Old Field Names

 Readers will have noted over the years in which this blog has been published that old names for specific locations have been labelled using the names of fields on which, in the end, development had taken place.  Of course, very few people will understand what these names are, or were, and there is only one database which is anything like a complete national reference.  If you are to consult a 19th or 20th century Ordnance Survey map you will discover that fields are given numbers, although the same fields in subsequent surveys are provided with different numbers, which is not always helpful!  The reason is, in part, because during the intervening period land owners or tenants may have separated existing large units into smaller fields, conversely amalgamated smaller fields into larger hedged or fenced areas, or whole farms amalgamated.

The next three map extracts illustrate the issue nicely.  

The above map shows Hatfield Road, coloured brown, at the top, and the Hatfield and
St Albans branch railway further down.  The Avenue (Beaumont Avenue) joins Hatfield Road
and then continues as a track towards the foot of the map.
25 inch OS map surveyed in 1872.
ALL THREE MAPS COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The second map show the same fields on the 25 inch OS 1897 map.

The above map again shows the same fields on the 25 inch OS 1922 map.

On each map the west-to-east road is Hatfield Road with the former Sutton Road turnpike toll house on the extreme left and the junction with the privately-owned Avenue (later Beaumont Avenue) halfway along.  The Hatfield & St Albans branch railway (now Alban Way) disappears off the bottom of each map.  The broken double lines in the top two maps mark the track formerly known as The Ashpath or The Cinder Track linking the Beaumont Avenue junction with the railway bridge and then leaving the bottom of the map.  This track had been made into a road by 1922 and was renamed about this time as Ashley Road.

By reference to the 1872 map the large field which the track intersects is numbered 480 (with an area of 27.538 acres).  By 1897 the same field is numbered 806 and with an almost exact acreage.  But by 1922 the field, by now renumbered 294 is significantly smaller as the western half was sold for development in 1899.  Its working area is down to 13 acres.

The second field to look at in 1872 is east of the first one. Again, each survey numbers them separately. Because, as one sheet of a fuller map we can only see the western part of the field, the area of the complete field number 496 is shown in the margin: 21.212 acres.  The field boundary between those two fields also separates two farms: field 480 belongs to Beaumont's Farm owned by Thomas Kinder, and field 496 is part of Hill End Farm owned by the Gaussen family.

An event in 1920 is recognised in the third map above.  The owner of Hill End Farm from the 1890s was Hertfordshire County Council as owners of Hill End Asylum.  However, the council did not require to use the whole farm, and it therefore chose to dispose of the fields on the Hatfield Road frontage for development.  This is illustrated on the 1922 map where plots are already pegged out and two houses are already complete, the one at the right margin being close to where Oakwood Drive was later laid out on the opposite side of the road.

The third field to pinpoint is on the north side of Hatfield Drive and entirely part of Beaumonts Farm: field 484 (in 1872), 367 (in 1897) and 4 (in 1922).  Although we can't see the northern boundary on these maps, we know that something has changed, as its acreage has reduced from nearly 20 to just under 12.  The northern boundary when the farm was sold in 1929 roughly followed the line of today's Elm Drive.

1840 tithe map covering the same area, although a little extended.  The later railway can be
traced through hedge lines on the west of the map.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

Finally, we'll look back to the map series before the 1872 edition.  Although remarkably well drawn it did not contain as much detail and shows evidence of more basis construction.  It was created in 1840 for this part of Hertfordshire and is widely known as the Tithe Map, considering the purpose for which it was created.  The Award (a written listing) names all of the fields, buildings and other enclosed areas of land, the owners and occupiers, size of enclosed areas from which to calculate value, and the purpose for it was used – payments due to support the church and its organisational structure.  The tithe map was created with east towards the top; when comparing with other maps therefore I have turned the map through 90 degrees – which is why the field numbers are shown printed on their sides!

Notice that the fields were named, not numbered.  But the names are likely to have retained their names over a long period of time, and the record of these was limited to the tenant and landowner accounts and working books.  In some case the names related to topographical features, sizes and nearby features, bearing in mind that not all tenants would be in a position to read or write their own records.  We might not always appreciate the relevance of the names today, but we will reveal more in the next post.

