Cell Barnes Farms

 This week we are returning to small groups of 19th century farms to make some sense of the present topography.  As usual I have begun with an extract of the 1840 tithe map of St Peter's and picked up part of the route of Hill End Lane.  We need to remind ourselves that the orientation of the tithe drawings was not N–S as are the majority of other maps, but approximately E–W.  For comparison with the Ordnance Survey maps therefore. the tithe extract has been rotated a quarter turn.

The farms are printed in orange.  Great Cell Barnes was a large residential property, 
but it possessed a large tract of land which was farmed.
COURTESY HALS

The route of Hill End Lane has been labelled and we discover that three places lie along it.  At the top is Beastney's Farm, no longer extant, but its site is near the corner of Camp Road and Hill End Lane. Beastneys is marked as a locator for the other two places described below, but we will return to Beastneys in a later post.

Further along the lane is Little Cell Barnes Farm, which in 1840 was being farmed by James Bunn, its owner being Earl Verulam.  The homestead and agricultural buildings of the farm are still in use, most recently as Rodell's Scaffolding business and the community building of London Road Residents' Association.

Cell Barnes Lane is to the left on the 1872 surveyed map.  Hill End Lane is routed top to bottom
and Nightingale Lane drops off the bottom of the map.  No fewer than six ponds can be
identified.

By the 1922 survey agricultural cottages have been built.

The 1937 survey shows the extent of the Cell Barnes Hospital and the extension made to
Great Cell Barnes for transformation to the nurses home.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Immediately opposite Hill End Lane is another Verulam structure, the residential dwelling known as Great Cell Barnes.  This was transferred to Cell Barnes Hospital for use as as a nurses home, but much extended during its lifetime.  Today is is used by Emmaus for its community businesses and community homes for a number of people who have experienced homelessness.

The same features shown as part of the eastern London Road estate on a modern aerial photo.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

One building which we might have seen is an attached pair of agricultural cottages along the eastern bend of Cell Barnes Lane which were not built until the 1860s; and a further pair in Hill End Lane where Ashbourne Court now stands.  These cottages were built on a small triangular field called Little Orchard.  Although not labelled on the annotated tithe map it is field 818, and the access road beside the current building continues as a pathway to Drakes Drive and forms the northern side of the former triangular field.

Homestead and associated buildings of Little Cell Barnes c2010.

View of Great Cell Barnes c2010.

The houses which today are between Ashbourne Court and Frobisher Road were built in the field named Aldwick (a place where alder trees grew).  Alders tend to favour streams or damp places, and as nearby residents are aware surface water is still an issue in periods of high rainfall!  On the western side of this former field and on the other side of Drakes Drive is a short residential road which has been named Aldwick.

On the eastern side of Hill End Lane is the boundary of the former Cell Barnes Hospital which is shrub and tree lined. Most evidence of the former hospital has now disappeared and the new 1990s  residential community of Highfield has grown up in its place, of which this is the southern part.

Former agricultural cottages in lower Cell Barnes Lane.

Ashbourne Court looking through to Drakes Drive at the far end of the pathway.
A pair of agricultural cottages were located where the modern building is today, on
the site of a small triangular shaped orchard.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

Aldwick, taking its name from a field between Drakes Drive and Hill End
Lane, is a short residential road.

Most of the fields annotated on the tithe map are self-explanatory, with Wood Field adjacent to Aldwick, and Brick Kiln close to Great Claypits – so we assume the older buildings hereabouts were built using bricks made here.

Less clear are the fields Dull Winch and Middle Winch.  Nearby is also Further Winch, so the naming is clearly related and is assumed to describe some kind of lifting or winding activity.  Their origin may therefore be related to the movement of clay for the brick making, already a former practice by the mid 19th century.

Along Nightingale Lane is Walnut Tree Meadow.  A number of other former farms are known to have had walnut trees close to their homesteads which provided a contribution to local seasonal nutritional food supply.

