Smallford Settlement

 This week the tithe map extract shows the area we now know as Smallford.  Before the 1940s the group of buildings east of the present roundabout, and previously called Smallford Crossroads, was known as Horseshoes, after the name of the public house along  Hatfield Road.  Early maps also referred to the settlement as the Four Wents – four winds; there are similar references to wents in other parts of the country including in the East Sussex South Downs National Park.

Smallford hamlet and its surrounding fields.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

The first map below also charts fields surrounding Smallford, and their names provide one or two clues about usage and topography.  A reminder again that the orientation of the tithe map has been rotated through 90 degrees to conform to modern maps – which it doesn't quite achieve but is near enough.

Extract from the 1840 tithe map.  Roads clockwise from the top: Sandpit Lane (now 
Oaklands Lane); Hatfield Road east towards St Albans Road West; Sleapshyde 
Lane (now Station Road); Hatfield Road towards St Albans.
COURTESY HALS

We'll begin with the water course marked in blue and the narrow fields through which the stream still flows southwards. One was named Drunken Bridge Meadow (693) and the other Boggy Mead Wood (259).  The stream continues as Smallford Brook until it reaches the River Colne.

Water is also referenced in field 268 which the tithe map names Well Field. There is a little conjecture here, but by the road  – then known as Sandpit Lane but now renamed Oaklands Lane – in this field was a small plot which can just be identified as 269 with a cottage and garden (all dwellings were then named cottages).  Today it is at the beginning of a 1960s road straightening, close to the bus stop. A rugby club now has its entrance drive. During the 19th century it housed the St Peter's Pest House – containing anyone with a contagious disease – and was only closed and demolished after the opening of the Sisters Hospital on the St Albans City Hospital site. Well Field later gave its name to the large nurseries which occupied this field until the 1940s, when it became a sports field for the County Council.

Fields are so named for various reasons.  Field 270, an L-shaped fenced area for grazing, had the name Toll Gate Field because the turnpike gate was at the cross roads.  On the other hand the twin fields south of Horseshoes hamlet (578 and 579) were named Great Shepherds and Little Shepherds, which probably referenced sheep grazing, though the St Peter's Tithe Award Book indicates both fields to be arable at that time.  Field 275, now largely occupied by Notcutts Garden Centre and the mid 20th century homes along Oaklands Lane, was named, for obvious location reasons, Horseshoe Field. And if you couldn't think of a better name for your field, why not tell everyone how large or small it is.  Hence, field 276, where used to be the Chester nursery and today is also the Radio estate, was identified as Fourteen Acre field, which was, unsurprisingly, 14 acres in area.

Closer view of Smallford hamlet, orientation as extract above.
COURTESY HALS

Current and building use map of Smallford.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

Turning our attention to the plots along Hatfield Road which comprise Horseshoes itself, we might be surprised that no expansion has taken place since the 1840 tithe map (though, of course, modern housing has spread along Oaklands Lane and Station Road, the latter named Sleapsyde Lane before the arrival of the railway; west of the crossroads of course St Albans has joined hands with the hamlet!)

On the north side of Hatfield Road, always the least built on, were three buildings.  Two of them (in 273) wrapping round the crossroads north-east corner both belonged to the Trustees of the Turnpike Road.  The Trustees also owned a little plot of the north-west corner, now in front of Cayton's veterinary practice and Busy Bees children's nursery.

View eastwards from the crossroads (Smallford Roundabout). Former turnpike house on the
left.  Four Horseshoes further building on the left; Three Horseshoes furthest visible building
on the right.
COURTESY SMALLFORD & ALBAN WAY HERITAGE SOCIETY

View westwards with Three Horseshoes on the left and Four Horseshoes distant right. 
Painting by John Buckingham, c 1860.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

At the eastern end of the north side of Hatfield Road was a building standing on its own with a shelter on its left (in this painting by John Buckingham it near the right edge), with the first iteration of the extant cottages on the left. The Four Horseshoes beer house, which survived into the post world-war two era is further along the road – probably the red building.  For anyone exploring the strip of land on which these properties stand, from round the corner in Oaklands Lane to the footpath east of the garden centre and on the north side  might wish to investigate the plot descriptions Upward Lane at the crossroads, and Heggs Garden Spring and Eggs Garden Field, both forming a roadside strip the full length of the main road.

Thomas Kinder owned the Three Horseshoes building and the adjacent blacksmith's forge (375), which were then separate structures but now form the unified Vintage Inns restaurant. To its east are the cottages which were also shown on the tithe map.  They consist of a terrace of four cottages, as today identified by four chimney stacks.  They each had their own rear gardens although these have now been subsumed into the Three Horseshoes parking and outdoor dining zone.

Cottages, Three Horseshoes and Filling station on south side of Hatfield Road.

West of the public house was a long narrow plot of, probably three cottages and their roadside gardens (576), part of which became a cafe and small petrol station. In more recent times the cottages were demolished and the fuelling station significantly enlarged.  The final cottages were in a wrap-around garden plot (577) and as with the others, standing parallel to Hatfield Road at the crossroads.  These cottages have since been replaced by an attached pair of houses and a corner bungalow.

Three Horseshoes, cafe, early filling station and now demolished cottages beyond.
COURTESY SMALLFORD & ALBAN WAY HERITAGE SOCIETY

It will be useful to return to this hamlet occasionally to investigate other elements of the extended settlement, including the former railway naturally.