Number 17 Meadow Green was the home of E St J(Jack) Catchpole OBE, Founder and first secretary of the Youth Hostel Association and President of the IYHF. He lived here from 1930 to 1971.
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Opposite 26 Youngs Rise, on the corner of Elm Gardens, stood ‘The Hollies‘. Built in 1920 on the site and gardens of ‘The Hollies’ the first hospital remained there until 1940. In recent years the site has been used to build a number of detached houses – numbers 2 – 16.
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From 1921 workers housing was built at Youngs Rise, in Elm Gardens and Applecroft Road. Good examples are numbers 18 – 28 Youngs Rise.
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Some of the early houses have a strange series of ‘mosaics’ in their brickwork. These appear on all walls of the houses and it is thought they are the locations of the scaffold poles around which the houses were built.
When removed the poles left a brick shaped rectangular hole. The bricklayers then made up designs using bits of brick and other coloured materials to create small ‘mosaics’ that decorate the houses. The technique seems to have been restricted to houses built by Fred Palmer.
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The first new homes were built here in 1920. They are distinguished by their white washed rendered walls.
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‘Weavers cottage’, 56 Bridge Road, designed by C.H.James in 1922, was built for the weaver Mary Kemp, who died in 1934.
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Also pre-dating the town are 52 and 54 which were built for Lord Cowper’s estate, supporters of various charities in 1876. Next door the semi-detached estate cottages at 48 and 50 possibly date back to 1709.
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Prior to the development of 1920 this area was largely farmland with a few scattered hamlets. Handside was one of these. The oldest dwelling at 39 Bridge Road bears the date 1604.
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Sir Ebenezer Howard, who was the pioneer of the Garden City Movement, lived at 5 Guessens Road between 1923 and 1928.
In 1919 Howard purchased land in Hertfordshire just north of Hatfield for £5000 with money borrowed from friends. On the 29th April 1920 Welwyn Garden City Ltd was formed, it was chaired by Sir Theodore Chambers and Louis de Soissons was appointed the towns architect and town planner. The first house in the town was occupied just before Christmas in 1920, Howard moved to the town and lived in this house in Guessens Road until his death on the 1st May 1928.
For those wanting to take a short cut, you can avoid the road route shown below and simply use the footpath at the top of Guessens Road to get to Bridge Road more quickly.
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9 Guessens Road was the original home of Sir Theodore Chambers, KCBE. He was Chairman from 1920 to 1950 of Welwyn Garden City Limited the company which planned and established this town. From 1939 until1960 the public library was housed here. It is now Rowan Tree Nursery.
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Sir Frederic Osborn, who took up the cause of the Garden Cities from Ebenezer Howard, lived at 16 Guessens Road until his death.
He left School at 15 and worked as an office boy whilst he studied to better himself. In 1912 he took up a job as secretary/manager at Howard Cottage Society (founded by Ebenezer Howard) in Letchworth Garden City. Osborn moved with Ebenezer Howard after the purchase of the land for Welwyn Garden City in 1919 and became Company Secretary and Estate Manager.
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There are two memorial gardens on the corners of Russellcroft Road where plans for 18 storey blocks of flats were successfully opposed in 1962 . On the southern corner is the Holocaust Memorial that also records rescue by the Reiss family of 14 Jewish boys from Germany in 1939.
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This garden is dedicated to Dick and Celia Reiss, Welwyn Garden City pioneers who devoted much of their time to the development of the town.
Richard Reiss was active in the New Towns Movement at the end of the first world war. Whilst working for a fledgling Garden City company in 1919 Ebenezer Howard rang him about land coming up for auction in Hertfordshire and asked Reiss to get on a train to Hatfield to come and view it.
Richard Reiss and his wife Celia moved to Welwyn Garden City in 1922 and lived in a house at 51 Brockswood Lane.
Richard and his wife Celia set up the Health Association establishing health care in Welwyn Garden City and promoted the New Town Movement both at home and abroad.
Richard who at the time was also Labour MP for Colchester set up a boys club at Peartree in the late 1930's for local children and helped countless refugees fleeing war-torn Europe.
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The fountain, which is in the middle of Parkway, commemorates the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The fountain was designed by Kenneth Peacock who was a partner of Louis de Soissons.
In recent years throughout October, the fountain has been given pink water. This is provided by Roche in recognition of Breast Cancer month.
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