Beaumonts in 1946

 This week I am drawn to an aerial image I know so well, and I was already a toddler when the RAF photo reconnaissance planes flew over our house in the autumn of 1946.  This part of St Albans was my very own playpark: Beaumonts estate, although I can't remember many people using that name once the houses came out of the ground.  Because one of the first new roads to be laid was Beechwood Avenue I think we explained where we lived as being  "off Beechwood".

This week's RAF photo flyover in 1946 has picked out details of Beaumonts estate,
begun in 1929 and paused in 1940.  We can even see the continuation of the housing 
at the Willow estate south of Hatfield Road.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

Not removed promptly after the Second World War was this circular emergency water
tank on the corner of Elm Drive and Oakwood Drive.  A house would occupy this corner in the
1950s but temporarily the tank enabled a water supply of sorts to be available (lemon yellow
circle).
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

Beaumont School in Oakwood Drive was completed in 1938, and the grounds
extended southwards to Hatfield Road a decade later.  The orange circles show
where the postwar HORSA classrooms would be added in 1947, the southern two on top
of the emergency underground shelter tunnels.  The boys' and girls' semi-outdoor
toilets are circled in red; and the ARP warden's brick hut (green) was next to the pedestrian
entrance from Oakwood Drive.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

Today's much expanded school with little of the original playing field space left.  The 1938 
classroom block and halls, and the now enveloped former gymnasium further north help us to
navigate the site.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

The first photograph shows Oakwood Drive, with Hatfield Road in the lower half.  These houses are already well-established, having been constructed in the 1930s, and the inevitable dislike of developers for building on many of the street corners resulted in pedestrian short cuts across future plots.  The second photograph highlights a circular shape on one of the corners (lemon yellow circle), between Elm Drive and Oakwood Drive.  This was one of the many emergency water tanks that had not yet been removed.  Not intended as a drinking water supply, but for fire fighting purposes in the event of dislocation of the public water supply during bombing.  On the eastern corner of that junction it gives the impression that  Elm Drive might continue, as indeed had been intended when the plans were first submitted to the council in 1929.  However,  in 1936 the County Council purchased the land for the school and this continuation of Elm Drive, and other residential streets, was unable to proceed.

Beaumont School was created behind the Oakwood Drive houses; the large rectangular classroom block intersected by the assembly halls and dining halls – one pair for each of the boys' and girls' schools, separated by floor.  The large building north of this was the gymnasium and changing rooms, and to the west was the workshop classroom.  In a few months would arrive three separate HORSA (Huts fOr the Raising of the School Age) buildings ready for when the leaving age was raised to 15 as authorised by the 1944 Education Act.  These would be erected on the land then previously used for the underground tunnel shelters for each school (orange circles) and an additional building north of the gymnasium.  The latter contained two classrooms used as the formative Fleetville Extension School (Oakwood JMI) in 1957.

Although outside school toilets had formally been dispensed with, those at Beaumont were not quite fully inside.  The small red circles show the location of the boys' and girls' toilets next to the respective playgrounds, each linked to the main building with an open but roofed walkway.  A further small (green) circled building was demolished in the 1960s, having been built specifically as an ARP warden hut during the Second World War.  Between south of the main classroom block and the playing field were, and partly still are, the school gardens.  Today the gardens are more ornamental, inspirational, but rather smaller.  During and after the war they were for vegetable growing and to support the County Council's pioneering Rural Studies curriculum.

Between the southern boundary of the field and Hatfield Road the photo shows a shrubbery not initially purchased by the County Council as it was intended to continue house building along Hatfield Road as well as an Elm Drive extension – referred to above – behind.  However, the school's upgraded requirements by the late 1940s meant the additional land was acquired to extend the field, with the exception of a strip adjacent to Hatfield Road on which was built the Bunch of Cherries public house, now the Speckled Hen.

The core of roads on the estate as developed in 1946.  The blue circle locates the temporary
war-time timber hut used by the local Home Guard Unit, whose members are pictured below. 
The turquoise circle locates the remains of the medieval moat surrounding a former Manor House.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

See caption above.

Two images above shows Central Drive crossing from west to east.  The westerly Beechwood Avenue and Woodland Drive have been, or are being developed; Hazelwood Drive north has yet to be started and the Oakwood Drive north link towards Sandpit Lane was aborted.  None of the houses in Central Drive has been started in 1946, although we can see former tracks on each side of the newer roadway.  North of the Hazelwood Drive junction a small wooden hut remains (circled blue), which had served as the training hut for the local Home Guard Unit.

