Nicky is Sixty Plus

 If you were reading the Herts Advertiser last week you will already be aware that one of our secondary schools celebrated its sixtieth birthday.  Nicholas Breakspear Secondary is the school, but its birthday is only that of the current suite of buildings in Colney Heath Lane, just on the south side of the railway bridge over the former branch railway (now Alban Way).

The land had previously been reserved for a  partner establishment to Hill End Hospital.  However the size of the site was discovered to insufficiently large for that purpose and the partner hospital became Cell Barnes, after the nearby lane, in 1930.  It no longer exists but part of Highfield has been built on its former site.  For a short while in the 1950s the Colney Heath Lane land was used for playing fields for St Albans College of Further Education, before moving to Smallford but a parcel of land is still retained by Oaklands College.

The story began here: at 148 London Road, just uphill from the current Odyssey Cinema.

Rooms at the back of the SS Alban & Stephen church in Beaconsfield Road were organised
into a full-time school...

...but external rooms were brought into use at the now-demolished Adult School
in Stanhope Road as pupil numbers increased further.

A purpose designed school opened in Vanda Crescent with separate sections for infants, 
juniors and seniors, creating an elementary school.

In the 1950s the secondary pupils found a larger site at Garston which we have always known as
St Michael's Catholic High School.

...and in the mid sixties a whole-school's-worth of secondary pupils found their present home
under the banner of Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School in Colney Heath Lane.  It has been
some journey!

But to discover the true origin of the Catholic Secondary School we need to travel much further back in time.  A Catholic denomination church was established on the south side of London Road in 1878, and educational provision was undoubtedly offered on a limited scale, but for worship and educational purposes a new church centre was opened in Beaconsfield Road,  a number of rooms at the rear of the site being used as a school, unfortunately rather close to the busy railway at the Midland City Station.

The school in this building remained here until 1935, although some of its classes also occupied external rooms, including in the Adult Schools building in Stanhope Road. The Ss Alban & Stephen School as an  organisation was  formalised on Elementary principles, just as the rest of the educational service had begun to separate into separate primary (infant and junior) and secondary establishments.  The new elementary school was achieved by the acquisition of Friederick Sander's private garden in Camp Road when this was sold by his sons in the 1920s after their father's death.  A purpose designed single storey set of buildings was created and was opened with separate infant, junior and secondary wings in Vanda Crescent.

Although plans were made in the 1950s for two outreach schools at Marshalswick and St Julians the development of these two units was much delayed.

The opportunity arose in 1955 for the secondary unit at Vanda Crescent to become a larger junior space.  A new Catholic secondary school was opened at Garston under the name St Michael's in High Elms Lane.  The SsA&S secondary pupils transferred to Garston, enabling a more mature secondary curriculum to be offered.  However, within three years St Michael's became full, and expansion came with the provision of a Catholic secondary school specifically for St Albans.

The new 3-form entry school opened on the Colney Heath Lane site under the name Nicholas Breakspear Catholic Secondary School.  Occupying the 31 acres previously deemed not sufficient for a hospital the site has now settled for the longest period in its history, so this is an additional reason for celebrating the anniversary.

For further information St Nicholas Catholic Church is located in Watling Street and St Adrian's JMI school in nearby Watling View opening in 1960, just ahead of Nicholas Breakspear School.

Of course, the structures of school buildings from the post-war period, were not expected to last for an endless period; nor were they expected to be efficient to maintain.  The school is therefore planning ahead for a future with new buildings.  And who knows what NBS will look like in three or four years time.

More of the Same

 The previous post described how, in able to find space for a new school in 1938, proposed homes were scrubbed from the developer plans.  It seems this was not unique hereabouts.  Roll the calendar back thirty years along Tess Road (now Woodstock Road South) and Royal Road, and the house building scheme for the space between those two roads had just begun, when a lethargic education authority jumped to life and responded to residents' complains that there was no school in Fleetville for their children. A public meeting was held in a room at the Fleetville Institute on the corner of Arthur Road and the parents pressed their case successfully. The St Peter's Rural School (Camp) coped inadequately for the new Fleetville district as well as serving Camp and Tyttenhanger et al.  Stung by the pressure, the education body ensured no more houses were added to Tess Road and work began on building a new school – well, part of one.

Fleetville Elementary Schools – which for four years 1908 to 1912 accommodated children from
5 to 13 years old.  The view is from Royal Road.

