For Full Story

Answers

READER Ray Skitt phoned in after seeing our second picture of Carlton FC, which we published recently.

He gave us these names: 1 Tommy Day; 2 unknown; 3 Arthur Hawkes (whose dad was the landlord of The Camp pub); 4 Pete Atkins; 5 unknown; 6 unknown; 7 'Mac'; 8 unknown; 9 Plumley; 10 unknown; 11 Joby Davis (whose dad owned a wood yard in Camp Road); 12 Stan Yate (whose family owned Yate's coach company in Markyate); 13 Jock McAra; 14 Stanley Blow; 15 Colin Anderson (?); 16 Jack Yates; 17 'Spud'; 18 Ray Skitt; 19 Tony Mullen; 20 Jimmy Norris; 21 Norman Heathfield; 22 John Warren; 23 unknown.

Mr Skitt added: 'You see the black shirts some of the lads are wearing in the photo? They were made out of the material used to black out windows during the war.

'Carlton had an under16's team and an under18's team. It was a really thriving club shortly after the war, but it died off because the older lads had to go and do National Service.

'I started playing football in 1947 - in St Albans at that time, all the different picture houses would play against each other in informal matches. You would go to your local picture house on Saturday morning, and afterwards play matches against the other picture houses. That was our first look in at organised football.

'The various areas of St Albans - like Cottonmill, Fleetviell, Camp - would also play against each other, on odd bits of ground. On Saturdays there was always a match on Bernard's Heath. They used to keep the goalposts in one of the houses next to the heath, and the lines would be marked out with creosote. Sometimes you would get more people watching these matches than you get at Clarence Park now.

'Very often these matches would be 25-a-side, and would go on all day. Boys would play for a couple of hours, then drift off to have their dinner, then come back and start playing again.

'I can remember one game with Carlton vividly. We had got through to the area semi finals of the Saturday league, which was sponsored by Benskins brewery. We went over to Watford to play it, but when we got there, there was only one set of goalposts - two uprights and no crossbar, and they had put a length of string across the top instead. The string hung down about a foot in the middle, as well. Well, we hit this bloody piece of string twice in the course of the match, and the ref said we had 'hit the bar'. We ended up losing one-nil.

'After National Service we came back and Carlton was finished, but many of us joined the Camp Old Boys. We played at Cunningham Hill.'

He added: 'You also asked about the Monkey Parade in St Albans - we used to do it on Sunday afternoons, in St Peter's Street. We would all be there in our best suits, walking up and down, strutting your stuff and seeing all the girls. It was quite fashionable then to go for coffee at one of the cafes like Jack's. we never drank coffee before the war, but the Americans brought it over and it caught on.

ONE reader, who did not want her name in the paper, called in after reading the Nostalgia page.

She said: 'You were asking about St Albans' chimney sweeps, and you mentioned Mr George Pope. I'm his daughter.

'My dad started out as a coalman working for Punters in Lattimore Road, working with a horse and cart, and he did a bit of chimney sweeping on the side. Everyone called him Popey.

'Then he decided much to my mum's horror, to do chimney sweeping full-time. He only had half a dozen customers on his books to start with but once he got established you would have to book him several weeks in advance.

'There was a yard in Sopwell Lane where he had a garage, and kept his Ford van. I can always remember him coming home to Keyfield Terrace, off London Road, because he wore hobnail boots, and you could hear him coming. He would always be covered in soot, and mum would get the tin bath in and fill it up for him to have a wash. We had one tap to share between four houses, so it wasn't easy.

'The other 'sweeps in St Albans I remember were Mr Peck, who lived down near the Rats Castle in Hatfield Road (he later emigrated to Australia) and Mr Bonella, who lived in Prospect Road.

'I used to go to work with my dad sometimes. It would be my job to stand outside the house and tell him when the brush had gone out the top of the chimney.

'He always insisted on having perfect brushes. If there was one whisker askew, then out it went. Only perfect brushes did the job properly, as far as he was concerned. Hence he was always very busy.

