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Sportspace - Hemel Hempstead
 
 
Monday, 6th September 2010

 
FIRST CHURCH

BLESS THIS HOUSE - ADEYFIELD FIRST CHURCH
THE year of 1951 really began to see the social community life of the new town, or Adeyfield as it was then, take off.
The first annual meeting of the Adeyfield Labour Party heard recruitment was going well. Mr Jacobson was elected chairman and Mrs H. Wilson secretary. A week later a group of members and their ‘new town friends,’ travelled down to St John’s Hall to see a production of the play Easy Money by the Hemel Hempstead Young Players Dramatic Society.
Closer to home the Greenhills Players, started by Geoff Draper, put on their first play, The Telephone Never Rings.
With televisions still scarce, amateur dramatics was a very popular entertainment in the town and at the annual meeting of the long-established Hemel Hempstead Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society Hemel Hempstead’s Mayor elect, Alderman H. Christopher said the society was a vital link in the future of the town as the new areas were developed. Many of the difficulties that lay ahead could be overcome if the society would take the initiative in welcoming the newcomers and giving them a lead in local activities, he said.

In November of that year a public meeting was held at Maylands School to form an Evening Townswomen’s Guild in Adeyfield. It was decided to call it Hemel Hempstead Adeyfield Guild so that it incorporated the name of the town which would help to bond the old and the new.
It was in July that the Adeyfield Free Church held its first anniversary in the Greenhills Club.
The Rev M. Antrobus said the Sunday School now had more than 60 children. It had been started by three children aged 11 and 12 - Nena White, Jean Neal and Valerie Dobson - who had set up in an unfinished house in Windmill Road. It wasn’t until the summer of 1953 that work began on building Adeyfield Church itself. The laying of the foundation stone was somewhat different - with every member of the 200 plus congregation laying a brick, including the youngsters.

The church didn’t have a building of its own, but the secretary of the Herts Congregational Churches said it was hoped one could be built in Adeyfield.
Then in October the first C of E service was held in Adeyfield for the commissioning and licensing of Adeyfield’s first priest, the Rev Peter Stokes. The service was held in a marquee in Windmill Road on a piece of land adjoining Mr Stokes’ house at 25 Windmill Road.
Speaking at the service the Bishop of St Albans said: “We want Adeyfield to be known as Faithfield.”
After the service the Bishop led the congregation outside to the garage of Mr Stokes’ home which was to be used as a church until one was built. He blessed the garage in the name of St Faith.
The garage church soon became very popular and Mr Stokes had to introduce a shift system for the tiny building which was to serve until St Barnabas Church opened in 1953 - the Queen having laid the foundation stone a year earlier (see later parts in the series).

The Hemel Hempstead Youth Club moved into new premises in February 1951 - the former pattern shop of Hemel Hempstead Engineering Company on the meadow behind George Street School. The club had been in Churchill, the council owned former residence near the town’s swimming pool. The council had made them pay 25s a week rent for Churchill, but the development corporation - which owned the site following the company’s move to Cupid Green - charged the club just 5s. The club catered for young people aged between 14 and 24.
In mid-June Hemel Hempstead’s exhibition for the Festival of Britain opened at 149 Marlowes. It was a joint venture between the Hemel Hempstead Borough Council and the development corporation. It was designed to show the town’s past, present and future.
The exhibition would run until the end of September and a variety of other events were lined up.

Visitors were expected to the town from all over the world and sightseeing trips of Hemel Hempstead were arranged for every Friday. Visitors were met at the station, taken on a bus tour of the town including the exhibition and Adeyfield and the 5s cost included a cup of tea!
As part of the festival, concerts and dancing displays were held in “the quiet and leafy grounds of Churchill.” These included a special display by the Sylvan School of Dancing and the Marlowes Contact Club Male Voice Choir were giving a concert.
Things were looking good on the football front too. On Saturday, September 29, the long-awaited opening of Hemel Hempstead Town FC’s reconstructed ground in Crabtree Lane took place. £3,000 had been spent on levelling the pitch’s notorious slope and there was now covered accommodation for at least 1,000 spectators.
Despite all this, there was concern about the lack of social amenities in Adeyfield. The matter was debated by the council and Councillor Mayo said the development corporation should develop community buildings and other facilities for people coming to the new town. He pointed out the high bus fares for a family wanting to come down from Adeyfield to the town centre.
The council agreed to a resolution calling on the corporation to take action.
And right at the end of the year the corporation did take action, of a sort. It announced it had requisitioned a builders’ hut for local groups in Adeyfield which would be available from early in 1952! View older pages
 
 

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