First and Last House

Traditionally a house builder would lay out his street plan of proposed houses, select one of the plots and then start building on those around it.  The plot held back would then be used as the firm's store yard.  This would become a busy hub for deliveries of materials, meeting point for building employees and base for the site manager/foreman.  Near the end of the contract the builders' years would be cleared and the final house built.  

The Hatfield Road face of the Beaumonts estate today.  Among the house builders of the estate
were G N Burgess, A A Welch, H C Janes and Harvey & Webster.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

Although I am not certain of the name of the house builder in the case of Hatfield Road, between Beechwood Avenue and Oakwood Drive on the north side, the sale of Beaumonts Farm did not take place until 1929, and the new edition of Kelly's Street Directory was dated 1930.  By then all but six of the forty-two new homes had been completed and occupied, which seems to be a remarkable pace, especially considering that it is known there was usually a delay in the publication of changes in addresses.

The plot held back for use as the builders' pound had been numbered 267 but left blank in Kelly's for many years.  The plot lay barren with no attempt to build on it, and becoming overgrown; the boundary hedge line grew taller and the open space – still growing the kind of weeds and grasses which had previously grown as a source for grazing on the farm.  Thus it remained until it was tidied after the Second World War, when  occasionally occupied by an arriving vagrant who slept beneath the hedgerow.

The future 267 plot as seen in the mid 1950s with the former police box.  The poster frame 
pointing to Tacchi & Burgess's site in Sandpit Lane and Chestnut Drive, their poster having
been stuck over the earlier 1929 board for Watford Land which purchased the farm. The word 
WATFORD is just visible at the base of the original poster and underneath the red arrow.
COURTESY PHILIP ORDE 

A recent Aerial photo of 267 at the junction of Beechwood Avenue
and Hatfield Road.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

There was change too along the footpaths of Beechwood Avenue and Hatfield Road from the late 1930s.  The City Police had sited timbered cabins for their officers to use (and the public in emergency situations), the nearest being on the corner of Hatfield Road and Sutton Road.  Just before the start of the war the cabins were replaced by brick structures and the Sutton Road building transferred to the Beechwood Avenue corner where today is the floral bedding on the corner.  When the police box was eventually demolished a red phone box arrived on the boundary between the 267 plot and house number 269, before it was relocated to a safer position at the entrance to Beaumont Avenue – it's no longer there either!  A letter posting box was also an early arrival in a convenient position near the Beechwood Avenue junction, and in 1939 a large and substantial brick walled structure with thick concrete roof became a bomb shelter for pedestrians caught in the open during  an air raid.  Although sealed up when Peace arrived that did not stop vagrants – and occasional children – to make an entrance, before its final removal in the mid fifties.

On the road itself the junction became increasingly worrisome as sightlines were poor, Ashley Road was still unmade and history chose this part of Hatfield Road to be formed into a bend.  As Beechwood and Ashley became part of the ring road, traffic signals were installed, although these did not include Beaumont Avenue.  Finally a double roundabout was devised.

T&B's c1960 house taken c2000.  The public flower bed replaces the former police box
location as shown in the second photograph above.

Plan from the planning application to St Albans District Council.

267 in the process of demolition
COURTESY DAVID GAYLARD

In the mid-1950s the well-known building firm of Tacche & Burgess began erecting homes in Sandpit Lane, opposite Rose Walk.  To advertise these inviting homes T&B erected a large poster board on the 267 plot – so perhaps it was this firm who purchased the plot afterward finally built number 267, a detached property.  A vehicle driveway was laid at the boundary with 269, and a separate pedestrian gate appeared halfway along the public flower bed, although we are hard-pressed to discover the gate today because of encroaching undergrowth and trees.

The Beechwood Avenue boundary was originally timbered and then became a brick wall, at times becoming an attractive surface for informal paintwork!  Vehicles moved to the Beechwood end of the property.

The house in its present form is now being torn down and replaced with a semi-detached pair, having reached the grand old age of 65 years.  Work is currently underway and the pedestrian gate will be revealed once more; one garden will become two, and we presume 267 will have a partner in 267a.  Each house will have parking space for two cars, although the drive-in for 267a appears, from the plan, to cross part of the public flower bedding.  We will discover in time, no doubt, how that will be managed.

And so, an increasing number of residential plots, sufficiently sized to form a spacious setting, are having additional and smaller homes being squeezed between the party walls or fences.

For those who have no memory of a public air raid shelter below is a photo of one from a different location.

Street shelter with the entrance unseen at the far end.  There would also have been an
emergency "window", here hidden on the left side.