London Colney Secondary School (revised)

 

Revised copy with additional map, and text in italics 25 June.

Here is an unusual post because it features London Colney marginally outside of our East End.  And it refers to an event just a few years before the closure of the village's Secondary School.

Until the 1980s there were few secondary schools located in any of the county's villages.  In the south of the county there were three: Redbourn, Wheathampstead and London County; four if Kings Langley is included, but that school still thrives  Most of the other villages in the days of Elementary Schools lost their senior pupils to existing or new senior – later secondary – establishments in nearby towns.

Apart from the array of cars, this is what the building always looked like from the Alexander Road
entrance.  In the 1960s there were more staff bikes in the bike shed than staff cars at the kerbside.
COURTESY LONDON COLNEY BUSINESS CENTRE

A recently available map series from 1968 now provides a new step in the change to building arrangements at the school.  Further references to this map are added in italics to the original blog.

A newly published map from 1968 was not available when this blog was first published. It
confirms the gymnasium and changing rooms were in top right section, and the former ROSLA
temporary classroom building was in area B in the aerial photo below.  Are we correct in
suggesting a caretaker's house was within the long rectangle in the top left area of the map?
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

London Colney Secondary closed in 1984, although the buildings are still in use as a business centre.

We know that the senior school was built on its Alexander Road site in two phases shortly after 1928 and in about 1932.  The next building to arrive was c1946 in the form of a temporary two-classroom structure, to prepare for the school leaving age uplift from 14 to 15.  These structures were known as ROSLA classrooms (Raising Of School Leaving Age). The 1968 OS revision indicates this building was in location B in the aerial map below.

The next arrival was in c1962; a gymnasium and changing rooms, the former changing rooms adjacent to the assembly hall then being converted into a small library. The 1968 OS revision indicates the gymnasium and changing rooms were in location A but the rectangular building outline was perpendicular to the car park now on the right of A.  This car parking area was the tennis courts.

Alexander Road curves around the lower left corner, and Parham Way is laid out top-bottom near
the left edge.  The primary school is out of view on the left.  For those who recall the school, though perhaps not the current layout, will be able to identify the quadrangle or green space in the
centre of the existing classroom layout.
The letters may help readers to identify particular teaching areas they remember at the time
they may have attended the school.
COURTESY LONDON COLNEY BUSINESS CENTRE

Most villagers who are long-term residents will probably have recalled   a serious fire c1980 centred on the assembly hall.  The current aerial photograph (see above) reveals that the original pitched roof structure of the hall has been replaced by flat roofed accommodation, but is this the replacement hall or was it transformed into, perhaps, a dining room or teaching area?

Two other separate building extensions were completed in short order and formally opened by Gordon Beningfield in May 1981.

One was on the North-West side of the building and replaced the former small ROSLA building (though the school probably had a different name for it). Part of it looks as though it might have included a Welcome area and Administration, but the remainder of this substantial structure had another function or functions, whatever they might have been.

The remaining separate building was on the South-east side playground.  It was undoubtedly a specialist teaching building; perhaps science or technology.

One more building which does not appear on the aerial photograph: the gymnasium and changing rooms added to the school estate c1962.

The writer taught at the school in 1963-4 and is fairly certain the new gymnasium occupied a plot on the edge of the playing field and which now  appears to have become a demolished section of the site on the south side of Parham Way.  It does seem strange that this potentially useful community resource was not saved for further use. The demolished block is visible at the top of the aerial photograph.

Press photo taken in 1932 on completion of the second phase of building work, which
formed the complete school as it remained for the next nearly fifty years.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER

Photographs of the school's buildings are also in short supply, and I would ask readers of this post who have any such examples to reply below.

In particular anyone who can add to, or correct, information given in this post is urged to get in touch.

A Muddy Alley

 This week's blog is very different; it may have a couple of street plates, but if many vehicles use it – which they don't – there will be comments about the surface, and flooding occasionally.  Signs inform about privacy, for this is not a publicly maintained road.  It should have sported the name Central Drive, for that was its intended name, or so the maps promised from 1929.  But World War Two reared its vicious head while the Beaumonts building estate was only partly complete.  So the road which should have begun at Oakwood Drive barely reached Beechwood Avenue by 1945, and children of the time could continue what they had had always enjoyed; jumping in puddles, exploring the thicket, at Christmas collecting holly, and taking their usual shortcuts through the muddy alley to Beaumont Avenue.  It wasn't really a short cut; just as long or short as any other way to where we wanted to walk or cycle.  But it was far more interesting; far more of a mini adventure, and the lane was called the Muddy Alley for good reason at times.  And still is!

