IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Grindcobbe, ST. ALBANS, AL1 2ED

The London & North Western Railway built their line from Watford Junction to St Albans in 1858. This is the route viewed from Image The train is known locally as the Abbey Flyer.

This crossing over the St Albans Abbey branch line railway allows pedestrians to walk between Cottonmill Lane and Grindcobbe Close.

Looking towards Image it was about a 100 metres away in the distance that the former Great Northern Railway's line to Hatfield peeled off to the right. That line closed in 1964.

Leaving St Albans Abbey station, the former Hatfield and St Albans Railway left the current line to Watford Junction at a point just behind the photographer and this was the first crossing structure that it had to go under. The Great Northern Railway took over the line in 1883, but it was a very early casualty of British Railways' days being closed to passenger traffic in 1951. Freight services lingered on until 1964. The trackbed is now in use as a section of National Cycle Network Route 61 and is the start of the Alban Way, the dedicated footpath and cycleway between St Albans and Hatfield. Those familiar with Cottonmill Lane will know that it makes a sudden and inexplicable sharp 90 degree turn just to the right of this photograph. Looking at old Ordnance Survey maps it is evident that the road formerly carried straight on to the existing railway, and the re-alignment seems to have occurred when the Berners Drive housing estate to the south was built.

The last area of the former gasworks, where two gasholders remained until 2014, being developed as an extension of the surrounding retail park. I assume it was probably not suitable for housing due to soil contamination? See Image for the gasholders in situ and Image for them being demolished.

The gasholders on the site of the former St Alban gasworks are now being demolished. See Image by Nigel Cox of the gasholders in 2009, having been out of use for some years and see Image for a glimpse of one holder in use in 1987.

From old Ordnance Survey maps it is evident that the site of the St Albans gas works was once much larger, stretching down to Stephen's Hill, and having its own dedicated railway siding, more or less on the site where Sainsbury's is now. These two holders are all that remains but they are large enough to warrant being individually represented on the current Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale mapping.

The line leads to Abbey Station. The cathedral can be seen in the distance.

Road developed in the c.1950s along with the rest of the area off Cottomnill Lane. The houses on the right would appear to be original, but although the area on the left is shown on the 1960 1:10,000 map as having also been built up, with individual detached houses set diagonally to the road, the ones here would appear to be a substituent redevelopment, dating from the late 1970s according to planning documents. The tower of St Albans Abbey can be seen in the background.