.

The farm house was demolished in 1938 and was situated immediately south of the foundations of the new houses on the east side of Woodland Drive north.

A young resident of Woodland Drive north in the front garden, with stacks of bricks ready to
build on the foundations of the homes.  This photograph was taken a few months after the RAF 
flyover.

The urgency to start new council house building has resulted in the footings for five pairs of homes in Woodland Drive north being laid (they being right opposite our 1939-finished house) and the remaining part of the moat in front of the medieval Manor House can be seen on the south side of Central Drive.  To the west of Beechwood Avenue and opposite to the newly created Central Drive remains the former farm lane, now called Farm Road, which was originally intended to be part of Central Drive to link with Beaumont Avenue.  It remains a private and unmade lane, although homes have somehow been shoe-horned into the space using parts of the original rear gardens in Beechwood and Beaumont avenues.

Beechwood Avenue, extreme left, with Woodland Drive north parallel, the latter joining the former as the beginnings of Chestnut Drive.  A rather rural Sandpit Lane runs west-to-east along the top of the 
photos and hidden behind the belt of trees.  Here are the extensive Beechwood Avenue Allotments, and further east is the playing field of what is now Verulam School in Brampton Road.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

One of the temporary buildings (at least since c1900) on the corner of Beechwood Avenue and
Chestnut Drive was used for a short time as a Sunday school for St Paul's Church, serving the
children then growing up on the Beaumonts estate.
COURTESY SHEILA ARTISS

Tacchi & Burgess, a large building firm at the time, constructed about 20 houses on the south
side of Sandpit Lane on the edge of Beaumonts Farm.  It erected this bold sign along Hatfield Road
 to attract potential purchasers to the development in the 1950s.  
COURTESY PHILIP ORDE

The road at the bottom of the photo is Sandpit Lane, with the camera facing south and hovering over
Rose Walk.  The Tacchi & Burgess development spreads along Sandpit Lane lower centre.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

The third photo shows Beechwood Avenue and Woodland Drive north; the stub of a road joining them would later be extended to become Chestnut Drive.  At the Beechwood end of this road are three agricultural buildings, including two Nissen huts erected soon after  Beaumonts Farm was first sold to become part of Oaklands estate farm in 1899.  East of Woodland Drive north shows evidence of the large swathe of allotments, named Beechwood Avenue Allotments, leased by St Albans Council for the wartime period.  On one of these my father grew food for his growing family. By 1946 many of these plots were given up as the Council needed to hand the site back to land owner Watford Land Holdings, although some tenants were able to continue working their plots until 1948.

North of the allotments, and hidden by a narrow belt of trees, can be seen Sandpit Lane which was the northern boundary of Beaumonts Farm.  Sandpits was a rural lane at this point, there being no formal footpath, although the aerial photo identifies a footpath on the southern edge of the tree belt.  This was still accessible from Beechwood Avenue.  During the 1950s house builder Tacchi & Burgess removed the tree belt and constructed nearly 20 detached homes fronting onto Sandpit Lane.  The company erected a hoarding advertisement for the houses on the corner of Hatfield Road and Beechwood Avenue on a site which was previously a builder's yard for one of the house building companies engaged on developing the lower part of Beechwood Avenue.

Seventy or so years later, many of the homes have received extensions of one kind or another.  The pre-war developments were, of course, the last of homes with generous gardens on 30-feet wide plots.  The little unintended pocket park originally reserved for a church and shops, and then for a Bensons public house, instead was used for children's informal games before the arrival of the Central Drive shops and flats, and Irene Stebbings House.  Children do still have an open space to play on, but today the green in Hazelwood Drive is really an 'amenity space' – there remains the frame of a sign which in earlier times proclaimed NO BALL GAMES. 

Modern Thinking

 We left the previous post with the prospect of a new style of school to strengthen the curriculum range for over eleven year olds.  Until the mid thirties secondary schools, as distinct from senior elementary establishments, were outside of the then state system, but children who were eligible through achieving minimum levels in scholarship examinations would have the fees these schools charged paid on parents' behalf by the local authority. However, St Albans School and High School for Girls were severely limited by the total number of places available.

