Roadie Birthdays

 One hundred years ago (-ish) travelling began to become more exciting for those who owned or otherwise travelled in a motor car; the novel mode of transport for the masses.  In the 1920s the governments of the day encouraged the future with the construction of a large number of regional road links, bypasses and other arterial roads.  Many of them, while built as single carriageways had land reserved from the start to widen into dual two- or three-lane roads as need arose.

The cover of a post WW1 reprint of the 1914 Half Inch to One Mile centred on St Albans. 
Although it shows the red, brown and yellow of the as yet unplanned classification, there
are no road numbers, first introduced from 1923. 

The east end of St Albans benefitted from this largesse with the addition of a highway to bypass Hatfield Road and Watford Road.  It was, of course, part of the North Orbital, or St Albans Bypass, an intended route to skirt outer northern districts of London.  We now know it as the A414, though it was originally numbered the A405. The full scheme would extend from Hatfield to Hertford and onwards to Maldon.  In the opposite direction it was constructed from Garston to Maple Cross, with the awkward section via Watford later neatly skirted as A41 which was then subsumed into the A25.

Which brings us to a more specific birthday, for by 1923 the time had arrived to label main roads more systematically, and in April of that year the plan for Road Classification was born.  A detailed history of of road numbering can be found at the roads website here.

Standard sign for an A class road along St Albans Bypass (North Orbital) at Colney Heath.

We should ask at this point, how did the classification scheme affect St Albans?  For those not familiar with the numbers on road signs and wish to begin with an Ordnance Survey map, A roads were coloured red; B roads in brown and unclassified roads of a given standard or width (including some C roads) in yellow.  From the post-war period was added the Motorway class in blue.  Many of us will also be familiar with the (T) and (M) suffixes representing Trunk routes and A roads with some motorway features. And to add to any confusion parts of some roads are given two numbers, the second in parenthesis as one route leading to another.

Beginning with the most senior classification we are "blessed" with a section of the M25 which hums very close in places, although before this highway the M10 between Park Street roundabout and the M1 at Bricket Wood was provided to speed us on our way.  Now, however, M10 has been downgraded to become A405.  So far we have been bequeathed two motorways and one former motorway.

St Albans bypass, built in the 1920s and thirties, and frequently upgraded since, has three roundabouts between Roehyde and the Noke (former Hummingbird), and one set of traffic lights if you ignore the multi-set at London Colney roundabout.  As indicated above the bypass was part of a longer arterial road numbered A405, although nowadays its number is A414 between the A1(M) and A1001 at Roehyde, and Park Street roundabout.

The former A414 Hatfield Road is now the A1057, an ordinary main road!

We have lost the numbers A5 and A6 in the city (many will say "thank goodness") although London Road and London Colney High Street keep their A status with A1081 (so not A6 something); and St Stephen's Hill, City Centre and Redbourn Road is no longer A5 but A5183.

The main road which snakes its way from St Peter's roundabout, through Fleetville and Oaklands to the Comet was known as the A414 (so the number itself now has an upgrade to the Bypass!) but now joins all of the other four digit conversions.  Although we all know it as Hatfield Road, to everyone else it is officially A1057.

The road to St Albans receives two road numbers, first to complete Comet Way and then the
bracketed Hatfield Road.

Sign along the former ring road for local traffic to the city centre, the route to Hatfield via Sandpit
Lane and shopping destination at The Quadrant.

Just three B roads grace our local patch and one is quite short.  B691 is classified from St Albans Museum + Gallery (or the Town Hall, or the Old Town Hall) to The Crown where, of course it becomes the aforementioned A1057.  No sign confirms the route to or along the B691 so it is simply a number on a database, map, or on Google where road numbers appear to replace street names, even if the latter do prove to be more useful.  The other two B roads are Sandridge Road B651 and Watford Road B4630.

That is it.  Maps identify other roads as unclassified but are not given numbers: Sandpit Lane/Oaklands Lane, the former ring road we are not supposed to name (Batchwood/Beech/Marshalswick/ Beechwood/ Ashley/ Drakes); Camp Road and Cell Barnes Lane.  But you will sometimes discover roads such as Colney Heath Lane and Hill End Lane in yellow, though yellow is used more sparingly in modern online maps such as the fantastic Open Start Maps.