A revision of the 1897 OS map and published in 1912.  The intended division of the building into
separate girls & infants, and boys sections.  The empty block to the south is reserved for an
infants only building, opened in 1912 but after the survey preparation for this map.
Incidentally, ignore the Benskins reference; that links to the green site just visible on the left.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

On a new estate with young families you would usually begin with an infants wing, or today, a nursery with infants wing.  But families in Fleetville had been waiting for so long the need was evident in all age groups.  Work began in 1907 on the Juniors and Seniors building.  You will notice a line delineates the playground, and therefore the classroom accommodation, for boys separately from girls.  South of this the map identifies an empty plot, which four years later would include an infants building.  The map is unusual in being a re-survey required because of the pace of new building in the district.  Published in 1912 it was not, however, late enough for the new infants building, opened in the same year.  Until then infant children were crammed into the existing building with two classes using the hall.  Fleetville was therefore over-full at birth!

The three houses at the south end of Tess Road just about pre-dated the schools, and were immediately transformed into the district's police station, and would much, much later offer essential school space in a further burgeoning accommodation crisis.  Keep an eye, too, on the outside toilets next to Tess Road. They began as equal spaces for boys and girls, although later extended to match increased numbers, especially for infants.  

The school's north end in the 1930s.  The "boys'" playground was used for major demonstration
events.  Today, a 1960s extension has been added to the original building.
COURTESY FLEETVILLE INFANTS & NURSERY SCHOOL

The 1937 map finally shows the infants building (below the word Schools), although today
the space between has been closed in with a 1960s link building.  The houses on the west
side of Tess Road are in use as a police station and staff accommodation.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

The next available map was published in 1937.  So this is the first opportunity for proving the existence of the smaller infant building – it had only been there for 25 years!  1937 was also the year when work began to expand the infants accommodation: a wooden hutted building raised off the playground and with steps to each of the two classrooms. To view this building we need to fast-forward to the next available map in 1963.  I have not been able to find a single photograph of "The Huts", and by the time it appeared on the 1963 map plans were afoot to construct a permanent hall building in its place.

Look across Royal Road to the recreation field, much used by the older children.  This map was published too early to show the temporary nursery building which arrived in 1942, but we do find proof that the field was then surrounded by metal railings with recognised gates.  Generations of children had worn a path from Hatfield Road towards the school entrance, officially Royal Road, via recognised gates.

One other restrained feature on the 1937 map is a short double line on the top left of the main building; our only clue to the basement boiler heating room at the foot of a flight of stairs.  It also performed a role as store room.

By the 1960s extensions have created a rather different outline shape to
the building.  The smaller building just to the left of the word "South" 
is the timber building known as "The Huts" which arrived in 1937 and
would soon be replaced by a permanent hall structure.  The 1942 wartime
day nursery appears on a map for the first time.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

The start of greening the playground spaces. The wall to the right is what remains of the former
outside toilets which were in use for all children for sixty years.

1963 reveals that the space between the main building and infants building has been filled in, providing important additional accommodation, including toilets and offices.  The outline shape at the north end was also different, providing toilets and an additional classroom.  The work removed evidence of wartime blast walls at the main entrances of both buildings, and therefore not shown on any map.  Also appearing for the first time – although probably present for nearly fifty years – is a small wooden structure used as a cycle shed.

The 1963 map is also the first to show the 1942 nursery building, although does not include evidence of the ramps leading down to the wartime tunnels under the nursery and beyond into the field.  Maps are sometimes poor recorders of  landscape changes!

The eighties see the infants section take over the entire building; the juniors moving across Hatfield Road to a nearby empty school building.  But that hasn't been the only move; the seniors from elementary school days finally left just in time to become part of the new Beaumont Schools in 1938.  Just as well, for in 1940 evacuee children from Princess Road School, Camden (now Primrose Hill Primary) arrived to share the buildings, thus creating one of Fleetville's periodic bulges, the next one lasting through the 1950s until 1980 even though a whole new school (Oakwood JMI) had opened from 1959 specifically to counter overcrowding at Fleetville.

The former day nursery has been a community centre since the 1980s; the nursery
then moved to the garden plot of the former police houses, and its car park was
created where the police houses themselves once stood.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

Google's flyover photo today reveals both a familiar layout and a fuller
one, especially in the use of the outdoor spaces.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

To bring us up to date in the absence of intermediate maps, Open Street Map informs us that the former day nursery moved from its temporary location on the recreation field to where the garden for the former police houses had existed, and an expanded hall building dominates the Woodstock Road South side of the site.  If you were to walk along this road you will discover the former wall of the outside lavatories still in place!  And what of the former police houses?  They are now razed in favour of a car park for the Nursery building.  The modern map gives no clue to the busy-ness of the playground spaces, which encourages creative play instead of simply running around; and is a combination of grassed and shaded zones.