A full page feature in the Herts Advertiser showed off architecture and facilities of the new
Boys' Modern School, and (below) a gymnastics class in progress.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

The first drama production at the end of the first term, Christmas 1938.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

In 1936, therefore, the authority took forward two new Modern designated schools, both of which were located in the East End of the city.  The girls Modern school was proposed for a modest site between Brampton Road and Jennings Road; a larger site was not possible because house building was already in progress.  A saving in the cost of a boys' Modern school would be possible by creating it out of the existing Central School in Hatfield Road.  This proposal was only the third or fourth option; the authority had already purchased land in the west for a future senior school in Sandridgebury Lane and a technical school in High Oaks.  Both of these were considered but for various reasons discounted.  Modifications to the Central building was significantly cheaper and therefore more attractive to the authority.  Then it was suggested that further money could be saved by locating the Girls' Modern at the Central site because it was already a girls' school, and making Brampton Road the boys' site.  On the face of it a neat solution.

Making this a final decision did, however, create a permanent problem as the Brampton Road site only had sufficient outdoor space for girls (the regulations required more space to be provided where boys are educated).  And so the site opposite the former Newgates Farm in Sandpit Lane, which had been purchased for a new senior school to serve the future Marshalswick development, became the games space for the boys' Modern school.  And so it still is.  The school got the space but the authority did not extend the funding to meet the cost of changing accommodation.

Naturally, of the two new Modern schools, which both opened in 1938, most of the publicity went to the boys' school, because they were impressive new buildings!  Plans were also carried forward for a mixed senior school at Sandridgebury Lane on the grounds that Townsend School was the only other post-eleven school in the west.  No, you won't find it there today as war intervened and the plan was dropped; yet another example of the ever complex programme of schools provision.  

St Albans Girls' Modern School began life in Hatfield Road in 1938.  This class is photographed
in 1952 shortly before its new life in post-war buildings in Sandridgebury Lane.
COURTESY JENNY BOLTON

The scene at Sandridgebury Lane as the girls arrived.
COURTESY JENNY BOLTON

The school, widely known now as STAGS), shows its buildings gently maturing.
COURTESY STAGS

In the bright new world of post-war Hertfordshire's educational future, one of the first new secondary schools opened in 1953 was for  St Albans Girls' Grammar School (renamed from Modern school under the 1944  Butler Education Act).  And where was this located?  At the site in Sandridgebury Lane!  Unusually the new buildings were thrown open for public viewing.  At the same time Beaumont Girls' School (first floor Oakwood Drive) were moved to the former Central site in Hatfield Road – which they should have occupied from the early 1920s if the original programme had kept to schedule.  

Hatfield Technical School
COURTESY HERTS MEMORIES

The 1944 Education Act had delineated three types of secondary school, all of which became free of fees.  The Modern schools were renamed Grammar, the senior schools were confusingly named Secondary Moderns and a more limited group were Technical schools, of which there were no examples in St Albans, although two sites had been reserved in the city.  The nearest technicals were in Hatfield and Watford, and a number of St Albans eleven year olds were selected to travel to Hatfield Technical School.  I mentioned the transfer of Beaumont Girls Secondary Modern to Hatfield Road, but the name was changed to Sandfield Secondary Modern after a short while to avoid continued confusion of two sites with the same name.

Full teaching staff of Beaumont Boy's SM School in 1959 just before the school became a
secondary modern mixed school.

The girls having moved out in 1953/4 enabled Beaumont Boys' Secondary Modern to take over the whole building for a few years before becoming a mixed school in 1959.  Was this, at last, a settled period for schools?  Not really.  As the city's population continued to grow there was a serious need for another Grammar school, but by the end of the sixties, not only had there been more Secondary Modern Schools opened – most of them mixed – but the next "brilliant idea" from Government opened a debate more controversial than the one in the wake of 1944.  The story continues next week.

A Better Entrance

This week we pause to consider a few of the issues which come about when a site is purchased and a note on a planning map: "future school", or in the case of Hatfield Road "future schools".

Whether primary or secondary there was a huge difference between what was provided in an educational building. In today's terms the facilities to be found in the pre 1902 Board schools or the later elementary establishments can be considered very basic , where even effective winter heating might be absent.  The County Council, on its formation, became responsible for building and maintaining schools where they were needed.  In the early years after formation in 1889 the Council engaged an architect for each individual school, but in the 20th century it set up an increasingly sophisticated architect department to develop standards common to groups of schools; and these standards developed and improved with time.

The Rural School Board were responsible for creating a school for the widely-spread child
population in surrounding hamlets.