Classified routes through St Albans.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

Whether the numbering is important for us is debatable but that's probably not the point; it is a system which is given a code, just like every lamp post and road sign has a reference number – they must be important to someone.  But on longer journeys we, or our satnavs, rely on road numbers to help us to our destinations.

Happy 100th birthday A5, and all the rest!

Ten Years

 Although this blog had begun life a couple of years earlier, the current Blogspot format was launched in 2012 with the aspiration of publishing about three posts each month.  There was no intention to reach a ten-year lifespan, or in fact any set target, but here we are, ten years later and SAOEE blog is still going strong.  While the last year in which the target of thirty-six posts in a calendar year was reached was in 2014, I am pleased to have reached this total again in 2021.  Further, this post is number 350 in the current series.  I'll raise a glass to that on New Year's Eve.

I've chosen to look back at the festive period in the 1970s, to re-discover what events were making the news in our East End during that decade.  None of those selected recorded public celebratory events, so there was no reference to Christmas trees or other street decorations – we left that to the city centre – although many of the shops did create their own special display windows with little lights, cotton wool snow and Happy Christmas signs, and exhorted via signs invitations to purchase festive food, do-it-yourself decorations, and small trees and holly stems.

But the following all occurred in December and would have added an extra dimension to the local scene.

1970: A supermarket (a newish term in everyday use) was slated to open at Whitecroft, London Road, right on the edge of our patch. Named Downsway, its warehouse was owned by T W Downs which  had opened on the Butterwick Industrial estate a few years previously.  This small group later bought out another small chain, but later in the 1970s found itself selling to one of the big guys: Fine Fare.

1971: A postbox standing on the corner of Ely and Cambridge roads for many decades, suddenly became a headache because of its position – on private land – and the owner now wanted it moved from the space in front of the corner shop and onto public space. St Albans Council and GPO jointly agreed to it residing on the footpath a few yards away, where it remains today.

1972: Now that there was no land left on which to farm, the barn next to Cunningham Hill Farm homestead was being converted into two houses, one four-bedroomed and the other five-bedroomed (above).  A feature article in the Herts Advertiser stated the barn had been acquired by Michael Hunter from a Watford contracting firm, but had previously belonged to James Baum, of the last farming family at Cunningham. The barn was estimated to be 400 years old.  The existing roof tiles were retained and two-century-old bricks were brought from a Southwark church to fill the framework sections.

1973: In one of those subsidence alerts which occasionally come to light – and the holes sometimes produced – the end of the year brought the worrying news that a house in Sandpit Lane, the last to be finished just before the Second World War, was to be shored up because of unstable ground.  In testing the ground conditions there appeared to be a space between 15 and 80 feet depth.  The Herts Advertiser stated that other nearby homes were also affected.  An "unsettling" time for the house owners affected.  And just before Christmas.

1974: A decision had been made by Hertfordshire County Council that both the Girls' Grammar School and Boy's Grammar School were to be extended, in both buildings and pupil numbers, were to become all ability schools, and would, from the following September, change their names.  The boys' school in Brampton Road would henceforth be renamed Verulam School, while the Girls' School nominally removed the word Grammar, reducing its initials from STAGGS to STAGS.  The Girls' School had occupied today's Fleetville Juniors buildings until 1952.

1975: The extension of residential housing in Hatfield Road had strangely prompted a proposal to increase the road's speed limit from 30 to 40mph between Colney Heath Lane and Ryecroft Court.  After a period of intensive community lobbying, the speed upgrade did not take place, and the existing limits apply to this day.

1976: Hertfordshire County Council applied for planning consent for a new 40-place nursery unit at Fleetville Infants School, a year after the move of the Junior section to larger accommodation at the former Sandfield Road School.  The new unit, including development on the site of the closed police houses, which were also owned by the County Council, allowed for the closure of the temporary and inadequate Day Nursery erected in 1942 on the Recreation Ground. Fifty-five years later this temporary building is still in occupation by Fleetville Community Centre.

