Old Hatfield

 

Arm and Sword Lane 
Lane running down from the Great North Road past pub car park. Was once called ‘Blood and Gut Alley’ or ‘Bug Alley’ because of a slaughterhouse there. The road continues under the viaduct built to enable Lord Salisbury to access the Railway station.
Viaduct villas


Batterdale
Batterdale House. 18th house, demolished
Triangle House. This originally belonged to a tanner and there was an adjacent tan yard. Later a doctor’s surgery.  Demolished.
Convent. In 1925 Carmelite nuns built a convent on the site of the old Hatfield Brewery in Batterdale, by the railway station, and remained there until 1938
Hatfield Brewery. The Searancke family are the earliest own local brewers from the late 17th. In 1815 it was sold to Joseph Bigg but by 1819 was acquired by Joseph Field. By the 1830s it owned forty pubs and produced more than 7,600 barrels annually”. By the 1830s it was owned by the Pryor family, local Quakers. They had maltsters in Baldock and some of the family were partners in Truman, Hanbury and Buxton. The company was, Pryor, Reid & Co. Ltd. it expanded substantially taking over other local breweries. It closed in 1920.
Waters, The site of the brewery was acquired by W Waters & Co. who built their garage in a prominent position on the bend at the bottom of Brewery Hill – roughly covering Salisbury Square
Maltings.  Hatfield brewery owners the Searancke family had two maltings in Batterdale. One was later passed to the Hare family
Fire station. In 1900 the old Fire Engine House was sold to the Great Northern Railway and a new building was erected in Batterdale
Church hall.  The original church on the site, dedicated to The Blessed Sacrament and St.Teresa. It is now the hall for Marychurch. It was built 1929-30.
Platelayers Arms Pub 1880s-1920s
William Burgess clock making business. This was sited on the corner with London Road and closed 1920s. Later undertakers and bark and wood business

Beaconsfield Road
The line of the road was originally called Beaconsfield Terrace built in 1898 but the recent layout dates from 1970.
Road with industrial units between it and the railway which are built on the site of old sidings.  These have included woodworking, printing, engineering, heating and ventilating, tool making. Housing on the west side all removed.
This area was once known as Puttocks Oak and Whitewash Alley – some of this area is in the square to the north,
Rising Sun pub. When the railway was first built a level crossing was provide to from here to the Red Lion in the Great North Road
Police cottages – there were six police cottages next to the Rising Sun. They were demolished in bombing in 1944.

Broadway
The road name ‘Broadway’ seems to date from ‘regeneration’ of the mid 20th. Before that this was part of the Great North Road or London Road entering Hatfield from the south.  The construction of the present A1000 road, which by passes the town centre, meant that his could become an urban side road.  It leads from a roundabout on the A1000 to a junction with Fore Street and Park Street. It passes Marychurch which fronts onto Salisbury Square.
15 The Salisbury Restaurant. Now Offices.  Bolt by the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury in 1885 with a large public hall on the first floor. Later it became a Temperance Hotel – marked as this is nth in 1891 census and only appears on maps marked as a ‘pub’ in the 1930s. After the Second World War it became a restaurant, since closed
Dray House pub. This was next to the Salisbury. Prints show it as a free standing timber building
London Road (National) School was built by public subscription in 1850. It was located just south of the junction with French Horn Lane.  It was initially for girls and infants but boys came here after 1854, but in 1904 boys moved to Endymion Road. In 1913, the infants moved to a building in Church Street and in 1924, the girls also moved to Endymion Road. The London Road building was then used for adult education and as a library and was sold in 1935. The building remained, in industrial use into the 1960s but was then demolished,
1-5 K.C.V. Precision Tool Co. They used the old London Road school building.
One Bell pub. This was at the bottom of Fore Street on the corner with Broadway
Archway leading to Jacobs Ladder.
Old Workhouse Yard. Site of Salisbury Square.
William Waters’s car and bicycle repair shop 1900s.
James Gray.   Coach builder and motor repair works 1900s. This had grown from a wheelwright in the 1850s and a new building was on the site from 1886.  On the east side of the road it crossed to over and by 1994 was part of diamonds rover.  Both premises have been demolished

