Thank you, St Paul's

St Paul's Church hit on a first class idea when it threw open its doors to welcome the world on the completion of its magnificent set of new and renovated areas.  So great was the enthusiasm, the church decided to repeat the event, and now has a Community Day, as it is styled, each year.

Share Your Photos, before visitors
arrived.

Home From Home, before visitors
arrived.

At this year's event Fleetville Diaries and St Albans' Own East End were represented and we had the opportunity of chatting with a considerable number of people.  Our 2013 exhibitions, Home From Home, and Share Your Photos were warmly received and lots of people obtained their first glimpse of Volume 2 of the book, as the ring-binder proof copy was available for inspection.

We shared the church building with a number of fantastic musicians and entertainment acts.  May we take this opportunity of thanking the many people whose hard work resulted in such a successful day.

A question:

Do you have a photo of this
building when it was a shop?

Among the several corner shops in the district which are no longer open for business is one on the corner of Cambridge and Royston roads.  Number 64 has undergone alterations recently, but in 1960 it was a wholesale tobacconist run by Mr A T Smith, according to the Kelly's Directory of that year.  There is a possibility of a temporary building on the site, or nearby, from as early as 1910, and the earliest reference to the current semi-detached structure is c1932.  In our continuing search for photos of the district's corner shops (even if they weren't all actually on corners), does anyone know the whereabouts of any pictures of the corner shop which was 64 Cambridge Road?

Another question:
At the northern end of Charmouth Road the homes which became known locally as the Marconi houses, were constructed further back from the road than their neighbours further south.  They stand behind a rectangular depression in the impressing grass frontage; a large sunken lawn.  Given the cost constraints after WW2, it is unlikely that it was a deliberate design feature, which also left the homes with shortened rear gardens.

The firm of W G Bennett, brick makers, occupied at least some of the land between the railway and what would later be Charmouth Road, from c1907 and through to the 1920s.  Could it be a remnant of its working of the land?  Might it have been something left from an earlier period, part of the grounds of Marshalls wick House?  Or is there another explanation?  If you know the answer to this conundrum, please email saoee@me.com and let us know.

Coloured glass in Fleetville

A newspaper article from September 1960 arrived last week.   It is shown on the Welcome page of the website.  It details an important contract received by E Hooker, the company which specialised in glass, especially coloured glass windows.  The building is now occupied by Britannia Music Shop, on the corner of Hatfield Road and Albion Road.

Here is a transcript of the article:
"In September a family firm at St Albans will start on the momentous task of fitting stained-glass windows in the nearly-completed frames at Coventry Cathedral.  Nearly every day for about 18 months, four of the firm's skilled craftsmen will make a 150-mile round trip by car to Coventry and back.  They are four of Britain's top stained-glass craftsmen.

"The Hooker brothers, Len and Charles, have been in the stained glass business since they were young men.  Their father started the firm in Albion Road, St Albans, towards the end of the [19th] century, and they have fifty years of his experience behind them.  Fitting the windows is highly skilled, and they are proud to have been given the job.  The windows have not been made by the Hookers.  They have been so busy making stained-glass windows for South Africa and Australia that they will only be able to fit them.

William Willoughby, foreman glazier (left) with Charles Hooker.

"Len Hooker is 53, his brother, Charles, 50.  Len's son, Brian, aged 24, has just come into the business.  Said Brian: 'I am the third generation of the Hooker family to go into the business.  I love it.  Up to a year ago I was a laboratory worker, testing rubber and studying for a qualification in the rubber research industry.  Dad asked me to join him, and I did.  Now I'm the firm's youngest apprentice.  I shall be learning the craft all my life, but at the end of five years I shall be fairly skilled.  It is very satisfying work.'

"His father and uncle have seen their work go to many places.  They made windows for Arkansas Cathedral, which were being fitted by American craftsmen, in Little Rock, at the time of the race riots.  The window they made for the Cathedral had 11,000 pieces of glass and measured 16 feet by 10 feet.  A church on the Mool River, East Africa, also has windows made in St Albans.  Explained Mr Hooker: 'It is a very skilled craft.  A designer first plans what the picture on the window shall be, and then draws it.  In the old days this was done in full size, but now small-scale drawings can be enlarged photographically.'

Temporary buildings

During the next few years there are likely to be more temporary classrooms arriving on school fields and playgrounds, as the child population increases.  Previous attempts to ensure there were just enough places for the cohorts of local children were never going to work permanently.  Of course, 'Portacabin' classrooms are nothing new: Camp School's 'bungalow' arrived in 1936, and Fleetville School required similar facilities the following year.

Wartime nurseries, such as the one at Fleetville were made of sturdier materials, but were, nonetheless, a temporary solution to accommodation problems.  Fleetville Nursery, erected in 1942, continues to serve its community functions over 70 years later.  In 1946 huge numbers of HORSA huts were put up at secondary schools to serve the increased school leaving age to 15; and many were still in place to welcome pupils nearly thirty years later when the leaving age was raised further to sixteen.

