This is it!

The front page of the website had been counting down for several days.  Finally, on Wednesday 21st March 2012, the message changed to  'This is it!"   'This' referred to the day of the launch event, which was held at St Paul's Church, Blandford Road.  Over fifty guests joined author Mike Neighbour at an informal evening.  This was no dry gathering of academics, but a bringing together of people who expressed their fascination for local history through animated conversation, even though some had not met each other before.

During the evening Mike Neighbour gave a presentation on the development of Project SAOEE – the seven-year-long research which had made the book St Albans' Own East End possible.  Given that much had been gleaned from the Herts Advertiser, and that the newspaper gained from several hundred mentions in the book, its absence from the evening was widely noted.  However, Mike used part of his presentation to acknowledge the key role of local newspapers in recording the events of the community.

Until this point no-one had even spotted a copy of the book; but at the conclusion of the presentation Mike unveiled, first, an open copy set in splendid isolation on a burgundy-coloured cushion – burgundy is the key colour used in the book.  Then, with a flourish, off came the wraps hiding the piles of books pre-purchased by dozens of subscribers.  Theirs was a special, cloth-covered edition with dust jacket, and the author had also autographed the title page in advance.

The ordinary retail edition was also represented: hardback laminated covers with silky smooth pages, shining bright white against the burgundy table covering on which they were sitting.

Guests were, most of all, surprised at the sheer scale of the work.  The base facts 'hardback, A4, 368 pages' does not prepare the reader for the glorious volume of the work.  But it is only when the cover is turned and the inside glimpsed, that the wonder of the book is revealed.  Every open page is busy and the eyes and brain engage to explore the detail.  Between the text are photographs and coloured panels telling details of objects, special stories, and dateline events.

All over the room people were comparing their copies as they took in the measure of the purchase they had made.

It was not until the following day that the same open book was presented to the world on the front page of the website; and not until March 23rd, official publication day, that copies were dispatched via the local post office to others, or delivered by hand to those in the city.  How many other books get personally delivered by their authors?

And when did such an event last happen in St Albans?  Truly a red letter day.

Ten year plan for Museums

St Peter's Street does not look like this any more, and somehow
the building is made to look less dominating as it guards
Market Square.

The announcement this week of the District Council's ten year plan for the city's two museums must be welcome – and surprising – news.  In addition to a substantial addition to the size of Verulamium Museum, it is also to take on a wider brief, adding medieval to the ancient and Roman periods.

Meanwhile, in the city centre, an apparent solution to the dire state of the Museum of St Albans (MoSTA) has been found.  The Old Town Hall is a building looking for a purpose; and the museum  in Hatfield Road is a function with a poor building.  The intention is to bring MoSTA to the heart of the city, overlooking Market Square.

Although not widely known, we are still lucky to have the Old Town Hall.  There had been discussions about its future in the early part of the 20th century, and a proposal was put forward for its demolition, because it was very expensive to heat and even more expensive to keep its face looking clean.  Today, the future of the building seems secure, and if the museum moves here the more modern story of the city would be told in fitting surroundings and in a more central location.

I think it is a splendid idea, but its success will depend in being able to fund it, and to resolve the endowment issue over the present museum's Hatfield Road site; its sale would be an important part of the project.

The gentle lane

It will not have escaped the notice of regular drivers or walkers along Marshalswick Lane – the gentle lane of old and formerly known as New Road – how many addresses sport a builder's board at the boundary.  Even where no board exists, there is evidence of recent activity; the result of upgrading, extending, or at its most radical, demolition and re-building.

All of this current activity is on the southern side; the pre-war Marshalls Wick estate, even though several of the houses were not erected until the post-war years.  You bought a plot and paid for a bespoke design.  Which explains the variety of homes, from modest to 'manor house'. retiring to bold, two storey and bungalow.  Walk along the road today, and there is still evidence of the narrow lane along the footpath, where the hedge still forms the property boundary.

It's a far cry from the days when the bus couldn't get along the lane to serve the, then new homes of Kingshill Avenue on the other side of the road.

* * * * * * * * *

If you are still aching to tell a story about your school experiences, then it is still not too late to tell it.  The exhibition by Fleetville Diaries for 2012 is The Best Days of Our Lives.  It will first appear at the Fleetville Festival on Sunday March 25th at Fleetville Junior School.

How the Lane is changing; the south side is keeping many
builders in business as existing homes are upgraded,
extended, or simply replaced.

Email the author, or Liz Bloom of Fleetville Diaries (there's a link on the links page).  Better still if it includes a photograph.  The next three weeks will be busy but we will welcome any new contributions up to the last minute.

St Albans feels proud

This advert has the feel of the 1950s about it.
Another East End company, Marconi, with
sites at Longacres and Hatfield Road,
supplied a world market in communications
and electronics products.