Church Street
This used to be called Back Street
Jacobs Ladder – this old staircase emerges here having come down from the original and older Salisbury Square
4 The Bakers Arms.  In 1850 it was owned by the Newtown Brewery who ran a bakers and a beer shop here. It was acquired by the Hatfield Brewery in the 1890’s and later by Beskins. In 1904 there was growing concern about the great number of public houses in the town, and In 1928 seven licences were refused in Old Hatfield, the Bakers Arms was one. It is a private house.
Two Brewers pub. It was here until the 1880s when it was replaced by the rectory
42b National Map Centre. Partner of OS.
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. In 1851 5 members held services in an old cow shed adjacent to the Two Brewers Pub. By 1864 there were 18 members and they moved to a new site
St. Audrey’s This was originally built as a rectory for rector, William Gascoyne Cecil - second son or the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. It has since been a home for the blind, offices and now a care home.
St Ethedreda's Church Hall - a building which was originally Countess Anne's School. In 1732 the Countess Anne of Salisbury founded a charity school for the education of forty girls. In the 1870s the school moved into this building and stayed until 1912. In 1913, the infants moved here from London Road. School. It is red brick with stepped buttresses.
Gate into Hatfield House estate. Building marked as a lodge.

Cranbourne Road
On the route of a path through allotments going to the station

Endymion Road
Schools. In the 1880s The London Road School was over-crowded and in 1904 a new building was opened here for the boys only. Before 1910 however it was called St Audrey’s. In 1924, the girls as came here and it became a mixed school. New buildings were added and the school expanded. In 1944 it was destroyed by bombing. In 1946 it was built as a Secondary Modern under the new Act and the County Council took it over as a Controlled School. The new St. Audrey’s Secondary Modem School was formally opened by the Minister of Education on 26th July 1946, being the first new school to be built in the country after the Second World War. In 1957 the school moved out and these buildings became the Broadoak Primary School, then it became the Onslow School - which in the 1970s was on both sides of the road. It is now the Countess Anne ‘Academy’ School with an address in School Lane
Hatfield Polytechnic. This was in the Onslow School building on the east side of the road and included the National Reprographic Centre. The site is now housing

Fore Street
This once led up from the Salisbury Arms to the old parish church on the hill and to the gate of the Old Palace. It was part of the Great North Road, used by traffic going from London to Edinburgh and all points in between
Fore Street Gatehouse, Lodge at Hatfield House entrance. It includes a porter's lodge and two cottages. It is in red brick and was part of the entrance to Bishop Morton's Palace, c1480 with 17th and 19th additions. In the wall is an Edward VII post-box.
The Gatehouse. This was the Salisbury Arms Hotel. Now houses and flats. The closed archway used to be the entrance to a courtyard for 100 horses as coaching stop on the Great North Road.  Some windows blocked because of the Window Tax. It was also once called the white Lion inn. It was used as a post office in the 19th.
Market House. In the middle ages fairs were held on the feast of St. Audrey. This stood at the bottom end of the road in the 17th.  It had an open ground floor and a room above.  Courts were held there and it had the official weights and measures. It was moved and the upper floor used as a school. It was demolished in 1850.
10 East Indian Chief Pub. This is now a private house.  In the 18th it was named The Roebuck and then the Nags Head, later it was the Marquis of Granby and then the Full Measure. It was the Indian Chief by 1855
12 Church Office. There is a letter box set into the wall.
11 This was a butcher’s shop 1940's - 1960's. Hooks for hanging the carcasses remain under the window eaves.
42 Crown House. Originally part of The Rose & Crown Public House dated 1495
St.Etheldreda. This is the largest church in Hertfordshire.  It was founded in 1240, and dedicated to the Saxon princess, Eltheldreda, or Saint Audrey. It was later rebuilt and the chancel and the transepts date from the 13th and the embattled tower, with its spike, was built in the 15th when a central tower was removed. In the Salisbury chapel, built 1618, is the tomb, of Robert Cecil who created the Hatfield House. Also that of Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister three times and four times as Foreign Secretary from 1885-1902.The 18th wrought-iron screen severs the chapel from the chancel and came from Amiens Cathedral. In the Brocket Chapel is William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne, Prime Minister 1835-41. In the Ludwicke Chantry is a memorial to Thomas Fuller, Rector of Hatfield from 1684 to 1712. The pulpit was designed by Sir Albert Richardson in 1947 as a War Memorial for both World Wars.
Churchyard. This includes a wooden grave marker of John Whitmore. At the east end of the churchyard is the private cemetery of the Cecil family.
Church Cottage. Made up of three 17th cottages standing in the church yard. Has been used as a house for curates.
Wrought-iron gates. It is said that once one of the seven pairs of gates, made in Sussex in 1710, which once enclosed St Paul's churchyard in London were here.

