A Gentle Family

 Take an occasional ample through Hatfield Road Cemetery, glancing at names on headstone, and we recognise a name which means something to us.  And so, in this occasional series, we pause at the name Gentle.  As I recall from a series of story walks a few years back I recall pondering that if ever there was a practical family for a mechanical world then the Gentle family would be ahead of the pack.

The location of the grave of Charles Gentle at the eastern side of Hatfield
Road Cemetery.

You don't have to delve far back in time before you discover that a family's previous generations didn't originate from St Albans anyway.  They either arrived from afar via the main roads or gradually migrated towards St Albans, generation by generation, from smaller towns and villages along the quieter byways.

A street view of Kimpton a little more recently than the leaving year of the Gentle family.

So arrived Samuel Gentle, who was born in Kimpton in 1808.  His previous port of call before reaching the city was Sandridge, which is where he first me his future wife, Mary Ann.  He probably took on an inn or alehouse for Samuel was a brewer. He did not stay there for long for most of their eight children were born in a house in Adelaide Street or in St Peter's Street.

This was a male dominated household, seven of the children were boys, so let's consider their various specialisms once they had left their schools behind. Daniel became a bricklayer – he and wife Caroline moved to Lambeth where they raised their own family of five.

Samuel junior became a cooper, probably supporting his father and older brother in their jobs.  Charles became a blacksmith.  David, like his brother Samuel, became a Cooper as well as a basket maker.  Philip moved away from St Albans and learned the trade of engine fitting.  One more child, William, but his trade is so far unknown to me.

In concentrating on Charles' family, partly because it is his grave which appears in Hatfield Road Cemetery and that of his wife, Adelia.  It is the name Charles Gentle who was probably best known to residents of St Albans.  Charles found a small house along a yard in French Row, making a success of iron founding.  As time went on he acquired more of the tiny plots around him in order to expand the business.

There were two girls and two boys in the family, and Charles junior took an absorbing interest in the work of his father, eventually joining and then taking over the entire business, but not before also working in the straw hat industry in Fishpool Street.  Some of the present Christopher Place shopping centre has been built on the former Gentle iron foundry, although there was an increasing need to move more of the heavy industries away from the City Centre after World War 2.

The top map (surveyed 1891) is a little more helpful than below (1911) in stating the presence of
a smithy; the location of a metal engineering works within the crowded buildings of
Dagnall Street, Verulam Road and French Row.
MAPS COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The former buildings many of which accommodated the Gentle metal engineering

works now accommodates the Christopher Place shopping area, which takes its name 

from a narrow cut on the site named Christopher Yard.

COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

Charles junior's younger brother, Alfred, tried making shoes at first, but he returned to the family's core business and became a skilled mechanical engineer; his home in Church Crescent becoming appropriately named The Capstone.  Once retired would frequently be seen around town with his camera.  Although he would snap almost any scene his main passion of engineering would encourage him to take photos of bridges, roads under repair – in fact almost any hole in the ground, often to do with building construction.  Alf therefore managed to photograph street scenes before they disappeared in front of the bulldozer.  Much of Alf's collection is archived at St Albans' Museums.

Among the significant collection of Alf Gentle's pictures in the archive of 
St Albans Museums is this of a service tunnel below part of St Peter's Street.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

For much of this time a significant amount of the company's output was in the design and manufacture of bespoke engineering products for new and upgraded infrastructure in the city and surrounding districts; including in the Cathedral tower and Hatfield House entrance gates.

Post World War Two Gentle's moved their business to the former Hatfield Laundry
premises, which became the Tile Shop and later the Fleetville Emporium. The site is now
occupied by Trek Bikes from a new building.

From the early 1960s Gentle's moved to Fleetville and occupied the former laundry, and more recently became The Emporium.  Nevertheless Gentle's became popular with trades people and DIYers of all kinds.  So, the business had been in the city centre for a hundred years before venturing into the suburbs.  But this was not the only Gentle premises because a separate St Albans Welding was opened in Grange Street under the Gentle name, with all existing welding work moved over to the new business.  Meanwhile, along Hatfield Road, a regular parade of customers left with pipes of all lengths, radiators, pumps, tins of various liquids, tools – anything and everything to carry on their own trades, as well as domestic residents who have felt capable of undertaking their own domestic repairs and improvements.

Mammals, Leaves and Posters

 London has its Open House Festival for two full weeks in September, and many towns and cities around the country have their Heritage weekends (or longer) at the same time. Both London and St Albans  have just celebrated their 2025 events.  Well, mostly.  Many community and heritage events, especially those due to take place in the open air,  were postponed because of the threat of inclement weather – rain and strong winds.

