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!