The Little Books 3

 This week's book takes a step up with the number of photographs laid out, and even selects a few leading images spread across its double pages. The title is St Albans in Old Photographs by Sam Mullins, published in 1994 (ISBN0750901209) within a series under the umbrella of Britain in Old Photographs.  As with previous books in the series we are exploring SAinOP appears not to be in print; however two copies are currently advertised for sale on Abe (www.abebooks.co.uk).

St Albans in Old Photographs not only has a more expansive  selection of images than in the previous two publications, but its division into twelve distinct sections gives more scope for presenting a larger number of themed scenes, recognisable locations, small groups and even individual St Albans' residents. Remembering that our inquiry centres on whether the Eastern districts are fairly represented in the total collection, we should first define those boundaries: any part of the city (the current District) which is east of the Midland Railway.  In the books St Albans' Own East End the historical boundary was the parish of St Peter, but if the author's brief was strictly related to the city boundary this extended to Oaklands and Hill End for the period under review.

Among the sections chosen were A Tour of St Albans, St Albans Abbey, Farming, St Albans Pageant 1907, Roman Verulamium, and Lost St Albans, the latter showing buildings no longer standing, although there are plenty of these among other sections of the book as well.

The first section is titled Market Day, including a super cover image; so the market provides a consistent connection between all three books so far surveyed.

 

You can almost smell the freshness of Clarence Park – fresh paint, new creosote; the pavilion in the background; the park keeper's lodge with an early sales point for refreshment.

The pavilion may be complete, but finishing groundworks are ongoing, ahead of its 1894 opening.

One section is given over to Clarence Park, so we should be able to tick off all of its contents as being East End based.  There are nine images, of which four feature the pavilion, the most impressive being the completed – and still empty – structure probably taken before the crowds set foot on the place at the very wet opening ceremony.

Of the seven pictures of farming scenes five have captions identifying the locations as St Germains and Verulam Hills, in other words Verulamium.  The two unidentified examples are also likely to be from the same collection.

A footpath has been laid along this view of Sandpit Lane, with the occasional opening onto the lane
from the south side.  On an original print can be detected a large board on posts.  The view
eastwards is from approximately Clarence Road, rising in the distance towards Hall Heath.

Rural Sandpit Lane features in the Lost St Albans section with the oft seen picture of two figures walking along the road space, ignoring  the recently laid footpath. The grounds of Marshalswick House hide on the left, with the future Spencer estate laying in wait beyond the trees on the right.

One photograph, said to have been taken in the Haymarket, London, shows two loaded carts which the caption informs us had been driven there from Butterwick Farm.

A collection of churches is included, of which St Paul's is featured while it is still scaffolded – and fortunately showing off the corner of a paved and metalled Hatfield Road and an all too rare gas street lamp.

The view of Alexandra House, Hatfield Road can be dated to between 1912 and 1914.  Fox's
chemist opened around 1912 and Barclays Bank is first listed in 1914 and may have opened
for business a short time before this.

Finally, the rather impressive Alexandra House at the corner of Hatfield Road and Clarence Road which, when first completed housed a chemist and a branch of Barclays Bank at the Crown corner.

The compiler was provided with a wide range of photographs at his disposal and few of these have appeared in other volumes, and so, as a set, the book contains an impressive collection.

But the fact remains that of 164 photographs of "old St Albans" only 12 could be confirmed as being located in the eastern districts (9 in Clarence Park, and one each from the Crown, St Pauls Church and Sandpit Lane.  A thirteenth was actually a central London view, not a Butterwick view.

While we love Verulamium, the Cathedral and the market, oh, and the city centre shops of course, rather more balance would have been helpful.  So the search is still on to find a Little Book which achieves that balance.

The sources are probably, in the main, from St Albans Museums and HALS.  If not we would be pleased to acknowledge.

The Little Books 2

St Albans has an assortment of small format books dedicated to the presentation of photographs.  The images were taken at a range of times, usually up to the mid-1930s, although later if being compared with a historically early photograph of the same location taken from the same spot.  

In 1991 Beryl Carrington and James Corbett published a little book St Albans in Camera (ISBN 0860233855) published by Quotes, Buckingham; 80 landscape format pages.  The copy in my possession is hardbound, being an ex library copy.  At present one copy is listed for sale at www.abebooks.co.uk.

The contents lay out mainly one image per page with short descriptive narratives for each one.  All images are black and white.  A list of 19 acknowledgements suggests where the images have been sourced, although it is not specified which are the owners of any individual picture.

In contrast to St Albans' Past & Present, St Albans in Camera contains many groups among its collection: the Easter Youth Pilgrimage, the Mummers, an archaeology group at Gentle's Yard, a May Day dance, country dance festival, and many others; there is therefore a lively vibrance to many of the pages.

Not forgetting my intention in browsing this collection of little books: to discover whether the city's eastern districts are  appropriately represented within the collection's 80 pages?

The Stone family outside their general store at Primrose Cottage.  A different building, the Rats' 
Castle PH now occupies the site.

