Hertfordshire Genealogy: Places: St Albans, Herts

The earliest reference to the Stanville Football Club I have been able to trace relates to the Annual Whit Monday Sports held in 1893 by the St Albans Cricket Club in Heath Farm meadow, Bernards Heath (cutting). This reports that Albert Johnstone and A. Powell of the Stanville FC came second and third in the One Mile Handicap.

Stanville Football Club were founder members of the Herts County League, joining in 1898. (Football Club History Database)

Season	P	W	D	L	F	A	P	POS
1898-99	10	4	2	4	13	24	10	3/6
1899-00	16	5	2	9	17	32	12	7/9
1900-01	8	0	0	8	6	21	0	5/5

Stanville Football Club (from St Albans) played St Albans Amateurs in the final of the Hertfordshire Senior Cup in 1900-1 and held them to a 1 all draw after extra time. A replay was arranged but Stanville did not turn up, and St Albans Amateurs won the cup by default.

Can You Help? The Stanville Football Club appears to have been a short lived football club in the St Albans area between at least 1893 and 1901. However a search through digitised Hertfordshire directories between 1895 and 1908 fails to turn up any person, business or place called Stanville. So where was the club based?

Tell me if you can identify any of the people in the picture If any of the people are your ancestor I can easily supply an enlarged portrait image - as the example.

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In reply Robert Bull has suggested that the Stanville Football Club may have been based on the Stanhope Road/Granville Road area of St Albans. This seems very likely as the Albert Johnstone who won a race in 1893 is probably the Albert Johnson (born 1875) who was living in Granville Road in 1891.

Can anyone confirm this suggestion? Did the well-to-do gentleman with the cigar live in a large house in the area?

Possible candidates: The male heads of household living in Stanhope Road in the 1895 Herts Directory are William Baum, James Edmund Bennett, Ernst Bohnof, John Childs, Samuel Davenport, James Harding Duncan, William Samuel Frost, Alexander Innes, Francis Jervis, Alfred Batson Joyner, Edward King, Edwin Lee, William Perrett, William Phillips, Charles Rose, Charles Sharpe, Isaac Shelford, Lieut-Col Franklyn Chambers Taylor, George Wilkinson, Arthur Williams.

In Granville Road there were William Alexandra, James Edmund Anderson, Edward Bennett, Thomas Smith Bennett, Arthur James Bennett, James Henry Bush, Edward Crosby, John Hammersley, Alex Frederick Merrett, George Robert Purdie, Henry Wood, George Edward Wright.

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Mike writes: Although I had not heard of this club the suggested portmanteau origin seems reasonable. The approximate timing is also interesting because the Cavendish estate had been developing since 1883 followed shortly after by Stanhope and Granville roads and part of Camp Road, near the area known today as the Crown. At that point in time there was no Fleetville and the Midland railway separated this area from the rest of the city. Apart from Clarence Park (from 1894) there were several other playing spaces - part of Watson's old nursery, then in the hands of F Sander, most of the Gaol Field west of Camp Road, and the home field of St Peter's Farm.

Maureen Corcoran has pointed out that the gentleman can be identified as Thomas Oakley who, at the time the picture was taken, was Mayor of St Albans. See Thomas OAKLEY, Mayor of St Albans, 19th Century for some brief biographical information about him.

Adult School Football Club

Mike Neighbour writes: The Adult School, whose premises were in Stanhope Road from 1911, had a team with Charles Tuck as trainer. The photograph from the 1921-22 season indicates they were winners of the Mid Herts League Division 3 and winners of the Benevolent Cup. It is taken outside their premises on the corner of Stanhope Road and Granville Road, St Albans; now unfortunately replace by a rather non-descript block of flats called deNovo Court. The only person I can name at present is the man with the towel draped over his right shoulder. He is Charles Tuck, father of Horace and Frank, remembered for the garage they ran in Fleetville next to the old Co-op Bakery. The photo came my way from speaking with Frank's daughter-in-law. The family were members of Hatfield Road Methodist Church.

Glenfield Football Club

[Restored image - click picture to see original]

Mike continues: The Glenfield (Glenferrie Road/Sandfield Road) FC team must have a Tuck in it, but I am not sufficiently familiar with their faces to identify them. When I say it must have a Tuck in it, the photo was passed to me, as was the one above, by Frank's daughter-in-law, and the Methodist Church (which I guess also had a team) is on the corner of Hatfield Road and Glenferrie Road. The setting for this picture is "somewhere round the back!" Probably behind one of the Hatfield Road shops or even the Tucks' garage.

Mike has also posted the pictures on his St Albans Own East End and hopes the double exposure will increase the chance of other people in the pictures being identified.

Unknown Club - 1930s

Mike writes: Another St Albans football team has surfaced. It was shown to me by the daughter of a former trader in Fleetville, St Albans, and very close to the locality for the Glenfield FC team I sent you in July. The player front row left is Harold Stone, who was born 1906. If we assume from the picture that he is c30 years old, the photograph was taken c1936. Someone with more sports fashion knowledge may be able to tell more from the players' shirts. It had been sent as a postcard to Mr G Bickerton, 90 Holywell Hill, St Albans. Mr T Bickerton lived here and the last directory with this name is 1934; by 1938 it was someone else. I presume Mr G was his son, and that (George?) Bickerton was another member of the team. Further, written in pencil on the reverse is the name Kennard. So he is a possible third player. All very interesting!

The location is also intriguing. The background, on slightly higher ground, appears to show new houses nearly finished. In front of them is a line of chestnut paling fencing. I know that doesn't help much because there was much house-building in the 1930s.

Hertfordshire Genealogy News 15 Sept 2011

Mike's researches into St Albans' East End has produced two more pictures of St Albans clubs which are somewhat later than the normal cut-off point for Hertfordshire Genealogy site, so if you have any information respond to the East End web site. He writes: .

Sea Cadet Football Team: This photograph was taken in the front playground of Beaumont School, Oakwood Drive, St Albans. At the beginning of WW2 the Sea Cadets trained at the school before moving to new headquarters at Verulamium. One recognsable face, in the centre of the middle row, is teacher Mr A Coxall, who was also a Special Constable. He also arranged experience visits to Portsmouth naval and marine bases. Although St Albans Sea Cadets, it is likely that many of the team members lived in the Fleetville, Camp and Colney Heath areas.

Unknown St Abans Football Team: The team came to me from the same source as two previous teams I submitted to you, and may contain players who knew Horace Tuck of Fleetville. It may even be the same team, though in a different period – this photo appears to be more recent relative to the other team pictured in a wide open space. The shirts superficially are similar to other teams photographed, but in monochrome it is difficult to tell. Users who are good at comparing faces may find a player on more than one photo!

August 2012		Identification of Thomas Oakley