So, using just a few select examples, what did we discover from actual experience?

You would have thought a mains water supply was a basic requirement, but Camp Elementary School was opened without a water supply extended this far from the nearest supply; and in Sandridge senior boys were detailed to carry water buckets from the village pump when required.

In 1908 (Fleetville Elementary School) lavatories were strictly outside at the far end of the playground; and the playground surface was gritted.

When the land was purchased for senior education in Fleetville the space was deemed sufficient for one boys' and one girls' school.  Ten years later when the girls Central School was built only one school could be accommodated.

The County Architect Department developed a building style with interchangeable components
This style of building is widely distributed across the county.  Staff at Beaumont Boys' School
in 1959.

By 1938 when the two senior schools were required even more urgently, Beaumont got its pupils in one building, girls upstairs and boys on the ground floor, with the absolute minimum of sharing!  Playing field space, according to the government, was required to be even greater.  The site reserved for a girls' grammar school in Brampton Road was instead used for a boys' school, while new housing hemmed the school in on all sides.  The regulations required more playing field acreage for boys than for girls; which is why the pupils of the Boys' Grammar School (now Verulam) have, since 1938, walked to their remote site in Sandpit Lane, and continue to do so.

A hall was multi-purpose in the early days, with a requirement to divide into two classrooms, even in the 1920s (London Colney).  It must also double up as a gymnasium in 1930 (Central).  Even Beaumont (1938) was in build when the next advance came, and a separate gymnasium with changing rooms became a new requirement.  This facility was also added to Central later.

When Beaumonts Girls' and Boys' Schools were designed a gymnasium what not required 
separate from the hall.  This new requirement was added as the schools were nearing completion.
Changing rooms were included.  When more modern sports hall facilities were later built the 
gymnasium was converted into a library centre.

From 1930 a platform suitable for drama was added to the hall at Central, and at Townsend an adjacent room was included for teaching and changing purposes, and by 1938 (Beaumont) two small classrooms were added for changing rooms.  Similar improvements were made for staff facilities and administration.  And considering many school still closed at lunchtimes down to the 1920s, catering facilities weren't added until post-war with many schools being supplied from central kitchens elsewhere in the city.

A detached house was included when required for the caretaker and his/her family.  This is at the Fleetville Juniors site, formerly Central, Girls' Grammar, Beaumont Girls, Sandfield; all names
applied to schools occupying the Hatfield Road school site since 1931.  The house no longer
serves its original function.

When schools might be built further away from the urban area and where caretakers need to be close at hand, the authority either acquired a nearby house or had one built in a part of the site.  This added provision was in place by the mid 1930s (Central – detached house), Marshalswick  (bungalow in 1959) and St Albans College (flat in 1959).

The main entrances to schools were also given a more prominent statement where possible.  Central was added in 1937 when the caretaker's house was built.  The need for parking, visitors, staff and other vehicular pressures often limited the possibilities, and Beaumont was only significantly improved within the last two or three years.

Camp and Fleetville schools have had to squeeze more onto their fixed plots even, in Camp's case the removal of a former head teacher's house, and in both cases removal of part of the schools' infrastructure onto new sites (Fleetville Juniors across the road onto Central,  overcrowding of Camp to form Windermere, and overcrowding of Fleetville to form Fleetville Extension School, renamed Oakwood).

Changing Our Name

In the previous post we heard of a primary school from Camden, Princess Road, which spent the entire period from 1939 to 1945, nesting in Fleetville while their homes near Regents Park were at risk of bombing.

Another school, Haverstock Hill Senior Schools, also spent time with us, but having a rather different outcome.  The school was formed from earlier establishments in new purpose-designed buildings at the foot of Haverstock Hill in 1911.  In 1939 the girls' section was led by Mrs Pearce, while the Head of the boys' school was Mr H J Blackwell.  At the beginning of September 1939 the schools, en-masse, boarded a train from nearby St Pancras and arrived at St Albans "for the duration," as the rather vague expression was often phrased.

The 1911 building of Haverstock Hill School, Chalk Farm, since replaced
by a more modern and extensive estate.

Their school home would be Beaumont which had barely been completed and its own pupils and staff moved in under their head teachers Miss Ellis and Mr T H McGuffie.  As with Haverstock Hill, the girls' school and boys' school shared the building but were administered completely separately – interesting when there was only one telephone!

