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Sportspace - Hemel Hempstead
 
 
Thursday, 9th September 2010

 
PART 21

THE PLOUGH PUB AT THE START OF THE 1950s
TODAY Hemel Hempstead’s Funny Roundabout is known nationally and internationally.
In those early new town days there was no roundabout at all, but by 1953 the traffic problem at the busy junction was growing rapidly and in response to calls from Hemel Hempstead Borough Council the Ministry of Transport came up with a £5000 temporary scheme for a roundabout.
It was to be another two years before anything happened and by 1954 things were so bad that the council decided to ask if a policeman on point duty could be provided!
To stay with the roundabout story, it would mean the removal of the war memorial which stood at the junction in those days. The council proposed a triangular site in St Johns Road (where it is in fact now), but there was considerable opinion within the town that this site was not prominent enough and a campaign was launched to have the memorial sited in the centre of the new roundabout with a small garden around it.

Eventually, in March 1955 a plan of the roundabout scheme was published. It would involve the demolition of the Plough public house and, eventually the neighbouring sweet shop, although for a time it was planned this would remain in the middle of the roundabout.
On May 10 that year the Plough public house closed and a temporary wooden hut nearby opened. The Hut was to serve as a town centre pub until the new Plough (in fact to be called the Great Harry) was built by the market square.
Mr Boast, who had been licensee of the Plough moved to take over the Rose and Crown at Kings Langley and Mr and Mrs Wharton who had run the Sebright Arms - another town centre pub to go, it was one of the buildings that stood where Dacorum College is now - came to be licensees of The Hut.
In June of 55 there was yet another delay, this time over contracts for the work, and it wasn’t until some weeks later that work started on what eventually became our famous landmark. By this time the cost had risen from £5,000 to £9,000!
The roundabout finally opened on January 16, 1956. General opinion among drivers was that it was a “great local asset” and would do much to reduce congestion at the lower end of town. The Magic Roundabout we know today did not come about to 1973.

Back to 1953 and Harold Macmillan made another visit to the new town. By this time he was Minister of Housing and came to see a revolutionary new building system introduced by builders Sir Robert McAlpine & Son. It involved building five houses in 14 days as an extension to Vauxhall Road. The revolution involved pre-fabricating internal walls of gypsum plaster.
It all went well and Mr Macmillan had tea with the tenants of one of the houses, Mr and Mrs John Harrison and their two children.

The family had been living in a house in Camberwell shared with 10 other people and Mrs Harrison described her new home as being “like a dream.”
But not all new tenants were happy when in the summer of 1953 the Development Corporation sent round a circular telling them they were expected to carry out their own internal decorations.
What did they pay rent for? asked the tenants and Mr A. W. Clarke, chairman of the Adeyfield Residents Association who pointed out that many tenants would not be used to using a paint or distemper brush.
On the industrial front things were developing rapidly in the town.
In 1953 it was announced Hemel Hempstead would have its first light industries after the early government emphasis on re-armament engineering firms and exports.
By November the unemployment figures showed that there were 134 people without job, but 371 vacancies. There was also a lightning strike that autumn by workers at Alford and Alder to try and hasten a 15 per cent pay increase. They paraded in Maylands Avenue to try and win support from other factories, but were unsuccessful and returned to work after half and hour.

The government was encouraging people to invest as much of what they earned as they could in National Savings and in September there was a big savings drive in Hemel Hempstead which saw 44 new groups formed in Bennetts End and Adeyfield, a national record.
During the first six years of the new town Leverstock Green had remained relatively untouched, but in the summer of 53 development corporation general manager Mr W. O Hart spoke to a meeting of residents in the village hall on what was proposed.
The population of Leverstock Green was to be raised from 1,000 to 3,000. The green was to be enlarged to approximately twice its size and one side of the green would be used for “working class” homes although these would “be a better type than those at Adeyfield.”
There would be a “middle class” residential area where plots of land would be for sale and, said Mr Hart, the old school, which many residents described as attractive would have to be demolished.

In answer to questions, Mr Hart said it was the council’s responsibility to get rid of two unsightly ponds on the green.
There was also a first appearance, on paper at least, of a start on the Highfield area of Hemel Hempstead. This was to be by the borough council which published plans for 980 new dwellings.
Negotiations for the purchase of the land were to begin and the plans included the provision of shopping facilities, school sites, a garage and a pub.
It wasn’t until September 54 that work actually started.
The houses were to be of a new design, used for the first time in Hemel Hempstead - special outer walls of pre-fabricated concrete.
The houses were around Randalls Park to start with.
Another new development on the horizon was a grammar school in Bennetts End. Herts County Council unveiled plans for the 612 place school which would cost £198,334, but some councillors demanded a rethink on expenditure for sculptures and art which were described as “monstrosities”
In November Adeyfield’s new post office opened amidst much publicity and another new development saw Hemel Hempstead Town FC appoint its first full-time manager/coach.

He was Reg Dudley and amateur international who had played for Millwall in the 1945 Cup final.
Three new roads in Adeyfield were named after those associated with the successful conquest of Everest that year - Everest Way, Hilary Road and Tenzing Road. View older pages
 
 

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