Street Plates 5

 We have reached month 5 in our series on the east end's street plates of an imagined design, in which we summarise the meanings behind the names, and add additional detail; we could never fit a full paragraph on the signs themselves!  Many of us enthusiastically admit to always discovering a street name's origin; others of us resign ourselves to never having bothered.  For those in the second group at least they will then have been given an explanation without the effort!

As land was made available for development along the southern side of Sandpit Lane from the Midland Railway eastwards in the early twentieth century, it was at the behest of Earl Spencer.  Roads leading southwards from Sandpit Lane include Clarence Road, Churchill Road, Park Avenue and Woodstock Road North.  Between The Dell (detailed on another occasion) and Woodstock Road had been built three homes on spacious plots.  The first was Little Wick, later renamed The Bungalow, lived in for a short time by Christopher Miskin of the well known St Albans family.  Next was a property having three individual names, each being retitled by their respective owners: The Grey Bield, Sudbury and Kenmure.  Between this and The Dell was a largely wooded plot built for and owned by Mr and Mrs William Page until the beginning of the Second World War.  Mr Page was a furniture trader latterly in St Peter's Street, St Albans.

William Page's furniture store in St Peter's Street as advertised in the Herts Advertiser in 1934.
COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER

Mr Page gave his house the rather interesting name of Monks Horton although the name does not appear to have any local connection, and we are left to assume he had a personal or family connection with the parish of Monks Horton a few miles north of Hythe in Kent.  In modern times it is a largely lost settlement with the parish church of St Peter being far removed from remaining dispersed residential properties.

The parish of Monks Horton, Kent has a scattered population today, and the Church of St Peter,
below, is detached from any current settlement.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

A historic Monks Horton Manor dating from the seventeenth century and replaced by a smaller yet still imposing 19th century building which remains. Further back in time and no longer standing was Monks Horton Priory, the word Monks undoubtedly revealing its former purpose!

Monks Horton House during WW1 in use as a hospital.  It is possible that William Page's
connection with the district, if not this Manor House, began from this period.

Kenmure was left empty in the 1960s and Thomas Stockwell sold Monks Horton a decade later, so enabling a new development of more modest homes with an access drive from Sandpit Lane named Monks Horton Way.

We might imagine the name is similar to dozens of other residential roads, given names reminding us of earlier rural and perhaps romantic periods of history.  And in a way we would be right.  As with many post-war developments at least one of the roads around which the homes are built would re-use the name of the former field sold from a farm.  Again we would be right, but this was not a post-war development.  As the spread of homes along Camp Road gathered pace in the early 20th century, a field from Cunningham Farm was sold by Earl Verulam whose tenant farmer, James Baum, would have a little less to manage after the First World War.  It was a considerable near 25 acres.

The Springfield estate in 1927 when this section of the estate was photographed by the local
press.  Some of the frontages had modest changes of frontage, which enables us to establish
the image below to be the terraces in the above photograph.
COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER.

A much upgraded terrace in Camp Road both by the St Albans City Council and by individual
owners.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

All local authorities were under pressure from 1918 to speed up the number of new homes for future families following a hiatus from long before the war.  And during the passage through parliament of the New Housing Bill Prime Minister David Lloyd George used the earnest phrase "Homes Fit For Heroes" to push through the requirement for local authorities to prepare, plan and build good quality homes for the families of returning troops. Throughout the twenties the bill's details and requirements frequently and irritatingly changed and many authorities, including St Albans were slow to press their proposals forward.  Its second site, at Camp, wasn't in build until the second half of the decade which made occupation a very late H for H.

Cell Barnes Lane extends to the left margin in this 1927 photograph, and Camp Road enters
on the bottom margin.  Where they meet Camp Road becomes Camp Hill.  The Springfield
"Homes for Heroes" lines these two roads, and additional dwellings were added along a new
road called Springfield Road.  Spring Field is otherwise occupied with allotments.
COURTESY BRITAIN FROM ABOVE

Most of the homes built lined Camp Road and Cell Barnes Lane.  Only one new road was laid for this estate, Springfield Road, in recognition of the former Cunningham field commandeered for the H for H scheme.  We need to look again at Springfield on another occasion for a source of water.

A diminutive farming unit of considerable age had existed on the north side of Hatfield Road, Oaklands.  Its entrance driveway left Hatfield Road immediately to the east of the public house now named the Speckled Hen but for most of its life was called the Bunch of Cherries because a cherry orchard belonging to the farm grew behind the public house.

Wynchlands Crescent, earlier adopting the original Winchlands spelling, as was the name of the
name of the farm house.  The home field is bounded with a green line.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The farm house, still in existence though now a private dwelling was the hub of Winches Farm (spelled with an i).  But when the name had 'lands' attached the letter i was changed to y.  In historical times the name Wynches and Wynchlands invariably showed indications of Middle English.

Part of the Wynchlands shopping parade, with houses further along.

The farm was sold in the mid twenties and the farm buildings leased by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine whose country experimental base moved to Winches.  One of the farm's modest sized fields was sold for housing development in c1926.  Its access road left Hatfield Road, sharing it with the farm drive, and then  emerged onto Hatfield Road nearer the South Drive to Oaklands College.  A "front road" parallel to the houses was partly given over to a parade of shops, the remainder remained more homes.

So, while the farm was named Winches the crescent of houses was named Wynchlands.  In an attempt to be more consistent the farm drive, which leads to further, more recent houses, has also reverted to Wynchlands Farm Drive.  Confusing?