The Rec in 1946

 Just when you think you know a place well, along comes a fresh element about which you had no previous knowledge.  Or almost no knowledge; but more of that shortly.

The map below covers the same area as this 1946 aerial photograph taken by the RAF.  
Hatfield Road crosses the bottom of the picture. Fleetville Recreation Ground (Fleetville
Park is left centre with Fleetville School to its right.  In the top section roughly west to east is
Burnham Road and lower Brampton Road.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

In the previous post you will be aware of a series of RAF aerial photographs taken in 1946 and now available to view on the Historic England website.  In that post we explored The Park.  This week I've chosen to home in on part of the very heart of Fleetville: the Recreation Ground, Fleetville Infants School, and Royal, Woodstock, Burnham and Hatfield roads.  The aim is to contrast today's  topography with that of 1946.  In so doing we have to manage an image of high contrast created by the bright sunshine and deep long shadows on the day of the flyover.

The map covers the same area as the aerial photo.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

The very recognisable range of pitched roofs of Fleetville School, which were two distinct buildings in 1946, with a playground space between the junior and infant departments, is now, one joined structure and also enlarged at the northern end (the old Boys entrance of elementary school days).  The wooden Hut, consisting of two classrooms, arrived in 1938 is now replaced by a large modern hall on the Woodstock Road South side, and the long narrow structure further north along the same boundary were the outside toilets.  Although these have now gone the high boundary wall still exists as a kicking wall.  The space south of the former Hut consisted of a garden for the adjacent police station and house (shown as car park P on the map) just behind the Post Office.

Fleetville School (Infant School today) with the wall on the right.  Behind this was once the outside toilets.

Turning our attention to the Recreation Ground (Fleetville Park on the map), a temporary building had been constructed just behind Royal Road in 1942.  It was a day nursery for the young children of employees at the munitions works in Hatfield Road (Fleetville Community Centre and Morrisons on the map). The bright fresh concrete slab on which the building was placed shone out in 1946. Just visible on the Royal Road side of the building was where the embankment down to road level had been partly cut away with a concrete ramp leading down to underground tunnel shelters; the building had been placed on top of the tunnels cut in 1938 and 1939. The ramps have now been levelled to create the present car park in front of the community centre.

The rear elevation of the Community Centre

Wartime street shelters constructed in the roadway.  This example is from Manchester.
COURTESY MANCHESTER LIBRARIES

This leads us to a recollection given to me a few years ago; a resident recalled when he was a child that "a few" street shelters were constructed in the roadway of Royal Road.  I searched in vain for confirmation but found none – until now, for the RAF photo taken in October 1946 clearly shows six structures on the footpath and half of the roadway outside the nursery building.  They must have been demolished and removed in 1948 for I do not remember them.

Residents wishing to see the (temporary) community centre building will need to be quick; it is expected the building will be demolished in July of this year, in preparation for a new building to go up in its place.

An emergency water tank similar to, but much smaller than the one, on Fleetville Recreation
Ground.  This example is from Aston, Birmingham.
COURTESY BIRMINGHAM CITY ARCHIVES

The rectangular structure near the Hatfield Road boundary was an emergency water storage tank for the National Fire Service, clearly emptied for safety, next to which was the ARP hut.  Here is this week's question: halfway along the diagonal footpath between Hatfield Road and Royal Road is a circular shape.  Although I can identify the children's swings to the right of it, was there a revolving ride, such as a roundabout or witches' hat?  I remember neither of those, only the swings.  Anyone with further information please contact. 

On the south side of Hatfield Road, far from straight, near the southern edge of the photo are the long parallel roofs of the former Fleet Works, the Smith's Printing factory, by 1946 being used as Ballito hosiery mill.  Immediately to its left is a narrow grey-looking site with seasoning sheds to the left, which today is part of the surface parking for Morrison's.  But in 1946 was a busy timber yard owned by the Lavers family.  Recognisable by its shape is the outline of the former Central School, now Fleetville Junior School, today little altered from its original form.

The timber yard of W H Lavers, Hatfield Road, now under the car park of Wm Morrison's 
supermarket.  The site was a busy one both for building companies, general contractors and
homeowners.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

The north-south road to the west of the Recreation Ground is Harlesden Road, one of the many
parallel roads which helped to swell the population of Fleetville from the early 20th
century.  This is Harlesden Road, from the Hatfield Road end, taken around 1914.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

Many photos of Bycullah Terrace are taken from the western end.  So, just for a change
here is a picture taken from the Sutton Road corner about ten years ago.

Back on the north side of Hatfield Road is the eastern end of the Slade building estate of the early 20th century; the compact terraces and semis of Harlesden, Burnham, Brampton and Woodstock roads, and the two long terraces of Arthur Road.  It is disappointing the deep shadows cast by the Ballito factory hide all of the detail of the most interesting section of Hatfield Road at Bycullah Terrace – Fleetville Shops. 

