Celebrating in the Park

 One recent issue which has concerned users of Clarence Park and the residents living in the vicinity of it, has been an application made by St Albans' City Football Club (SACFC) for the holding of special events at its ground. 

To gain some understanding of what might be proposed, we should home in on the word Special.  We might consider a match Final to be special, or an invitation match between two well known teams.  There have been matches in the past between SACFC and a Celebrity All Stars team.  All are intended to draw in extra spectators, create a new occasional income stream, and raise the profile of the Club.  Perhaps there might be two such matches in any one season.

At the opening of Clarence Park in 1894 – a few hundred spectators, but certainly fewer than three
thousand.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

There have also been special events taking place in both the football and cricket areas: rallies of a religious and secular focus, fireworks displays, and Torchlight Tattoos, some of which attracted huge crowds, with fleets of buses ferrying visitors to and fro.  Early in the life of the Scout movement rallies attended by national personalities; Annual Co-operative Society fund raising days, and other fund raising specials; most eventually being moved to Verulamium.  They resulted from a precedent established even before the park opened in 1894.  The recreation part of the park had not been previously known as the fete field for nothing!

The specialness of such wonderful days of joy were probably limited to two or three events each year, and while we have limited knowledge of how many people entered the park for most of these events, it is certainly true many of them transferred to Verulamium in the 1930s, and an even wider range of events was held there in the post-war period.

The special events which have been proposed by SACFC for fundraising purposes appear to have amounted to around twelve each year, in addition to the usual football matches.  These might be expected to attract more spectators as there develops a hoped-for  increased interest in football at the club.  But other organisations might claim an equal right to apply for special events.  Eventually someone has to decide on a limit, at what point special stops being special, when the interests of nearby residents need to be given more weight, and when the strain on the park's resources becomes excessive. 

How many St Albans residents in 1902 would have seen this photograph
of their new King and Queen?  But three thousand were reported to have
been at Clarence Park to celebrate anyway.

The Herts Advertiser reported on such an event when the park was less than twenty year old. 1902 was the year of the Coronation of Edward VI, and during the Coronation weekend a special event had taken place in Clarence Park.  No-one in St Albans, unless they had received invitations to Westminster Abbey, or were in a position to watch the procession, was able to view the proceedings on television or to listen to the "wireless", as the world was pre these technologies.

The newspaper did not describe the nature of the local event, nor whether the entire park was used.  At such an early period the current football area was only used as such in the winter months; during the summer it was marked out for the playing of tennis; the Coronation was on 9th August.  But we do know that the police estimate for the numbers present was 3,000, similar to the numbers intended for the proposed special music functions for next year.

We are informed that only one police intervention took place.  Security and crowd behaviour were in the hands of the City Police, working right on the edge of their area of responsibility – the added areas of the city did not extend to Winches until 1913.

There would have been a number of men spending drinking time at the nearby Crown Hotel for much of the day, and by the summer evening would have wandered across to the park to join in with the celebrations.  One man clearly the worse for alcoholic drink was in the recreation section looking for a fight,  behaving belligerently and aggressively approaching complete strangers.

A police officer made an attempt to remove the offender, but in the attempt to accompany him through the Hatfield Road gate next to the railway bridge, was seriously injured.  What we might today call "back-up" was sent for and the offender was removed to the police station in Victoria Street pending a hearing in court.

Three thousand celebrating citizens, with the temptation of a public house across the road, and just one reportable arrest; sounds like a remarkably well-ordered and organised time was had by almost everyone.  Let's hope that similar good nature can be found among guests to a similar number of special events at Clarence Park in the years to come. 

What's that on the corner?

St Albans has been given a policing power as a borough and later city.  Most of the rest of the county was governed by the County Constabulary.  Before 1948 both forces were represented with buildings in Chequer Street and Victoria Street.  But this post is not about the history of these two bodies.  It is about what happened as a result of the expansion of St Albans.

The building on the right, at the top of Victoria Street, was the St Albans City Police Station,
 replaced in the 1960s by the new station recently demolished.
COURTESY ANDY LAWRENCE

Until 1913 the County Police found itself responsible for an increasing area east of The Crown as Camp and Fleetville districts spread, and some more rural communities expanded.  So a new St Albans Rural HQ was set up in Tess Road, now Woodstock Road South, where the nursery parking area is now situated.

In 1913 the city boundaries were expanded in several directions, most dominantly out towards Oaklands.  So the County's net spread wider and the City force took over within the new urban boundaries. Additional officers were therefore employed, but it became increasingly difficult without telephones for beat officers to report into Victoria Street from a wider patch while they were on duty.  And no easier for residents and business owners distant from the city centre to make contact with the police.

Police Call Box, location not yet identified, installed in 1932.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

Duty policeman seated inside to complete a report.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

In 1932 a number of portable police boxes or cabins were manufactured and sited in strategic locations.  An officer could then  complete forms and report by phone directly to the police station, either at the end of his duty, or on other urgent business.  When the station needed to contact the cabin a blue flashing light on the roof was lit.  If the officer on duty was sighted away from the box it was not unknown for members of the public to alert him "his Sergeant wants him on the phone!"  Residents could also use the phone directly to call the police station for the equivalent of a 999 service which had not yet been invented.  Although the phone was inside the cabin the listening and speaking parts were accessible from a little door outside.

By 1939 the wooden structures were deteriorating, and in preparation for wartime brick cabins with reinforced flat roofs replaced them. I was always aware of such a brick structure at the junction of Hatfield Road and Beechwood Avenue and had therefore assumed the earlier wooden cabin to have been there as well.

Brick replacement cabin with reinforced roof from 1939 located at the junction of
Hatfield Road and Beechwood Avenue.
COURTESY PHILIP ORDE

Recently I noticed in the background of a 1938 photo taken in Hatfield Road looking towards Ballito Hosiery Mill at Sutton Road corner, what looked very much like a wooden police cabin.  It was also marked on an OS map published in 1937 and therefore surveyed earlier.

Ordnance Survey map published 1937. The circled square in the corner of the Ballito Hosiery Mill
cycle yard is the Police Call Box.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Circled in red is the PCB, or cabin, from the map above and pictured in 1938; this photo was also
shown in the post of 10th March.  The cabin is partly hidden by the hat of the lady walking towards Sutton Road and the Ballito Hosiery Mill.
COURTESY JANET STALEY HAINES COLLECTION

One of Fleetville's frequent flooding incidents, this in 1936. Circled is another view of the Police
Call Box.  The weather may have had something to do with the visibility of the
cabin in the picture!
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

However, unlike other wooden cabins this one was not replaced in 1939.  So, did Fleetville not have a brick replacement?  It seems likely that during the later 1930s, and with the Beaumonts area expanding, the decision was made to shift the position of the brick cabin to Beechwood Avenue.  

I realise the quality of the photo was not good, so I was delighted this week to see another Herts Advertiser 1930s photo of flooding near Sutton Road; in the background was a wooden police cabin next to the footpath just inside Sutton Road, with its foundation just outside the end of the mill building where there was a row of cycle racks.

After World War Two the City Force was subsumed into the County Constabulary, and for as long as it was required the Woodstock Road South station continued to be occupied.

As telephone cables had been increasingly laid, lighter and slimmer police pillars appeared on a few street corners.

One of a range of pillar-type PCBs.  This was installed near St Peter's Green, St Peter's
Street.  No comfort, though, for police officers!
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

But one final thought before the roll-out of relatively portable mobile communications: was there a wooden cabin, or later brick version, sited anywhere on the Camp side of the former railway line?  The 1937 map shows there was one at the Sandpit Lane entrance to The Wick.  The search continues.