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Sportspace - Hemel Hempstead
 
 
Thursday, 9th September 2010

 
PART 22

Marlowes, showing work starting on the new shops (near to where Woolworths is today
A FORETASTE of the problems the new town centre was to bring to the old town came in October 1953 when the town’s bus terminus was moved from Bury Road.
Its new home was a temporary one opposite Hillfield Road - the terminus we know today was not completed for another two years - and the move was necessary because of road works and the closing of Alma Road for drainage construction.
There were many complaints, as there were no shelters at the new site - London Transport said passengers could seek shelter in waiting buses. But of more long term consequence was the affect the switch was to have on the High Street.
It meant there were no buses serving the old town, apart from a two-hourly service from Gaddesden and some from Adeyfield. A letter sent to the Gazette and signed by a large number of High Street traders said: “A High Street without a bus service is like a heart with the main artery blocked and, if the blood supply is not speedily restored, then the heart ceases to function.”

Happier events came in the new town centre in January of 1954, with the opening of the new Salvation Army Citadel which had cost £30,000. The army had had a long history in Hemel Hempstead - it was formed in 1883 - and as when it first started in the town a woman, Senior Major Mrs Wood, was in charge.
In the same month the Adeyfield Free Church hall - the first to be built in any of the new towns - was officially opened.
The hall would be used for church services and for the Sunday school. The minister, the Rev F. W. Hewis, took up his duties on the opening day and thanked everyone who had helped with the construction of the hall.
Mr Nathaniel Micklem, a long time opponent of the new town who had celebrated his 100th birthday a couple of months earlier, had hoped to officially unlock the new hall door. Sadly bad weather and his failing health prevented this.

May saw the official stone laying for the first Methodist Church hall to serve Bennetts End and Nash Mills. It was being built in Barnacres and would cost £8,000.
It was the new town centre, however, that was the real focus that year. The first shop, Victoria Wine, opened in The Square - now Market Square - after closing up prevsious premises in Two Waters Road.
Further shops opened in The Square over the next few weeks and in July Frankie Vaughan - described as “the dynamic British vocal personality” - was mobbed by local teenagers when he opened the new showrooms of Pyle and Thomson Ltd at 148 Marlowes, on the corner of The Square.
The rents for the new shops are interesting to note. The rents for the first shops in Adeyfield had been £125 to £175 a year, whereas by 1954 shops were letting for £300 to £350.

In the new Bridge Street the shops would be £600 to £800 and some of the shops in Marlowes would command rents of £1,000 to £1,500.
The Luxor Cinema was under the shadow of the bulldozer, although it was not to be demolished for a little time yet. However, this caused a headache for the Hemel Hempstead Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society which presented its shows there.
They did consider buying their own HQ and later looked at the Territorial Army base in Bury Road, but eventually decided they couldn’t afford their own premises - a dream they did not realise until their recent move into their current headquarters at St Johns Hall, Boxmoor.
After all the early criticism of the new town from the old townies, there were beginning to be more compplaints by the new arrivals over the housing, lack of facilities and schools. In a long feature in the Gazette Mr A. W. Clarke, chairman of Adeyfield Residents Association, talked of “houses of more or less one design, all of which have no character.”

Despite the problems, social activities continued to develop. At Bennetts End’s community hall more than 60 children attended a party organised by Hemel Hempstead Conservatives. The Express Dairy supplied all the children with free milk from their depot in Adeyfield.
Those who enjoyed a bit of a flutter for their entertainment could sometimes be found in the Spotted Cow in Cotterells. A policeman in plain clothes kept watch and that resulted in the licensee and 13 customers being fined for betting in the pub by local magistrates.

The headmaster of Hemel Hempstead Grammar School, Mr Jack Robinson, ran into a spot of bother when he sent a letter to parents saying they must provide their children with fountain pens. There were a few who did not provide pens, he said, and ink had to be supplied which was frequently upset causing damage to clothes and upsetting the cleaners. The national press got hold of the letter and there was a real rumpus, and Mr Robinson eventually withdrew his ultimatum.
It wasn’t until September 1954 that Hobbs Hill School could move to its new buildings in Bennetts End, but even while it was in its temporary home in Adeyfieldit had its own uniform.
The school colours were yellow and black - black blazers with yellow band round the collar, cuff and top of the pocket, black caps and berets.

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