1977: From the 1920s until 1977 the St Albans Bypass was a three-lane single carriageway, although sufficient land had been purchased for dual three lane roads. One section had been dualled in the mid-1950s, but in December 1977 it was announced work would begin on converting two further sections to dual two lane carriageways: Noke to Park Street and London Colney to Colney Heath.  This work would greatly ease congestion throughout, but as we have some to experience capacity has been reached once more, especially at the roundabouts, and the benefits which once derived between Hatfield and St Albans are now behind us.

1978: Cllr Ronald Wheeldon was helping Fleetville bid for cash towards making the area a General Improvement Area (GIA), including a traffic management scheme.  Fleetville had been the subject of a scathing report by the Labour Party three years previously.  Castle, Cape, Sutton and Burleigh roads were assessed as being the most needy in the ward.

1979: In the ongoing tussle between the Council and St Albans Cooperative Society, another building design was submitted for the Society's proposed supermarket (on today's Morrison's site).  A number of Fleetville traders were concerned about their future livelihoods and a number of residents looked forward to improved shopping experiences, though many were greatly supportive of existing grocers and greengrocers.

So, in those years there was much to look forward to, as well as hopes for battles in progress.  As always, changes affect people in different ways; commercial takeovers may risk employment, especially worrying at the end of a year.  And many residents would continue to wait a long time for improvements to their living conditions.

On the List at Sleapshyde

 Local planning authorities identify particular localities within their boundaries which merit special preservation and conservation.  They  can be designated Conservation Areas (CA). There eighteen such CAs in the city, mainly in the outskirts, and only two of of them, Sleapshyde and Cunningham, are in our East End.  A further 27 CAs have been identified within the city's urban area, of which just two fall within the east end, Granville & Stanhope roads and Clarence Park.

The North Orbital St Albans ByPass is in orange; Smallford Lane runs N-S on the left. Old 
Sleapshyde with three lanes meeting at the tiny triangle is top right. The 1930s estate is the large
tranche of land coloured grey in the centre.
©Open StreetMap contributors

Although brief mention has previously been made of the Granville Conservation Areas in these blogs, I think it is about time further exploration of the character of each of the east end CAs is recorded.  This week I'll begin with Sleapshyde, a compact hamlet sitting between the St Albans Bypass and Sleapshyde Lane, the former joining the latter at the eastern end of the Colney Heath "longabout".  Today, only one third of the built area consists of the historic domestic and agricultural buildings.  

Old Sleapshyde within which are located a few Listed and other significant buildings; a portion of the
1897 OS map around 25 years before the ByPass was constructed.
Courtesy National Library of Scotland

In 1935 builder E Stevens, who specialised in homes for rent, applied for consent to erect 54 homes near the boundary of the then new  Orbital Road (Bypass), but St Albans, the Planning Authority, refused.  The rural council, however, favoured the development to counter the severe shortage of rural housing, and presumably got its way, as there are considerably more than 54 dwellings along Sleapcross Gardens and Sleapshyde Lane today.  None of the hamlet's listed and locally significant buildings sit along these two roads, but lie along the three lanes beyond which converge on a small triangle of land on which there still stands a former public water pump and a former lamp post on top of which is the sign for Sleapshyde.

A heritage picture of The Plough PH when under the ownership of Pryor, Reid & Co, Hatfield.
Modest changes have been made since but the building remains undeniably recognisable.
Courtesy Brian Anderson Collection.

The Character Statement for the CA identifies 8 buildings extending back to between the 16th to 18th centuries, and unsurprisingly most of the Listed buildings fall into this group. First in this discourse and at the end of the northern arm of Sleapshyde Lane is the Plough PH, which should not be confused with the Plough at nearby Tyttenhanger Green.  It contains a popular restaurant. Still with its thatched roof and dormers the 17th century building still backs onto open land.  An annotated wedding photo taken outside in 1913 identifies a former link with another watering hole in the hamlet: one of the party was the licensee of the former Angel PH (see below).

A heritage photo of Sleapshyde Farm, recognisable by its hipped roof.
Courtesy Brian Anderson Collection.

On the section of the lane which returns directly to the Bypass is Sleapshyde Farm.  Unfortunately much of the homestead is hidden behind high fencing with boundary trees and shrubs, but sufficient of its roof is visible to identify its hipped roof.  The CA states its age to be sixteenth century although identifies it to have been a hall style of construction, which suggests it might have been a re-build without changing its design, therefore making the foundations considerably earlier (this has not, however, been verified).  Visitors will identify the extensive dark weatherboarded barns and other outbuildings.