Farm Road from the Beaumont Avenue end.  Though thicketed on each side the track has probably
never been wider than we see it today.

 

Because it is a privately owned route many nearby residents are still unaware of post-war detached and semi-detached homes down there somewhere in the darkened lane!  Even during the earlier days of the new estate Beechwood and Beaumont homes with sizeable gardens had made arrangements for accommodating future homes which might line what became known as Farm Road, even though they had not originally been intended; just like Harptree Way, lined only by the rear gardens on both sides.  But there are today four homes embedded on either side of Beechwood and Beaumonts properties.

Farm Road from the Beechwood Avenue end, although before the 1920s it extended as far
as halfway along the western end of Central Drive.  Indeed the farm lane was intended to be named
Central Drive right through to Beaumont Avenue. 

The farm quoted in the title of the lane was Beaumonts Farm which stood until 1938, approximately where Irene Stebbings House in Woodland Drive now stands.  The lane or track, which of course still branches at right angles off Beaumont Avenue and is still as thickety as it always was, although until the houses came it was rather longer, opening up once more where the electricity sub-station in Central Drive now is.  For probably a thousand years or more men and women have trodden their way to work the land, driven their horses, ridden their carts from the time since our forebears first ploughed the land, taken their crops to market or traded with others nearby.

Beaumonts Farm homestead demolished 1938 to permit a start on new homes in Woodland Drive
north, although it would be another eight years before most would proceed, halted by the Second 
World War,

The previous farmhouse and Manor House drawn c1800 shortly before its demolition.  The
foreground with a little jetty is a moat inside which was an even earlier building of probably
mid mediaeval age.  Remains of the moat were still evident before laying out the houses on the
corner of Central Drive and Woodland Drive south.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

Before the farmhouse was built in the 1830s there had stood the former 17th century manor house close to Central Drive and Woodland Drive south; and before that an even earlier medieval house lay protected inside the arms of a moat.

As our forebears had started out on a journey, with fresh water from a spring or the well, or even from the stream where Eaton Road is now just about dry, their trek or ride would have led them along an ancient route way across country on or off the chalk and bisecting tracks or later roadways, leading in other directions.  First from the left would have been the roadway towards Bishops Hatfield and Ely, and later the way to London.  Leaving Beaumonts on the right a traveller could first have reached the Roman Verulamium and pre-Roman settlements to the north and all manner of trading places and manorial headquarters in between.  

1946 aerial photograph showing Beechwood Avenue, the white
road to the right. Farm Road and the western end of Central Drive
cross the centre of the photo.  On either side of the lane is land
not yet developed (see also map below).
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

Ordnance Survey 1939 survey illustrates the undeveloped land shown in the aerial photo
above.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

How people communicated, settled and traded a thousand years ago may have been very different, but communicate, settle and trade they did.  Had we have lived in the 16th century within striking distance of the farm lane and the ancient track, we may have been aware of the Manor House and its barns and stores which held a strategic and defensive significance; Thomas Cromwell, or at least his men, were regular visitors to maintain a fair number of horses at the ready here and in other nearby locations in case of insurrection or trouble from the wider region.

Beaumont Avenue (or simply The Avenue) taken in the first decade of
the twentieth century, but the route as a cross country track has a
heritage extending back millennia, long before land was brought into
cultivation; before even permanent settlement.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

We who today live in our residential area of Beaumonts, great in number though we may be, whether freemen and women or serfs and occasional travellers or traders, their domestic accommodation was scattered and were subject to the community rules and laws governed by manorial lords from the manor before more settled and uniform local government became the norm.

Our local communities have come a long way in the past one or two millennia and we would not recognise our district's past in any shape or form today. But we still walk the former lane to the farm, called Farm Road; and following much rain possibly still known as Muddy Alley.  Names stick, just like the mud and wet chalk!

Punctuate appropriately

 Fifteen years ago when the title of this website and of the two volumes of the book were being considered, I, as author, was determined to use part of a quotation spoken by a well-known St Albans' councillor of the time – 1912.  He had described the growing development of Fleetville as being part of "St Albans' Own East End".