'When vacuum cleaning came in his business went right down at first, but it wasn't long before they all came back, because vacuuming was never as good as brushing.

'He would take all the soot he brushed out to a Mrs Stevens, who had a smallholding in Sandridge, and spread it all over her ground.

'Because of my dad's job, we were one of the first families in the area to have a telephone, in the late 40's. Our number was 5448. We were always having to run around with messages for our neighbours.

'Dad used to get invited to quite a lot of weddings, because it was good luck for the bride and groom to invite a 'sweep along.

'You also asked about Mrs King, who used to open her house up in the summer to all the schoolchildren to play in. She had a rocking horse, and down in the field adjoining the abbey orchard there was a knotted rope tied to a tree, a rope ladder and a swing.

'In the winter the children would all go down to Priory Park School in Old London Road (which later became part of St Peter's).'

Questions

WHAT can readers remember about the Fleetville of old? Which long-gone shops, characters and stories relating to Fleetville can you recall?

DO any readers remember Spriggins Yard in Dalton Street, or Strofton's Yard in the city centre? What were they like?

CAN anyone remember Butler and Angels garage? Did it stand where Harry Smith's restaurant now is, in Verulam Road?

DOES anyone remember Bennett's motor spares shop and Sharpe's the welders on the corner of Normandy Road and Ashwell Street?

CAN any readers remember anything about Rollins tobacco wholesalers?

WHO remembers Hudson's grocers shop in St Peter's Street? Mr Hudson was a tiny chap who always wore a trilby hat behind the counter, and had a son called Georgie.

WHAT can readers remember about Mr Jolly's garage in Albert Street, or Don Hibson's garage, which specialised in American cars?

WHAT can readers remember about Half Moon Yard?

A READER writes: 'I remember a small printers' shop in St Albans which used to print the football and horse racing results in the paper, on a special blank column on the back page.' Does anyone know the name of this printers?

DOES anyone remember Art Luck, who drove the lorry for Ridges coal yard by St Albans City Railway Station? What other names and characters can you remember associated with that trade?

CAN anyone remember the junk shop and yard in Victoria Street, just down from Marlborough Road? What was it called and who ran it? One reader recalled that the huge bonfire outside the Town Hall on VE Day night sent a spark over to the yard, causing a huge blaze which eventually rivalled the official celebrations. Can anyone else remember this?

DO the names Wally Roberts and Model T Larry mean anything to any readers? What about local bobby PC Lionel Gee, who lived in Carlisle Avenue?

DOES anyone remember Ost's the Chemist in Catherine Street, which had big glass jars, in different colours and shaped like bells, on the counter?

ONE reader suggested that Bleak House in Catherine Street used to be a base for Land Army girls during the war. Do any readers know more about this? Do you remember going scrumping in the orchard there?

CAN anyone supply a name for the tobacconists and sweet shop at the corner of Etna Road and Catherine Street during the war?

ONE reader suggested that chimneysweep Charlie Slaughter, whose name has cropped up in the Nostalgia page before, was known to all as Prinny. Where did the nickname come from? Do you remember any other sweeps from St Albans?

DOES anyone remember chauffeur Bill Spokes, who lived down Folly Avenue and drove around a local doctor, Dr Smith, in a big Rover? Can you remember Mr Dye the ambulance driver, who lived in the ground of the isolation hospital down Folly Avenue?

CAN any readers remember Clarke's motorbike shop, run by brothers Ron and Win?

DO you remember The White Horse and The Rising Sun in St Peter's Street, or the King's Head pub in Market Place? Which other long-gone pubs in St Albans can you name? Can you remember anything about them?

WHAT can readers remember about these city centre streets: Grange Street, Bernard Street, Dalton Street, Church Street, Spencer Street, Drovers Way and Upper Dagnall Street? Did you grow up in one of these streets, or work there? What can you remember about the characters, shops, businesses, and way of life there in years gone by?

