Park View

 In the previous post we virtually walked along Granville Road, one of the three roads which formed the 1880s residential development of Hatfield Road field.  At the Hatfield Road end of this road the residents had been given the benefit of their own entrance to Clarence Park once that had opened in 1894.  That gate is now blocked off, but from the perimeter path in the park it is still possible to to see where it was.  And that would have been quite a steep ramp from Hatfield Road.

Hidden behind the foliage is the former gate opposite Granville Road.  Today the old ramp has been
made steeper than the old path.

Where the Hatfield Road Bridge park entrance is the maximum height of the embanked road, and the timber zig-zag pathway before it was replaced recently.

Keep walking along the perimeter path towards the Midland railway and the surface of Hatfield Road on your left keeps climbing towards the bridge.  That helps us to understand how several of the Clarence Villas were built.  There had been little difference in the elevation of the land in what would later become the park – still the fete field in the 1860s – and that in the Hatfield Road field; just a gentle gradient.

In fact gradients play a key part in The Crown corner. Hatfield Road drops down from Cavendish Road to the Crown junction.  Turn left and there is a further fall through the entrance into Camp Road; turning right into Stanhope Road and the gradient increases, only levelling out beyond the Stanhope Road shops.  If you had walked along Hatfield Road from The Crown towards the city before the mid 1860s the ground would have been quite level until you reached the beginning of the city hill, where is the original Loreto College building.  Undertaking the same walk today would be very different, with a long steady climb to the bridge and then down again westwards past Lemsford Road; notice too the steep gradient turning left into Beaconsfield Road.  All of our route would be on made-up ground.

Just five years after the railway opening the embanked Hatfield Road (where the number 412.092 is on one side and the blue lake on the other) shows where the subsoil was placed. Beaconsfield Road is where the line of trees is drawn on the map.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Hatfield Road between the bridge and The Crown junction with the embanked road on both
sides.  It is presumed the Nursery was to stabilise the ground before the villas were built.
The road leading towards the Goods Shed is today's Station Way.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Much heavy manual work was undertaken in removing subsoil from the railway cutting and creating an embankment on both sides of the railway in Hatfield Road to enable traffic to pass over the bridge; it is that embankment we noticed when we took the perimeter path in the park.

Two views of the upper row of villas. To the right of the top view it is possible to spot the rear garden space is below road level.
Top view: COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

So, what has this to do with the Clarence Villas in Hatfield Road?  Look carefully and the architect has taken a design opportunity with those villas west of Granville Road. They were built with a lower ground floor – the original ground level – with a short flight of steps up to the front entry at first floor level above the new street level.  Although the front view from the lower floor would have been limited to the the embankment itself, the rear garden would have opened directly from the rear living space.  Extra living space without the expense of excavating deeper foundations.

The OS map of 1898 with the undeveloped plot (orange) in the middle of the
lower group of villas. A track from Hatfield Road leads to a narrow building 
against the rear boundary.  In a few years this would become the first site of
W O Peake Ltd, the coat manufacturer.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Between The Crown junction and Granville Road building development had been slower and the infill from the railway had been levelled out, providing for much easier house building.  Today we only have map evidence as none of the original homes survive.  But you will notice there is a large plot in the middle with a path leading from the road to a narrow building against the rear of the plot, much as we find in other occasional unfinished streets.  If anyone has an idea about the function of these narrow boundary buildings the author would be pleased to know.

In the same location as the 1898 map above, the Peake's factory has consumed the whole of
the Hatfield Road frontage and has built deep into Granville Road.  This is the OS 1963 map.
COURTESY ORDNANCE SURVEY OLD OS MAPS

In 1911 Mr William Peake moved onto the middle plot with the intention of making coats.  And the rest, as they say, is history; a history which came to dominate this part of Hatfield Road, and St Albans itself. Too detailed for this post and definitely requiring a blog all to itself.

Behind the Cinema

 This phrase won't mean much to people nowadays, but was sometimes uttered by anyone puzzled by the location of Granville Road.  The cinema in question being the Gaumont.  Part of the field on which the houses of Granville Road – plus Stanhope and Hatfield roads had been carved out in the 1860s for the Midland Railway, the Midland Station and the goods sidings associated with it.

