Part 29, More development in Marlowes
Marlowes, looking towards te then Coop shop |
ALTHOUGH work had started on the redevelopment of the east side of Marlowes (chapter 29) new shops and businesses were a long way off.
On the other side of the road, however, new shops were opening almost every week and the owners vied with each other to get a big star to open their premises.
In April 1956 Benny Hill arrived in town to open Barringtons London Tailors at 214 Marlowes, near Woolworth’s.
As the Gazette reported: “The chubby comedian of stage and screen was besieged by hundreds of housewives who knocked him and the shop staff back into the shop as he cut the tape!”
A few weeks later Terry Thomas arrived to open the premises of Sheratons furniture store at 216/218 Marlowes. On this occasion a crowd of 1,000 were there to greet him and with him was Valerie Thornburrow, a member of the George Mitchell Singers
Sheratons and Barringtons have long gone, but still very much a part of the town centre today is Quality House, or Living as it’s now called.
It was and still is the only department store in the new town centre, although the Coop - still the Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead Coop in 1956 - had had premises in the town for many years. The new building cost £173,500.
Performing the opening ceremony was Lord Williams, president of the Cooperative Wholesale Society Ltd, which had mounted an exhibition in marquees on land at the back of the new store.
With his lordship was Mr J. M. Beaver, chairman of the Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead Coop, who said: “When we found that we had to have a new building, we thought that we would make it a worthwhile one.”
Later in the afternoon a reception was held in the spacious restaurant on the first floor - which many older readers will remember.
It wasn’t until 1958 that the decision was made by the Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead Coop members to become part of the national CRS.
So with all these new shops and businesses, what were prices like back in 1956?
Well, at Quality House schoolwear was in fashion - blazers would cost you 39/11d (just under £2), grey shirts 12/- and skirts 32/11d.
If mum went to George Rolph’s in the High Street she could get a ladies Harella town or country suit for nine guineas. Then if she popped back into Marlowes, Henderson’s ‘the store of the new town’ had Bear Brand 30 denier superfine nylon stockings at 4/11d a pair.
Up at Queens Square, Adeyfield Electrics would install you a Ferguson TV and aerial for 66 guineas and if you wanted a house to put it in R. J. Aitchison had a newly built house in the town with three bedrooms for £2,750.
For transport you could get a one-year-old Vespa motor scooter from Howards Motors at 8 Marlowes for £120 and at W.W. Saunders in Two Waters a Triumph TR2 sports car would set you back £625.
If that all sounds rather cheap, you’ve got to remember the salaries of those days. For instance, a shorthand typist with the development corporation got between £340 and £405 a year.
If you wanted somewhere to keep your money, the first bank opened in Bank Court in September 1956. It was the National Westminster, which already had branches in the High Street, Boxmoor and Apsley.
The bank’s strongroom caused much interest to guests invited to the opening. One workman had tried for three hours to drill a hole to fix a light fitting but had eventually given up!
Just a month later sainsbury’s new self service shop opened in Marlowes. It wasn’t the supermarket we know today, which wasn’t built until the 1970s - this store was on the other side of the road.
It was Hemel Hempstead’s largest self service shop, covering 4,000 sq ft and, the Gazette reported that it would do away with queues.
The new shop also boasted that it would not be closing for lunch, but would shut on Wednesday afternoons - early closing day in the town - and would also close at 4pm on Saturdays. A jar of damson jam was a shilling and a 3lb bag of King Edwards was eightpence.
Another new shop to open later that year was Burtons on the corner of Bridge Street. It remained there for over 30 years before taking up residence in the new Marlowes Shopping Centre.
It wasn’t just in the town centre that things were happening - 1956 was a busy year for the churches locally.
In May large crowds gathered to watch Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve, the first Church Estates commissioner, lay the foundation stone for St Benedicts Church in Bennetts End. The church would cost £25,000 to build in Chesham brick and a contributions scheme was set up for the people of the area to pay for furnishings.
In the same month there was a foundation stone laying for St George’s Presbyterian Church in Chaulden.
Then in October the Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, Hon David Bowes-Lyon, laid the foundation stone of St Alban Church in Warners End. The church would cost £14,000 and had been designed by Mr Kellett Ablett, chief architect of the development corporation.
A month later the foundation stone of the first new Catholic church to be built in a new town was laid. This was on Sunday, October 28, in St Albans Road on the corner of Rant Meadow.
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