My publisher advised that I should avoid any title which included an apostrophe, for specific reasons that search engines are, well, specific and that "most searchers would not bother to include an apostrophe in their search term."  The second alleged fact may well be true.  In fact, the first may also be true in some cases.  Computer search engines may, indeed, be confused by apostrophes – or other punctuation as well – but designers of software are surely more intelligent and so their software should be able to handle punctuation as part of their searches where required.

The author won in the battle of apostrophe or no apostrophe!

A North Yorkshire street plate, traditionally set with an apostrophe.  Last week North Yorkshire
decided to banish apostrophes on new street plates.  Within a matter of days the authority had
changed its collective mind in the face, apparently, of public opposition.
COURTESY BBC/NAJMODAK

You may recall that recently the North Yorkshire local authority, responsible for the naming of streets and the fitting of appropriate street plates.  It appears the authority has recently declared street names which require the inclusion of apostrophes would have to be displayed without them, on the rather dubious grounds that computer finding and sorting aids can't locate streets in their indices "because those same computer lists do not include them; they therefore can't be found!"  Existing plates will remain with apostrophes or without them as initially made and not replaced.  But in future streets would definitely remain sans apostrophe.

The new policy did not last long; barely a week in fact.  Announced, published in the press and pilloried by local residents who had fully learned such usual grammar and did not wish to tut-tut every time they walked past St Michaels Lane or Butchers Walk.  Others may prepare themselves armed with black permanent pens to add or otherwise alter an errant sign, possibly even adding "gr" as a correction mark!  The NY authority turned its back on the new policy as quickly as it had been invented; and all is back to normal.

This most certainly IS St Albans, located adjacent to Jersey Lane.  I have no knowledge of
Jodie and presumably the creator of the plate had received no instruction concerning an apostrophe.

Now, what about St Albans?  There are well over three hundred named streets in St Albans' Own East End, and fortunately for those who are obliged to manage the "house style" these days only thirty would require the use of an apostrophe, if only its application was not ignored.  The latest installation appears to be Jodie's Court – though I am still attempting to discover who Jodie is or was.  This road is displayed completely without an apostrophe.

Now here's an interesting set of installations: you might imagine that a long road equipped with a full set of six street plates all or most of these in Marshal's Drive would be completely lacking in apostrophes.  However, the opposite is true: only one plate is missing its apostrophe; hooray!

Proof that online or computer created indexing can indeed work with apostrophes.  Google located
Marshal's Drive correctly and showed the reference on screen.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

Five out of the six Marshal's Drive signs carry an apostrophe; this one is at the top
end of the road.

Its nearby companion was originally spelled with a double L, but careful use of white paint
obliterated the second L with the exception of a comma shape left in black to form an
apostrophe.

Meanwhile, at the lower end of the road one plate was manufactured with no apostrophe, no
doubt as a later replacement.

But in an intriguing error, one sign was originally manufactured with a double L but no apostrophe.  At some time after being located at the upper end, white paint was applied to obliterate the second L, but part of the top of this letter was shaped to form a pseudo apostrophe! Inventiveness!

On an example of other signs, in Hatfield Road outside St Paul's Church is a grammatically correct
St Paul's Church sign header, above ...

... and nearby the notation is minus the word Church and minus an apostrophe; oh, but it does
include an abbreviation stop, which is missing from the first panel.

But away from street plates there are a few inconsistencies elsewhere  too.  Walk along Hatfield Road and you will find two signs on the frontage of St Paul's Church.  One says St Paul's Church; the other just plain St Pauls (but without the word Church).  Did the signwriter decide, no church so no apostrophe?  Or were there deeper meanings at play?  Just one example, but I am sure there are others if we were to search for them.

Selwyn

This week's group of three featured roads.

 Thousands of us drive along Hatfield Road between St Albans and Hatfield, and give scant attention to the residential district between Smallford and Ellenbrook.  Before the twentieth century there was Popefield Farm on the north side, and Wilkins Green and Great Nast Hyde (GNH) to the south. The house ran a farm at that time, and if you walked south of Wilkins Green Lane, behind GNH, you would find a second farm known as Little Nast Hyde.

Little building in evidence between Smallford and Hatfield in the 1890s.  Here are Great Nast 
Hyde and its farm, and just across Wilkins Green Lane is Little Nast Hyde Farm.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

A photo study of Great Nast Hyde composed and photographed by Arthur Cherry of St Albans
over a century ago.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

GNH includes Listed Elements on the English Heritage database, but that is not the reason for its inclusion in this week's blog.  Nor is its age of over 400 years.  Nor is the adjacent Little Nast Hyde farm.  However, for much of this time the estate and house was owned by the Kentish family and then a branch of the Hart Dykes; there were other owners as well!