Churches, of course, have often acquired temporary buildings; both Hatfield Road Methodist Church and St Paul's put up their tin buildings; and the formative St Mary's began with a second-hand timber structure.

The first Bunch of Cherries building.

Scouts are no strangers to wooden or concrete temporary buildings either, although it is rare for these to be replaced with permanent headquarters buildings; the 8th and the 9th are the only groups I can recall having done so.  When, in 1949, a new pub was granted a licence, another type of licence – for a building – could not be given, and so, until 1963, two pre-war wooden huts were pressed into service at the Bunch of Cherries.  And when their time had come, both huts were demounted by willing scouting volunteers and pressed into further service for the 2nd and the 16th scout groups.

Salwey headquarters of the 2nd (Camp) St Albans Scouts.

Several units of the Home Guard had wooden army huts, one standing at the corner of Central Drive and Hazelwood Drive.  These too must have enjoyed second lives somewhere or other.  Similar huts housed prisoners of war at Oaklands, Gorhambury, London Colney and other locations, and were then used to ease the housing shortage.  Then there were the 'ten-year' prefabs which were brought in to do the same job, but with local and national authority approval (the huts were really squatter accommodation).  That ten-year lifespan has stretched until, well, today, as a visit to Mitchell Close will reveal!

Smallford Station today from the former station yard.

Quiet railway branches often relied on timber or metal structures as stations, which might have arrived – by rail of course – in flat-pack form.  Usually given regular coats of company-colour paint they lasted pretty well.  We all know of one local station building, at Smallford, which has remained in surprisingly good condition in the 62 years since it last saw a passenger, thanks partly to it being on private land and covered on one side by undergrowth.  If you are in the city centre during the next two weeks, call in at the central library to view the little exhibition which Smallford Residents' Association have created there.  The Association intends to renovate the former Smallford Station, either in-situ or at another location.

Though not in St Albans, Barclay's Bank opened its Welwyn Garden City branch in a tiny – and I really mean tiny – timber building near the Campus in the 1920s, and International Stores, Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer were among the retailers who deployed Nissen huts in the years after WW2.

We seem to have relied on our temporary structures in so many circumstances.

Share photos

First of all, apologies for the missing posts recently.  Well, they aren't really missing; just that there was a severe shortage of time to write them.

Last Sunday, a large number of people gathered at Fleetville Junior School for the annual festival of music; a most enjoyable event.  Fleetville Diaries also attended, with a twin exhibition.  Home From Home is a grant-aided project which focuses on the lives of a number of Fleetville residents who came here, often as children with their parents, from Asian, African or European countries.  Share Photos, the second exhibition, displays a number of pictures which have been donated by present or former residents of the eastern districts of St Albans.  Both exhibitions will be on view once more at St Paul's Community Day on April 13th, and then at Larks in the Parks at Fleetville Rec.  We can also take it to other local events during the year if organisers let us know ( bloom_liz@yahoo.co.uk )

SACS mobile shop

The importance of Share Photos to all of us continues to be revealed with every new picture which is emailed to me, or hides in each envelope arriving through the post.  Even after Sunday's showing, new pictures have arrived which amply demonstrate the value of searching out photos which may have a connection with other people.  Some of this week's arrivals are on the website, and on this blog.  Keep looking everyone!

There are several pictures around of one of the Co-op mobile shops, but Gordon, who used to work for the company, has also sent one of a fitted-out vehicle just before being stocked with its travelling products.

Imagine the tins of peas and biscuits!

He also found a photo of the Co-op's Cambridge Road grocery shop.

The shop in Cambridge Road.

Camp School class in 1931.

Carlton F C 1945/6

Not only that, but there was a fully named picture of a Camp School class from 1931 and a Carlton football team in which he played.  While, at present, I am uncertain about the origin of the name Carlton, it is understood that its players all lived in or around Burnham Road.  Does anyone else recall the team from the immediate post-war period?
























Volume 2 of St Albans' Own East End is still expected to be published in mid-April, which means just three weeks away.  As soon as I have a fixed date this will be posted on the website.  Meanwhile, signed copies of Volume 1 are available.  If you live in the St Albans District, I will deliver it to your door, and of course, free of postage.  Email saoee@me.com

Meanwhile, the Smallford Project members have been discovering more about their community, and on Wednesday 27th March Fleetville Diaries will be hosting a presentation by the author of the new book about Sopwell, Sandy Norman.  You are welcome to join us at Fleetville Community Centre at 7.30pm.

Herts Advertiser pictures

Readers of the blog will know that an ongoing project in conjunction with HALS has been the re-photographing of all pictures that appeared in the Herts Advertiser between 1912 and 1960.  This has become necessary now that the newspaper's original photographic archive no longer exists.  Part one of the project has been completed while the condition of many of the issues have not deteriorated beyond the point where they can no longer be handled.

The Herts Advertiser has always sold photographic quality prints of the photographs its staff have taken, even if they were not published.  The first photograph is an example, submitted by Mike.  It is, of course, superior in definition to that which appeared in the newspaper.  Compare it with the smaller version below right.  Two other HA original prints are also shown here, below left and bottom left.

