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.