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Much change has been packed into the past 116 years at the busy school in the busiest of districts in the city.

Making Something Fit

 The need for new schools, especially senior establishments, forced Hertfordshire Education Authority to search diligently for appropriate sites, often catching up with builders and developers forging ahead with their housing estates.  Equally, the authority, was playing catch-up with government's regular changes of requirement and its own decisions to improve building and facility standards.

This week we ask the question why the students of Verulam School continue, after 86 years, 
 to walk to their games lessons between Brampton Road and Sandpit Lane.  Here
is the imposing school building when first opened in 1938 – although not visible until
reaching the inner end of the school drive.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

These playing fields, now adjacent to Oaklands Grange, at the eastern end of Sandpit Lane, was
originally purchased in the 1930s for the future senior school for Marshalswick.  Minds were
changed when the Education Authority realised it had purchased a site at Brampton Road which
was too small for the school it wished to build.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

This all leads to the question of why, since 1938, the pupils of Verulam School, have walked their way to the eastern end of Sandpit Lane for their sport zone (games field).  Why did the Education Authority not incorporate the buildings and the games field on one site?  Good question.  The short answer is the sudden requirement for all areas to create new grammar schools if no alternative buildings were available, and in St Albans, there were was only one; the Central Girls School, opened only in 1931.  The plan was to create a  grammar school for girls on a new site and convert the Central School for a boys' grammar school.

Negotiations between the Authority and Earl Spencer, to acquire a portion of his new development between Brampton Road and Jennings Road, which was already under construction, managed to shoe-horn sufficient space for a new school between Park Avenue and Hamilton Road.  Unfortunately most houses in both of those roads were already completed and occupied.  Similarly, Brampton Road homes were largely occupied, except for the space opposite Sandfield Road.  The reason for such a space by the mid thirties is thought to be a new road linking Brampton Road and Churchill Road intended to connect Hatfield Road and Sandpit Lane.  This aborted section of the Spencer development, intended to assist with the Authority's purchase also prepared the way for the new school's entrance location.

Brampton Road running left to right in 1924, near the bottom edge. Clarence Road is partly
developed on the left, the gardens of Woodstock Road are on the right, and Jennings Road is
only partly laid out.  In this large space Park Avenue, Hamilton Road and the school would
find their spaces.  Had it not have been for the school another road linking Sandfield Road and
Churchill Road would have been driven through this space.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

In 1939 the School is one year old and new homes have enveloped its grounds.  Its front
drive opposite the end of Sandfield Road is the only part of the road which never was which
still exists. This was the school which was, together with tennis courts, how the school was
intended.  The Authority acquired the site to the right of the drive as the school's caretaker
accommodation.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The space available for the proposed school was further restricted by the lengths of the rear gardens in the three roads, though not the south side of Jennings Road where housebuilding had not begun.  So, under the circumstances quite limited, but under the authorised layout requirements for schools it was sufficient for a girls' grammar school, and so the plans were drawn up.  In the meantime the Authority bean-counters suddenly realised the existing Central school in Hatfield Road was already a girls' school with accommodation for girls' facilities.  Rather late in the day, Central became the new Grammar School and the boys were provided with the new buildings in Brampton Road.

By 1963 more buildings have been added and a tennis court relocated; garden ends have already
given way to school space.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The rules for space, particularly for playing field space were inadequate for a boys' school (of any kind – it was the gender which counted, not the specialism).  The future school for Marshalswick was aborted and became the playing field for the Boys' Grammar School.

It did not take long for the existing 1938 buildings to become inadequate for the new school.  By 1963 the main quadrangle block to be extended on the south-west corner and to the east; and a new building and swimming pool to the north.  

Since then, other accommodation and a car park has been added to reduce the grassed area to little more than an amenity space, perhaps just sufficient for a single football pitch.  The school has also now  acquired houses in Brampton Road, and a few rear gardens have been nibbled to squeeze in buildings.

The layout of the block today as revealed by the current Open Street Map
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

The same view, one hundred years forward from the earlier 1924 map.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET MAP

So, if had not been for girls toilets already in place in 1938 at Hatfield Road, today the Verulam site may have been an established girls' school, boys would have had their school at Hatfield Road – and would probably have ended up on an extended site in Sandridgebury Lane.  It all came down to how much land the Authority agreed to purchase and therefore the flexibility to expand, their maximum pupil numbers, and what may be expected of the establishments over time.

Shoe-horning is not the answer.