Competition winners at the former
Odeon Cinema

Scouts (group not known) with the
Mayor.

If, therefore, you have a photograph which you, or a member of your family, purchased from the Herts Advertiser more than twenty years ago, would you be willing to share it with us?  It would enable at least a small proportion of the pictures to remain in high-definition format rather than as newsprint dots.  A scan at 300 dpi and saved as a .jpg or .tif can be sent via email to saoee@me.com.  Try to add as much detail as possible, such as year, event, and the people in the picture.  You will be doing local history a favour!

Family picnic

Around 1995 I was given a video about St Albans which was then available in the shops.  It was called Bygone St Albans – a montage of cine footage taken at various times, and included such themes as the 1948 pageant, views from the Clock Tower, the Highland Games, fetes, weekend camps and archaeological digs.  For the first time in many years I have taken the opportunity to view the video once more.  Among the fifty minutes were three gems relevant to St Albans' East End.

First were three or four pan shots of the neo-georgian building which was W O Peake's factory in Hatfield Road, opposite Clarence Park.  It was a wonderfully-proportioned building which stretched from the right of the former Crown post office (now the Chilli Raj restaurant) to Granville Road.  When no longer required as a factory it was still in very good structural condition, yet it was replaced.  Here is a tantalising picture of the Peake building (sometimes floodlit) with its climbing plants around the door and manicured lawn behind the front wall.  Surprisingly, very few pictures have surfaced of Peake's factory.  If you have one you would be happy to share I would love to hear from you.  Meanwhile, enjoy this sample.

Then, if you were a child of the 1950s and 60s you may remember the children's funfair each summer at Verulamium Park.  It was organised by fairground ride owner Charles Hart, probably better known for his fairground and theatre organ collection in Camp Road.  Once again, pictures of Mr Hart's fairground rides are rarely seen.  Here, then, is one sample screen shot from the video.




Finally, the one topic which left the confines of the Abbey, Verulamium Park and city centre, came to rest in our patch, more specifically "Marshalswick and Jersey Farms."  The narrator was not specific but mentioned "Woodstock Road and Sandpit Lane," which was rather vague, especially in connection with the first quote.  A family picnic – mother, father and two children.  Well, I assume that the camera operator is the father of the family.  No buildings are visible, the ground is steeply sloping, the landscape is scrubby and there is evidence of the base of a tree trunk.  Mother and the two children are shown, with the boy in his school blazer.  Does anyone recognise this family?  The film was taken in the late fifties.  Over to you!

The video is still available as a DVD, from www.bygonefilms.org.uk

Trust the park

A public forum meeting took place on Thursday last at the Council Chamber.  Its purpose had intended to be to discuss and to take forward proposals from the council's legal department, updating the Trust Deed which governs part of Clarence Park.  Rumours and counter-rumours ensured that there was also a sizeable public presence, as much concerned about what St Albans City Football Club may or may not be proposing; and whether the council's intended trust changes and the club's ideas were suspiciously linked.

A shaded corner of the council-run part of Clarence Park.

From the historian's perspective I could not help wondering what history would make of this civic spat; how would it be recorded for someone in the course of the next century to make sense of?

Let's start with the Trust Deed.  Since the formation of the park in 1894, the sporting area of the park – what the deed refers to as the recreational park – is controlled by the trust, and historically the trustees are all members of the city council cabinet.  The area nearest to Hatfield Road, which has all the nice trees, the children's play area and the bandstand, is managed directly by – the city council!  So the proposal is to have the trust deed cover the whole of the park, "to make it more straightforward to manage".  So far, so good.  But the original wording of the deed would, if agreed to, be embellished, with clauses such as, "the power to permit clubs, societies and organisations to carry out improvements to the recreation ground and to erect buildings and provide equipment,"  and "the power to acquire land."

This is where many smelled a rat and made their own connection with what they had heard the football club was up to.  News of a stadium, restaurants and a nursery had done the rounds, and for many that was several steps too far for a traditional Edwardian park.

City Football Club owner Lawrence Levy was present and was asked directly to explain his proposals.  It appears that there are four options which the club is considering:  a future entirely in the football zone at the park; one where the match centre is at the park with ancillary training and youth facilities elsewhere; the reverse of option two with the match centre elsewhere; and full facilities elsewhere with no presence at the park whatsoever.

A vista across the formerly gravel-worked Butterwick Farm.

The "elsewhere" site being considered by the club is already well advertised.  The East End of St Albans would be home to the new site, on space behind the north side of Colney Heath Lane.  Some of us will recall this as the home of former Butterwick Farm and Smallford Farm.  It appears to be a sensible location, near the bypass and and a walking route, Alban Way; although, no doubt, residents of the lane and its little closes will have reservations.


By the end of the evening those against football club developments at the park could relax a little, for the main decision turned on the Trust Deed alterations, plus one other rather important aspect.  The meeting was part of a wider public consultation, which included a survey form.  Many considered the questions to be poorly worded, with several of them leading the respondents towards a particular answer.  The meeting told the council to look again at the Trust Deed and to obtain advice from experts on creating a better survey form.