The names of our three fields in 1840 were:

Field 480 in 1872 - Hither Bridge Field (field 738 and 737)

Field 496 in 1872 - Hatfield Road Field (field 718)

Field 484 in 1872 - Three Corner Stewards (field 207)

It is these names I tend to use as they are more meaningful than frequently changing field numbers, and they are more likely to linger in the agricultural vocabulary.  In fact, many current street names are derived from former field names.

In the next two posts I'll explore each of these three fields and how they have changed in more detail.  For a start, we might discover how each of these fields was used when they were part of a farm, and  the nature of the change which occurred to made them a complete  part of modern Fleetville.

Absent photo: Brickworks Cottages

Ashley Road crosses between Hatfield Road and Camp Road (left to right).  Brick Knoll Park is
the industrial estate occupying the majority of the photo on the site of the former brickworks.
Cambridge Road meets Ashley Road in the lower part of the image.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

This week we are travelling southwards from Hatfield Road along Ashley Road.  It is a busy highway, a section of the formerly named ring road, and that part of it as far as the bridge was laid out in the 1930s, intended to connect the homes of the Willow estate.  However, the entirety of the route from Hatfield Road to Camp Road had previously been part of a private farm track, with certain permissive rights from 1899 when parts of Beaumonts Farm was sold.  It was known locally by some as the Cinder Track and by others as the Ashpath.  The bridge referred to above, though not the same structure as exists today, was an occupation bridge carrying the farm track over the Hatfield & St Albans Railway (now Alban Way).

Land to the east of the track was believed to have been dug in the late 19th century on a small scale for its clay and used for making bricks.  When the wider area was sold in 1899 this field was specifically marketed for its brick making opportunities.  The brickmaking firm of Fenwick Owen, with existing interests at sites in Welwyn, acquired the field along this track, which today is an industrial estate.  Two parallel roads on the west side of the track, Hedley Road and Cambridge Road, were being developed in the early 1900s although a narrow band of land close to the track was also dug, its clay being taken across to the main works on narrow gauge rail wagons.

Early postwar aerial photograph viewed from above Hill End Hospital towards north-west.
HR = Hatfield Road; CR = Cambridge Road; AR = Ashley Road; HEL = Hill End Lane
red broken line = former Ashpath/Cinder Track; yellow circle = former hump back bridge
green circle = Brickworks Cottages

The major brick making focus grew on the east side; the kilns sited close to the railway leading to a small loading area for the finished products to be removed by train. But the larger area was gradually dug for the clay.  The temporary wagon tracks laid on both sides of the Ashpath transported the raw material to the brick shaping shop  and then to the kilns.  All bricks output from this site were impressed with the letters OSTA (Owen St Albans).

In 1899 when the site was set up this was very much a rural business, with the nearest residential development at The Crown in one direction and a few homes at The Horseshoes in the other.  North and south was open country other than isolated farm houses.  Owen's therefore took the decision to build a group of three cottages at the works for resident employees.  

Top: 1937 OS map; eastern end of Cambridge Road meeting Ashpath/Cinder Track. Brickworks
Cottages circled green.  Below: aerial image of the same map view.  The former Brickworks
Cottages site now under industrial estate car park and outlined in red.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND and GOOGLE EARTH

Of course it took only a few years before housing encroached nearer to the brickmaking, thus benefiting its business.  The cottages, generally known as the Brickworks Cottages, survived until around 1960 although they may not have been occupied during the post-war period.  The works lay dormant during hostilities and a brief revival proved unsuccessful.  The pits were used by St Albans Corporation for tipping refuse during the 1950s, while plant machinery and concrete batching operations leased parts of the southern end.  During the 1960s the Council developed a plan for industrial estates in outer parts of the city, of which this, Brick Knoll Park, was one.

So ended the life of the three brickworks cottages.  Stand at the end of Cambridge Road and look across Ashley Road.  To your right is the road access to Brick Knoll Park industrial estate.  The cottages were located directly opposite and to the left of Brick Knoll Park; they lasted just sixty years.  Given their remoteness they may have been oil lit for a while although it is not clear when or even if mains services were installed.

Brickworks Cottages was one domestic building divided into three cottages and in a remote and unlit part of St Albans well beyond the houses.  So, few people would have taken much notice and most would have been unaware of them.  Does it matter that we have no visual record of them?  Well, a successful company built them (probably using its own bricks) and employed men to produce its output for over fifty years.  Three of those employees were fortunate in living in these dwellings in spite of any discomforts.  