As we walk along the roads, lanes and pathways along or near Hill End Lane it is easy to observe evidence of the former landscape, and realise that the ground is rarely level, even where we know it has been moulded to its present shape by machinery when modern developments grew out of the ground.

Cell Barnes Lane Shops

 For the third of our short summaries about local shopping parades scattered around our East End we are visiting Cell Barnes Lane.  Until the early post-war period residents living in the Camp district called in at one or more of the traders whose businesses were spread intermittently along the winding Camp Road, which was the city's south-western residential limit, with the exception of a number of 1920s semi-detached homes on the Springfield estate along the northern section of Cell Barnes Lane.

This week's retail hub in Cell Barnes Lane, the road which crosses the picture from left to right. 
The shopping building is book-ended on the left by Cornerstone Church and the Adult Day Centre
(the former branch library) on the right.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

During the 1930s the Council had acquired ownership of a substantial amount of land forming the major part of Cunningham Farm, Little Cell Barnes Farm, and land holdings around Great Cell Barnes.  Post-war housing expansion would include developments to extend residential development from the end of Windermere Avenue as far as London Road.  Consequently, it was labelled London Road estate, but also known as Mile House estate.

Much of the land consisted of the active Camp Allotments, most of which would eventually also be built on.  However, moving allotmenteers to other available plots took time, and the need for the council to acquire a sufficient number of building licences delayed groundworks, and it was the end of 1959 before the first 250 dwellings were complete.  The layout  followed a familiar pattern for larger new estates; blocks of flats, shops, schools and community buildings were concentrated on what became known as a high density zone; in the case of the London Road estate this was either side of Cell Barnes Lane.

Two recent views of the eight retail units (but six shops) at Cell Barnes Lane Parade.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

It appears that the number of local shops was determined broadly by the number of homes in the development.  So, a block of eight shop units, topped by flats and maisonettes, was arranged on the east side of Cell Barnes Lane between Thirlmere Drive and Grasmere Road, sandwiched between a pair of community buildings: a community church and what was intended to be a community centre (the latter was re-allocated instead to a former building of Little Cell Barnes Farm, and the site on the corner of Grasmere Road instead became a branch library for the City of St Albans Libraries.  This site is now an adult day care centre.

The red and cream building is now the Adult Day Centre but was first built by St Albans City
Council for one of its branch libraries, now regrettably permanently closed.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

Cornerstone Church which, when first opened, was named Thirlmere Church as it was sited
on the corner of Thirlmere Drive and Cell Barnes Lane.

We may wonder today that the number of shops mentioned above was eight, for today there are just six.  But the units were numbered 191, 193, 195, 197, 199, 201, 203 and 205.  Two end projecting upper floors with six single units between, all the shop frontages  being protected by the balcony floors above.  In front of the paved walkway it had been intended there should be a grassed barrier strip behind the road as public open space, but right-angled parking bays were provided instead.  If these were to be local shops they would have been in walking distance from people's homes; instead, the assumption was made that residents would drive most of the time.

Rather surprisingly I have no record of the very early traders occupying the units in Cell Barnes Lane – readers who have a keen recall are welcome to get in touch by responding to this post directly, or by using In Touch from the website.  In more recent years the occupiers have been:

191    Blitz Autobitz

193    Laundry (in 2009); now Seaworld Fish and Chips

195    Martin's sub-Post Office

197    St Albans Pharmacy

199    Co-operative Food/Cell Barnes Co-op

201    Co-operative Food/Cell Barnes Co-op

203    Co-operative Food/Cell Barnes Co-op

205    Hulse Fruiterer (2009); The Smoke House Deli (from c2015)

It is thought that 195 had previously been a McColl's grocery, so perhaps a newsagent had been next to a smaller Co-op.  The range of goods and services available is generally those available at a local shopping hub, although it does lack an ironmongery – but in how many such parades are to be found an ironmongery shop these days?  Wine shops are increasingly popular but is not represented in Cell Barnes Lane, nor is there a public house, The Camp PH having closed and replaced some years ago (so too was The Mile House, although both the Rats' Castle and the Crown are very much in service).  CBL is fortunate in having both a chemist and a sub-post office, the latter with a posting box.  Cycle racks, notice panels, bench seating and mature trees add to the offer.  The southbound bus stop is a short distance beyond the shops, but in the northbound direction the stopping points are both some distance before and after the shops.  It would be useful if greater priority is afforded to the bus directly opposite the shops, especially as a pedestrian crossing is immediately north of the parade. 

