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Welcome to Sandridge 900+ From the end of March to early November 2014 we are going to celebrate Sandridge, its community and 900 years since the dedication of St Leonard’s church. A lot has happened in those years and the twelfth -century inhabitants would be amazed at how life has changed. Until the early 1900s, the parish of St Leonard’s stretched as far as Bernards Heath. Today the parish of St Leonard's covers only Sandridge village and part of Jersey Farm, although the civil parish still includes the northern half of Marshalswick. The area covered by Sandridge parish today is smaller than the original medieval parish, but the population is much greater, due to the expansion of housing out of St Albans since the middle of the 20th
century. Where once farmers grazed their cows and tended their crops, we now live and work. According to the 2011 census, there are approximately 11,450 residents in the Sandridge civil parish, who occupy 4,800 dwellings. As the population has grown, so has the variety of people living here. These days you are more likely to live next door to a teacher, a health worker or a plumber than someone who works on a farm. We are a community with much to celebrate, and to help us do that, the organisers have put together a varied calendar of events.
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From the opening church service to the Midsummer Gala to the fireworks in November, there should be something for everyone to enjoy. This will be an opportunity to get to know your neighbours – is your street going to take part in the Big Lunch this year? It will also be a chance to find out about some of the many local clubs, societies and voluntary organisations that are active in the area. Sandridge Parish Council aims to help maintain and improve the quality of life for those who live and work here by providing local facilities and supporting local organisations. We are pleased to be sharing in the organisation of Sandridge900+ and to be providing sponsorship for many of the events. Read on to discover what events are planned, and keep an eye on the Sandridge900+ website
to find out how you can volunteer to help. The website will also have details of events that have been added since this brochure went to press. I hope you, your family, friends and neighbours thoroughly enjoy the celebrations and the process of discovering everything which the district has to offer its residents and visitors.
John Hale Chairman, Sandridge Parish Council
“The church itself, St Leonard's, was an inspiration - to think that within those walls….during 800 years generation after generation had worshipped God”. From the brochure to celebrate the 800th anniversary.
The past and the future: Sandridge 900+ Centenaries offer a chance to look back, to discover new things about our surroundings, and to enjoy the celebrations as they happen. There is, indeed, something for everyone in Sandridge in 2014. But as the name implies, this year is more than that. We ourselves are part of history, and both St Leonard’s and Sandridge Parish are living, growing communities. Our aim for this year has also been to look to the future, to highlight the good things about life in Sandridge, and to make them better known not
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just to outsiders, but also to those who live here. Much goes on that is known only to a few but deserves wider notice, which we hope it will receive through this brochure, our website and the coming events. Vigorous communities need participation, and 2014 offers you the chance to share your memories and talents and ensure that Sandridge continues to grow as a community over the next 900 years.
Vivian Nutton Chairman, Sandridge 900+
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What’s Inside Welcome
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What’s Inside
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What’s on at a Glance
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Transforming Communities
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2000 Years of Sandridge
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A Mother Church and her Offspring
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Music for Everyone
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The Second Battle of St Albans
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Sporting Sandridge
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Sandridge Hospitality
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Big Lunch
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Midsummer Gala
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Songs of Praise
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Walks and Talks
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Growing Trees, Growing Sandridge
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Focus on Flowers
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From Flints to High-Tech Lenses
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Remembering a Century’s Wars
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Fireworks Finale
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Changing Community
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Community Groups, Facilities and Opportunities
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Milestones
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Vanished Sandridge
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Did you know?
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Thankyous
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All events listed in this brochure were correct at time of going to print but may be subject to change or cancellation without notice. For updated information please visit www.sandridge900.com
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What’s on at a Glance 30th March - SANDRIDGE 900+ begins Welcome Service - 10am St Leonard's Church, Church End, Sandridge 3rd April 2pm ‘Rumbustious John’ - find out about one of Sandridge's amazing vicars. St Leonard's Church 25th April - 29th May Discover Sandridge Exhibition at Museum of St Albans 26th April Curryoke Evening Combining Curry and Karaoke St Leonard’s Church 10th May 3 Choirs Concert Sandpit Theatre, Marshalswick 17th & 18th May BATTLE RE-ENACTMENT WEEKEND Bernards Heath 1st June BIG LUNCHES Where you like, see page 32 8th June 2 - 5pm FAMILY FUN Sandridge Churchyard 8th - 15th June Sandridge Cricket Week
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10th June Herts Jazz Orchestra Concert Spencer Sports Hall, Sandridge 14th June St Albans Chamber Opera Song and Shakespeare St Leonard's Church 15th June Three Churches Evensong St Saviour’s Church 21st June 2.30pm until late MIDSUMMER GALA Zip line and coconut climbing trees, live music including the extremely popular Straightlife, and a spectacular finale Jersey Farm Woodland Park 22nd June OPEN CHURCH SUNDAY Stories in Stained Glass, St Leonard’s St Saviour’s and St Mary’s TBC 28th June VILLAGE VOICES Summer Concert St Leonard’s Church 5th July Norman Banquet The Green Man, Sandridge
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6th July SONGS OF PRAISE with Pam Rhodes St Leonard's Churchyard 12th July Sandringham Festival Sandringham School 4pm-9.30pm 19th July ‘William White and the restoration of St Leonard’s’ St Leonard’s Church 27th July St Albans Tour Guides Walk See www.stalbanstourguides.co.uk 23rd August HeARTwood Festival 24th - 31st August Sandridge Football Week 5th September Sandridgebury Square Dance 9th September ‘The Early Days of Woodcock Hill’ Sandridge Village Hall (advance booking required) 13th September Music for the Kings and Queens of England, 1250 - 1750 The Lonsdale Consort introduce their music and early instruments , St Leonard's Church
27th September Herts Hike for Oxfam Around Sandridge 3rd - 5th October FLOWER FESTIVAL St Leonard's Church 4th October Village Voices Harvest Concert St Leonard's Church 2nd November Gregory’s Gift Plainsong performance and history, ending with Compline by Candlelight St Leonard's Church 8th November FIREWORKS FINALE Jersey Farm Adventure Playground Welcome to St Leonard's Open on Sunday afternoons 2pm-5pm Look around and enjoy tea and cakes to the sound of incidental music. Check website for up-to-date details before visiting
AND MORE BESIDES - WATCH THE SANDRIDGE900+ WEBSITE for details
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Transforming Communities OUR PATRONS
Sandridge has grown from small beginnings to be a lively part of St Albans, with the church of St Leonard’s at its heart. It has always looked outwards even in times of agricultural depression and social turmoil. Today, in a multicultural world where events across the globe may seem nearer than those along the road, local communities remain at the bedrock of our society. Our patrons offer their reflections on the theme of our year of celebration. I am delighted to write in support of Sandridge 900+. The visit of the Bishop of Norwich to St Leonard’s on March 30th will provide an exciting start to the celebrations planned for 2014. It is entirely right that we look back with thanksgiving on nine hundred years of Christian worship and service in Sandridge as it has grown and developed. It is equally important to look forward to a future in which the Church and the local community continue to work and share together.
