operating at the station. A larger panel at the top of the page announced Messrs Fish & Ford occupying a site at the Yard, or Wharf, at the station.  A number of coals is shown, although they were not priced.  However, in a space at the end was displayed:

NB. TOLL GATE ALLOWED.

Today that brief statement may not mean much to us, but we will try to understand further.  What links these two advertisements, and ultimately the Springfield opening at the top of this post, is the existence of a toll gate.

Turnpike roads, such as those passing through London Road and Hatfield Road, were a useful private enterprise device by government in the 18th and 19th centuries to improve the national road network without the government of the day becoming directly involved.  The turnpike trusts, once set up, may have been very successful financially, but often they found it increasingly difficult to balance the books at times when the cost of maintenance exceeded income from tolls and ever more sophisticated evasion methods and avoidance of payments.  Eventually, government bought out trusts when their terms became due and transferred responsibility for them, first of all to Highways Boards and subsequently to the then new county highway authorities. 

London Road was part of the St Albans Turnpike Trust which extended to Ridge. London Road Station, opened in 1866, had to negotiate the issues of existing beside a turnpike road until the early 1870s when tolls were no longer collected from the nearest gate at the junction of London Road and Old London Road.

Charges varied according to the amount of wear caused to the road and frequency of travel; thus owners of large carts and horses paid more, and empty wagons were charged less than loaded ones.  The modern principle of a carnet was also in use for frequent use carters.  A business which relied on taking coal from the station, or customers arriving to collect coal, all required access via the toll road and the company's business plan had to take this irritant into account.  It appears that Mr Fordham built his toll charges into the price per ton of coal, but he could offer a lower price for customers bringing their own carts or wagons because they have borne the toll. Their discount was, it seems, unspecified, opening up some negotiation at the time of payment.

Messrs Fish & Ford enticed their customers by stating there is a prior financial arrangement at the toll gate, implying they can pass through without payment, but presumably the price per ton is a little higher.

The former Horseshoes toll house, demolished in 1935, is on the left. Gates protected the road ahead.
COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER

The London Road toll house and gate looking towards the city.  The entry to Old London Road
was to the left. The toll house stood on the open space which today is at the apex of the flats of Tollhouse Point.

The Reading & Hatfield Turnpike was not a well managed Trust but it struggled on for longer, finally locking the gates open in 1881.  Coal businesses also set up at Springfield/Smallford station at the same time as at London Road.  I have not seen references in these  adverts for discounts or prior arrangements with the Horseshoes toll gate.  There were certainly properties along or close to Hatfield Road/St Albans Road West, but many householders, and the businesses themselves, may have been able to avoid the turnpike altogether in favour of nearby lanes, even if the journey was a little 

longer.  

There is no hint of a complication in purchasing coal from Springfield Station in this advertisement competing for space on the same front page:

SPRINGFIELD RAILWAY STATION

J CONSTABLE begs to inform the gentry and inhabitants of the neighbourhood, that he has commenced the business of a COAL MERCHANT at the above address, where he intends to supply the public with the best Coals at the lowest possible prices, and for which he begs to solicit the favour of their patronage.  Orders will be promptly attended to.  All coals direct from the Colliery.

There was certainly competition in the air, but who might have given the best terms?