Granville Road on the 1898 OS map.  Granville west development almost complete.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Oblique view facing west, with Hatfield Road on the right and the junction with Stanhope Road
on the left.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

But that wasn't all.  It was quickly realised that land around many stations was eminently suitable for villa houses for employees and business men having jobs in London. Some of St Albans' early commuters. One road passing through the field between The Crown and Grimston Road was Stanhope Road; which we will return to in the future.  It is the second street which is little known, Granville Road, and while both roads were planted with street trees when first laid out only those in Granville Road remain today.  Trees in Stanhope seem to have been removed when buses used it as a short-cut to the station in the 1920s.

The mission church c1900.  Granville Road to the left. Stanhope Road on the right. Both
roads tree-lined.
COURTESY HALS

The same view as above.  The de Novo Place development.

As with other estates built for sale Granville Road was never finished and some of the plots intended for houses had alternative uses, and second developments.  An added complication was the development of the east side of the road, part of the triangle; more of the triangle later,  but first the west side which backs on to the railway land, part of which possessed an increasing amount of back space nearer the Hatfield Road end.

Walking along the road today from the Hatfield Road end there are blocks of flats on the right for fully half of its length, with mainly semi-detached villas in the further half.  That, however, is not the result of a modern response to an unfinished development.  There had been two substantial detached villas and four further pairs.  Developers looking for suitable land would have taken advantage of the rear gardens and possible spare space which would make modern blocks viable, and so we have The Maples and Ashtree Court today.  An adaption further along, Granville Court, gives us a previous terrace of four with additional accommodation at the rear and a tunnel access.

The remaining villas end at Grimston Road with a vehicle repair premises creating a full stop.

The meeting hall, a 1920s building.

An early view of the cinema.  No-one takes picture of the back of a cinema, but from here it
is possible to imagine the view Granville Road householders had of the mass of the cinema's
rear wall and entrance – for the cheaper seats!

On the triangle side of Granville Road there were a few similar semi-detached pairs, but gradually these became converted workshops for W O Peake, the coat manufacturer, before becoming part of its substantial rebuild from the 1930s.  The prison end became locationally attractive for the mission church and then the Adult School.  In the middle the "little and large" 1920s development of the meeting room and the Grand Palace (Gaumont) Cinema.  Today, on the triangle side only the meeting hall remains unaltered.  The new developments are Cotsmoor with its modern access road, Peake's Place, Chatsworth Court (ex cinema) and de Novo Place.  For the first time since 1880 the old Hatfield Road Field is a fully functioning and almost entirely residential development – and even retains its street trees.  

Perhaps one feature it no longer has today which was once a bonus, is Granville Road's very own entrance to the park, right opposite the mouth of the road.  If you walk along the park boundary today it is possible (just) to spot where householders could take a leisurely saunter across the main road and through the park using their very own gate.

Contrasting tracks

Most of our streets came about during the period of expansion and utilisation of former fields into residential or mixed development.  Before Kingshill Avenue there was a field sloping downwards towards the former Marshalswick Farm.  Royston Road and its neighbouring streets were carved out of a large field where cattle had grazed; and Cavendish Road, though there may have been a footpath of sorts, was created from an orchard or a tree nursery or a small crop field, depending on time. 

Although there are minor roads which were formerly footpaths crossing the countryside, and roads linking towns which have existed for several centuries, it is rare to come across a road with a life stretching back into antiquity, probably part of an ancient network of trackways which traversed the region.

Pre-development Beaumont Avenue at the Hatfield Road end.
COURTESY ANDY LAWRENCE

Part of one such route is now Beaumont Avenue and forms an attractive residential road linking Sandpit Lane and Hatfield Road.  Along this road was a minor spur leading to Beaumonts Farm.  The spur today is part private (Farm Road) and part adopted, absorbed by the residential estate as Central Drive.

Remove the homes which line each side of the Avenue, all but three of which arrived since 1899, and you are left with the remains of a double stand of fine trees.  

The track which wandered through the former manor estate had extended through wooded land of uncertain age north of Sandpit Lane.  Today we know this as The Wick.  Also part of Beaumonts Farm was a continuation of the track towards Hill End.  Now Ashey Road, it is a mix of early 1930s semi-detached homes, a post-war industrial estate and the green acres which are now Highfield Park, formerly Hill End Hospital.  How this section of the track contrasted with the Avenue: it had been dug for the clay and was home to a brickworks as a result; and with the exception of isolated groups of trees did not appear to have been treelined.