We kick off with the lovely study of Primrose Cottage, undoubtedly the first completed building in Fleetville in 1897 and immediately turned into a shop.  Because it is the only image of the house, and was taken after 1903 when Hector Stone and family lived there to run the shop, it is often assumed, incorrectly, that it was he who had the structure built and he who launched the business.  And he had no connection with the transformation of the premises into the Rats' Castle a full quarter century later. And it was a quite different building anyway. But it is great to see the Stone family welcoming us to their shop!

William Wilkins and his mule-drawn cart of greengrocery somewhere in Fleetville.
Courtesy members of Mr Wilkins' family.

On the following page is a posed photo of William Wilkins "in Fleetville".  It is difficult to place the location but could be near an end of one of one of Fleetville's parallel roads.  He may have managed or worked for a greengrocery shop in the district, or perhaps been an early mobile shop trader.  Thanks to members of Mr Wilkins' family for sharing this scene with us.

Football team representing the Rubber Works.

A team photograph seems to have a connection with Camp, as it shows a typical team picture of the Inter Rubber Works Football team.  We know that the Rubber Works at Camp Hill had its own pitch next to the works, close to Cell Barnes Lane, although the background suggests it had been an away match. The houses of Sanders Close were built on the field, which were also used for growing dahlias.

Sutton Road.  The crowd is close to the end of Castle Road; the photographer is not far from
Campfield Road.  Whether wellington boots or bathing costumes children would always enjoy
this impromptu opportunity for a little fun.

If anyone needs to demonstrate a typical Fleetville scene in pre-war days, show a photo of what was known as "Sutton Lakes", the fifty yards or so either side of the old railway bridge in Sutton Road.  It was guaranteed to attract a number of children, and they, in turn, attracted a photographer or two!

A sandbagged hole in the ground which was used for Home Guard training.  Many locations
were used, including where the houses of Hazelwood Drive south were later built. But since the
location was not annotated we can only guess.

The "secret location" of another picture, might have been near Beaumonts Farm – but it could have been almost anywhere else, and it is possible even the photographer had little idea where he was!  This was a Home Guard training site on spare ground, possibly between Woodland Drive and Beaumont School.  Any alternative suggestions?

As in the previous book, the cover shows a Clock Tower/Market Place market scene.  As to the East End, three inside images are confirmed, with two more possible locations, out of 84 laid out in the book.  It is certainly true that book compilers have a challenging task in locating historical photographs representing the wide geographical spread in  and around the city.  But yet another image of the Cathedral or the Clock Tower, St Peter's Church or the market, an appealing classroom shot at an elementary school or a city centre parade, are all too easy to include.

In next week's title perhaps parts of the city beyond the houses may come to light.  Let's hope so.

The Little Books 1

 In the author's book collection are a number of what might be termed "little books" about St Albans: small format slimlines containing a number of photographs.  Many are loosely themed – the Cathedral, St Peter's Street, churches, shops and so on.  Others are collected as "then and now" so that readers are able to compare scenes over a period of time.  The question to be asked is, how well represented are the eastern districts of the city?  While there exist quantities of subjects taken in the inner city streets, alleys and courts, it is certain that few photographers have ventured further than the distance between two consecutive bus stops in their search for enticing material.  So how to prove that assertion.

This week I took from the shelf Maurice Ferrara's little book St Albans Past & Present, published in 1982 (ISBN0950735221).  At the time of writing six copies are listed for sale under www.abebooks.co.uk.

The front cover has an engaging period pic of the Clock Tower, High Street and Cathedral Tower; a Clock Tower and Market Place monotone drawing also occupied the inner title page.  So that probably sets the tone.  It is not until page 32 that we break out of the 1835 town boundary and experience the first image in the remote yonder: a World War One training camp in London Road's Cunningham lower slopes. The second eastern photo shows the operational prison, but neither join in the book's design intention to show more recent versions of these two locations.

Fleetville's turn comes from page 58 onwards with a pair of images of The Crown (the first with the well-known tree and island), and a  street scene of Hatfield Road between Blandford and Glenferrie roads.  There follows the deceptive comparison between a carless Glenferrie Road and its more modern car tunnel equivalent.  Then there is the sixty years separating versions of Bycullah Terrace, Hatfield Road (including a rare inclusion of the Co-operative Store which replaced the former Ballito Hosiery Mill).

We are also rewarded with then and now pictures of the Nicholson coat factory in Sutton Road, the first including what might be the full contingent of employees at the time, and a little indirect evidence of the field opposite (now Campfield Road) which was still used as a  recreation field before the opening of Fleetville Recreation Ground now called Fleetville Park.

It is rewarding to see once more the often-seen photograph of pedestrians walking along the middle of Hatfield Road down towards the Beaumont Avenue junction – and the empty spaces beyond where houses would shortly be constructed; the modern version is surprisingly quiet at the same location, with no more than four cars visible!