Renovated platform of the former Smallford Station by volunteers of the organisation.

Occasional events take place both here at Smallford and at the next platform along the line,
Nast Hyde.

One such Heritage organisation, Smallford Station & Alban Way Heritage Society is a regular on the special weekend scene during the course of the summer period, and will now hold its Heritage Open Day on this coming Sunday, 21st September at the platform which at one time was Smallford Railway Station (find it a few hundred yards along Station Road from Smallford roundabout).  That implies you might be reaching the location by car, and these days you certainly can't do so by train!

But a wonderful method of reaching the location would be by taking a leisurely walk along the former track, joining the route from Abbey Station, London Road, Camp Road, Fleetville Hill End or Alban Point; or from the other direction from Hatfield Station.

Which is a ready opportunity to refer to a couple of related topics.  A few wildlife organisations have been releasing mammals whose numbers have been in decline.  Some newspapers carry regular repots of such events.  Not sure whether any releases have been taking place along the Alban Way at any time, but we could explore the possibility of voles along the stream and river banks in the vicinity.

Delightful walk along the tree lined Alban Way.  Colours will be turning red, golden and
bronze.

We have been recommended to enjoy the richer colours of autumn to be expected in the next two months as the leaves on deciduous trees turn to a greater range of reds, golds and yellows following this summer.

Apart from a warm welcome and cake when you arrive at the platform you won't be able to miss a new range of railway poster art on display under the general banner LNER, the name of the former owning company of the branch railway between St Albans and Hatfield.

Railway companies have always attracted potential passenger flows with pictorial detail about destinations and the scenic views along the way.  This set of six special posters has been designed by local artists.

Six new bespoke posters will be on show at Sunday's event, all created by local artists.

And if you have not visited Smallford Station for a few years, prepare to be amazed at the transformation!

Next Generation of ...

 In the early years of post-war St Albans three areas of land were being prepared for new purposes so that small industrial plots in the city centre could be cleared from their small back-street plots homes.  Two of the three new sites would be out in the fresh air of our East End and the third just beyond the railway tracks at what we came to know as Porters Wood, previously slated to become a cemetery.  The remaining two were  both along or very close to Hatfield Road; the previous Butterwick Wood and farm would variously become known as Lyon Way, Acrewood Way and Alban Park. The third location has become Brick Knoll Park, although the early signposts labelled it Ashley Road.

In all three cases the intention was to remove large industrial vehicles from the narrow city streets and provide greater breathing space for shops, offices and homes.  The dedicated sites in outer locations would provide plenty of room for expansion.

The roots of Brick Knoll Park can be traced to the later years of the 19th century.  A large Beaumonts Farm field close to a spring line was a challenge to work, heavy to manage and was eventually left fallow.  When a major portion of the farm was sold for development in 1899, Hither Bridge Field was offered for use as a brickworks.  After all, development meant houses and factories, and they all required bricks. Bricks were expensive to transport long distances in those early days of motorised vehicles, one reason why brickfields were localised.

Part of the Owen brickworks c1930. See the first map below.  The treeline behind follows the top
of the railway embankment.  Owens had also taken over operation of Hill End Brickworks
where, in 1939, Marconi Electronics began to lay out its own buildings. 
COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER

The result became over forty years of occupation by the Owen family who already owned other brick manufacturing interests in Wheathampstead and Welwyn.  For much of Owen's early period their access to the site was limited to what is now Ashley Road, but then  was a muddy track from Hatfield Road to their site on the south side of a branch railway. Clay was dug from both sides of the track while a right of access track led onwards and through to Hill End Lane and its mental asylum and London Road.    

OS map surveyed 1922.  The branch railway crosses the top of the map.  The road
which is now Ashley Road curves from the top to bottom right.  The three
brickworks cottages next to the gravel pit, and the little railway carrying dug clay
towards the kilns top right.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Although brickmaking continued by the same family for a short period from 1946 the City Council, periodically in search of holes in the ground to dump the city's waste from the bin day collections, made an agreement with Owen's and acquired its site.  The council continued to occupy the site until all pits were filled and capped, although this did not stop early industrial concrete and road plant businesses from leasing the Station Road end.  However, General Post Office (GPO) Telephones built their own local headquarters on the site of the previous brick kilns by the railway bridge. This is now another vehicle showroom business, Gates of St Albans.  The bridge at that time was  the original narrow hump back occupation structure; the current bridge was created as part of the ring road project in the 1960s.

The former cinder path trackway is now Ashley Road and all references to the brickworks,
including the cottages, have disappeared.  The first post-war businesses have arrived,
including the GPO Telephones local HQ and the Concrete Works.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The former GPO has moved on and the building on stilts became a Ford car showroom
business.