The nearby Farm Cottage is obscured from the lane, but the CA indicates it to be rebuilt in the 19th century around a seventeenth century framework.

The Rose Cottage and Little Rose Cottage on the opposite side of the lane to Sleapshyde Farm.
Courtesy Google Streetview

Along the same arm of the lane but on the other side is a pair of cottages, Rose Cottage and Little Rose Cottage. Both are part of a single structure – you could call them semi-detached.  Most is black weatherboarding with end walls in red brick; the bold chimney stack placed off centre suggests the two cottages are of unequal sizes.  One of the cottages shows evidence of having been extended.

Ye Olde House, which are three separate properties combined.  Set well back from the lane
for improved visibility.

Ye Olde House, at its closest to the modern section of Sleapcross Lane,  is a large and fine building set back from the lane; multi-gabled roof, black first floor weatherboarding with brick ground floor walls.  What might seem like former stables dating from the time of the main house is, according to the CA a modern construction intended for car storage.  Although the name is singular, internally it is divided into three properties.

The former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel with cream surface over the earlier pebble dashing. 
Recent hedge trimming reveals the earlier entry drive and the posting box set into the
brick pillar.

Two un-Listed properties also considered of local interest are Angel Cottage and the former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.  The chapel is almost opposite the Plough PH.  Until a few years ago the exterior was clad in a soft brown pebbledash, but has recently been rendered in cream.  The rear taller part of the building is on two levels, and its earlier light blue door, bargeboards and drainage pipes are now darker in colour.  It is said that the chapel is one of the earliest in Hertfordshire and was large enough to accommodate the whole population of the hamlet until St Mark's Parish Church was built in 1945.

Now Angel Cottage it was formerly the Angel PH.

At the entrance to the original hamlet in Sleapshyde Lane was a Victorian beer house called the Angel public house.  Although long since closed it was converted for private accommodation, and remains the youngest structure included in the buildings of note in Sleapshyde.

A wander around this pleasant settlement, perhaps following a lunchtime meal or drink at the Plough, will be worth the short time it takes.  Unlike the formal layout of the twentieth century homes along Sleapcross Gardens and Sleapshyde Lane, the scatter of buildings laid out informally at the older end is a pleasant contrast.

The red buildings are listed; the two green buildings are significantly important in the
local context.
Courtesy St Albans District Council

Avoiding Hatfield Road

At times it can seem like a conundrum with no easy solution, but the question of avoiding driving along Hatfield Road, can be countered by the equally exasperating how to avoid Sandpit Lane, and even how to avoid the bypass.

When traffic flows smoothly on all three roads between Hatfield and St Albans there is no issue, and at least on two of the roads the resulting extended travelling times are, hopefully, temporary.

In Hatfield Road, readers may recall, a few months ago gas pipe replacement work was undertaken in St Albans Road West, between Smallford and Ellenbrook.  For the next two months similar work is to start between Smallford and Oaklands with the inevitable one-way working using temporary traffic signals.  This is a busy section at the best of times and two new permanent signal sets have been installed at Oaklands College (pedestrian controlled) and at Kingsbury Gardens.  The former is near the uncontrolled  junctions of  Colney Heath Lane and South Drive, but so far the interruption to flow has been minimal.  But in a foretaste of what is to come temporary signals in three phases arrived recently near Oakwood Drive and Longacres.  Standing traffic queued back as far as Smallford roundabout.

Junction improvements in Sandpit Lane.

So, if that is not to your liking you could try driving westwards via Sandpit Lane, but you are likely to be queuing soon after the House Lane roundabout.  The reason here is road surfacing, new junction, footpaths and roundabout at Oaklands Grange, near Barnfield Road.  Work has been ongoing for several months, and the recent difficulties have probably resulted from some drivers trying to avoid the Hatfield Road works – which are about to get even worse.

Of course, once clear of Newgates the next queue is at the Beechwood Avenue lights, where there seem to be more vehicles than usual turning left to return to Hatfield or Ashley roads, but no doubt a proportion of drivers continue west to find alternative routes nearer the city.  And I have noticed a small increase in cars and vans turning north into House Lane, no doubt heading for Marshalswick and the fiveways junction at the King William IV.

