'Snatchup Alley' or 'Stonecross'

The northernmost tip of the ancient Borough of St Albans

By Kate Morris, 2006

Abstract

This formerly densely populated thoroughfare led north from St Albans town centre towards Bernards Heath. The community there was displaced when the ancient cottages were demolished by the water company who built a motor house and water storage tanks on the site late in the 19th century. Research and a leaflet have led to recognition of the lane, the installation of street nameplates and its inclusion in the city’s street-cleaning regime. It is hoped soon to improve its appearance.

What's in a name?

The name Snatchup Alley in St Albans, now re-acknowledged with a street nameplate, has defied research. We can only speculate on why, from at least the 17th century, the lane behind the Cricketers and Jolly Sailor public houses has had this name. It is not unique; there is a Snatchup still in Redbourn and there was one in King's Langley. The presence of two public houses and a record of criminal disturbances from time to time support the notion of a den of thieves or worse, where 'snatching' was commonplace. But there is no evidence of this scenario before the 19th century and it is unlikely that the good citizens of St Albans would have named a street for such activities in official documents.

Sometimes referred to as Snatchup End, Snatchups Row, or even Snatchhops, it is the thoroughfare on the west side of the spur of land which is the northern tip of the ancient Borough of St Albans. It would have been the natural route for those leaving town on the left hand side of St Peter's Street at the top of the town. The return on the east side of the six plots on this spur, widened in the 19th century to accommodate vehicular traffic, gradually became the High Road to and from Sandridge.

The name Stonecross later came to refer to that stretch of the High Road alongside these plots as 'atte' or 'nere' the Stone Cross. There may have been a cross at this northernmost point of the Borough.

What went on at Snatchup?

The plots at Snatchup were held of the Manor of Newland Squillers, which was in medieval times owned by the Abbey of St Albans. After the dissolution of the monasteries, it came to the Robothams, who, in the 17th century, lived in the manor house on the New Lane, now Hatfield Road. In the early 18th century the manor was sold to the Duchess of Marlborough. Such manorial plots were usually held copyhold, a system of tenure which was abolished in the 1920's. It meant that a 'customary tenant' held the right to the plot under the Lord of the Manor, against payment of a small sum of money and some item in kind, for instance 'a fatt henn on St Thomas Day' each year and whenever the plot changed hands by sale or inheritance. Each party to the transaction had a copy of the document, thus recording the 'surrender' or 'admission' at a Court Baron. Many of these title deeds survive for Newland Squillers.

Most of the Snatchup plots were occupied by a row of tenanted cottages and it was rare for 'customary tenants' to live there themselves. The cottages were usually in the occupation of artisans who moved relatively often. In 1841 the census shows Snatchup Alley was home to 23 families. There was a chimney sweep, a general dealer, a brewer's man, two journeyman carpenters, a lace worker, two bricklayers, two brickmaker's labourers, a gardener, a schoolmistress, and several agricultural labourers, apart from the publican. Daniel Groom and his family of seven children, originally from Hitchin, were agricultural labourers. His widow, Hannah, was still living there in 1861, working as a charwoman, whilst her daughter Jane, by then 15, had become a silk winder. The Findells, Wallers, and Hedges all lived for many decades in this locations.

The Lord of the Manor, or the Steward on his behalf, would hold a Court Baron each year to collect fines, or fees, from his 'customary tenants' and to hear grievances, when someone was 'presented', for example, for 'the ruinous state of his barn'. This was the fate of Edmond How in 1685. The penalty was usually another fine. In the 18th and 19th centuries this Court was usually held in the house of a member of the 'homage' or jury of the customary tenants who administered local affairs of the manor, since the Duchess, and her descendants, as Lords of the Manor, had always lived elsewhere and the manor house had been demolished.

The Water Company

Edmund How's barn was on the third plot from the south, in the centre of Snatchup. A barn remained there, owned for many years by the Kinder family, until William Bennett, a builder and brickmaker, bought the plot in the 1930s. He lived on St Peter's Street and was Mayor of St Albans in 1851. He demolished the barn and replaced it with six cottages. However, this situation was short-lived, as he sold the plot in 1854 to Thomas Haden Oakes, ironmaster from Derbyshire, who was providing a water supply to the town through cast iron pipes. He drove deep boreholes at this, the highest point in the town to extract water from the chalk aquifer.

As the town developed, demand for water grew and the business established by Oakes was incorporated as the St Albans Water Company. The Company gradually took over more land, including part of the Cricketers' plot, from 2005 Devdas restaurant, for huge cast-iron storage tanks and towers and for engines and pumps and a house built for a resident engineer. The industrial building, which in 2006 became a business centre, was the Motor House; No 1 Stonecross, St Albans Business Centre, was the engineer's house. The gate onto Snatchup Alley at No. 1 reminds us that the houses fronted west until the main road was widened for modern-day traffic and their back gardens and sheds were lost. The new tank installed in 1883 had a capacity of 466,000 gallons, but water was by then drawn from the River Ver via the Holywell pumping station as well as the boreholes at Snatchup. The removal of the water tower and subsequent sale of the land originally part of the Cricketers' plot with planning permission in 1977, allowed residential building on the site again – the three townhouses at Stonecross Close.

The Cricketers

A substantial house, with cottages adjacent, probably stood on the site of Devdas Indian Restaurant. The little garden laid out at the front may have been the site of Upper Cock pond referred to in local histories. In 1815 Thomas Clarke was admitted at the Court Baron in respect of this plot, after William Wells surrendered it. Later Clarke's son lived there and there were a further five dwellings on the site. By 1841 Isaac Nicholls, a blacksmith, was the principal tenant. He was also a beer seller, but it was not uncommon for artisans in those days to have multiple occupations. The resident owner of the house continued to hold a liquor licence and, in 1896, it was sold to J W Green, brewer of Luton, who rebuilt it as The Cricketers' public house. The name alluded to the cricket ground, which was beyond the site on Bernard's Heath and had already been adopted by 1884 when Joseph Seabrooke was the landlord of The Cricketers' Inn. It was substantially rebuilt in its present style in the 1930's.

The Jolly Sailor

The Jolly Sailor has been a public house since the 1820s, when it was acquired by Francis Searancke's Kingsbury Brewery. The publican was John Kilby, whose family remained there until after 1889, when it was sold, and rebuilt in 1899, fronting the High Road. The sale particulars published in the Herts Advertiser described it as ' a very good house, occupying an excellent position at the junction of Sandridge-road and the Sandpit-Lane', and 'the nearest public house to the St Albans Cricket Club'. Until the 1960s two cottages remained to the north of the pub, but they are now demolished and the pub is now the last building on the way out of the old Borough. Benskins, brewers, took that opportunity to extend. They were followed as brewers by Ind Coope and then Charles Wells whose new tenant, Paul Egerton, has given the pub a huge face-lift. He has reintroduced the provision of food and has great plans for its future.

There are few maritime links with St Albans, which begs the question: why is it called The Jolly Sailor? It is likely that this reflects the popularity of Prince William, Duke of Clarence, who became William IV in 1830. With a long naval career behind him he became known as The Sailor King. His bride in 1818 was Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. She was similarly commemorated by the naming of the public house on St Peters Street (now the Subway takeaway and Café Roma) and the newly developed Adelaide Street in the late 1820s.

Snatchup Today

Snatchup Alley is nowadays a convenient shortcut for pedestrians on their way to and from the city centre. It still marks a boundary – that between Marshalswick South and Clarence wards of the modern City and District. The new street nameplate, posted 2006, gives recognition to this old route and will make maintenance and the reporting of incidents or problems easier and more effective.