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The Right Rev. Dr. Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans ringing at St Leonard’s One of the key aims of the Diocese of St Albans’ Vision, Living God’s Love, is the call to ‘Transform Communities’. It is a task to which all Christians are called, and one which Jesus himself set for those who follow him. Transformation is costly and it takes commitment, tenacity and wisdom. It does not happen overnight, and neither is it achieved from a distance. It is precisely for this reason that the Gospels teach that Christians should be ‘in the midst’, acting as the leaven that brings life and growth. There is no set formula for this; every church will have its own priorities based on its understanding and knowledge of the people its serves. It is my prayer that St Leonard’s – and St Saviour’s and St Mary’s - will be inspired and emboldened to celebrate what has been achieved, to enjoy what is being done, and to resolve anew to work for a future in which the Christian faith is deeply embedded in the community of Sandridge, Marshalswick and Jersey Farm. This comes with the assurance of my prayers and best wishes.
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Community Past and Present
Earl Spencer, Patron of the Living of St Leonard’s
History has always been my passion. I particularly enjoy it when it is about people, and when it is revealing of the past having echoes in the present. This is frequently the case when it comes to the history of a single community or place. As we celebrate the 900th anniversary of the consecration of Sandridge Church, we can look back at the story of this parish, and the people who have brought it benefit. I am lucky enough to be able to count some of my Spencer, Churchill, and Jennings ancestors among that group - they loved this corner of England, and helped to nurture it, as well as being generous to the church at Sandridge where they worshipped. Sarah Jennings, when she became the all powerful 1st Duchess of Marlborough, and had the run of the newly built Blenheim Palace, still seems to have preferred her home at Holywell to the grandeur of Woodstock. I am very happy to continue a family tradition by being one of the patrons of this celebration of Sandridge. I hope it is an occasion for this community to look back with affection and interest at the past.
The Countess of Verulam, HM Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire
Present day Sandridge has an identity and a heart which is something of a surprise when considering its location just beyond the edge of St Albans. Here is everything to be wished for in an ideal village, there is abundant locally produced food readily available and drink to be enjoyed in the several popular pubs. There is walking in Heartwood and courts for tennis and basketball in the village. There are football and cricket teams and clubs for young and old with active Scouting and Guides, a judo club, the WI and the Silver Threads. Then there are the Young Farmers who meet in the village once a month. At the centre of all this activity is the church which is an iconic landmark in the village. The long and continuing history of expansion has meant that the civil parish of Sandridge now includes Marshalswick, with its schools and the Quadrant shopping centre, and the more recent Jersey Farm estate, each with its own activities and community centre. It is a good place to live and to enjoy the benefits of both town and country. The residents of Sandridge are lucky to live there but they have certainly made their own luck.
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2000 Years of Sandridge Situated near the junction of two Roman roads, Sandridge enjoyed only moderate prosperity in the Roman period - there are traces of a few small farms, but only the recent discovery of a magnificent hoard of gold coins from about AD 400 denotes great wealth, and its owner may not have lived in Sandridge. The Saxon
original wall. The medieval village consisted of a few houses near the church, and some larger outlying farms, such as Sandridgebury, in a parish stretching from Sandpit Lane in St Albans northwards across the Lea to Bride Hall near Ayot St Lawrence.
When St Albans Abbey was dissolved in 1541, the church and village passed into the hands of a London goldsmith, Ralph Rowlatt, the ancestor village was granted by the son of King Offa in 796 by marriage of the present Earl Spencer. to St Albans Abbey, but the first specific evidence Successive vicars did not always live in for Christianity comes with the consecration of St Sandridge, and the church was often served by Leonard’s by Herbert Losinga, first Bishop of poorly paid curates. The fabric of the church Norwich, around 1114. gradually deteriorated. The original church was the size of the present In 1693 the tower fell down, and one of the nave, with a small chancel entered through the three bells was eventually rehung in a turret on arch of Roman bricks that can be seen today. the roof. In 1786, the nave roof had to be taken Around 1180 it gained a sculpted font and was down to the level of the arches (see below). enlarged with aisles and a tower. The chancel A new tower was erected in 1837 by a Hatfield was extended under Abbot Moote about 1400 builder, but three years later, the congregation and a delicately carved screen inserted in the had to run out of church during morning service as it began to separate from the rest of the church with a loud noise. It had been built over graves. It was eventually repaired, but the church presented a very strange sight with different roof heights, dormer windows and an oblong tower (see p.63).
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Sandridge was a poor agricultural community, where the women and children supplemented meagre wages with straw-plaiting for hats. The largest house in the parish was Marshals Wick, the home of the Marten family, London merchants and bankers, followed by Sandridgebury, the home of the Thrales intermittently over many centuries. The village obtained a school in 1824, but visitors long continued to comment on Sandridge’s poverty and lack of religion. In 1872 the fifth Earl Spencer invited Dr. John Griffith, his old tutor, to become vicar. Griffith was a remarkable man. A noted mathematician, a vigorous preacher and a social reformer, he had just stepped down as Headmaster of Brighton College. Backed by the Earl, he embarked on a large-scale programme of improvements – a new school building, a village Institute (now the Village Hall), allotments, new cottages, and a massive restoration of the church under the leading architect William White. St Leonard’s today is largely White’s work. He built a new tower, rebuilt the upper part of the nave, and restored the chancel arch, introducing an ingenious wooden lattice to hold up the roof and prevent further damage to the screen. There was a new organ, new stained glass windows and new bells (now after retuning in 2011 among the best in the county). The whole restoration cost £3,808 (almost £400,000 today). Dr Griffith also erected a new vicarage (now part of Lyndon) for his large family. To cater for the distant inhabitants of `Sandridge New Town’, springing up on Bernards Heath, Dr Griffith built a chapel, `the tin trunk’, in 1882, replaced in 1902 by the magnificent brickbuilt St Saviour’s church in Sandpit Lane. It became a separate parish in 1904. The civil Sandridge Parish Council (established in 1894) continues to be responsible for Marshalswick to the north and east of Marshalswick Lane. The village itself remained largely agricultural until the 1950s, even after a factory had been set up
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2000 Years of Sandridge continued on the site of the present St Leonard’s Court. In 1931 Dr Corner established his prize herd of Jersey cows at Evans Farm, which thereafter became known as Jersey Farm. The Salvation Army, which owns Lyndon, also ran two of the farms until recently, and still retains some housing in the village. Elsewhere in the parish, the Marshalswick estate was sold for building in 1925, the first houses going up along Marshal’s Drive and Homewood Road. The area east of Marshalswick Lane was mainly developed after 1945, with a new shopping centre at the Quadrant and another new church and parish being created at St Mary’s. Other denominations, including the Baptists and the United Reformed Church, also built new places of worship. Five new schools, including a secondary school, now Sandringham School, supplemented Sandridge and Bernards Heath (the latter another project of Dr Griffith). In Sandridge itself there was
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substantial new housing first along St Albans Road, and then in the 1940s and ‘50s along Langley Grove and House Lane. A new school building was erected on Woodcock Hill, extended in 2013 to make Sandridge a full one-form entry school. The site of the old school is now occupied by Tara’s Retreat Residential Home. A second large housing development followed from the late 1970s on the site of Jersey Farm, with its own shopping precinct at St Brelades Place. Today some 11,450 people live in the civil parish of Sandridge, most working in St Albans or London, although there are small industrial estates off the Sandridge Rd. and a Home Office Scientific Establishment (CAST) on Woodcock Hill. Farming, though, still plays an important role, supplemented by riding stables. St Leonard’s itself also continued to change. A small vestry was added to the church in 1890, and in 2005 a beautiful glass screen was inserted
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under the tower arch to make a parish room. The lychgate was erected in 1921 as a memorial to the men of the village who had fought in the Great War. The large vicarage was sold and replaced by a smaller one in 1908, itself replaced in 1973 when Anson Close was built. Jersey Farm Woodland Park, the winner in 2013 of a coveted Green Flag, Nomansland Common and the new Heartwood Forest ensure that Sandridge still retains its rural environment, one that can be enjoyed by both visitors and the local community, while archaeology is revealing previously unknown details of its history. The development of smaller businesses, as at Pound Farm and the Sandridge Business Centre, also adds to Sandridge’s prosperity. Vivian Nutton A variety of books on Sandridge and Marshalswick are also listed on our website: www.sandridge900.com.