In order to structurally improve the house after a long period of neglect at the beginning of the twentieth century land between the later .... and Ellenbrook Lane was sold for housing development, a golf course and a little railway halt to connect with Hatfield Station.  The development had been interrupted by the First War and in the 1920s estate land was acquired for the building of the Barnet Bypass, now part of the A1(M).

Selwyn College Cambridge

Bishop George Augustus Selwyn
COURTESY ATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

This provided the opportunity to restart the aborted house building and so materialised the sale of the remaining unbuilt land on the GNH estate.  It is believed that it was this sale which became a bequest to benefit Selwyn College, Cambridge.  The connections and chronology is not certain, but Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, having played  key roles in Cambridge and New Zealand, later became Bishop of Lichfield.

Following his death in 1878 a number of Cambridge scholars planned to honour Welwyn's life by establishing a college in his name.  While there were buildings it was not until 1926 that Selwyn changed to become an approved foundation college; and there must have been building works and bursaries associated with such an upgrade status.  We presume that an owner of GNH had been an associate of the college and possibly a former scholar; resulting in the donation of funds from this part of Hertfordshire.

Ordnance Survey 1937 showing the mainly complete Selwyn estate in the centre of the extract,
and the recently begun Poplars estate to the left.  St Albans Road West crosses the top section
of the map.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The two estates referred to in this post.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

In view of proposed estate's connection with the college the three roads which comprised the residential development were named Selwyn Drive, Selwyn Crescent and Selwyn Avenue.  One further road, Brookside, was completed post WW2, as was the development on the west side of Ellenbrook Lane, begun in the 1930s and completed in the 1950s.

Selwyn Drive
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

Selwyn Avenue
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

Streets we named

 There are developers who are content to build homes and go as far as laying our their estate and perhaps consulting a list of house types and road names.

Then there are those who do the job properly, who feel embedded in their home areas, who grew their businesses within their home patch, later expanding and feel a pride in delivering home style names and roads to connect where they began with wherever they have reached in their business experience.  The developer Thomas H Nash, Nash Homes, was one such firm.

So, let's explore a few of Marshalswick Farm Estate's roads and pick a few connections.  It may help us to discover that the Nash family were of Chiltern origin, and it also helps to understand that the region abounded in brickworks and is nationally known for its timber industry, especially for furniture manufacture; the major town in this respect being High Wycombe.

Let's start with High Wycombe, original home of the T F Nash family.

A green corner of Wycombe Way "round the back of The Quadrant."

Straight away therefore, we have connections with the town of High Wycombe, having given its name to an unprepossessing thoroughfare behind The Quadrant, often known for its long-stay parking and tall brick walls. 

A short step along The Ridgeway long distance path...

... now formalised into a National Trail.

A rather shorter The Ridgeway extending from Marshalswick Lane to... well, further along
Marshalswick Lane.

But on a completely different scale is The Ridgeway, created to circumscribe the residential development, leaving Marshalswick Lane at one point only to rejoin it just over over half a mile later.  Part of the actual route had been laid out for Nash in the form of a lengthy track curving through the former Marshalswick Farm.  Historically, geologically and topologically, The Ridgeway is a an ancient long-distance track way of some 5,000 years of almost constant trading use between the West Country and The Wash, and containing a number of ground monuments cut into the chalk surfaces at occasional locations.  Much of its distance is now part of a National Trail.

Traditional flint houses in Great Kingshill.

View along Kingshill Avenue.

Of the small settlements north of High Wycombe the earliest to have been given a Chiltern name, was named after Great Kingshill – and its partner settlement of nearby Little Kingshill.  At Marshalswick two roads get a bite out of this naming as, in addition to Kingshill Avenue was a C-shaped road known as Kingshill Crescent.  However, the latter was altered to Queens Crescent in 1952 (ascension of Queen Elizabeth II) to reduce confusion for the postman! 

Rather more than a village today: Hazelmere.

A corner of Hazelmere Road

Hazelmere Road bisects the eastern half of the estate between Sherwood Avenue and The Ridgeway south. It would be hopeful to think of Hazelmere still being recorded as a village although it has long since outgrown that status with much post war housebuilding (not I think by Nash! and not in the Nash style).  For us in St Albans and nearby Hatfield it is appropriate that the parents of aviator and aircraft designer Geoffrey de Havilland, Rev Charles and Alice de Havilland, had a church minister living nearby where Geoffrey spent his childhood.