The initial arrangement, common everywhere, was for Beaumont pupils to occupy the school in the mornings and Haverstock Hill in the afternoons.  It is possible that the Beaumont school roll was below capacity enabling some flexibility in the occupation of classrooms and halls.  As the Haverstock pupils were older than their primary peers some of the older ones may have returned home to look after family members or undertake work even though they may have been below leaving age.

At a presentation event in 1942: L-R Mrs Pearce (Head of HH Girls' School); Joan Parry (Head Girl Beaumont Girls' School); Colin Taylor (Senior Prefect Beaumont Boys' School); Mr T H McGuffie (Head of Beaumont Boys' School); Elsie Bridges (Haverstock Hill School); Mr H J Blackwell (Head Haverstock Hill Boys' School); Miss Ellis (Head Beaumont Girls' School).
HERTS ADVERTISER

However, between friendships made at school and friendships formed with their billet families it seems that many of the evacuees saw Fleetville as a second home.  In 1942 the Heads of Haverstock Hill at Beaumont had a decision to make.  We are not in a position to understand the trigger but it is possible that a number of pupils were still being enrolled at the Camden premises, and as the oldest pupils at Beaumont left at the end of their schooling, to have four separate heads in charge of a set of buildings probably seemed unnecessary.  Mrs Pearce and Mr Blackwell therefore closed their  two sections at Fleetville, but they gave the parents of their pupils the choice of remaining at Beaumont, transferring to the Beaumont roll.  Of course, this would also have relied on the co-operation of the billet families with whom they had stayed so far.  It is also likely that fewer top-up children arrived in 1941 and 1942 to replace those who had left.

We know that this offer was taken up by a number of Haverstock pupils, but there seems to be no record of how many or how long they remained with their host school and family.  Could a small number of leavers have remained in St Albans, taking up essential war-time jobs, remaining with their billet families?

At the close of the summer term in 1942 a collection was taken among the pupils of Haverstock Boys' and presented to Mr McGuffie so that a sports cup could be purchased.  This request was honoured as the author recalled the Haverstock Cup being fought for among the house teams in the 1950s.  But no-one seemed to think it important that the pupils might benefit from understanding why the trophy was so-named.

Sports cup winners at Beaumont Boys' School in 1959.  One of these trophies
may well have been the Haverstock Cup.

Mr Blackwell, in a letter to the Herts Advertiser, commented: "Will you permit me to express to the citizens of St Albans the heartfelt thanks of the children and staff who, during these three years and more, have enjoyed the hospitality of the city.  We owe more to the kindness, helpfulness and forbearance of its citizens than we shall ever be able to repay.  Each of us, I know, will have a warm corner in his heart for them."

Since this post was first published the Fleetville Diaries' Beaumont Avenue project has identified that Head Teacher Mr Herbert Blackwell, his wife Elizabeth, and their young son Michael, had obtained accommodation in a house called Elmwood, now number 43 Beaumont Avenue.  Also residing there were John and Lilian Rowe, and George Twigg.

All are described as being "in charge of children of government evacuation scheme."  Although not stated, it is likely that the other adults were also Haverstock Hill teachers at Beaumont.

We have focused on the billeting of evacuated children with local families; their teachers also needed accommodation and this is the first reference to the adults given the awesome educational and caring responsibility for the young people and where they lived – although Hertfordshire County Council accepted overall legal responsibility, and there are extensive reports on how it carried out its role.

Source: 1939 England & Wales Register.
Fleetville Diaries Right Up Our Street: Beaumont Avenue.

That Was the Year 2018

This line-up dates from c1954, when these children were surprised to meet Father Christmas along Hatfield Road (between Sandfield and Harlesden roads).  For further details see the foot of this post.

Was 2018 broadly the same as 2017?  Or will this year become a landmark year for you, your family, your street, or the district as a whole?  You must answer for the first three, but perhaps it is possible to pick out a small selection of changes which may or may not affect a wider number of people who live in the east end.  Whether they will ultimately improve our lives or just prove to be another irritation will depend on our personal point of view.

We'll begin with the construction launch of two significant housing developments: Kingsbury Gardens, formerly Beaumont School's front field (which, incidentally, had always been intended for houses under the Beaumont estates original 1929 plans); and Oaklands Grange, Sandpit Lane.  It is inevitable that their first residents will enjoy their first Christmas at home in 2019.  We'll try and remember to welcome them.