Discover Sandridge Exhibition Find out more about the history of Sandridge from the Stone Age to the present day. Visit the Exhibition at the Museum of St Albans, Hatfield Road, which runs from 25th April to 29th May. Or come and hear one of the talks on Sandridge history listed above and on our website – meet the rumbustious Dr Griffith, the ingenious William White and discover forgotten aspects of Sandridge in two World Wars. Or explore where you live online www.hertsmemories.org.uk or the other websites listed on page 62.
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A Mother Church and her Offspring Sandridge900+ begins appropriately on 30th March, Mothering Sunday, with a special service at 10am. We look forward to welcoming as Guest of Honour, Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich, whose predecessor, Herbert Losinga, consecrated St Leonard’s some 900 years ago. You are warmly invited to come and join the celebrations on that day, which will be marked in the afternoon by an inaugural peal on the bells of St Leonard’s. The Right Rev. Graham James, Bishop of Norwich
From the Vicar of St Leonard’s Last summer, I visited St Albans Abbey to see the original Magna Carta. It was drafted, partly here in St Albans, and signed almost 800 years ago, but elements of that ancient document are still enshrined in law to this day. It is amazing to think that this truly historic document affects our life centuries later. And the sentiment applies to other things as well – almost imperceptibly, culture from bygone eras continues to have an impact on our culture today. And that is one of the things we want to celebrate during the Sandridge 900+ festivities. It is a chance to remember how things were (the church, education, music) and to celebrate their continuing legacies. But it is also an important opportunity to celebrate the ‘now’ and to think about the future. What do we appreciate in our culture today that we want to give thanks for, spend more time doing, perhaps; how do we want to see our communities grow and flourish? And what dreams do we have for the future? What could the next 900 years look like, and what changes would we like to be active in promoting?
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Rev Em Coley, St Leonard’s Significantly, this celebration centres around the church. Faith has been, and remains, an important motivation for individuals and communities. The Church embodies that continuing journey of faith which started some 2000 years ago as small groups of people met in one another’s homes to follow the example and teaching of Christ. Jesus was then, and is still today, a revolutionary figure who challenged the status quo and spoke up for the marginalised. My prayer is that as we celebrate, as we look to the past and dream dreams for the future, we may know something of those radical tendencies that long to see hearts, lives and communities changed through the pursuit of love and acceptance.
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St Saviour’s 1905
From the Vicar of St Saviour’s Sandridge Road follows a straight line north to south through the parish of St Saviour’s and reminds us of our roots in the village and parish of Sandridge. A pleasant and affluent part of St Albans today, it was very different 150 years ago. The Bernards Heath area, from the 18th century, was home to brickworks, a tallow works and St Albans’ main rubbish dump. The shanty town that grew up there figures in Dickens’ novel Bleak House as a place of poverty and deprivation. In the early 1880s things began to change and the first proper houses were built in what was known as ‘Sandridge New Town’. It is greatly to the credit of John Griffith, the then Vicar of Sandridge, that he decided to buy land in Culver Road to create a church and a school to meet the educational, spiritual and social needs of this growing and still poor area. As the community grew, so did the church and school; the school ending up on Sandridge Road in a building still used by Bernards Heath Infant School and St Saviour’s church in its splendid building in Sandpit Lane. Under the charismatic leadership of the Diocesan Missioner, Harry Darwin Burton, who arrived in 1895 St Saviour’s grew and flourished until, in 1904, it became an independent parish. We still gratefully acknowledge our roots in Sandridge and St Leonard’s as our mother church and look forward to welcoming people from the whole ancient parish to a joint service of Evensong.
Marshalswick was a peaceful, rural place with a farm where the Quadrant now stands and a duck pond where the petrol station is today. In September 1939, just as the area was being developed, war was declared. Building work stopped, as did the Sunday morning buses, making it difficult for people to get to St Leonard’s some two miles away. A Marshalswick resident persuaded the Vicar of Sandridge to hold services in her house. Each Sunday up to 20 people squashed into her drawing room and it was not long before a committee was formed to find a suitable building to serve as a church. After much searching, a small wooden chicken hut costing £135 was erected on some land in Kingshill Avenue, lent by Nash Homes Ltd for the duration of the war. By degrees, the hut was converted into a church - finally ready for its first Holy Communion in 1943. As housebuilding resumed across the area at the end of the war the hut had to be moved, and was repositioned on a piece of ground beside the new Vicarage. A large ‘thermometer’ appeared at the back of the hut as parishioners then set about raising money to build a new church. The foundation stone for the new St Mary’s Church was laid on St George’s Day 1955 by the patron, Earl Spencer. Within a year it was finished and was dedicated on 10th November 1956. In 1972 St Mary’s became a parish in its own right when it was consecrated by Bishop Robert Runcie. Its formation owes so much to the life and worship of Sandridge and we are glad to be part of the Sandridge 900+ celebrations.
From the vicar of St Mary’s Marshalswick St Mary’s is very much the ‘baby’ of the family, its history going back only as far as 1939. At that time
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They don’t make vicars like that any more! Stephen Gosson (1586-1592) wrote a pamphlet attacking poets, pipers, players and jesters, and, a former playwright and actor himself, denounced the theatre as a waste of time and money. John Griffith (1872-1891) helped to set up two institutions that are now modern Universities, Derby and Brighton. He also won a medal at the 1851 Exhibition for designing a new barometer and was the first Headmaster to build school science labs. Not all clergymen were models of virtue. In 1584 both the vicar and his curate were summonsed for brawling and quarrelling in the church and the churchyard. Richard Westerman was deprived of the living in 1630 for adultery with his housekeeper and John Harper (1643) had a reputation as a magician, while John Draper
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spent six months in jail before becoming vicar in 1650. Charles Boutell (curate, 1837-1846) was several times in trouble for debt, but also wrote a best-selling guide to heraldry.
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Music for Everyone
Whether your taste is jazz or pop, modern or medieval, meditation or movement, then Sandridge 900+ brings something for you. Three local choirs, Village Voices, the BSV Community Choir and the Sandringham Junior Choir come together on Saturday, May 10th at the Sandpit Theatre in a programme that will contain a piece specially composed for the event by local composer Mark Lee. Village
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Voices will also be singing in St Leonard’s on June 28th and October 4th. The Mid Herts Jazz Orchestra, who perform on the second Monday of each month (except for August) at the Spencer Sports Hall in Sandridge, will be putting on a special performance on June 10th, in the open air, weather permitting. Jazz from the BSV Jazz Group will also feature at the Gala on 21st June, along with Luis Lemo’s Salsa Band, the Brentwood British Legion Youth Band and the extremely popular Straightlife, who
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were such a hit at the Jubilee celebrations in 2012. And later, on 5th September, you can let your hair down again at a Square Dance up at Sandridgebury. Classical music fans will want to come along on 14th June to hear the St Albans Chamber Opera in ‘Song and Shakespeare at St Leonard’s’. On 13th September as part of Heritage Open Days at the church the Longslade Consort will perform on their authentic early musical instruments a selection of Music for the Kings and Queens of England 1400-1700. Their concerts include a lively commentary by Director John Bence, maker of most of the instruments, and a chance to examine and ask questions about them during the interval. So come along and try your hand at a sackbut or shawm, a crumhorn or a cornemuse, whether you are 8 or 80.