The Vauxhall car showrooms and servicing have now moved on as well, signifying
a building awaiting a new lease of life.

The three cottages nearly opposite the end of Cambridge Road were demolished as a new access road, Brick Knoll Park, was laid onto the newly planned industrial estate, with vehicle servicing, car showrooms and distribution businesses soon occupying much of the estate, including the Royal Mail postal sorting building.  Development encompassed the entire site, and on the smaller part of the brickworks on the opposite side of Ashley Road.  

The boundary screen shields the empty car business which was behind and last there is some
evidence of progress.

Nothing in the commercial building world appears to stand still for very long, and as many residents have noted an extensive frontage plot, formerly car showrooms and servicing, has been fenced off for some time.  Recently extensive marketing has appeared for a replacement set of structures named Trade City.  This is a brand name for fully serviced walk-in buildings which are ready-to-go businesses, and the owner behind it, Kier Properties, has several Trade City sites across the country.

It reminds us of Ronnie Lyon's original post-war scheme to construct serviced structures in a suite of sizes to attract old town centre factories to better connected locations.  One of Lyon's sites appeared at Butterwick Wood nearby in Hatfield Road.  And the pattern has been widely replicated in recent decades to become the norm.

St Albans Trade City won't be hidden away at the back of Brick Knoll Park; it will rise from the ground and turn heads in full view of passing traffic.  And one of the features?  Naturally, electric vehicle recharging points!  Now, Ronnie Lyon didn't think of that, although he may have ensured there was a petrol filling station nearby where possible.

Kier Property has recently announced its arrival and intention to re-develop the former Vauxhall site
shown within the red line.  This is one of a series of concept images of the anticipated
10-unit premises planned and to be known as St Albans Trade City
COURTESY KIER PROPERTY

This concept image shows the two buildings from Brick Knoll Park.  The units are
expected to be available from 2026.
COURTESY KIER PROPERTY

A wide-ranging list of environmental conditions have been met in respect of materials, energy, solar PV panels, full-life recycling, cycle storage and electric vehicle re-charging.  Gosh, we can't even mandate house builders to include any of these when they are developing their latest homes for people!  In marketing the site's location a few of the target bullet point include ability to reach local(ish) routes which may be a little wide of the mark – which suggests they were road tested in the middle of the night: Ashley Road to the A1(M) in 8 minutes could be a little tight, as could the anticipated  12 minutes to reach M25 junction 21, both of which are heavily dependant on a free-flowing North Orbital.

Open back council rubbish trucks negotiating the Cinder Track may be a distant memory, as are the long-gone Brick Kiln cottages, but a fresh appearance and business opportunity for what was once called the Ashley Road Industrial Estate will be welcome, and hugely better than the long row of blue site panels.

Street Plates 9

 This month we'll kick off with one obvious road name and one hidden example.  A very long road – between St Peter's Street and Popefield Farm carving its way through our East End and which has, for centuries, been known as the Hatfield road, now just Hatfield Road.  It almost seems too obvious, but as one of the oldest of our roads we have to discount the reference solely to Hatfield town, for that refers to the 1950s New Town, often referred to at the time of its development as Hatfield New Town, naturally.  There had been a settlement in existence long before then, called Hatfield, the newest development having been created astride St Albans Road and named Newtown (obviously!).

The Dury & Andrews (1766) map: the road to Hatfield from locally named Cock Lane from
St Albans, top left, through the future Fleetville, Beaumonts and Winches, leaving the map lower
right.  A typical surface of the period below.

However, a settlement far old than either of these grew at the foot of a hill along the North Road close to the location of the Palace belonging to the Bishops of Ely.  Naturally the usual trades to service such a palace grew around it, and this little settlement became known as Bishops Hatfield; it is understood it also became known as Kings Hatfield.  As the number of travellers along the North Road grew in the "age of travel" Bishops Hatfield was also the natural stopping and resting stage for passengers, their drivers and horses, inns and hotels grew astride the road.

So, Hatfield on the street plates have in mind different places through the centuries.  And this includes passing though the toll gates en-route towards what we now refer to as Hatfield House and the nearby Old Fiddle toll point.  Of course, the road we name Hatfield Road only takes us halfway there; roads being two-way mean travellers from Hatfield also use the same road to reach St Albans.  Hence from New/Old/Even Older Hatfield the road as far as Smallford is named St Albans Road West.

