We moved to St Albans in 1976 so I guess we almost qualify as locals now! I have enjoyed this year seeing all the photos posted on the “St Albans (UK) Photos Old and New“ Facebook page. It has made me realise that we have seen a lot of changes and yet so much remains unchanged.
I particularly like this postcard, I guess from the 50’s, which captures the activity in St Peter’s Street even on a non-market day. Change the vehicles and the fashions and it could almost be contemporary. St Albans has been a community for so long and witnessed so many events from the martyrdom of our hero, via the civil war and in 1991 our miraculous escape from an IRA bomb, to highlight a few.
The city centre has been bookended for so much of our history by the Abbey and St Peter’s Church, bearing silent witness to the faith upon which the community and many of its values were built.
We are an affluent community, at least measured by the average house price, yet we still have rough sleepers and need a food bank and other support mechanisms for those it doesn’t reach.
As we say goodbye to Christmas and look forward into 2019. I would suggest it is a time to reflect on what can we as a community do to ensure that the values espoused by Alban and many of our great citizens of the past continue to be our hallmark on into the future.
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