About

This website serves Smallford residents and provides information about Smallford’s past, present and future. Smallford and its surrounding areas are steeped in history, including the aerodrome at Hatfield, De Havilland’s airplane manufacture, the world’s first jet airliner (the Comet) and much more.

Station Project

Welcome to the Smallford Station & Alban Way Heritage Society homepage. On this site you will find all the latest information about the society, workshops and associated activities in one handy place. If you’d like to get involved or find out more, click the button below!

SRA

Smallford Residents’ Association (incorporating Sleapshyde) announcements and information will be posted on this website. Please check it frequently for important news and updates. Here, you will find information about planning proposals, objections, and much more that concern the local community.

We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are confident the project will support many local people in following and developing their interests in a wide range of areas – e.g. researching, interviewing, creating videos, designing exhibitions, developing a website, writing stories. We are particularly excited at the thought of finding people who recall the station and branch line when they were operating and capturing their memories for posterity!

Jeff Lewis

Smallford Residents' Association

Latest Smallford News

Latest news for the local community of Smallford

Butterwick Wood

Another farm not in use today is Butterwick. In fact the farm homestead has gone too, consumed in the process of winning gravel from under that part of the farm south of the branch railway. The part north of the railway came into the hands of the District Council and...

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Market Gardening

The farms around Smallford were typical in the southern part of the county wherever they focused on grain. The late 19th century collapse of grain prices caused enormous economic hardship and many farm employees and casual labourers were laid off. Prominent...

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Station Road

The road now known as Station Road, was, before the arrival of the branch railway, called Smallford Lane. Strange really, because the road which connects Hatfield Road with the former Smallford hamlet is called Colney Heath Lane! In fact, both those lanes from...

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Welcome to the Turnpike

The very long Reading and Hatfield Turnpike Trust road, 51 miles, interconnected with other turnpike roads, and came into use in the 1760s. At the Hatfield end it began at what was then the Old Fiddle public house (now Old Fiddle Cottages), making a connection with...

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The Parish Pest House

The parish of St Peter constructed an isolation hospital for infectious diseases. It was a large house which included private accommodation for a nurse. Food and other requirements were left at the gate and collected by the nurse in charge. Although it is not known...

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Farriers Near Smallford

In a demonstration of the reliance on horses and simple machinery for much of the farm work, as well as the needs of travellers, there were three farriers within a short distance of each other during the 19th century. The blacksmith’s forge next to the Three...

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