French Horn Lane
Section west of the railway
The section west of the railway was a new road built in 1970 through allotments while the old line of the road became a cul de sac.  The line of the ‘new’ French Horn Lane is a featureless main road and runs under the railway to the roundabout on the Great North Road from which The Broadway goes into Old Hatfield.
10 site of old Rectory, latterly Howe Dell School run on self expression principles.
Manfield and Berner Maltings. These were immediately before the old railway bridge. Later replaced by houses and now demolished.
Railway Bridge.  1893 Railway Bridge removed in 1970. The old bridge was on the line of the pedestrian underpass.
Wesleyan chapel built 1889 and closed in 1938. It then became a furniture store.   Demolished 1968 in order for the new roundabout and railway bridge to be built,
Herts Militia Buildings,
Walter’s Garage Workshops

Great North Road
The present Great North Road is the A1000 built as a bypass to the town centre. The previous road north from London ran through the centre of Hatfield – now Broadway and Park Street.  The road south of Batterdale was earlier ‘London Road’
Hertford Conservative Association offices.  Demolished,
Public hall, 1910.  Built by Lord Salisbury.  Silent movies and also originally a public library  Regent cinema opened in the mid 1930s.  Taking over from the old Public Hall opposite the railway station.  By 1970 it was a dual use cinema and bingo club, The Curzon. Lager as Chequers Bingo, since closed. Demolished.
52 Priory House. May have been a pub  demolished. Opened 1605 and then 1696. Called the Green Man and later The White Lion.  Searanake Brewery and the Bradshaws,
54 Great Northern PH - formerly the Hatfield Arms and before that the Great Northern Hotel and before that Duoro Arms. ‘Old railway workers pub’.
Hatfield Station.  This lies between Welwyn Garden City and Wenham Green on the Great Northern Railway and Thameslink, It opened in 1850. It once served two other lines – the branch line to Dunstable Town closed in 1965 and the railway to St.Alban's Abbey, opened 185 and closed in 1951. The station is a red brick box building from 1973, architect.  Hardy of British Railways Eastern Region. This was a much earlier station. Private waiting room for Marquess of Salisbury. In 2015 it had a bus interchange and taxi rank, refurbished ticket office, three new shops and step-free access to all platforms.
Multi-storey car park opened 2014
51 Encore House
61 GE Healthcare, offices, research and development, Life Care Solutions
& Ultrasound Education
Entrance gates to Hatfield House and Park. Late C19, gates, listed grade II, with low, curved brick walls. There are two carriage entrances, flanked by piers with stone lions and separated iron screen with the statue of the Marquess of Salisbury who built this gateway to provide access to the station. From here the drive goes on an embankment and over a bridge above the village street to the park entrance to the park.
Salisbury Statue. Bronze seated statue of Robert Arthur Talbot, Third Marquess of Salisbury, 1830-1903, He was three times Prime Minister.  Sculpture by G Frampton R.A., 1906. Stone base with Salisbury coat of arms and inscription.
Hatfield War memorial. This is next to the gates to Hatfield House, donated by Lord Salisbury. It commemorates 139 local servicemen who died in the Great World War and in 1921. The names are also recorded of those who died in air raids. It is in a garden enclosed by a clipped yew hedge and a wall. The Portland stone memorial cross is a wheel-head cross and there is a pavilion designed to provide shelter for visitors by Frederic Kenyon in 1918. There are inscriptions: “We will remember them 1939 – 1945/ (44 names)’ ... Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory mcmxiv – mcmxix/ (names) .... We will remember them 1939 – 1945/ (15 names)/ victims of enemy action on 3rd October 1940/ (21 names)/ victims of enemy action on 22nd September 1944/ (4 names)/ victims of enemy action on 10th October 1944/ (9 names)
Post Office and Telephone exchange. Designed by Frederick Llewellyn in 1936.  It included an automatic telephone exchange.  Closed 1961. There is a plaque about the opening on the building. It is now offices
76 Hatfield Social Club. Established 1934 and now in purpose built 1970s premises on the site of Northcotts
Northcotts House.  School run by Rev. Benjamin Peile, Curate of Hatfield in 1838 and closed around 1860.  Later used as Hatfield Red Cross hospital in the Great War donated by Lord Salisbury.  Home guard centre in the Second World War.  It was demolished in the 1970s to make way for a block of 25 flats also known as Northcotts.  
North Place.  Grade II listed 1795
Hatfield Park War Graves Cemetery. From September 1939 was used as a military hospital. A section of the park was laid out as a cemetery for burials from the hospital. It has 20 graves from the Second World War, plus a civilian airman. There is also a train crash memorial nearby
London Road School, This was near the corner with French Horn Lane. Later used by KCV Precision Tool Co. Thus National School was built by public subscription in 1850, It was initially for girls and infants but, in 1854, boys transferred to the school. From 1904, girls and infants only were in thus premises. In 1907, the name was changed to Church of England Schools. In 1913, girls only remained and left in 1924. The building was then used classes, adult education and a library. . It was eventually demolished as part of the Hatfield New Town development.

