The Park in 1946

 The question which follows is not Which park? for this is the road named The Park, looping off the northern side of Faircross Way.  The roads between Sandpit Lane and Marshalswick Lane had previously been the historic estate and gardens of the Marten family's Marshals Wick House, sometimes referred to as Wick House.  The house was torn down in the 1920s.  But a recognisable portion of the gardens came to be regenerated as The Park, a horseshoe-shaped road which today contains 72 mainly large detached homes and mainly built in  the 1950s and 1960s.

Faircross Way is the only west-to-east road; the middle road, Harptree Way, was cut back to the 
stump we see today; the northern parallel road was lost altogether to create the horseshoe road 
named The Park.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

The Park and Faircross Way shown in 1946 on an RAF Aerial Survey.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

The germ for this post, and a few still to come, emerged from the appearance online of a number of aerial photographs taken from RAF reconnaissance aeroplanes, whose pilots where employed following the end of the second war in undertaking aerial surveys.  We can gather from the surviving negatives that the survey, if there had been a complete coverage of the district, is now only partial, resulting in a single west-to-east flyover, which fortunately provided a wide vertical series of views of the northern half of St Albans, capturing, for example Fleetville but not Camp, Oaklands but not Hill End and so on. One road which stands out because of its shape and the newness of its concrete road surface at the time is The Park.  The initial intended road layout from the early 1930s was very different,  a series of three parallel streets running from west to east, but a revision dated 1937 introduced us to a more unusual horseshoe form  named The Park.   

The western divided exits between The Park and Faircross Way.

Meanwhile, St Albans Council had been wrestling with future arrangements for facilities such as publicly provided recreation and sport in a city recently having a considerably larger population.  A number of sites overall had been identified, but cricket remained difficult to locate for supporting the more formal facility at Clarence Park.  The council had its eyes on two possibilities, both in the Marshals Wick development since no housing had begun before the end of the war. One would be an extension of The Wick in Marshals Drive; the other was the land inside The Park.  It is likely neither was proceeded with given the high cost of purchasing the land.  The sole agent and developer, Mandley & Sparrow, would also  undoubtedly have raised objections about the effect of future house values at The Park, and perhaps the risk of cricket balls hurtling through front windows!

So let's check how The Park looked in 1946 and compare it with today's streetscape.  Many of the Marshals Drive plots had been sold in the 1930s and a few homes had been built.  Owners who had been forced to wait until licenses were available after 1946 discovered materials were in short supply, only sufficient for small homes considering the wide sites they were to sit on.  There were around twenty occupants in  Charmouth Road east and a nominal number in Homewood Road near its Marshals Drive junction.  Plot owners in those locations would also have to wait for more generous licenses.

Space or no space; both are on show at both ends of Faircross Way.

Fair Cross Way was a divided word when first placed on the map  (and street plates at both ends of the road still offer both alternatives).  By 1946 a round dozen homes had been occupied on the south side, although several consecutive plots opposite The Park had been held back for later development.  Perhaps views directly along the horseshoe might command higher prices.

What was left of the former grounds of Marshals Wick House was a wide swathe of open parkland between Charmouth and Homewood roads.  A boundary line of trees extended NNE from Sandpit Lane towards Charmouth Road and onwards to Sandridge Road at the railway bridge.  A small number of mature trees were growing within the horseshoe roadway, many of which survive in the present private gardens.  I am surprised not to discover on the aerial image, an extensive collection of temporary allotment gardens, commonly found in other parts of St Albans.  But there is evidence of, perhaps, grain or grass recently cut for hay (the photo was taken in October).  Lines of small shed-like buildings occupied land immediately north of The Park.  Perhaps these had supported earlier allotments or smallholdings.  We should realise, of course, that Marshals Wick House and its estate was first offered for auction as early as 1921, the sale process taking many years to complete, during which time it is likely the grounds were not fully maintained.

For couples and families living within "local adventure" distance of The Park traditional Sunday walks were popular in the 1940s and 50s.  The open spaces were unofficial playgrounds for children, picnic spots for those unable to afford travel to more distant or real countryside, and perhaps wistful journeys for future homeowners.  However, this landscape did not remain static for very long, as the street directories reveal.

The Park from a recent aerial photo.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

If you were going to purchase a plot in an otherwise empty The Park which side of the road would you choose, inner or outer?  With the likelihood of benefiting from a borrowed front landscape within the horseshoe perhaps you would have selected a plot on the outer side.  And that's just what the first three purchasers did: Alfred Gentle (previously from Church Crescent), William Bird (formerly at St John's Lodge, Beaumont Avenue) and John Miskin (moved from Temperance Street).  They all built their houses in the early fifties, at the northern end of the horseshoe and within touching distance of the rear gardens of Marshals Drive nearest to the old house.  It is entirely possible they had purchased the plots before the war began in 1939. The next three occupiers, English, Preece and Wynn, also purchased plots in the same confined block on the outer northern sector.  For a short period these six had the road to themselves, after which a veritable estate of bespoke homes came under construction between 1958 and 1960, by which time only eight vacant plots remained.

But that was only half of the account: at the same time all but three of the inner plots were in build, and the owners' list for The Park and Faircross Way contained a fair sprinkling of the city's trading success stories and professional businesses. 

The Park, a streetscape.

There remains, however, one query with the 1946 RAF aerial photo.  Although the level of detail is not high there are two plots which already appear to have houses on them; one at the middle of the north-west curve (seems to have a circular feature in the front garden) and one as that same curve becomes straight again.  This suggests that two homes were completed earlier than surviving directories suggest.  Maybe they were begun earlier but could not be completed before the 1940 moratorium.  Anyone who has an answer to this query is sure to post an answer!

The original split entry and exit junctions of The Park have remained in tact; many former estate trees have thrived and been much enriched by house owners planting their own; the street tree programme; the original silver street lamp posts in place (though they have lost their elegance since the LED conversion in recent years); and the driving schools of the district who warmed to the quiet, lack of street parking, the junctions and curves, all regularly incorporated into their training routes.

There is no doubt a stroll or cycle ride in this vicinity will prove to anyone the streetscape has kerb appeal in spades.