St Leonard’s will also be hosting two other contrasting musical events. The musical season kicks off on 26th April with an early evening Curryoke session (yes, you can combine curry and karaoke, and the kids will show you how to do it). In complete contrast, on 2nd November, David Ireson will draw the Sandridge 900+ musical programme to a close with Gregory’s Gift, an exploration of plainsong and its history, ending with Compline by candlelight. There will also be a special Three Churches Evensong at St Saviour’s on 15th June, when the St Saviour’s Choir will be joined by singers from Sandridge and St Mary’s. So, whatever your taste in music, come along and join us. Details of times, programmes and extra events will be available nearer the time on www.sandridge900.com
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Border artwork copyright of Andrea Hill
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The Second Battle of St Albans
The Second Battle of St Albans, 17th February 1461 The Second Battle of St Albans was fought during the Wars of the Roses, between the Yorkists, commanded by the Earl of Warwick, and the Lancastrian army of Margaret of Anjou, the wife of King Henry VI. St Albans was ideal as a rendezvous point for Warwick’s army, raised with levies from southern England and including mercenaries from Burgundy. Some 8-12,000 strong, they awaited their opponents for 5 days, building a fortified camp on high ground somewhere between St Albans and Wheathampstead, in expectation of an attack from the Lancastrians who were marching towards London from York, following their victory at Wakefield on 30th December, 1460.
St Michael’s, across the River Ver (at the Waffle House) and up Fishpool Street into St Albans. Some Yorkist archers began a defensive action from the market place and sent the initial attack rolling back down the hill. News must have been relayed to a surprised Warwick in his fortified camp, but the archers in the town were not reinforced and a second attack along a hidden lane (now the route followed by Catherine Street) left them surrounded and forced out of the town. Their stand had gained valuable time but one of the big questions about the battle is why reinforcements did not arrive. The Lancastrians seem then to have been able to deploy unimpeded on Bernards Heath while the main Yorkist army were slow to move out of their camp.
When part of the Yorkist army did eventually advance from the direction of Sandridge and However, on reaching Royston, instead of manage to form a battle line, they found continuing southwards, they turned and headed themselves engaged even as they arrived on for Dunstable, where they defeated a surprised the Heath. As the chronicler says, “Before the outpost of Warwick’s men on 16th February. gunners and the Burgundians could level their Warwick seems to have reacted slowly, for, in the guns they were busily fighting and many a gun words of a contemporary chronicler,“their scouts of war was provided that was of little avail or came not back to them to bring tidings how near none at all…” the queen was, save one who came and said The main fighting appears to have happened on that she was nine miles away”. He did not Bernards Heath with the Yorkists trying to hold anticipate the speed of the Lancastrian advance back the Lancastrians. With only part of the down Watling Street from Dunstable to Yorkist army engaged and some of the St Albans. Lancastrians still in the town the numbers on At dawn on the morning of 17th February, each side may have been roughly equal. the Lancastrian forces advanced through
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Both armies were probably ordering themselves while fighting. Further back towards Sandridge and Wheathampstead the remaining Yorkists were trying to get organised and up to the front line. But the muddy lanes, the sound of battle from the town and the running fugitives would have made the movement of troops difficult and slow. Soon the front line was collapsing and panicked troops were starting to flee through Sandridge towards the rear. Some troops were still struggling to organise themselves as others were trying to break past them. Some Lancastrians now set to plundering St Albans, while others pushed on towards Sandridge. There may have been a stand by the Yorkists near Sandridge, and the Earl of Warwick managed to rally some of his troops further down the valley. But this stand by uncommitted troops in a strong defensive position was not tested by the Lancastrians, who, as darkness began to close in, were satisfied with gaining the town. Exhausted by marching and disordered by the battle and the pursuit, they broke off contact and allowed Warwick to slip away with half his army. St Albans was a hollow victory, for within a few weeks the Yorkist forces regrouped, and, having secured their London base, marched north to gain a decisive victory at Towton.
John Dixon
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Sporting Sandridge
The earliest recorded cricket match in Sandridge took place in 1824, when Watford beat the County on Nomansland, but the cricket field was not established until the late 1870s by the Rev. John Griffith, “keeping the young from the public houses”. By 1892 a team was playing regularly under the captaincy of Arthur Reynolds. Although it seems that in some subsequent summers games were not played because of lack of players and funds, the club had regular fixtures in 1907 and 1908. In 1908 Mr Reynolds raised £50 to acquire the old pavilion, which was to provide shelter for sixty years. Cricket continued regularly between the world wars but was suspended at the end of the 1939 season, with the last game being played on 26 August that year – a twelve run victory over Oakland Wanderers. Following World War II cricket restarted in 1946, although the club had to play in Hopkins Field in House Lane whilst the Spencer Recreation Ground was being re-instated. Cricket has been played every summer since then. Early records of football in the village are largely non-existent. The Mid-Herts Football Association was formed in 1892 and we believe that a team
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from Sandridge entered the competitions in 1896. The club won the Mid-Herts Division Two in 1910/11 and other divisional titles in consecutive seasons 1930/31 and 1931/32, plus the Benevolent Cup in that latter season. League football was suspended for the duration of World War II. In 1943 a junior team was put together with goalposts produced by local builder Bert King. Senior football began again in 1946/47 with the Sandridge team overseen by the ever-watchful Bill Whyman, the village policeman. Mid-Herts Divison Two was won in 1947/48 but the only other trophy before the mid-1960’s was a league title for the reserves in 1961/62. In the 1940s, there were briefly two other football teams; Sandridge Woodcocks, composed of workers at the Radio Station, and the improbably named Sandridge Robots, employees at the Transplanters factory on the site of St Leonard’s Court.
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S900+ event Facilities for both sports were inadequate in the 1960’s with the old pavilion well past its best and the footballers changing in the Village Hall with just one unreliable shower. In 1964 the two clubs joined with the Youth Club to form The Sandridge Youth and Sports Association, and led by the charismatic Geoff Dickens (later an MP), campaigned for new facilities. These were opened in 1967 at the Spencer Recreation Ground. The total cost was £18,000 (approx. £240,000 these days) of which 25% came from local fund-raising, and the rest from grants. Sadly the planning permission decreed that the old iconic pavilion should be demolished. The impressive new facilities led to success on the playing field. In the five years from 1965 the football club had successive promotions through to the Herts County League Premier Division, with a total of eight trophies for the three teams. By then league cricket had arrived in Hertfordshire and the Sandridge club were the winners of the initial Group Two competition in 1969. As with all sports clubs, both of ours have had their peaks and troughs in the intervening forty-four years. Currently the football club’s first team are still in the Herts County Premier Division, having won the title four times, and also the Herts Intermediate Cup, but not the prestigious Aubrey Cup. The cricket club’s first team remain in the upper echelons of the Herts Cricket League and won the Herts Village Trophy in 2012. More importantly both clubs continue to provide sport for local people and have done so for well over one hundred years, thanks to a countless number of unpaid volunteers.