There are many firms and their products which either have/had their roots in St Albans, or chose the city in which to expand.  I always remember my first seminar in georgaphy at Birmingham.  Our prof really impressed me by knowing some industrial process, product or company which thrived in every town from which my fellow students came.  I nearly caught her out, however.  She informed everyone, "that I lived very close to Shredded Wheat town."  Which of course it was; the station name plates had formerly stated 'Welwyn Garden City, the home of Shredded Wheat'.  It was produced by the firm having the trade name Welgar, a shortened form of the town's name.

There are, or were, dozens of much smaller firms, who, although they did not have a name on the national stage, were very familiar locally; two of them with names many people confused.  There was Tuckett's, a well-known local ironmongery and general stores from Camp and Hatfield roads.  And then there was Tuckey's.  Tuckey's owned a car sales and repair trade.  Today such a trade in the Broadway, St Peter's Street would be unthinkable.  But in the 1920s they sold Ford cars from where the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) premises are now.  The firm also developed a piece of ground on the corner of Grimston Road and Stanhope Road, where now ATS will provide exhausts and repair brakes.  A Tuckey's advertisement is on the welcome page.

Two academies

From separate girls' and boys' elementary schools admitting
c300 pupils in 1938, the mixed establishment of over twelve
hundred has proposed its next step.

Last year it was announced that the presently-named Francis Bacon School was about to re-style itself.  In the current vogue for such matters it was about to become an academy.  Presumably this has more to do with top level organisation and funding than the nuts and bolts of classroom curriculum.  From September and its change of name – the Samuel Ryder Academy – it will also become an 'all-through' school, which, I assume will solve the issue of primary places for children growing up at Highfield.  An interesting concept this, because all-through schools were the norm from the 1870s onwards,  through the board schools era and local authority elementary structure; in St Albans they only disappeared in the 1930s.

Turning to a secondary school which began as  senior elementary schools, it has been announced that Beaumont is applying for academy status, and hopes this will run from September 2012.  Given that Beaumont is a highly successful secondary school, specialising in languages, maths and computing, there must be key financial and independence reasons for this move.  No decisions have yet been made, but it is in the public domain, there having been an item in the Herts Advertiser last week.

BLOG

This blog is now available to view in an alternative format.  At present a link on the welcome page will take you there, where it  appears in a new window – this is the version you are now reading.  During the next few weeks preparations will be made to migrate the website to a new home on the web.  The address will be the same and its look and feel will remain as it is now.  There may be new or different features, and these would need to be explored.  One of these it the blog, and it is for this reason that the blog appears in two formats for the next month, after which the links will be changed and the existing format will be removed.

Winter colour

Wrap up and walk outside at this time of year and what do you see; what do you feel?  Much depends on the day itself.  We have experienced some flat. sombre, grey days and they can feel somewhat depressing.  Nevertheless, armed with an umbrella, an extra layer or two if it is especially cold, a scarf and hat, and the experience is embracing.  Every step of the way we can be looking forward to a hot cup of coffee when we return home.  That is, unless we take it with us in a small flask.

We have also witnessed days of brilliant blue skies, warmth from the sun on our faces, and a vague mist as the damp ground evaporates before our eyes.

When photographing, grey oppressive days produce flat pictures, which need some tinkering with afterwards.  On the other hand, harsh contrasts can be produced on sunny days and absolutely nothing resolves itself from the shadows.

If you're planning parkland – or a garden – for all year
inspiration, it would be a mistake to ignore dogwood
for its sheer brach warmth in the winter landscape.

Imagine my delight, therefore, to take a walk along Sandringham Crescent and dwell on the open woodland, taking in various dogwoods sporting their red-ness in the uplifting sunlight.  No shadows to worry about, just bold red and mellow green with the whisper of birch in the background.  Inspirational Marshalswick!

The story continues

"The journey is the reward" – Steve Jobs.

There is always a point in the writing of a history when the author has to rest his pen, as last week's blog outlined.  Whatever date is selected, there will be a day soon afterwards when fresh information adds to a part-told story.  Or additionally acquired information can cause existing research to lurch in a different direction.  

In history the story is never complete.  Most, if not all, of those stories in Volume 1 have the potential for exploration of alternative avenues, discovery of new witness statements, or have speculation replaced by firm facts.

Last week I referred to a plaque fixed to the entrance hall of W O Peake Ltd, and, of course, the many unanswered questions on this site also have a chapter to themselves in the book.  There are new leads on the Crown Hotel, on two properties between the Midland Railway and Granville Road. and on a group of cottages at Horseshoes.  A stunning new document has emerged concerning the Fleetville Cinema, expanding this topic significantly.  And that is not the only cinema with some surprising new documentation attached to it.

St Albans' Own East End Volume 2: Insiders will be a very interesting companion to Volume 1: Outsiders.  Only another fourteen months to wait!