A corner of Hughenden Valley.

A calm Hughenden Road.

Hughenden Road also a forms a link between Sherwood Avenue (together with Wycombe Way) and The Ridgeway, forming an attractive soft edge to the high density zone (HDZ).  The link is with the dispersed Buckinghamshire locality of Hughenden Valley, where is located Hughenden Manor, formerly home to the Disraelis (Benjamin Disraeli, twice Prime Minister).

I wonder whether Chiltern-related roads also feature in other Nash developments in the company's history.  Expect a footnote another time; meanwhile we're not done yet with roads in Marshalswick.

Entente Cordiale

 These two words may have passed you by during this week, but those who were very much part of the national and local scene at the beginning of the twentieth century were fully aware of Entente Cordiale.

For centuries there had been deteriorating and then improving relationships between the governments of Britain and France; for much of the time those relationships were unsatisfactory.  So, for the new century extra efforts were made to patch up quarrels and carry out a range of "shaking hands".

Entente Cordiale did not result in formal signed and countersigned documents, but did ensure that better relationships were able to counter a growing German influence on the continent.  For both countries there were opportunities to show off national pride in traditional social, artistic and cultural demonstrations.  And St Albans played its part, so the acquisition of numbers of flags of both nations was essential for events taking place on or around 8th April 1904.

The opening ceremony at the cricket pavilion in Clarence Park in 1894.  Wet of course!
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

A view of the newly laid out recreation area of Clarence Park.  All three structures shown here
are still part of the park scene, although the current bandstand is a replaced structure.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

One venue which St Albans could show off with some pride was Clarence Park, largely completed and formally opened ten years earlier in the company of royal and national dignitaries, and of course the cream of county and St Albans society – given that the opening in 1894 took place on a working day, the pride of the populace and their attendance was largely missing, given their need to attend work places.

Three years after the park's opening a commemorative celebration of the city's teachers in
schools was held in Clarence Park.
OWNERSHIP OF IMAGE UNKNOWN

A number of celebratory and inaugural events took place in the years which followed, and it was natural therefore that Clarence Park was also selected as the venue for Entente Cordiale.  The Town Hall and Market Square were suddenly considered inadequate, almost as if the centre of St Albans was judged to be a poor relation site.

A dance routine forming an element of the Entente Cordiale celebration at Clarence Park in 1904
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

We have the briefest of descriptions of the event; we know there were speeches, dancing, singing, flag waving and dramatic scenes similar to those of later pageants.  In addition to the "full turn-out" of officialdom, the event was attended by "large crowds".  The use of this term must be treated with some caution, as much will depend on the numbers expected.  While the agreement was signed on 8th April, a Friday, it is not certain whether the event in the park was held on the same day.  It would be good to hope the following day would have been for the celebrations; more citizens and those from the surrounding districts would have been able to attend.  On that last point, however, the city council were luke-warm to the thought of residents of the rural council enjoying the park facilities without a grant on their behalf being transferred to the town!  An example of local entente cordiale did, however, gradually break out in the ensuing years!

An echo of Entente Cordiale in 1912 between scouts of France and Great Britain.  This friendship
photo-opportunity did not take place in St Albans.
OWNERSHIP UNKNOWN

It appears there were replays in various forms in the years following 1904 before the national and local focus was re-calibrated in 1914, where, we suppose, the Entente received its most demanding test of success and endurance.

Dellfield

 

The loop of Dellfield with its short spurs.  To the right is the cutting of the former Hatfield and
St Albans Railway (Alban Way).  Way up to the left is the parched grass of Cunningham Open
space.  London Road is beyond the top of the picture.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

Recently, this blog told the story of Cell Barnes Lane.  Its northern limit reached Cunningham Hill Farm and the location where the Lane joined Camp Lane, now Camp Road. Go further and we quickly reach a much-changed and complex land layout with the Dellfield residential area at its heart.

For once we can also make reference to the landscape photograph which has always been used as the masthead for the St Albans' Own East End website and this blog.  It was taken from the upper section of Cunningham Open Space, looking above the rooftops of Dellfield towards the city; the heavy tree screen and elevation shielding the view of Dellfield's homes.  Walking along Dellfield itself, and looking upwards towards the photographer, the difference in elevation is remarkably steep.