One further difference: the southern section, though a track snaking through the farm, was a permissive route for traffic other than that which was farm business.  The Avenue, on the other hand, had always been considered private (whether legally so is another matter) and gates were installed at both the Sandpit Lane and Hatfield Road ends.

The former BT building next to the railway, now Alban Away,  Today
part of an industrial estate and earlier a brick works and rubbish tip.

Today's Alban Way still intersects Ashley Road and demonstrates a further difference between the two sections.  But before feeling too satisfied that the avenue escaped the smoke and steam of railway tracks, it was a close call.  The Midland Railway's early iteration proposed a route which would have clipped the northern end of Beaumont Avenue and crossed in front of the former Marshalswick House.  Although Thomas Kinder, owner of Beaumonts, had not been found to have objected to the compulsory purchase of a small portion of his land, the Marten family certainly did, and as a result Beaumont Avenue retained its rural and ancient landscape.  No railway crossing the Avenue.  Same track, but quite a contrast.

Railway Street

We have only occasionally given space to any of the early Fleetville roads, particularly those which were part of the Slade Building estate – Harlesden, Sandfield, Glenferrie, Brampton and Burham roads – developed by Horace Slade, a former straw hat and box manufacturer in this city.  It is often mistakenly assumed that these roads are lined mainly with terraces of small homes.  Small many of them may be considered, but in Sandfield Road there are just two terraces, and they both consist of three dwellings.  The rest are either semi-detached homes, some with porches, or detached.

Building on the estate began at the same time, 1899, as the homes around the printing works in the centre of Fleetville.  Just two years later, the 1901 census reveals that eight out of the 22 homes on Sandfield Road's east side were occupied, and five out of the 19 on the west side.  We bear in mind that builders were, on the whole one man and an assistant (or two) and the rate of build was dependent on who and when investors were available to purchase one or pairs of plots.  There is a surprising variety of styles which may lead us to assume also a number of different landlords.

After the initial modest flush of building at the turn of the century, five years passed before any further construction, and a decade before the ground was broken at many of the Hatfield Road end plots, creating a delay before the road was fully made up and lit.  Yet another street which suffered from dust in summer and random puddles and constant mud in winter.

Of the first thirteen tenants none was born in St Albans, although two were from other parts of the county; the rest came from across the UK.  Of the 33 tenants in the completed homes in 1911, four were from St Albans, but that still left a very large majority from other parts of the country.  Considering the huge level of overcrowding and poor sanitation in the centre of St Albans at the time, these origins may appear surprising, although it may suggest the rents were still higher than was affordable for some.  This, in spite of the area being part of the rural district where the rates levied on the landlords would have been lower.  In days before private transport and public transport Sandfield Road was still some way from town and access to employment was more dependant on work being available locally.

The census for 1901 reveals that almost all of the residents were employable outwards from the railway station, including straw hat making, saddling, shop work, gardening, printing and railway work.  In fact, by 1911, a quarter of all heads of household were employed by the railway – many specifically stating their employer was the Midland Railway.  Three employees were at Nicholson's Coat factory in Sutton Road, and four were occupied in the printing industry, probably Smith's or Salvation Army.  

In fact, the senior manager at Smith's printing works, Ernest Townson, lived in a detached home, number 17.  His responsibility, and therefore salary at the print works enabled him to move later, first to Clarence Road, then Lemsford Road, followed by the Hall Place estate.  One resident was a musical instrument maker, almost certainly at the Salvation Army Musical Instrument Works, which opened just a few months after the earlier 1901 census.  There were also two teachers, probably working at Fleetville and/or Camp Elementary schools.

A plot at the north end of the road remained empty and had been reserved for a future local shop, which, at the time might well have been useful for families living in Brampton Road.  Instead, shops began to appear along almost the entire length of Hatfield Road, and residents rarely needed to walk far to reach their nearest grocer or baker.  The reserved plot at the north end remained empty until the 1960s when number 39 was added, but as a home rather than retail premises.  

I have no doubt that there are many Sandfield Road stories.  Go to the Your Turn page on the website and share some interesting details with us.