What happened "In the Olden Days"?

For the past few weeks, we have been part of a project at St Peter’s school to teach schoolchildren about local history. Letters were sent to parents encouraging them – or friends, neighbours and relatives - to come along to speak to the children. Each class took part with one or two people coming in to be interviewed. The older children had been taught how to use the recording equipment beforehand and they did very well.

There were two days of interviewing and I sat in on several sessions. There was no shortage of questions. All the children were fascinated by the fact that there were not many cars on the roads “in the olden days” and so children could play on the streets and wander far and wide. They were also amazed that we did not have televisions or computers. The children in Year 5 asked very good questions such as what was school like and what was it like in the war. It was so nice to see their enthusiasm. Years 1 and 2 interviews inevitably degenerated to repeating the same questions or asking questions about pets! However, I think it has been a success as an awareness raising exercise and we will definitely be able to use some of the material on the website.

Talking of which, the website is ready for beta testing and I have let the committee and the history team loose on it. I only have a few comments so far, but these are mostly positive. I have now uploaded 93 posts and I still have plenty more to do. Just today, I recorded another interview and collected several more original photographs. 

The project finishes in August and we are going to showcase it for the whole of the month of August in the city museum in Hatfield Road. More on that in a later post.

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Sandy Norman
 
 

Sopwell skyline features

Sopwell residents have been out visiting tall structures which dominate our skyline. The gasholders near Homebase and the Cedar of Lebanon in St Stephen’s field. One about to disappear and the other very much alive.

A few of us had the privilege to be invited by National Grid and the demolition contractors, Brown and Mason, to see the progress of the demolition of the gasholders - no longer called gasometers it seems. After quite a long induction on health and safety, we were kitted out with protective gear to go out to watch the metal being cut away piece by piece by oxyacetylene welders. Our guide explained how the demolition contractors worked from the top down, removing panels section by section, layer by layer. The metal is sent off daily for scrap. One of the gasholders is almost gone and the other has a large hole cut away in its side which exposed the three telescopic layers. The work should be finished by April when the site will probably be used for retail. It certainly isn’t suitable for housing. The whole experience was very interesting and it was good to capture these moments of history for the project. The skyline is going to look so different when they have gone.

And now to our other feature, the cedar tree. We met with David Alderman of The Tree Council. It was a mixture of good and bad news. It is not as old as we think. It’s a mere 250 or so years old in his estimation. Cedars of this type are very fast growing so that is why we thought it was a lot older. Apparently, when cedars first came to Britain in the 17th century, they were not that hardy and were all wiped out by 1743 when there was a terrific storm. People planted a hardier species after that and ours is one of them. David described it as a cluster tree, multi-stemmed, and so it looks big with all the branches off the several trunks, a bit like a hedge. On the other hand he said it was a fine specimen: a champion category 3 tree no less! It is big in volume and David described it as classic. He was pleased with its condition: there was only one branch which looked damaged and this had a hole in it which was likely to have been made by a woodpecker.

So for the record, the measurements of the St Stephen’s cedar are: height: 19m, girth: 8.3m at 0.4m, crown spread west-east 30.8m and crown spread north-south 29.4m. David dated it as being planted c1750 but we shouldn’t be too disappointed as it was still a very fine specimen and, out of 2,000 they have recorded, it is in the Top 50 for Britain. Regarding its status as the largest cedar in Hertfordshire, this is all dependent upon whether a tree survives at Beechwood Park School, Markyate. Until this is confirmed our tree at our slightly reduced girth of 8.3m at 0.4m is second largest. It is still something to be proud of.

Regarding the Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn story, David said that this may have started by the Victorians who liked to exaggerate rumours. However, quite often trees were planted to commemorate an event so it could have been planted because of the visit by the pair of them to St Stephens. Or, it could just have been planted to replace one of the less hardy cedars – the dates are right. We will never know the true story, but the pair of them were around our area and they may well have done some canoodling under a tree in the vicinity. Henry used to hunt there and Anne was known to have visited Sopwell Nunnery.

RIP the gasholders. Long live the cedar.

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Sandy Norman

Missionary work

The New Year has started on a positive note. I will soon be working with St Peter’s school on their local history project, where I hope to impart a sense of history and belonging. The children will be interviewing their parents and other family members about their stories and memories. We hope to be able to capture interesting memories from non-native as well as native Sopwellians.

I have now uploaded over 60 posts on to our website which is looking really good. We are hoping to beta test it in a few weeks’ time. There are lots of lovely oral history recordings posted as well as many old photographs collected from interviewees and from my Facebook friends – if they have given me permission of course. I am still learning a lot about the Sopwell area and the intention of the website is share these memories with others, not only from St Albans but also everywhere else.

Interestingly, I spoke to a guy today - he was trying to convince me to buy an ISA (!) – who had never heard of Sopwell, so I had to tell him where it was and about its history and what a lovely place it is to live. Cheekily, I told him he could find out all about it by popping along to Waterstone’s to buy the book! Well, you never know. I think I am becoming an ambassador for Sopwell as I sing its praises wherever I go.

More positive news: our famous cedar tree in St Stephen’s field is being assessed on Thursday this week to see if it as old as we think (hope) it is. Pity old Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn didn’t carve their initials in it when they were courting. I will keep you all posted.

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Sandy Norman

Nice to see you ...

Last Saturday, 7th December, we had our display in the wooden chalet at the Christmas Market in St Albans. It was a real success and great fun. The weather was kind and we didn't get too cold.

Our aims were to showcase the More Memories Project and make people aware of Sopwell and its history and environment and we certainly achieved these aims.

Loads of people stopped to say hello and have a look at our banners, maps and photos. We met some really interesting people as well as old friends and we sold 16 copies of our book, Sopwell: a history and collection of memories! 

A big thank you to all who took part!

We have acquired a digital copy of a wonderful estate plan of Sopwell dated 1666. The original - which is massive - is in Hertfordshire Archives and Library Studies (HALS). I have had it printed and laminated and it was on display at the Christmas Market. I expect we will take it to other events next year, if you want to see it.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Sandy Norman