Sporting Events Cricket Festival Week starting Sunday 8th June Football Festival Week starting Sunday August 24th Boxing Day Traditional Football Club versus Cricket Club football match
Alec Freeman
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Sandridge Hospitality The main shopping area is the Quadrant in Marshalswick, with a very wide range of shops. Its free parking makes it easy to pop in. St Brelade’s Place on Jersey Farm is smaller, but still convenient, while Sandridge Village has its Village Stores (known locally as Darby’s), which also serves as a café – a return to its origins as The Bell.
As well as the three modern pubs, the King William IV, the Baton and the Blackberry Jack, which serve Marshalswick and Jersey Farm, Sandridge has four ancient pubs. The oldest, the Rose and Crown, may go back to the fifteenth century, and the Queen’s Head to the early eighteenth century, as does The Green Man, although it was rebuilt in the early twentieth century. Further out, the John Bunyan at Coleman Green is equally old. All offer excellent food and drink, making use of local produce. For 2014 this will include a special Sandridge Ale from the Tring Brewery, to go with Sandridge sausages from John the Butcher in Sandridgebury Lane, and fruit and vegetables from local nurseries.
Come and enjoy Sandridge hospitality!
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Big Lunch
S900+ event Sunday 1st June
The Big Lunch is a nationwide network which facilitates one-day get-togethers for neighbours in the form of a street party or alfresco lunch. Some streets, like Rose Walk, hold one every year, and several others locally used the framework to celebrate the 2012 Jubilee. Why not join in Sandridge900+ and get together with your neighbours to celebrate your mini-community within the wider Sandridge district? The BIG LUNCH website has all kinds of resources to help, with tips and advice based on experience to make organising simpler. Just visit www.thebiglunch.com You could simply have a fantastic meal, or get really adventurous with a historic or futuristic theme.
Let everyone know what you're planning and how you get on via the sandridge900 Facebook group
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Midsummer Gala 21st June 2.30pm until late To Do ►
Zip Wire and Climbing Trees
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Miniature Steam Engine Rides Bouncy Castles Amateur Radio Station
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To Browse ► ► ► ► ►
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Plant Stall Craft Stalls Charity Stalls Side Shows Bake-off Display
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To Watch
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Marching Band Judo Display Fancy Dress Competition Pony Display Zumba Dancing Tug Of War Maypole Dancing Morris Dancing Celebration Beacon
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Fireworks Finale
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To Enjoy ► ► ► ► ►
Cream Teas Hog Roast Barbecue Beer Tent Music from
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Straightlife BSV Jazz Band Luis Lemo’s Salsa Band
Entry and entertainment are free. There will be a charge for certain activities and for refreshments. sandridge900@gmail.com
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S900+ event
SUNDAY 6th JULY St Leonard’s Church Fresh from presenting the Battle Proms at Hatfield the previous evening, Pam Rhodes, familiar from the BBC programme of the same name, will be coming to compere the Churches Together in Marshalswick annual Songs of Praise. She will interviewing some local Christians and introducing a selection of well-loved hymns. There will food and drink to enjoy as well, so come along and join us for a memorable experience in a beautiful setting.
Churches Together in Marshalswick Christian churches and groups in the area regularly join together for services, for fun and for charity events like the Christian Aid Week Fair outside St Mary’s Marshalswick - this year on
Saturday 17th May
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S900+ event
Walks and Talks Find out more about where you live The parish of Sandridge, part rural, part suburban, keeps many of its beauties and its stories hidden. To introduce you to some of the remarkable things that one can easily pass by, the St Albans Guides are devising routes for guided walks round the village. They will be leading a Sandridge tour on Sunday July 27th as part of their 2014 programme. A leaflet is planned so visitors can explore by themselves using the routes and information researched by the guides. Other experts will lead more specialised visits to Heartwood to see new developments there and, weather permitting, to observe the stars at night. And the Oxfam Herts Hike on 27th September offers a chance to walk with a purpose. Did you know that Sandridge Vicarage was the cradle of British Egyptology? or that Woodcock Hill played an important role in Bletchley’s decipherment of German codes? Visit St Saviour’s to hear about the history of this beautiful Edwardian church and the impact of the Great War on its congregation, or St Leonard’s to meet the Cabinet Minister, the Headmaster, and the Inventor (of the framed rucksack) who restored the church in 1886. All this and much more will be revealed in a series of talks on the history of Sandridge and its people to be hosted by various local groups, including St Leonard’s Fellowship and the Sandridge Evening Women’s Institute. Most dates are on the calendar on pages 6 and 7, but details and extra events added nearer the time will be announced on our website, www.sandridge900.com and in the local media. Take a look and come and find out more about the place where you live.
Discover Sandridge Paintings, embroidery, historic silver and an advertisement for the new Jersey Farm houses “as ahead of their times as those built by the Romans”, will be among the objects on display at the Museum of St Albans in Hatfield Rd. from 26th April to May 29th The exhibition is free and will be open Monday to Saturday from 10-5pm, and on Sundays from 2-5pm. Come and be surprised at Sandridge’s hidden treasures!
The Old Vicarage 1905
Wireless Station at Woodcock Hill
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Sandringham Summer Festival Saturday 12th July, 4 - 9.30 pm with live music on the main stage, sideshows, BBQ and a licensed bar
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S900+ event
Growing Trees, Growing Sandridge At Heartwood Forest in Sandridge the creation of England's largest new native forest is well underway. The Woodland Trust have ambitious plans to create an 858-acre woodland with a total of 600,000 newly planted trees, all planted by volunteers. There is also a budding new community orchard, extensive wildflower meadows, open spaces and miles of footpaths and bridleways. The site, in the heart of London's Green Belt, boasts four remnants (covering 45 acres) of precious ancient woodland and is home to an abundant bird of prey population including barn owls, kestrels and short-eared owls, which can be seen in the winter months. Songbirds are continuing to increase and the rare corn bunting has even been spotted nesting. The English bluebells and a selection of veteran lime trees grace the ancient woods and yet it is just 25 miles from Marble Arch. Visitors can currently explore hundreds of acres of newly accessible land, including the four pockets of ancient woodland. The remaining areas are still being farmed, but as new areas are taken under the care of the Trust, they will be opened up for visitors to explore.
HeARTwood Summer Festival During 2014 the Woodland Trust will be inviting everyone to its annual HeARTwood summer festival on Saturday 23rd August from 11am-4pm. The summer event has attracted hundreds of people over the years and the Trust is hoping this year's event will be as popular as ever. Activities will include bird-box making, willow weaving, a Sandridge 900 themed teddy bears picnic and guided walks, to name just a few. So make sure you put the date in your diary and come along and have some fun. Heartwood will also be holding the first tree planting event of the season on Sunday 16th November 2014 from 10am-3pm. Come along and help continue the amazing transformation of the area into lush green woodland full of life.
Get in touch for more details by emailing heartwood@woodlandtrust.org.uk and check out the Heartwood Forest blog at www.heartwoodforest.wordpress.com for up to date news on the forest and how it's progressing.