If you live, or your family lived, anywhere on this photo you will pick it out immediately.  Fleetville was, and still is, a busy suburb of the city.  Until the previous year, 1945, it still hummed with the young voices of children who had become honorary guests of St Albans, having been evacuated here from London boroughs and the Sussex coast.  Let's remind ourselves: this was seventy four years ago.

For the People of Fleetville

Red: three fields formerly owned by the Grammar School.
Blue: field purchased by T E Smith for the Fleet Printing Works.
Orange: field purchased by T E Smith for his Fleet Ville housing.
Green: Part of the same field left undeveloped and acquired by Charles Woollam.

Recent aerial of the recreation ground during a dry summer period.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

 We have now reached the end of St Peter's Farm where the property boundary lines up obliquely from the main road.  The former fields outlined in red on the above map identifies land which was owned by St Albans Grammar School and managed for it by the Verulam Estate.  The blue field was acquired by Thomas E Smith for his printing works in 1897 and he acquired the green and orange field opposite to lay out a hamlet for his employees.  

Others were also laying out streets and houses nearby on the former St Peter's Farm, and so Smith did not use all of his land – the green part of the field on the north side of Hatfield Road – otherwise there may have been a further street of two of small homes had the demand evolved.  You will see that there were no homes on the west side of Royal Road.

William Bennett, well known in the building trade, had rented at least part of the green field to store building materials, including bricks, which he needed for his construction activities in the Slade building estate.

In 1912 Charles Woollam, mill owner and a trustee of the Grammar School that had sold two of the three fields to Thomas E Smith in order to fund the expansion of the school adjacent to the Gateway, purchased the green field from the Smith estate using his own funds.  He had noted with some concern that Fleetville was growing quickly and no land had been allocated specifically as open space for the use of this district's residents. He gifted this land to the City Council in 1913, the year in which the authority had taken over responsibility for Fleetville from the Rural Council. A covenant protected the use to which it could be deployed, for the recreation of the people of Fleetville in perpetuity.  By name it was initially called Fleetville Pleasure Ground or Playing Field; later became known as Fleetville Recreation Ground, or Rec, but is now sometimes referred to as Fleetville Park.

No sooner had the council prepared the ground, built retaining walls and installed railings (some of which remain in place) than there was a call to dig it up for emergency allotments.  After some disagreements the allotments went instead to the field where Fleetville Junior School is today.

Pre-WW2 family photo, with the school as a backdrop.  This was before the recreation ground
railings were removed on this side.  Today the seat is occupied by part of the front of the
Community Centre.
COURTESY FLEETVILLE INFANT SCHOOL & NURSERY

For the next 25 years the Rec was rather bland with just one set of children's swings near the Royal Road corner (chain locked on Sundays as was the custom in St Albans); and a public toilet block added in 1938, the same year in which emergency zig-zag trenches were excavated in preparation for war.  Gates in the fencing at bottom of Burnham Road gardens enabled quick access to the trenches.  Additional trenches were added in 1939 and 1940 for the benefit of the school; all were deepened to 8 feet, bricklined and covered, and fitted with electricity, heating and telephone.  They were accessed from steel doors at Royal Road with an emergency exit in the rec field, the latter can still be noticed in parched grass in hot dry summers.  A temporary day nursery arrived in 1942 for the benefit of mothers who worked in the munitions factories locally – this building is still in use as the Community Centre.  

A 1939 aerial of the recreation ground in the middle.  The 1938 open zig-zag trenches are visible.
So too is the diagonal footpath between the Hatfield Road and Royal Road gates. Within that
triangle is the new public toilets block and the children's swings.  Also clear is the grass wear from games of football!
COURTESY HERITAGE ENGLAND

The temporary wartime children's nursery, today used by Fleetville Community Centre. The car is
parked where once a ramp and steel door led below ground level to emergency shelters for the
use of children at the school.

Two further installations during the war were an ARP hut next to the newly opened toilets, and an emergency water tank located where the zip wire is today.

Recent photo of the recreation ground without its original pre-war hedge line resulting from
road widening in the 1960s.

Plan prepared by Design Team Partnership in 1989 for a proposed underground car park for 194 cars under the recreation ground.  It would have occupied the southern end, but the proposal was not taken forward.

Post-war the junior children took to using the field for games lessons, but this was frowned on by the city council who wanted their bit field back from the County Council. A line of young trees were planted beside the shops, and in the 1960s a corner of the main road was shaved off and widened on safety grounds; resulting in the loss of the original field hedge with partial replacement of the original boundary wall.  Children living west of the rec will recollect an informal access point via a couple of missing railings next to Andrews' greengrocery.  That short cut disappeared with the improvements!

A scheme came to light in 1989 for a 200-car underground car park with ramp and six emergency staircases emerging at regular points in the field, as well as a number of light wells.  No one appeared to have considered the impact on organised events and team games.  Anyway, the plan was abandoned.

In more recent times there has been activity equipment for children and young people right across the park, and although the toilets were closed a popular cafe and seating area has appeared.

Next time we shall continue moving eastwards to the later developments between Royal Road and Tess Road (now Woodstock Road south). It might have become an entertainment hub!