The 1840 tithe map, to which has been added the names given to the fields at that time. Dellfield
is built on Dell Field and Up and Down Field; Breakspear estate replaces Twelve Acres and
Fifteen Acres; Springfield estate grew from Cunningham Hill Field and Spring Field.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

The same landscape in 1875; still exclusively rural although two railways have now arrived.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

By 1937 the housing is more-or-less as we know it today.  Orchard estate, adjacent to London
Road is partly built (see below).  Only London Road estate on either side of Cell Barnes Lane
is still to come.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

In the mid 19th century much of the land was owned by Earl Verulam and tenanted by Frederick Gough from Cunningham Hill Farm.  The tithe map from 1840  names its fields, including Barn Field and Fox Croft, after which the roads Barn Croft Way and Foxcroft were given their names.  Cunningham Green Space was created from two fields: Barn Field and Four Acres. 

Against the steep hill leading to the hamlet at the crest of Camp Hill was a small broadly triangular arable space known as Dell Field.  It neatly described its form, as one side of a valley side, of which the Camp Hill was a part.  A footpath is still available from opposite the first Dellfield spur; it climbs the hill and crosses over to the former farm via Park Hill Close.  You will certainly appreciate the gradient! At one time a small chalk stream, rising in Marshalswick, flowing towards Fleetville and along where Campfield Road is now created, passed through this dell towards London Road towards River Ver.  The undulating landscape on which the Orchard estate was developed gives us a clue to the irregularity of the topography the stream would have navigated to find its way through this part of St Albans. But evidence of the stream's exact route is missing from maps as it was a watercourse not visible on the surface for several hundred years.

These flats stand at the beginning of the road named Dellfield on a small field called the Dell Field.
Behind them is a steep hill; you will know it if you have walked up Camp Hill.  Also behind
the flats was the St Albans Rubber Works and its associated football field, later to become a
dahlia field for Ernie Cooper of Hatfield Road.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

The road named Dellfield, designed in a long loop, was created c1930, within a long rectangular field which describes the landscape from which it was formed: Up and Down Field.  So, the Dellfield estate was not built on the the field of the same name; that was used to create the access road to reach the housing.  The residential flats built here in more recent times were making good use of the small field which, until then, had offered only a limited contribution to the area's housing.

The Camp Lane and its settlement are on the left, and the Rubber Works when it first arrived
on Corner Acres Field from London Road.  The foreground shows the chalk scarp which
demonstrates the nature of the topography the builders had to contend with
in creating the housing community.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

One short spur on the northwestern length of Dellfield's loop leads nowhere, of course, because the field's boundary coincided with the line of the branch railway from Hatfield, although the field boundary may have been in a slightly different location before the railway arrived.  On the other side of the railway (now Alban Way) Flora Grove was laid on the Breakspear estate.  Although no bridge was created between the two there is much circumstantial evidence of nearby residents making a pedestrian connection between the two estates by means of the railway cutting between the two spurs.

Beyond the Dellfield housing there had been an intention to provide a permanent pedestrian connection towards London Road via what remained of the Half Mile Bottom Field. A footpath was created between two of the houses on the road's southern loop, as evidenced by the 1937 map and the remaining kerb line.  However, the path itself has long since been absorbed into the plot of a neighbouring house.   Clearly, in the early years the route from hear to London Road was an informal but useful link, across what little remained of Half Mile Bottom Field next to London Road as the Midland Bridge strikes obliquely across that road. Doubtless Dellfield residents used the path to reach various work places, or  London Road Station, still open then.  

This field was Half Mile Bottom Field; the map symbols showing closely spaced parallel lines
next to London Road show how the road was cut into the chalk, and therefore the challenge of
turning this field into the Orchard estate – here it is partially complete.  The green line from the
end of Dellfield's loop shows how its early residents could reach London Road.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Looking towards London Road from above the southern end of the Dellfield loop.  This view
looks towards the Orchard estate.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

The remaining field was gradually built on during the 1930s, and the growing little Orchard estate eventually suffocated access to London Road, the path between the Dellfield homes was closed off.

In a not unrelated issue, three of the original semi-detached houses in Aspasia Close were later demolished to provide sufficient space for a number of flatted homes.  It was only then that this spur of Dellfield was given the separate name of Aspasia Close, an extension of the collection of roads named after a genus of orchids in recognition of the former Sander orchid nursery in the locality.

This post has provided some clue to the human effort required to mould the landscape to our needs of the time, but the story would be incomplete if the wider story of Camp Road, and the forcing of the railway through this landscape, was not also explored; which we will do on another occasion.