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Focus on Flowers Plants are like Christianity; the more one has to share, the more delight to oneself John Griffith Flowers have had a special role to play in Sandridge for well over a hundred years. Dr. Griffith in the 1890s was a keen gardener, encouraging allotments and instituting the first Flower Shows in Hertfordshire as part of his regeneration programme for the village. Carpenter’s Nursery celebrated 90 years last year, having started in 1923 as an ex-serviceman’s smallholding. Nowadays they cultivate beautiful dahlias alongside vegetables and bedding plants. In the early 1950s Ernie and Doris England started the Elham Nursery in Highfield Road, in the very large gardens behind their bungalow and Doris’s childhood home. Their flower specialities were chrysanthemums and carnations. Doris’ self-taught skills were such that she was eventually invited to work across the road at Ivens Orchids, which had revivied a great St Albans tradition of orchid cultivation, begun by Frederick Sanders at the end of the 19th century. For 40 years, Ivens, founded in 1970, and run by the Cook family from 1986, put Sandridge on the map, becoming a world-renowned enterprise, winning countless RHS Show medals and supplying orchids to top London hotels and botanical gardens in Moscow and Belgium. When it closed in 2010 Ivens still had specimens from the Sanders nursery dating back as far as 1901. Amateur horticulture flourished from the outset in the gardens of the newly developed
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Marshalswick. The Marshalswick Horticultural Society grew out of the Residents’ Association around 1956, when rationing was a recent memory and vegetable growing correspondingly important. Between 1990 and 2003 the society won 8 medals at the Chelsea Flower Show for their courtyard gardens, designed by Sheila Fishwick, and ran its own Flower Show for 55 years, until 2012. The society still continues, and welcomes new members. St Leonard’s traditional Flower Festival at harvest time, now nearly forty years old, is a wonderful collaborative event. Individuals from 5 to 90 and local organisations from the WI to the Sports Club and the Queen’s Head all contribute, along with regular church arrangers and professional florists. Imagination, the flowers and the architecture do the rest. In 2014 the Festival will be bigger and better than ever, lasting three days instead of two. Its theme will be “Sandridge, Growing Community”, celebrating the district’s past present and future. Come along and see St Leonard’s delightfully transformed, enjoy the music and the delicious refreshments – or join us at the Saturday evening concert by the Village Voices, not forgetting to invite your friends. And why not show us what you can do with flowers? We have new arrangers with new ideas every year. If you’d like to be one of them in 2014, contact Christine on 01727 831623.
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St Leonard’s Flower Festival
Friday 3rd Sunday 5th October “GROWING COMMUNITY” A real community event where anyone from 5 to 95 can contribute wonderful displays of ingenuity and imagination involving flowers, cultivated and wild, fruit and vegetables. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH IF YOU’D LIKE TO TAKE PART.
4th October 7.30pm VILLAGE VOICES HARVEST CONCERT St Leonard's Church
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From Flints to HighHigh-Tech Lenses Science in Sandridge Archaeologically, the known history of Sandridge begins with the hand axes and worked flints that have been found in the area dating from the Palaeolithic period (2.3 million BC to 10,000 BC), and, much later, particularly the Late Iron Age and Roman ditches from 50 BC to 410 AD. These remains really represent the cutting edge of science and engineering at the time. Ingenious medieval craftsmen carved the font and the screen, while their 18th century successors, using `wedges’, managed to lower the nave roof by several feet when it was threatened with collapse. The woodyard behind the Rose and Crown later housed a large traction engine, ‘Sandridge’, which doubtless helped the employees to become champion `Pimp-makers’ from 1900-1903. In the 1930s, Nomansland Common was used by De Havilland Aircraft to test models of aircraft, and model aircraft flying continues to this day. Members of the firm’s flying club also landed full-sized planes on the Common. The Second World War saw two large firms active in Sandridge. The Lark Works, moved from Bethnal Green in 1937, expanded its engineering on what is now the St Albans Road
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Industrial Estate, and was followed in 1940 by Transplanters, makers of agricultural machinery. Their works, on a site which is now St. Leonard’s Court, was afterwards occupied by Buerks (later Steetley) Chemicals, a company manufacturing bromates and bromides Yes, there was a major industrial site right in the middle of the village, close to the church. Bromate is most commonly found as sodium bromate, which can be used for dyeing processes, and potassium bromate, which was used in baking bread to strengthen the dough. Potassium bromate is now banned from food products in the EU because it is carcinogenic, but is still used elsewhere. The chemical company unfortunately went bankrupt and the site stood idle for some time, while the rain slowly washed the spilt chemicals into the ground, contaminating the groundwater beneath us. The water companies have had to spend about £3 million cleaning up the site. The other main site of science and technology is on Woodcock Hill. During the War, an Experimental Direction Finding Station was built for the RSS Radio Security Service and the GPO built a separate radio listening station. A bigger Foreign Office intercept Station was built nearby in 1939. All of this cutting-edge technology was a vital part of the espionage and counterespionage during the Second World War. After the War, the Foreign Office station became the DWS, Diplomatic Wireless Service, where similar Cold War activities may have continued.
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In 1973 the location was converted into the Police Scientific Development Branch, whose role was to investigate science and technology for the police. It was later known as the HOSDB (Home Office Scientific Development Branch) for a period, before being renamed CAST (Centre for Applied Science and Technology) in 2011. It provides impartial technical advice to government, developing technology in areas including crime investigation and prevention, contraband detection, identity assurance, protective security and public order. Elsewhere in the parish companies have quietly come and gone and we may not have known what work they did. Others continue to prosper. My own business designed a lens for an early mobile phone camera and now this has possibly been produced in greater quantities than any other camera lens. Today I am designing custom camera systems for the World Land Speed record attempt – www.bloodhoundssc.com - that hopes to achieve 1,000 mph in the next few years. Beric Read Cllr. Beric Read runs a small optical lens company. He is a Chartered Physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Institution.
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Merchandise Great ideas in store for you A great selection of Sandridge-related merchandise, some created specially for Sandridge900+ T-shirts and souvenirs with designs by Sandringham students A Sandridge900+ ale at the Green Man and the Rose and Crown and a specially created sausage from John the Butcher. Sweet Lily’s Sandridge-produced preserves – look out for her Sandridge900+ labels. Yummy chocolate bars from The Chocolate Wrapper of Harpenden. 2015 calendars Books new publications, including Rumbustious John, a biography of Rev. John Griffith, the reforming and rebuilding vicar of the 1880s, and reprints of out of print favourites about Sandridge and Marshalswick. And will someone be inspired to produce a memoir - perhaps an e-memoir - about Jersey Farm? A giclé print of Victorian painting of the churchyard and church before Dr Griffith restored it. A new range of greeting cards for all occasions featuring local scenes and designs.