WHAT was on the site of the Quadrant at Marshalswick before all the shops were built?

ANY memories relating to the St Michael's, Fishpool Street and George Street areas of St Albans are welcomed. What long-gone shops, characters and stories can you recall?

DO any readers know of a tin house in woods next to Beaumont Avenue in the 30's, which was the home of the Atkins family? The Atkins children went to Fleetville School. One reader reckoned when all the houses were built the tin house was dismantled and moved to Redbourn.

READER Jim Hind asks: 'Does anyone remember Hazeldon Nursing Home on the corner of Carlisle Avenue in St Albans?'

CAN any readers remember the names of the two brothers who ran Beaumont's Farm? One reader remembered how, every morning, they would load greengroceries onto their horse and carts, and go off on their delivery rounds. The same reader said that during the war the Home Guard dug a network of trenches in the woods at the back of the farm, which were a favourite playground for local kids. What else can you remember about the farm, which was demolished to make way for housing after the war?

READER Mr Perrin was an avid comic collector and remembers buying Gem and Magnet comics from Deverill's in St Albans, and also Chick's Own, Rainbow, Comic Cuts and Film Fun, and The Funny Wonder ('which was a green comic'). Reader Tony Clayton's favourites were Film Fun, Hotspur, and Champion (with 'Rockfist Rogan'). What were your favourite comics, and where did you go to buy them?

CAN any readers remember Christchurch School in Church Crescent, off Folly Lane, St Albans?

READER Richard Wilson writes by e-mail: 'A few years ago we moved to Colney Street where we converted an old stable/bull pen which was owned by Lady Yule. On the same site once stood 'Frogmore House', a very large house which Lady Yule had knocked down after the last war. From some research we know that at some stage the property was let to Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyons, who were popular radio stars.' Do any readers know anything of the house, or have a picture of it?

CAN any readers remember Dobie's Four Square and Baby's Bottom pipe tobacco? What about Sobranie and Passing Cloud cigarettes? Do you remember Drene shampoo and Coal Tar soap? Which long-gone brands do you remember?

DO any readers have memories of living in The Camp area of Gorhambury estate - a collection of about 50 Nissen huts which were used for housing after the war?

WHAT can readers recall about Bernard's Heath in the old days? Can you recall Griffiths greengrocers on the corner of Sandpit Lane and Heath Road? What about Crouch's newsagents - a favourite with local schoolchildren - on the corner of Walton Street and Boundary Road?

DO any readers remember the flooded gravel pits around London Colney and Park Street on which people used to skate in winter?

DO any readers remember a preacher in the 40's who used to go around St Albans on a bicycle, delivering impromptu sermons all over the city? One reader said: 'He rode a very low-geared bike, so he would be pedalling like mad but only travelling about three miles per hour. All the children used to call him 'Pedal-Slow-Fast'.' The same reader thinks old Pedal-Slow-Fast lived in Selby Avenue. Can anyone shed light on who this man was?

DID any readers used to go to a youth club in St Albans? Can you shed any light on the one started by Jane Campbell in Upper Marlborough Road, or the one started by Ma Tanner?

CAN any readers remember the Monkey Parade, a long-extinct Sunday afternoon tradition in St Albans? What was it?

Share your stories

AS a weekly forum for popular social history - a unique service in St Albans - the Nostalgia page relies on calls and letters from readers.

So if you enjoy reading this, and have any memories to share, please do call in.

Any memories are welcome, no matter how small or insignificant they seem. Often it's only by knowing the small details of a subject that we can build up the bigger picture.

You don't have to leave your name if you don't want to. All calls, letters and photos will be considered for publication. Photos will, of course, be returned.

If you have any answers to any questions listed here, or any questions of your own, call Ross Bilton on 01727 736051. Don't worry about the cost - we'll call you right back.

Or write to Questions and Answers at Observer Newspapers, The William Henry Building, Porters Wood, St Albans AL3 6PQ. Ross's e-mail address is rbilton@london.newsquest.co.uk