After noting progressive deterioration over a number of years the new access structure to Clarence Park's Hatfield Road entrance has been completed, and while not exactly originally as planned, it is  sturdy and very welcome.

Among the public houses no longer trading had been The Baton.  Former customers have since, presumably found other landlords to drink with, and after an uncertain phase M&S Food finally opened on the site and appears to be well patronised.  It is the second retailer to have crossed to the other side of The Ridgeway.

The residents' parking scheme for the 'Ladder Roads' in Fleetville finally launched recently.  Unsurprisingly, it has proved controversial, but it has made more obvious those commuters who have for a long time parked their cars in the scheme area or even beyond it and walked the last part of their journey to the station.  Parking and traffic in general will never have real solutions in Fleetville because the Real Solutions will never be accepted, by the Council, by the residents, probably by anyone.  But we will re-visit the scheme in six months.  And no doubt we will continue to grumble about the parking problems ten years from now!

Very quietly, improvements continue to be made to that green lung, Alban Way.  Undergrowth and a number of trees have been cut back.  A number of complainants have this year noticed re-growth and more open flanks to the path, new surfaces and signage, and helpful interpretation panels.  It is proposed these improvements will continue towards Hatfield.

The Green Ring, the Fleetville section of which has been open for a while now, was finally complete close to the end of the year.  Thus  far the voices in the ether have been rather quiet on any benefits, and so it is not possible to discover yet how useful residents have found it to be.  Cue comments by users.

November was also the 110th anniversary of the opening of Fleetville School, although it will be another four years before the specialist accommodation for infant children was opened for them. Anyway, happy birthday Fleetville School.

Right out on the edge of the parish the landmark and Listed Comet Hotel is shrouded behind solid fencing as the establishment faces its long-awaited upgrade, and we look forward to its re-opening.

Visitors to Highfield Park have discovered a new Visitor Centre which was opened in the summer; new extensions to its orchards and other park improvements have taken place.

We have benefited from short distances of new road surface, and most areas now sport new LED street lighting instead of those orange sodium fitments.  We have also learned (or not) to slow to 20mph while passing through Fleetville in our car – though at times some are struggling to reach that speed!  Meanwhile we continue to hold the record identified in the 1920s, of being a pot-holed suburb.

Which brings me to a couple of finishing questions.  How far down Marshalswick Lane do you now have to queue to reach the Five Ways (William IV) traffic lights at 5pm?  How many new traders to Hatfield Road and The Quadrant have we been able to welcome to our patch during 2018?

The image added to the top of this post is of course very seasonal, and it was taken around 1954 in Hatfield Road.  We know some, but not all of the children Ian, Shiela and Bruce Scotland on the right, Diana Devereux in the middle, and Father Christmas, of course.  The four children on the left have not yet been identified, and, more interestingly, what links all of these children to an event which took place just before Christmas in Hatfield Road?  We would love to discover.  Over to you.  Happy Christmas.

Fifty

This week we are opening up our diaries for 1968, exactly fifty years ago.  Some of us were not then born, others will recall some of the events readily.  No further explanation, so here goes:

Nearby residents uneasy about a rubber factory in their road, were relieved to discover Belpar Rubber planned to move from Albion Road to the new Butterwick industrial area.

Hatfield Laundry, where the Emporium was until recently, opened a new premises in Wellfield Road, Hatfield.  It also traded in Wheathampstead.

The Ministry of Transport had long intended a series of pedestrian underpasses across newly widened London Road at Whitecroft, Drakes Drive and Mile House.  The City Council wanted traffic lights instead; we now know who won that battle!

Clifton's, the Smallford manufacturers of system buildings – no longer in business – announced it would also supply plant hire vehicles.  The company was located in Smallford Lane at the former access to Butterwick Farm.  Other businesses occupy the site today.

It was proposed that Hill End level crossing will be lowered to road level now that the railway has fully closed.  The height difference was eight feet and the ramp quite steep.

Marconi Instruments Ltd is to invest further at its Longacres premises, and at a three-storey block on the previous Fleetville b Ballito site, now Morrison's.

Mr A Hobbs owned 2 acres of land in Colney Heath Lane, including a filled-in dew pond.  He has tried farming it, creating an orchard, growing Christmas trees and rearing animals, but the land remained waterlogged.  He had applied for permission to build houses in 1964 and now does so again.  He was refused once more, but, from the close named after him, we deduce he eventually got his wish!

Mr W H Laver, founder of the timber importer
and trader.