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Remembering a Century’s Wars
After the Great War many parishes erected a lychgate as their War Memorial, but Sandridge’s is very unusual in having a Roll of Honour – a list of 131 men who served and survived – painted on the inside of the roof. Do look up as you next pass through. St Leonard’s lychgate is familiar to many as a gateway they walk through on their way to the church, the pub, the village shop or the rest of their ramble, but it is not the only memorial in Sandridge. In the churchyard are the official War Graves of Rifleman W.F.Aldous (d.16.11.1918, and on the St Albans Memorial) and Pte.W.Walker (d.1.2.1919, aged 33) – both men who had been transferred to the Labour Corps. Another local casualty, E.V.Folds is also absent from the Sandridge memorial. A third War Grave, from WWII, is in the detached Burial Ground in House Lane. AC1 Luis Bertram Harradine, RAF Reserve, lived locally, married the daughter of the Wheathampstead postmaster and was killed in an air raid on North Weald airfield on 29th October 1940. Five further names were added to the lychgate memorial after 1945, but the list is not complete, for two other deaths on active service were recorded in the Parish magazine –those of Stoker Daniel Miller and Lt. H.J.Oldham. The total number of men and women from Sandridge who served in the armed forces in WWII is estimated at 340. Another Sandridge native, Arthur John Thompson, baptised at St Leonard’s on 6th January 1907, appears on the memorial to the victims of the massive air raid on the Vauxhall carworks in Luton on 30th August 1940. An engraved plaque bearing the Kohima Epitaph of the
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Burma Star Association is affixed to a tree stump at the Chiltern Road entrance to the Jersey Farm Woodland Park. Returning to the great War, inside St Leonard’s five small brass plaques on the choirstalls poignantly commemorate seven former choir members, including two sets of brothers. A stained glass window in the north aisle, depicting St Christopher with modern children and the Christchild was installed in memory of Cptn. Charles Shurey, killed in 1916, the stepson of Revd.Tudor Talbot-Thomas, vicar 1929-39. The youngest man named on the memorial from Vyse’s hat factory, now visible on a wall outside the Ziggurat Building in Ridgmont Road, Leonard Matthews, came from Sandridge. Another resited Great War Memorial, the brass plaque from the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Victoria Street, St Albans, records eleven names of men from families connected to that church, (see picture above). When the building was closed and the congregation helped form the new Marshalswick Baptist Free Church in the 1960s, the plaque came with them and is now housed in the Minister’s Vestry there, where it may be viewed by arrangement.
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On the other side of Sherwood Avenue, outside St Mary’s Church is a 21st-century memorial (pictured), dedicated in 2010 to the casualties of more recent conflicts. One such is commemorated in the west window in St Leonard’s - Alan Leonard Hunt, killed in 1955 while serving with the RAF in Kenya. This conflict is one now much in the news again, and it is thought-provoking to read what Alan wrote about it in the Parish Magazine at the time. It may be read on the Sandridge900+ website, which also has the full list of names on the main Sandridge memorial, soon to undergo restoration thanks to Sandridge Parish Council. An annual Remembrance Service is held at the Lychgate Memorial on Remembrance Sunday, which this year falls on 9th November.
The Burma Star Assocation’s Service commemorating both VE and VJ Day, Jersey Farm’s Woodland Park, August 2010
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S900+ event
Fireworks Finale Going out with
a BANG!
A Spectacular Display on Your Doorstep
The Sandridge900+ celebrations will officially close with a family fun evening Firework Display on the Jersey Farm Adventure Playground, organised by JFRA.
Save the date now!
Regulars will know how good the displays they put on always are, and this year it will be bigger, better and brighter than ever! Tickets available nearer the time - watch the website and local media to be sure not to miss them.
Saturday 8th November Music and BBQ from 6pm, before the fireworks shortly after 7pm, so come and make it an evening to remember.
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Changing Community 2014 marks an auspicious year for Camphill St Albans community of residents. We shall be rebuilding our Community Hall on the Sandridge Road. Many of our neighbours remember the building as the old Tominey’s ice-cream factory! It has been run as a puppet theatre and workshop, and as the focus of our communal activities, which we shall seek to enhance by creating a fit-forpurpose building (within the existing footprint!) to replace the chronically dilapidated one that remains in our back garden. For nearly twenty years we have been supporting vulnerable adults in the St Albans community. We provide accommodation and support to enable our residents to live a connected, participatory life – working in our art studio or in our café on Catherine Street; and getting the most of the varied social opportunities to be enjoyed in St Albans and district. At our studio, our talented artists produce together a variety of artwork – ranging from pottery and Christmas cards, to jewellery and landscape paintings. These are then put up for
sale through our café and proceeds are ploughed back in to our community. At our café, training in catering, cooking and hygiene skills is provided, and our enthusiastic team knock out some cracking fare: from a full-English breakfast to the most exquisite cakes. The café is open from 8am – 4.30pm Tuesday to Saturday (closed on Sundays and Mondays) and provides a relaxed and welcoming venue for all who seek a haven from the bustle of the High Street. We are also hoping to offer horticultural placements from our new allotment site off Marshall’s Avenue. The produce from the allotment will be cultivated organically and utilised in our soon-to-be revamped café kitchen. Our gardening team will also start to offer horticultural and landscaping services in our immediate community. Many of our residents have lived in the St Albans community since our initiation – and deeply appreciate the many and daily kindnesses of our neighbours in this area. It is a community within a community – and one in which we look forward to thriving for the next 900 years!
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Community Groups, Facilities and Opportunities Two residents associations provide a focal point for their areas, liaise with the council and help to improve and maintain local amenities. The Jersey Farm Residents Association, as well as organising the annual fireworks display, helps look after the Woodland Park. They publish a regular newsletter, and have a website: www.communigate.co.uk/herts/ jerseyfarmstalbans. The Marshalswick North Residents Association is a much younger organisation founded in 2013. It has a website at www.mnra.btck.co.uk, or email g.clarke.mnra@gmail.com for more information.
Centre also has a volunteer who services hearing aids and a chiropodist who visits every eight weeks, as well as a minibus with a hoist for people with disabilities. All these are run by volunteers, so why not consider joining them? Help is always welcome, even if it is only for an hour or two. For further details contact: for Jersey Farm: Lyn Bolton, tel. 834699 or e-mail lynbol@ntlworld.com for Marshalswick: St Mary’s Church, tel. 851544 or Anne Brockwell tel. 762236; for Sandridge, Jacky England, tel. 853218 for Homewood Road, tel. 869970.
Luncheon Clubs and Day Centres
Community Activities
Elderly people in the district are catered for by Luncheon Clubs and Day Centres supported by the Parish Council. The largest is the Jersey Farm Day Care Centre, which meets on Tuesdays in the Jersey Farm Community Centre between 10.30am and 3.00pm. The St Mary’s Marshalswick Lunch Club, for those living in St Mary’s parish, meets on Thursdays at 12.30pm, while Sandridge Silver Threads meet in Sandridge Village Hall once a fortnight on a Friday from 2pm until 4pm. Just outside the civil parish, a similar group is run by the United Reformed Church in Homewood Road, on Wednesdays from 10am to 2pm. All provide varied entertainment and outings throughout the year, while the Jersey Farm
2014 is a great year for finding out about everything that takes place in Sandridge, Marshalswick and Jersey Farm. An enormous variety of activities offers something for everyone. Details of those that take place in the Community Centres and links to those elsewhere can be found on the Parish Council website and in Neighbourhood News. Sandringham School, in conjunction with Verulam and Beaumont Schools, also has a community programme, details of which are given on their websites. Village Voices rehearse in St Leonard’s , which also hosts a Bible Book Club, children’s craft mornings and a Fellowship, with monthly gettogethers for a talk, discussion, quiz or group activity (details at www.sandridgechurch.org.uk).
