Lemsford 'bikers cafe' Hatfield

[Mickey]

I recall hearing about this Lemsford bikers cafe which was possibly located on the Hatfield-St Albans road in Hertfordshire as a young teenager back in 1970/71 and it sounded like a 'dangerous place' to go for a plate of sausage egg and chips?. Apparently the local 'ton up boys' of Hatfield and the nearby Welwyn Garden City would regularly hangout at the place arriving on there Triumph & Norton motorbikes and wearing black studded leather jackets, dirty jeans and bikers boots with some of the bikers wearing WW2 Nazi helmets and carrying bike chains and flick-knives in case a ruck ensued with the local Mods?. I did hear that 'Purple hearts' were available if wanted?. All in all a place to avoid as a 13-14 year old back then.

[Hatfield Shed]

Ah, the Lemmy cafe. It was a leftover from an earlier route of the Great North Road*, and far more docile than its reputation. Wannabee motorbike gangster types regularly fell off their 50cc Honda mopeds there.

The big attraction was that Welwyn Garden City - "the town your mother might have designed" - was decidedly short of affordable eateries after about 9 PM, whereas 'the Lemmy' a short distance away, might still be serving cheap nosh - which was way better than the risible offerings of the Wimpy Bar - until midnight. (The drugs were in WGC, from behind the old Cherry Tree Pub or the old Bus station, conveniently located between the railway and Police stations.)

*Now, The Great North Road which headed North out of Hatfield passing Stanborough just West of where the Bull pub once stood: which Pub was on the 'new alignment' (now B197) which bypassed Lemsford and lies just West of the A1(M). The earliest route still visible (B653)went to Brocket Corner where it turned East into the Lea Valley for the little village of Lemsford. Here there was a 'mill by the stream' where lived 'Nellie Dean' the famously beauteous miller's daughter of legend commemorated in popular song. The mill building is still there, just over the road from The Sun pub. Don't drive above 15mph, the sleeping policemen are something fierce.

It went that way as there was water for the Gees before the slog uphill from Lemsford on what's now a lost stretch along the boundary of Brocket Park to the sites of the Waggoners and Red Lion Pubs on the top of the hill at Ayot St Lawrence, where the three road alignments are still to be seen: E to W, B197, A1(M), old Great North Road. Heading on North toward Old Welwyn is the 'Slough of Despond', but that's enough history for today.

[giner]

Ah, the Lemmy - a lost corner of my youth . You’re right, it was never a serious biker cafe not like Jack’s Hill further up the old A1 north of Stevenage.

Anyway, we often used to pull into the Lemmy on the way home from gigs for a plate of gastronomic suicide. Our favourite stunt upon leaving would be to put a shilling in the jukebox and select three records by Jimmy Shand and his Band. Then promptly get out of there, leaving the rockers to the delight of hearing reels and jigs instead of Elvis, Little Richard, etc.

[Hatfield Shed]

...it was never a serious biker cafe not like Jack’s Hill further up the old A1 north of Stevenage...

That's something out of the past, thanks for the reminder; only went to this dive once, actually on the Roman Road piece of the old Great North Road, and looking about as modern! It was popularly said that the plan to put the Lister Hospital on the North side of Stevenage was to be close enough to this trouble spot to quickly deal with the casualties. When did it close? ...

[Mickey]

Good replies Hatfield Shed and giner.

Leaving the 'Lemmy cafe' behind and going to Welwyn Garden City circa 1969-71

Hatfield Shed did you ever hear of the names Harry Spider and Tony Fane who were both young fella's in WGC back around 1969-71?.

[Hatfield Shed]

Neither of those names ring a bell. Bear in mind it was baby boom time, the annual school intake of 5 year olds was about 1200, from one modest sized town.

[Mickey]

No problem Hatfield Shed I just wondered if you had ever heard of both 'gentlemen' ha ha.. Anyway In the case of Harry 'Spider' he was an original 1969 'skinhead' with no.1 cropped hair, a Ben Sherman shirt, stay pressed trousers with braces and finished off with his 'boover boots' (Doc Martins obviously the preferred choice for skinheads back then) and if he's still alive in 2024 at a guess I would estimate he would be about 72 or 73?.

