Bushey Heath now and then – Photos of my street from 130 years ago

Long-time readers of my blog will know one of the things I like to do is come across old photos of places and do comparisons with how they are today as with this series of3 old posts of old street scenes across the U.K.

Recently as I was looking for something completely difference I actually found some old photos of my street and even my house.  This is where I live today, I moved here 2 or 3 months ago and actually when I was little when to the school building on the right.   I live midway on the row of houses on the left.

It seems the street itself came into proper existence around 1830 though it’s thought my house is possibly a few years older than that and two of the houses are from at least the 1700’s!

Then below we have a photo that I have colourised from a black and white photograph I found on the internet.

You can definitely see the strong similarities, in fact it is easier to see the differences.  Sometimes in the last century or so telephones became popular and for reasons I never could understand, our street still has telegraph poles long after they vanished elsewhere.

The ditch on the side of the pavement has been turned into a pavement.  Look at that mammoth wall on the left.  It belonged to what in 1898 was called The Retreat which then for a few decades until the 1960’s was a nursery school.  When the school opposite my house was expanded, The Retreat was demolished and in its place still stand a block of flats and two 1970’s style houses.    You can see most of the wall has been puled down at the front but the side wall and the tall brick post with stone on top is still there.

Look at the majestic ‘pine’ tree in the distance on the left in 2020 and you can see it there in 1913 albeit it not as tall.

Two figures can be seen crossing the road, is it a parent taking a child to school?  And look at the road itself, mud and gravel and full of ruts.  The street is called The Rutts, could this be its origins?   Nearly all the streets in Britain originate on a physical or geographical figure or some family name; it’s just that we are now so distanced by time and appearance that it seems hard to tell for some places.  It’s a totally unique street name however and whilst many streets were rutted for some reason only one acquired a similar name.

If you think the 1913 photo is amazing then the one below is even better.

Here you can see the same street scene though a short distance further back.  There a few things that make this intriguing to me.  First of all can you see a group on the road in the distance next to the pointy looking building?  It looks like there is some equipment or machinery there and the building they are outside is a Methodist Chapel made out of tin which was built for the expanding population of the village which already had an Anglican church 5 minutes walk away.

This chapel was built in 1883 and there is every chance that some rich individual came out to photograph the commotion when it was bring built.  The thing that makes me think this very possible is that you can see the pine tree on the left in this photo is considerably shorter in height.

So my historians guess is that the second photo is of my house and street around 135 years ago which is pretty amazing to find for somewhere very ordinary and very quiet.

This photo is taken at the far end of my street.  I’d hazard a guess this is from the 1920’s but that’s all it is based on the type of materials on the sign post to the left and having a rough idea when the land was developed.  There was a field on the left and smaller plots of a field on the right.  As you can just about see, the field on the left is still there as a car park.  The curvature of the road and having walked this spot since 1982 means I’m pretty sure I have the right place and I think on the old black and white photo you can see where the wooden fence gives way to a taller brick wall which you can see still standing today.

Finally we will skip to the other end of the street.  This old photo is taken just a few minutes walk from that old Victorian pump I wrote about a few weeks ago.

This is the junction of The Rutts with Elstree Road and on the left the turning down Little Bushey Lane.  I find it a bit cluttered, it had much less clutter in terms of barriers and signs when I was little and in fact I’m partially responsible for the traffic lights being here as I had to cross this sometimes busy road on my 1 mile walk to school and there was a campaign to help make it more safe for children and pedestrians.

This is the same photo in times past.  You can see the manhole cover on the right is still there, hidden behind the railings and it all gives an idea of even away from the woods why Bushey Heath got its name.    Can you guess when this photo was taken?  have a think before reading on.

You can get some idea by the clothes that the lady is wearing on the right.  Obviously not early 20th Century but not exactly a 60’s or 80’s skin-bearing lady either.   You can see the cats-eyes in the middle of the road which were invented in 1934 so we know it is later than then.

I would say this photo is taken around 1950 and I think the clue is the markings on the kerbs of the pavement.  Can you see the painted black and white stripes on the bends of the junctions?  During WW2 when no lights were allowed after dark for fear of making it easy for German bombers, bends on roads and junctions like these were painted on the kerbstones to make it easier for drivers to go round at night with no or minimal lighting.

Once the war was won and lighting was allowed again the painted stripes weren’t maintained and now we safeguard from crashes by having messy metal barriers and traffic lights everywhere!!!

Actually just this very moment I have solved my own very minor street question.  In amongst the trees at the junction of The Rutts and Elstree Road, ever since I was a boy and walked that way to school in the 1980’s, I wondered why there was a small concrete platform in the soil.  I knew there had been a well nearby and with it being a junction of 4 roads and near the RAF headquarters, some places would have had a military checkpoint.

However if you look and zoom in at the 19500 photo you can just about see an old telephone box.  I’m sure thats what my 40 year mystery is about, I was only there on Saturday and thought to myself how will I ever find out what this was and now I have 🙂

I hope you enjoyed this special blog post, let me know if you have any comments below! Do you think my deductions are along the right lines? If not tell my history professors 🙂