1911 census entry for the Sida family living in the first cottage.
COURTESY THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

The 1911 census does inform us of three of the early households. Clay miner Edward Sida occupied number 1 with his wife and 7 children, the two oldest also working as clay miners on the site. Number 2 was occupied by James Street, his wife and two school aged children.  James is described as a brickfield labourer.  In the third house was Charles Charge, his wife, two school aged children and the parents of Mrs Charge.  Charles was a brick maker. So, in those three rather isolated dwellings, lived a total of 19 individuals.

Though we may have little idea who they or their families were, nevertheless their lives and their homes deserve to be remembered, and their endeavours remain in many of the houses which others built  in the surrounding streets.

Searches of photographs showing the track from the bridge to Camp Lane (as it was then named) have resulted in a complete blank – so far.  The call therefore goes out: has anyone seen, or owns an image of this section of track and especially Brickworks Cottages?  Until then this little part of St Albans lacks a visual record of its past from 1899 to 1960.

Pothole Alley

With a title such as this you could be preparing to read a thoroughly modern story about the state of our roads and the inadequate amount of funding available to do a proper job in maintaining  thoroughfares and residential streets.

The state of our roads debate is probably as old as the proverbial hills.  Hatfield Road is in a variable condition at present, with entire slabs of macadam broken away like giant broken biscuit, and a few jolts here and there sufficient to wake a dozing passenger.

In the years leading to 1881 there were reports of a similar neglect of the road's condition, complaints at the authority responsible for receiving funds through the turnpike tolls, and then not spending it on repairing the road.  

The Reading & Hatfield Turnpike Trust was not considered to be very effective body at the best of times, but it did its best, at least until its final few years when closure was inevitable and take-over by a public authority.  Neglect set in, and it's anyone's guess where the income was spent.  The pictorial evidence?  The 1870s and 1880s are within the realm of early photography, though not with the popularising of techniques thirty years later.  Nevertheless, no identifiable early plates appear to have survived, if they were ever produced.  We might otherwise be able to publish spot the difference images in the newspapers!

There are many residents who will recall other potholes, although at the time of their experiences the route was on private land along a permissive way.  Who remembers The Ashpath, aka The Cinder Track?  A cart driver originally beginning at Hatfield Road, opposite Beaumont Avenue, would be pitched and jolted on his vehicle all the way to a bend close to the present Cambridge Road.  The only relief came when the horse pulled the load up the steeper gradient to pass a humped railway bridge (its modern version still takes traffic across the former railway across Ashley Road).  

When the homes on the Willow estate were built in the early 1930s the first section of the Ashpath was made up.  Our memories remain, however, of the next section.  It was wide, but there was a fearsome collection of variable holes along the whole length of the road.  After rainfall it was not possible to walk in a straight line for more than a few yards.  

Modern factories replace old Nissen huts near Hedley Road; the
former brush factory to the right, behind the hedge.

The owner, Thomas Kinder, had died in 1881 (coincidentally the year the nearby Turnpike was taken over), and from then until the 1960s when the City Council created a road out of the mess, it appeared to be no-one's responsibility.  Holes were occasionally filled with ash from the brick ovens on the east side.  Which brings us neatly to the same question posed above.

The first modern building along the Ashpath replaced the
former Owen's brickworks.

What visual evidence remains of the Ashpath as it used to be between the early 1900s until the 1960s?  The brickworks and subsequent quarry holes, eventually used for tipping rubbish?  The brush factory spewing out wood shavings and sawdust beside the track?  The large Nissen huts between Hedley Road and Cambridge Road, both of which joined the Ashpath in an uninviting way?  The ancient oak tree, only recently removed?  The bend where the path continued to the entrance of Hill End Hospital?  The latter remains as a much narrower way than in its earlier days.  Or the temporary pedestrian bridge slung over the cutting while the old bridge was being replaced?  Finally, where is a photograph of the brickworkers' cottages opposite near the end of Cambridge Road?

Photos of modern industrial estates are all very well.  But those irritating obstructions along pothole alley and the activity which grew up around them, are now limited to descriptions on the page.