Residents Associations
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A variety of clubs, dance and exercise classes, and sporting, artistic and musical activities take place in the halls at St Mary’s, St Saviour’s, Homewood Road URC and Marshalswick Baptist Free Church, and in the Spencer Sports Hall in Sandridge, which also hosts a Community Playgroup on Tuesdays and an After School Club every afternoon from Monday to Friday. Two branches of the Women’s Institute meet in the area. St Albans City WI meets at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of the month in the Marshalswick Community Centre. Sandridge Evening WI meets at the Village Hall at 8.00pm on the second Tuesday. Sandridge Village Hall is also home to a Carpet Bowls Club on Friday evenings and a Judo Club on Tuesday evenings (adults) and Thursday evenings (juniors) Scouts, Guides and related groups for different age groups meet in various halls, as well as the three scout huts in the district. Both organisations operate central enquiry systems for would-be joiners. For Guides, Brownies and Rainbows in Bernards Heath, Marshalswick and Jersey Farm email the North District Commissioner on 24thsab@gmail.com and for Sandridge contact west@girlguidingstalbans.org.uk
For Explorers, Scouts, Cubs and Beavers visit www.stalbansscouts.org.uk Perfect Moment Flowers at the Quadrant offers flower-arranging workshops and Fashion and Fabrics in Beech Road hosts patchwork classes.
Discover, join and enjoy in 2014.
Websites www.sandridgevillage.com www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk www.thrale.com www.stalbansowneastend.co.uk http://heritagehub.herts.ac.uk www.sandridgechurch.org.uk www.sandridge-pc.gov.uk
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Milestones 105 Years of Hertfordshire Scouting Hertfordshire was the first organised Scout County in the world, and June last year saw the publication of Milestones of 105 Years of Hertfordshire Scouting, a book, complete with searchable DVD, which describes in chronological order, the history of Scouting in almost every town and village in Hertfordshire since 1908. It is unique survey of an amazing movement and the many people whose devotion and leadership have brought it to where it is in 2014. The large format book of 190 pages may be obtained from: Hertfordshire Scouts Milestones 105 Well End Activity Centre Borehamwood, Hertfordshire WD6 5PR Please include a cheque for ÂŁ22.50. This includes P&P and should be made payable to Hertfordshire Scouts. If you have any questions please telephone the County Scout Historian, Frank Brittain on 0845 643 6973 or e-mail archivist@hertfordshirescouts.org.uk. The Scout Groups of the Sandridge 900+ area are proud to be part of 900 years of history. 1st Sandridge founded 1927: 18th St Albans founded 1950: 5th/13th St Albans founded 1951.
ADD-vance advancing Sandridge has been the base since 2010 for an organisation serving families throughout Hertfordshire. ADD-vance provides advice, support and training for those caring for children who have Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Everyone who currently works with ADD-vance as a staff member or volunteer has a child or children with these conditions and therefore has personal experience which helps them communicate with families. ADD-vance has been at work since 1996, and is celebrating the good news of its registration as a fully-fledged charity, which arrived in October 2013. As a relative newcomer to Sandridge they are looking forward to joining with Sandridge 900+ and continuing to grow as part of the community in the future. ADD-vance can be found at: Unit 5C, 35 High Street, Sandridge, St Albans AL4 9DD Office hours 9 -1 Monday-Thursday www.add-vance.org
HELPLINE: 01727 833963
Clockwise from top left: The former workhouse converted into flats / St Leonard’s between c.1840 and 1885 / The last days of Jersey Farmhouse / Church End cottages, home to the Kerrisons and the Arnolds / A class in the old school / Marshals Wick c.1920 / Jersey Farmhouse in happier times.
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Did you know? Water, water (almost) everywhere About 20,000 years ago a river ran from Harpenden through Sandridge and along House Lane. When the outlet became blocked, the village was at the bottom of a lake some 75 feet deep. `Sandridge docks’ was a popular name for the area by the Rose and Crown because it was often flooded by water coming down the hill from Sandridgebury. For several months in 2001, following heavy rain, a large lake, several feet deep, covered the fields to the west of House Lane. It was hurriedly drained when it was found to contain traces of poisonous chemicals.
Sandridge, Cradle of British Egyptology Francis Llewellyn Griffith (pictured) 1862-1934, who was educated by his father at Sandridge Vicarage, became a leading Egyptologist, and has an Institute in his name at Oxford University. His sister, Agnes Sophia (1860-1949), also established herself as an Egyptologist, editing, translating and revising textbooks of Egyptology and publishing a catalogue of Egyptian sculpture, before turning to Assyriology. Lady Carnarvon, wife of the excavator of the tomb Tutankhamun, spent her teenage years at Sandridgebury.
Sandridge on TV! In 1963 St Leonard’s was the setting for an episode of the TV serial The Saint. Villains stole the church funds after locking the churchwarden in the vestry. The church has also figured in at least two TV adverts, one involving actresses from East Enders, seen here having make-up applied in the Queen’s Head.
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Thankyous Planning the events for Sandridge900+ has involved a wide variety of individuals, and will over the coming year involve still more. We are grateful to our three patrons, to the Sandridge Parish Council and to St Albans District Council for their financial support, and to Hertfordshire Archives and other copyright holders for permission to use their images. Our thanks go also to those who have played a part in the deliberations of the Steering Committee for their hard work, to all those who have offered suggestions and assistance in planning events, loaning objects and composing this brochure, and to the many others whose help and advice over the coming months will contribute to the success of this year’s celebrations. Logo design by Harry Dunkerley of Sandringham School. Illuminated frame on page 25 by Andrea Hill. The original may be seen in the Discover Sandridge Exhibition. Photograph on page 19 of St Mary’s Baptismal Bowl courtesy of the artist, Claudia Brown. Front cover photograph by Arthur Lewis www.arthurlewis.com, 5 Florence Street, Hitchin. We are grateful to Arthur, and to the many other photographers whose images feature alongside his inside the brochure, in particular Lucy Baldock, Jim Champion, Alan Habbick, Peter Hyde, Phil Jeffrey and Heather Webb. Brochure designed and published by Jane and Wendy at ‘the NOW magazines’ www.theNOWmagazines.com Sandridge900+ is an evolving project so the list of named individuals to thank can never be exhaustive, but it includes: Ron Arnold, Mary Auckland Charles Baker Lucy Baldock Lyn Bolton Carolynn Boucher Marion Bright Peter Burley Jamie Burrows Jim Champion Carl Cheevers Geoff Churchard Rev. Em Coley Nicole Deufel John Dixon Claudio Duran Mike Eames Mike Fooks John Foster Liz Gardner Chris Hackett John Harmsworth
Peter Hyde Cindy Impey Wilf James Phil Jeffrey Roland King David Lapthorn Mark Lee Frances Leonard Bob and Helen Little Ros Mitton Mike Neighbour John Newton-Davies Nancy Palmer Sue Pearson Ken Rankin Beric Read Martyn Reid Bernard and Jenny Roberts Simon Roberts Rev. Gary Russell Bridget Shadbolt David Sheffield
Amy Stothard Rob Taylor Charlotte Thorp Kathy Tilney Jonathan Tully Rev. Peter Wadsworth Cyd Waters Mike Wall Timothy Watson Heather Webb David Westcott Anthony Woodhouse Tony Woodward
Thanks for their support goes also to our patrons and to the many local businesses who have advertised in this brochure. Please support them in return.
Christine and Vivian Nutton January, 2014
sandridge900@gmail.com
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www.sandridge900.com
01727 831623
sandridge900@gmail.com
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