Hatfield House
King Edgar presented 'Hetfelle' to the monastery of Ely and in 1086  Domesday 'Hetfelle was still theirs By the early 12th it had become a residence for the bishops and Hatfield was known as Bishops Hatfield.
The Old/Bishop’s Palace. A very early brick palace was built 1480-49 by John Morton, Henry VII’s Archbishop. In 1538 the manor passed to the Crown and the palace became home to the royal children - Mary, Elizabeth and Edward.  Here Elizabeth and Mary spent many years of their childhood, in virtual imprisonment. Elizabeth’s first Privy Council took place in the great Hall. James I gave Robert Cecil Hatfield in exchange for Theobalds and the estate remains with his descendants. Cecil demolished most of Morton’s palace and built a new house.  What remains of the old palace is a line of buildings in red brick, with end gables and a central tower.   Over the archway of the gatehouse are ancient beams and a mullioned window. The west front has a square tower, and at the end a stepped gable is surmounted by a twisted chimney. The great hall remains,
Forecourt, on the west side of the Old Palace, with the stable yard and the churchyard of the parish church. A brick gatehouse gives access to Fore Street
The House. In 1611, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury built a Jacobean House adjoining the Old Palace. It decorated for entertaining the Royal Court, with State Rooms with paintings, fine furniture and tapestries. Examples of Jacobean craftsmanship include the Grand Staircase and the stained glass window in the private chapel. The south front, the wings, the central arcade, and the tower provide a vista. There is a clock tower from the roof of the great hall, with an octagonal dome. The hall rises to two floors and has spectacular carved screen. On the first floor is a long gallery. The second Marquis of Salisbury, built terrace gardens either side of the house and installed a maze, electric lighting, and water gardens.
Gardens. Extensive and complex gardens and park, created from medieval parks. Robert Cecil's formal, early C17 gardens were created by designers including Thomas Chaundler and Salomon de Caus, and planted by John Tradescant the elder, as head gardener. The gardens were landscaped in the C18, but then remodelled and extended in the C19 and C20   There Are original fountains, a large relief of Queen Elizabeth I and a maze.
Forecourt. Walls and gates 1845 and late C19, for the second and third Marquesses. Listed grade II. With red-brick and terracotta walls, and two further additional. A broad stone staircase leads up to the central front door of the house. Beyond the north front of the House are two pairs of brick and stone, gate piers with iron gates
South approach. Thus was the main entrance in the C17. It was aligned on the centre of the south front. The road way goes to a lodge, 2km tithe south south of the House.
West Gardens, these formal garden are overlooked by the C19 west terrace. The Privy Garden, bounded by a lime walk, has the West Parterre. To the west of this the lower Scented Garden, The Wilderness Garden extends south from these formal gardens, with the remains of C19 wooded pleasure grounds.
East Gardens, terraced gardens lead down a slope from the east front, a double flight of steps leads to the east parterre, with a C20 kitchen garden, an orchard and the Mount Garden. A flight of steps goes to the Maze Garden, and the Pool Garden, with swimming pool ad yew hedges. Beyond this is the New Pond and Wild Garden, laid out in the early C17
Maze 1840s, restored mid/late C20#
Hatfield Park is made up of several earlier parks, including Middle Park and Innings Park. The central area around the House and gardens is pasture, with scattered trees.
Oak tree. The remains of an old oak tree, under which Princess Elizabeth was reputably sitting when news was brought of her accession to the throne after the death of Mary Tudor, are still preserved.