So, let's try the bypass.  You might join it at the Roe Green interchange and westwards you may have a fairly easy journey as far as London Colney's congested roundabout – though continuing further west to avoid the city you could join a long queue on the approach to Park Street.  

Normally, travelling eastwards takes time on approaching Roe Green, although we might be applying the brakes anywhere back to Sleapshyde Lane, but once this junction has been negotiated, on the green as it were, you are buoyed at the prospect of a swift journey through the tunnel, except that recently eastbound traffic has sometimes been stationary underneath the Galleria and very slow moving as it leaves the A1(M) on the approach to the former Jack Olding's junction.

I can find no obvious cause except for the usual "weight of traffic", but travelling between Hatfield and St Albans is presently fraught with problems and therefore expensive on fuel and time.  Best to leave a generous amount of time for your journey and stock up with some extra patience!

A Way Through

Most of us have come to terms with – or not as the case may be – St Albans being a nightmare to drive in or through.  But for us on the eastern side there was, in the early days of motoring, an indirect benefit brought to us courtesy of the government's post-WW1 roads programme.  The St Albans Bypass, which was also in part a Fleetville Bypass, was a present to the district in the 1920s.  So, we might ponder where we might be today without it.  Would Hatfield Road instead be a dualled carriageway?  Possibly, or maybe not.

In 1965 the County Council's St Albans Transportation Study (SATS) was published, the result of detailed analysis of traffic movements, congestion and other factors, such as parking, which acted as influences on everyone's journeys by road at the time.

The City Council had spent the best part of thirty years developing the ring road, finally completed the project just as the SATS was published.  As we realised fairly quickly the early parts of the road were developed, not as a single infrastructure project, but in conjunction with housing developers; the result being that the ring road was just another residential road, and as direction signs moved traffic on to it and away from the city centre, there were many objections from residents' groups, mainly because of the heavy vehicles using it.  Eventually the signs disappeared, and so did the ring road name.

Two new traffic schemes were discussed in the SATS.  One will form the subject of the next post; the other became possible because British Rail offered for sale the branch railway land it owned, now Alban Way.

Looking towards the former Northwestern Hotel, Holywell Hill.

SATS therefore proposed – another – Fleetville Bypass using railway land between London Road and Colney Heath Lane, although the maps produced showed an extension to link with the then newly dualled carriageway at the former Northwestern Hotel, Holywell Hill (or is it St Stephen's Hill at that point?).  

The link with London Road is shown as a curved road which was "thoughtfully" constructed as the later Orient Way.  A roundabout was proposed at Ashley Road, although the difference in elevation would have required some infrastructure works at a location which had only just received a new bridge.  Presumably, the connection at Hatfield Road/Colney Heath Road would have similarly been in the form of a roundabout – how today's drivers would welcome a roundabout here.

This road leaves London Road and connects with Alban Way at the former
London Road Station.

The press made the assumption that the new road would be a dualled carriageway, presumably because that is what most bypasses were.  However, SATS states that the road would be a two lane single carriageway; just as well, as the railway land would not allow for a wider road.  While raising this option as a viable option, the report also recognised a serious concern that air quality and traffic noise would be brought close to people's homes over the majority of the new road's length, and that would count against that option in any decisions the county council would have to make.

Colney Heath Lane/Hatfield Road junction.  Considering the subject
matter, in these three photos there is barely a vehicle to be seen!

Since the railway route did not materialise – nor any other option put forward – we are left to speculate on the benefits it might have had.  What difference would it have actually made to Hatfield Road?  Would it have made any difference to driving (or riding on a bus for that matter) into and through the centre of the city?

So, from the point of view of the railway route, fifty-five years on and we are still using the same road network, and goodness knows how many road possibilities have been drawn on council maps since.  Meanwhile, the original bypass (North Orbital) has since been dualled – it was initially laid as a single carriageway – and still has the land for widening to three lanes each way.  Its actual capacity is limited by its surface roundabouts, and still lacks the overbridge at the Smallford Lane/Colney Heath intersection.  But that's another story.