Driving, cycling or travelling on the uno bus along the above named Hatfield Road with the Butterwick industrial and retail area on our right, we eventually arrive at what was once referred to as Smallford Cross Roads (now a roundabout anyway), we'll notice Glinwell Nurseries.  But the road on the left, opposite Station Road, has a fairly recent naming: Oaklands Lane. Until the early post-war period the road was far from straight to the west of Smallford hamlet.  Unlit at night and close to one of the exits (East Lodge) from the Agricultural College, previously the Agricultural Institute. It was considered important to simplify the road layout and straighten the roadway, and widen the carriageway at the same time. 

Oaklands Lane, formerly Sandpit Lane, from top left to bottom right, but before the 1960s
the lower part of the current triangle did not exist.  All traffic turned left, then right before
making its way towards Hatfield Road.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

A section of the former road as it passed where glasshouse once shone in the sunshine.
A modern two-way road needed to be significantly wider than this!

This, of course did nothing for the name of the road, although it was possibly an opportunistic moment for "cutting a ribbon" on the widening and straightening project.  For centuries the name (although  no street plate was probably ever used) was Sandpit Lane.  Yes, the same Sandpit Lane which begins at Stonecross, the one-time town's boundary.

Sandpit Lane in the mid 20th century, therefore suddenly lost about a mile of its traditional length, finishing at its junction with Coopers Green Lane.  Between there and Hatfield Road it received a new label, signifying a new world for the County Council's newly named  agricultural establishment; Oaklands Agricultural College – though you would probably never realise it.

You will come across Starlight Way if you are spending some time in Highfield and its relaxing park and woodlands.  And you will discover that much of the site which was Cell Barnes Hospital is now modern housing with road names celebrating former members of staff and wards.  After all, any hospital fails miserably without dedicated people within its medical and caring departments, who are occasionally celebrated.

COURTESY HIGHFIELD PARK TRUST

But if that is all a hospital – of any type – aspires to be it fails to address the needs of the human condition of all who are part of that community, including its need for patients and staff alike to relax.  The benefits of meeting on different terms, crossing the formal staff and patient boundaries.  In the heart of Cell Barnes was a recreation hall.  It was just a straightforward multi-activity space, for parties, entertainments, concerts, dances, competitions, films.  Next door was a canteen to extend further its range of uses, originally simply named the Recreation Hall.  On the retirement of Cell Barnes first Medical Superintendent, Noel Burke, the hall received a change of name.

A welcoming entry into Highfield from Highfield Lane. Walk right towards Puddingstone
Drive and Church Croft.

However, it was the growth and success of the staff Starlight Club, which prompted the location's more unusual nickname.  How could Highfield's eventual housing developer therefore not recognise the most amazing meeting place within the hospital.  Hence the key entry road from Highfield Lane leads us to the erstwhile centre of friendship and fun.  This is Starlight Way.

We might initially be reminded of Oliver Goldsmith, one-time poet and writer.  But this particular Goldsmith played a key role in the life of de Havilland Aircraft Company: Walter Goldsmith.  He didn't design or build aircraft, nor was he an employee of the Company, but he and his wife did find themselves in the right place at the right time.

Artist Walter Goldsmith can even claim one of the more insignificant references in Sir Geoffrey de Havilland's autobiographical Sky Fever.  After much intense activity during the company's occupation of the historic Salisbury Hall from 1939 much work would be needed to restore the building.  Mr and Mrs Goldsmith arrived, took a liking to the Hall, purchased it from de Havilland's in 1947, and moved in.

We need to remind ourselves that all of the early development work and the prototype Mosquito aircraft had been undertaken in great secret in the rooms of the Hall and in its outbuildings (which incidentally, no longer exist, being replaced by the current hangers of the Mosquito Museum.  In the busyness of wartime and the advancement of the Mosquito's family of models at the company's  Hatfield buildings, the significance of the Mosquito's beginning and  was fading in the late forties.  The intensity of work had such a draining effect after six years of war.

Walter knew nothing of the previous owners, and as part of his attempts to renovate the Hall he had purchased he met William Baird of De H and slowly the wartime story of the Hall was revealed.  Baird had, it seems gone against company policy instructing the burning of the developmental aircraft and instead arranged for its secret removal into hiding nearby in Hatfield.  The two men worked well together and Goldsmith agreed to home the prototype Mosquito back at his home, Salisbury Hall, effectively saving the prototype aircraft from material oblivion.  For this, he has a road named after him, the roadway which had been the main entrance to the company's premises, past the art-deco style gatehouse – and to the right today the police headquarters. Goldsmith Way services many of today's buildings, especially those lining Comet Way, just as it had done when de Havilland's had occupied the site.  

Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate a road named after Bill Baird! So I guess the road-naming honour can be shared between these two enterprising men of the Peace period.  Why not BAIRD-GOLDSMITH WAY!