Old French Horn Lane
This was diverted and partly closed in 1970.  These notes cover the original lane as well as the small section now there
Hatfield Gas Works. Company established in 1860 by Lord Salisbury. In 1925 taken over by the Welwyn and Hatfield Gas Co. This was on the south side of the road immediately next to the railway. Now partly St.Ethelreds Drive.

Park Close
Built on the site of a Non-Conformist Cemetery. Gravestones can still be seen at the far end

Park Meadow
Newish housing on previous dairy farm land,

Park Street
This was previously Duck Lane. Part of the road is known locally as Brewery Hill
1 Checkers Inn. This is now offices. The landlord was Thomas Serin in the early 17th and the pub was run by members of the Searancke family. The family business eventually grew into the Hatfield Brewery.
Brewery. John Searancke is known to have been the owner of a small brewery behind the Chequers Inn in 1582
2 Eight Bells Inn. This claims to be the pub house mentioned in Oliver Twist where Bill Sikes and his dog went after the murder of Nancy. It is low-roofed, timber-framed 16th building with a 19th front.
Jacobs Well 19th pub. This was opposite the Horse and Groom.
Park Street Chapel. Built 1823 the first nonconformist church in Hatfield. In 1925 it was congregational. Demolished in the 1960s but some gravestones remain
Butchers Arms. This was also opposite the Horse and Groom
21 Horse and Groom Pub. Grade public house it is based on a 17th or earlier timber frame with a later red brick casing. Still in business! It stands at the end of the old Arm and Sword Yard.
Park Street Brewery, This was leased to Arthur Sherriff and stood alongside the old Arm and Sword Yard. Complins Brewery was taken over in 1872 by Sherriff in 1899 .

Salisbury Square
Basically a car park, The original square was a double terrace of houses built for Sergeants of the Herts Militia. There was also a band room and an armoury and a communal pump. Hatfield was the headquarters of the militia 1852-1872. Demolished 1972.. The buildings on the west side follow the line of the old Great North Road.
Marychurch, RC. Planned in 1962 but built 1969-70. It was founded in 1930. Church designed by George Mathers; glass by Dom. Charles Norris and Dom. Paulinus Angold; font and welded steel screens and gates by Angela Godfrey.

School Lane
Called Old St Albans road

Stable Yard
Carl Russell Co Gunmakers Ltd. 60 years experience in the British gun trade and specialise in British shotguns as a gun makers.

St Eltheldreda  Drive
Site of Hatfield gas Works

Sources
Hatfield Borough Council. Web site
Hertfordshire Churches,
Hertfordshire
Historic England. Web site
Kirby & Busby. Hatfield. A pictorial history
Nairn. Modern Buildings,
Mitchell & Smith. Branch Line around Hertford and Hatfield
North Mymms History Project. Web site
Our Hatfield. Web site
Waymarking. Web site

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