By-Pass It

 Until the 1920s the road network between London Colney and St Albans was straightforward: High Street in the village connected with London Road and High Street in the city; Shenley Lane in the village connected with Napsbury Lane and then the ancient road from London towards St Albans; the old road between the village and Cell Barnes Lane (Alexander Road and Nightingale Lane) took a rather different route to the city's market centre via Cell Barnes and Victoria Street. Finally, a link was available from High Street via White Horse Lane to Tyttenhanger Green and Camp.  This last route was still possible while the St Albans Bypass was still a single carriageway.

Working on the St Albans Bypass North Orbital in the 1920s.  The land purchased was sufficient
for twin 3-lane carriageways plus additional space for cables, pipes and space between the
carriageways.  Only one carriageway was completed.
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A post-WW1 national roadbuilding programme included a bypass around St Albans between Hatfield and Watford – a section of the North Orbital Road – squeezing through the gap between Cotlandswick and Newhouse Park Farm.  This fresh west-east barrier between London Colney and St Albans remained a single carriageway until the 1950s, but it did include a roundabout linking the village High Street with London Road.  A "square-about" would be a more appropriate label and was located a little west of the present maze of traffic lights.  Elements of the square-about can still be detected by the roadside.

The first roundabout which separated London Colney's High Street and London Road, the main A6
road before the London Colney Bypass was built.  The abbreviation TCB (circled) was the
location of a telephone call box.
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At the bypass end of the stopped up High Street remain the connections for the former telephone
call box which served this important road junction.  The just-visible overbridge marks
the location of the original roundabout (sometimes known as a square-about).

The often-related account of the capture of a German spy at this junction in 1940 still retains its location evidence; the former telephone kiosk used by the spy, an off-duty soldier and a police officer from the former Fleetville police station where a telegraph post and a pavement connection box remain in place at the bypass end of the former stopped-up High Street.

To pass along Shenley Lane and Napsbury Lane across the first iteration of the bypass was on the flat, which was fine in its early days, but to herald the major widening works in the 1950s a new bridge was constructed over the approaching dual carriageway.

Photograph taken on the Shenley Lane over bridge looking towards London Colney roundabout,
as the second carriageway was opened in 1956.
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Shenley Road over bridge completed in advance of the new carriageway and which replaced
the original surface junction.

Compare the sparse traffic level of 1956 photograph with a 2014 view of the London Colney
roundabout before the present addition of further traffic signals and their re-phasing.

A significantly larger roundabout was also required for the next stage of the project, and the imminent inclusion of the three-mile London Colney Bypass.  This shaped relocation required the diversion of a small length of London Road between Birklands and Nightingale Lane.  Houses already built became satisfyingly marooned in their own backwater, although those in Nightingale Lane were less fortunate, being closer to the incessant streams of roundabout traffic.

In or around 1920 the Electrical Apparatus Company (EAC) opened one of its four works buildings (the others being at Walthamstow, Wandsworth and Vauxhall) between Birklands and the Midland Mainline Railway.  Small farms are vulnerable when modern infrastructure and expansive developments nibble at the edges or slice through the heart of a farm.

The "square-about", and to the left the surface junction of Shenley Lane and Napsbury Lane.

By 1954 Newhouse Park Farm effectively ceased to operate, having earlier relinquished land for the factory and housing, and now transferring still more to the Ministry of Transport for road construction.  EAC acquire 37 further acres for its staff playing fields.  The farm homestead, outbuildings and a home field became the property of Albert E Bygrave, and in 1959 he opened his nursery fronting the bypass.

Yes, these houses are in London Road.  The road led to London Colney High Street. The original
"square-about" was out of sight at the end of this view.

However, the youthful entrepreneur Roger Aylett entered the horticultural marketplace a full four years earlier, having completed his horticultural qualifications at Oaklands Agricultural Institute (now Oaklands College).  He acquired through his parents a seven acre segment of land surplus to EAC's recent acquisition.

Roger Aylett's parcel of land lay between the houses on the north side of Napsbury Lane and the remainder of the former Newhouse Park Farm homestead.  He benefited from a lengthy frontage to the bypass and its newly fenced off works being prepared for the second carriageway.  Aylett may not have realised it at the time but his frontage opening along a busy road and a second minor access from Napsbury Lane, offered his business a splendid kerbside vista, which Bygrave used to good effect as a location marker – "adjacent to Aylett's"!  A dual carriageway might have resulted in awkward access for his customers, but in the case of Aylett's the large nearby  roundabout on one side and an over bridge on the other ensured convenient access when entering and leaving his site.

Map and aerial photograph providing an overview of the topic. London Colney is to the
bottom right; London Road leading to St Albans to the top of the image.
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Driving or riding on a bus between London Colney and St Albans via the roundabout was one thing, but if you wish to cycle or even walk the bypass makes life difficult since it was necessary to carriageway-hop – until it became essential to respond to the accident rate and provide a scaffolding bridge on the site of the former square-about.  This bridge was later replaced by a more elegant structure, which is still in use today.

Meanwhile, the round roundabout became larger and collected even more traffic signals!