At the end of March Nottcuts, a business with several garden centre outlets, announced that it had purchased the nurseries at Smallford belonging to Sear & Carter.

W H Laver, timber merchants with several branches including opposite Fleetville Recreation Ground where Morrison's Refuel is, is celebrating the centenary of its opening at Corner Hall Wharf, Hemel Hempstead.

Discussions ensued about trying to reduce the amount of traffic on the ring road.  As we know this was easily achieved in the end by not calling it a ring road!

Sherriff's, the farming family which had a long-established garden shop near Hatfield Station, opened a shop at The Quadrant.  It was located on the Ridgeway corner where Giffen's Electrical had been and where more recently is Ladbrokes.

Hatfield College of Technology.

Hatfield College of Technology, first established as a result of apprenticeship schemes with de Havilland Aircraft Company, became a Polytechnic in 1968; the first step on the road to becoming the University of Hertfordshire.

Two students from Beaumont School, Glen Wade and Malcolm Turner, were winners of a cookery competition at Hertfordshire County Show.

All of that in six months; so having reached the middle of 1968, I will pause until the Autumn before discovering what else was making the East End news fifty years ago.

Year's Worth of Delight

Well, that's another year wrapped up, and as far as this blog is concerned we have all been able to share 34 posts on a variety of topics, all related in some way to the eastern districts of St Albans, now known informally as St Albans' Own East End, after the two books of the same name.  The blog on the current platform has been thriving since 2012 (two years before that on the old platform, still accessible on the website's Archive pages): 284 posts in total.  

Throughout 2017 I have enjoyed – and found necessary – consulting the calendar hanging on the kitchen wall.  Consulting is probably making it sound too serious an operation.  The essential bits, of course are the dates, which act as reminders and scribble points.  Most calendars – and the main reason why they are often given as Christmas presents – contain an image for each month.  A calendar is still a calendar without them, but it is the pictures which engage us.

COURTESY HANNAH SESSIONS DESIGNS

Mine for last year was titled simply St Albans 2017, with image designs by a local business: Hannah Sessions Design   (hannahsessionsdesign.com)  The drawings are delightful impressions of their subjects; not, perhaps, everyone's cup of tea, but I consider them to be joyful works of art, and if you want a day to begin well, a few seconds fixed on the current month's picture while you wait for the kettle to boil, is enough to start the morning on a buoyant note!

Here were the twelve subjects for 2017: Abbey Gateway, NSBC Bank, Town Hall, Clock Tower, Ottaways, Lloyds Bank, the Cathedral (two images plus another on the cover),  the Bat and Ball, Town Hall Chambers, War Memorial, and Jones Shoes, St Peter's Street.  

Quite a range of locations in the centre of St Albans.  Now ask twenty residents to suggest 12 (or thirteen) buildings in St Albans (note: not in the centre of St Albans), most lists would specifically include six or seven of the above, and more if it is specified that each picture must show a different building.  And overwhelmingly the inclusions would be constrained by our idea of the centre of the city – with the possible exceptions of the Fighting Cocks and Sopwell Hotel.  Of course, in St Albans we are spoiled for choice, and could have included the Peahen, Waxworks, St Peter's Cottages, Ivy House, Holywell House ... and so on.  Then we should ask whether modern buildings which contribute to the streetscape could be included.

Opposite the cemetery gates is St Paul's Parish Church

Now we could also ask the question, what would be your list if the theme is St Albans' Own East End; in other words, 12 (or 13) photographs of buildings eastwards of the City Station.  Here is a baker's dozen to begin with:  Three Horseshoes, Fleetville Institute, St Paul's Church, Nicholson's Coat Factory, Beech Tree Cafe, Cricket Pavilion, Victoria Square, Beaumont School, Queen's Court, Cemetery lodge, Hill End surviving ward block,  Nashes Farm, Hall Heath Cottages.  

We've passed it hundreds of times: Three Horseshoes
at Smallford.

Without even including street scenes or smaller scale domestic buildings the above full dozen is by no means exclusive.

One feature of Hannah Sessions' drawings is that they are engaging; they encourage you to think about the subject (well, that's two features, but never mind) comparing what you see with what you know.  But Hannah's subjects are already well known.  When we engage with images in the East End collection many residents, even some who have lived here for decades, might have little idea of some of the locations.  So in this collection we are encouraged to engage in a different way: by exploring.

So, what would your list for a future calendar include?