As for Tony Fane I knew of him and saw him around school but I never spoke to him anyway he was in the year above me at secondary school and left secondary school in 1971 to go and work on the railway although from my observations of him (a bit of a tough young man with longish hair as was the fashion at the time back in the early 1970s) he didn't appear to have any interest in railways it was just a job to him anyway he got a job as a 'box lad' at Welwyn Garden City s/box of all places because I recall seeing him on a number of occasions in the box when I was on the platform at WGC anyway from memory he was probably at the box during the second half of 1971 but possibly left by early in 1972 because when I also went to the box also as a 'box lad' as well in July 1972 also after leaving secondary school he had gone months earlier although one of the resident signalmen remebered his name when I mentioned it to him anyway if he's still alive in 2024 he would be 68 now.

[Hatfield Shed]

No problem Hatfield Shed I just wondered if you had ever heard of both 'gentlemen'...

I might have done at the time, but now long forgotten. The 'dispersal' following school was something else as people pursued further education and work.

[giner]

...it was never a serious biker cafe not like Jack’s Hill further up the old A1 north of Stevenage...

It was popularly said that the plan to put the Lister Hospital on the North side of Stevenage was to be close enough to this trouble spot to quickly deal with the casualties. When did it close? ...

Sorry, I can’t recall as I left Stevenage in 1980 and I think, though not sre, that it had gone by then. Of course, the A1(M) put paid to it. It became a family restaurant after that. It may still be, as far as I know.

[Mickey]

The Lemsford cafe was just a name that I recall hearing of when I was at secondary school in WGC in about 1970-71 from one or two school kids at my school. As for obtaining 'drugs' I do recall hearing that they were obtainable from the cafe near to WGC railway station as you mentioned Hatfield Shed but drugs didn't interest me because the only drugs that I used back then was RAILWAYS 24/7 SEVEN DAYS A WEEK!!.

The 'Cherry Tree' pub and ballroom as you mentioned Hatfield Shed had a reputation for drugs but as a 13-14 year old at the time in 1970-71 I wouldn't have got through the door.

[giner]

I remember gigs at the Cherry Tree - a nice ballroom. Do you remember The Hop at Woodhall Community Centre, Mickey? It was run by a Welsh guy, Seth Rees. He used to book some really good groups in there.

[Hatfield Shed]

I remember gigs at the Cherry Tree - a nice ballroom...

The frontage onto Bridge Road still exists, but converted into a Waitrose store. The once lovely garden and bowling green is interred under the store's two storey car park. The upper deck does duty as a useful air ambulance landing pad.

...Woodhall Community Centre...

Still exists and in use. Barely changed decor in the last fifty odd years...

[giner]

Thanks for the update. A shame sometimes how progress spoils things, but cool how the Woodhall has kept going all these years.

[Mickey]

I remember gigs at the Cherry Tree - a nice ballroom. Do you remember The Hop at Woodhall Community Centre, Mickey? It was run by a Welsh guy, Seth Rees. He used to book some really good groups in there.

I know where you mean giner but no I never knew that Welsh bloke.

With regards to The Cherry Tree a small number of 'named bands' from the late 1960s that made it bigger in the 1970s played at the pub.

The pub just on the road out of Woodhall towards the Cole Green lane roundabout was named The Woodman I believe back in the later 1960s and into the 1970s but on a visit to WGC the first time back in 2008 after leaving the town in 1979 the name had been changed to The Chiefton I believe?. Another pub existed at the other end of Woodhall on the road down to Hatfield Hyde and the T-junction with the Howlands and that was and probably still named The Holly Bush I believe from a faded memory?.

The Cherry Tree pub and ballroom receives a 'namecheck' in the official report into the WGC 1935 train crash at WGC railway station which basically says that a Saturday night dance was in progress at The Cherry Tree ballroom and shortly after the crash had occured an appeal was broadcast over the ballroom PA for any car drivers and other rescuers to help the injured at the scene of the crash which apparently witnessed the spectacle of 'gentlemen and ladies' in evening dress in amongst the wrecked train helping the injured.

[Mickey]

I remember gigs at the Cherry Tree - a nice ballroom...

The frontage onto Bridge Road still exists, but converted into a Waitrose store. The once lovely garden and bowling green is interred under the store's two storey car park. The upper deck does duty as a useful air ambulance landing pad.

...Woodhall Community Centre...

Still exists and in use. Barely changed decor in the last fifty odd years...

Yeah I obviously remember the bowling green Hatfield Shed next door to the Cherry Tree pub and bus stop and seeing many times the 'old folks' back then in the late 1960s and first half of the 1970s playing on the club bowling green