There known to be east least two published images of troops making their way along Hatfield Road towards their training ground at Oaklands, or perhaps to the grounds of Hatfield House.  It is good to discover the version selected for publication is the lesser known of the two.  But its partner is not a more recent version of the same location, but a 1908 photograph of a carcass-hung frontage of Aberdeen House, the butcher shop then managed by Mr Steabben.

One more pair shows one of the most popular shots – in fact the only image of the Camp District in the book – of the Camp Hill hamlet.  Its modern equivalent reminds us just how long ago this little book was published (1982) for the Rubber Works still occupies the opposite site of the road; the Dexter development is still a few years away.

Near the end of this collection are are two pairs of pictures of Sandpit Lane which together demonstrate just how much east end growth has affected streetscapes at Hall Heath and Newgates.  Fortunately the author has found a glorious circus photograph, unfortunately not taken in any of the eastern locations where circuses so often pitched up.  But the circus is, at least, represented as a popular form of entertainment in the first half of the twentieth century.

Finally an open space pair shows scenes within Clarence Park.

Added pages include a sample front page of the Herts Advertiser & St Albans Times, and of a short-lived mid-week paper called the St Albans Clock Tower.  In 1906 there were just 135 telephone subscribers covered the whole of St Albans – just five of them in the eastern districts.  The entire directory fits on a single page of this book!

And that is it.  Nothing from Oaklands, nor Marshalswick.  No farms or detached hamlets were represented.  Either photographers were unadventurous or their work has not survived.

Rooms apparently full

 Renting rooms in the 1940s may remind you of our website page Evacuees; the large numbers of children who travelled with their schools from Camden and other London boroughs, and coastal Sussex towns. The motivation was the 1939 Pied Piper project and later plans to protect the population from the worst of enemy bombing.  Much has been recorded by surviving evacuated children now in their eighties and nineties.

Rather less has been recalled by countless adults of the time transferring from their home towns to follow employers when they moved to more strategic locations.  Their time has passed and it will be their children and grandchildren who might carry the story forward – as long as the accounts are known and remembered.

Not part of individual accounts, however, is a conflict between the needs of the child refugees and those of adults moving in to the city and district for employment.  The often recalled account is that of the Chief Billeting Officer for a district being a stern and sometimes belligerent individual who, with a child or two in tow, knocked on doors and "demanded" that the householder accept at least one of the youngsters – "we all have to do our bit, you know."  Occasionally there is reported to be a police officer nearby, while the billeting officer is reputed to be threatening to invoke the law, which did exist but was rarely used because of the potential conflict between householder and evacuee, whether child or adult.

Being looked after – part of a "borrowed" family.
COURTESY IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

To set some context for readers the issue facing St Albans' Billeting Officer, G C Cowan, was written up in an interview set up with a Herts Advertiser reporter (or perhaps the Editor) in August 1942 shortly before yet another crocodile of young incomers.  

In 1942 there were reported to have been 3,300 adults and children in accommodation in an appreciably smaller city than today.  Of this number were 1,300 children with their schools.  Although it appeared rooms remained available, the billeting staff founded it easier to gain the agreement of tenants of 6-roomed council owned homes than the occupiers of 6-roomed privately owned homes.  It is easy to suggest private home owners were more obstructive and less willing to accommodate strangers.  But there was another dynamic at work, especially when new groups of children were expected, as was to be the case in time for the start of the Autumn term 1942.

We should appreciate that no evacuee, adult or child, would be expected to be admitted to a householder's home without payment of expenses.  The fee per child was 12 shillings and sixpence (62.5p) per week; a householder could claim 35 shillings (£1.75) for an adult worker occupying the same room space.  When family income was modest, perhaps with a husband on military service, why would a housewife not hold out for an industry worker's fee per week.

Nurseries opened for extended hours to look after the children of mothers working in
nearby factories.

It would be a well made point that there is pressure for housewives to undertake shift work in munitions and assembly tasks, which would mitigate against accepting children.  Child care is no modern phenomenon; during the war day nurseries and after school children's clubs were common, but the more lucrative night shifts were not accessible if there were children to look after at home.  Such responsibilities did not come into play with adult lodgers, who may themselves be required to work night hours.

Women from St Albans on a shift at a munitions factory in Fleetville.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

The article was at pains to explain – and reinforce – a number of social and family benefits from taking in evacuee children: building more long-term relationships perhaps leading towards adoption, and children learning to call the adults mum and dad, or aunt and uncle; managing children with vivid imaginations and the ability to relate stories, where others might have called the child a "naughty little liar".  The helpfulness of billeting staff was reinforced in the case of periods when the household adult needed temporary relief of her responsibility, for hospitalisation, for example.  Of course, it is not possible for us to confirm the authenticity of these or other alleged statements.

The suggested myths around billeting officers and their approaches to householders may occasionally display a brusque side to their personalities, but rather like theatrical landladies and ARP wardens, they were volunteers attempting to do their best in challenging circumstances.  As were householders of course.  Most young people and adults will have come through the experiences without too much scarring, and many with positive, even warm, memories. 

The period was unique in this country's modern history.