Within a short distance are the combined Cunningham Hill Infant, Cunningham Hill Junior, and Windermere Primary schools, all of which provide busy parental footfall at the beginning and end of the school day.

The newly complete Warner House, Cell Barnes Lane.

The Cell Barnes electricity sub-station built in 1951.

As a pair of asides, a smart new building, Warner House, has recently been completed to replace the now-demolished Wavel House.  The new address provides flatted accommodation for 24 over-55 occupants who wish to downsize, so providing a range of larger homes for families.  Next door is the rather unsightly electricity sub-station, built in 1951 and intended to reinforce supplies directly from the then-new generating plant at Hoddesdon.  Perhaps, after 70 years the street side of the site would benefit from a refresh!

On Your Bike

Council houses appeared in St Albans following the First World War – the much famed Homes for Heroes.  Council houses were also built after the Second World War, though not before the city's allocation of the innovative prefabs, a few of which still remain.  The council homes built by St Albans City Council in the late 1940s and throughout the fifties, had to serve many purposes: the post-war settlers, new families enabled by returning soldiers, sailors and airmen; and of course to enable occupiers of unfit dwellings to upgrade so that old streets could be redeveloped.

Proud father at the new Drakes Drive home.
COURTESY JOHN WATHEN

A significant opportunity for the council came with its 1930s acquisition of Little Cell Barnes Farm and land on the former Cunningham Hill Farm.  It is not clear what instructions it may have received from the Government, but the result was a formal communication to six London boroughs to identify suitable of their  tenants on the infamous housing waiting lists to relocate to units  on the London Road estate in St Albans.  Not all of the selected boroughs participated, and most of the rest found it difficult to fill their quotas, mainly because of householders' commitments to their local workplaces. Nevertheless sufficient homes were let under the scheme for St Albans Council to deem it a success.

Hard work pays off for dad in the best kept garden
competition.  COURTESY JOHN WATHEN

Until recently I had met no family with any connection to this scheme, but have recently been in contact with the son of one former north London family who recalls the migration to Hertfordshire very well, and with the aid of a few great pictures.

John's father had already committed to work in St Albans, cycling 20 miles each day to work at the Salvation Army Musical Instrument Works in Campfield Road – and then of course, 20 miles home again.  That is some commitment!  Later he then upgraded his transport to a BSA Bantam, and then discovered the relocation scheme.  Of course, there was no problem in applying for a house in the newly laid Drakes Drive.

A view across Drakes Drive towards Little Cell Barnes Farm.
COURTESY JOHN WATHEN

When the family moved in during 1956 John's father lost no time in taking photos.  Council houses of the time had a simple elegance about them, the cost kept down by straightforward lines and absence of detail; but generally room sizes were generous, as was storage space.  But you didn't expect to walk in to fitted kitchens with appliances installed, or gardens pre-laid to lawns with soils ready to plant.  To encourage tenants to make their plots look attractive at the front and purposeful at the back, the council organised "best kept garden competitions".  Not all took an interest, but John's father needed no encouragement and produced prize-winning results.

Looking towards Hill End and a chicken field.
COURTESY JOHN WATHEN

Primary-aged John could look out across Drakes Drive to the undeveloped fields of the chicken farm at Little Cell Barnes, the cottages at the junction of Cell Barnes Lane, and, a little later and further along the road, a start on the building of Francis Bacon School, finally occupied in 1961; a school he was destined to attend.

Francis Bacon School in build 1960.
COURTESY CHRIS NEIGHBOUR

John and his family therefore joined a large number of families to put down their roots in St Albans at the same time, having become yet another family whose London origins have become welcome St Albans settlers.