HISTORY OF DELCARA

Back in 1984 Deards End Lane had an informal Residents' Association, which was formed in large part to challenge the constant pressure from developers to infill and build on every possible scrap of land. Deards End Lane, with its spaced out houses and big rear gardens was a prime target. At this time nearly everbody in DEL knew everybody else, and with this community spirit and the adoption of the conservation area at about this time the anti-development pressure was largely successful, and with the Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas Act of 1990 (which puts a legal duty on planning authorities to respect conservation areas) the development pressure eased, and the then residents' association effectively faded away.

Now in 2023/4, the planned expansion of Knebworth has put a new threat and set of challenges on our conservation area, and the new reformed residents' association aims to represent the households within the DEL Conservation Area and Stobarts Close, and to buld a community sprit amongst the members. The reconstituted association (DELCARA) had its inaugural meeting in January 2024, and its first AGM in March 2025.

HISTORY OF DEARDS END LANE

The ancient lane runs from the remnants of the Deards End Lane farm buildings to the B197 road, which was formerly the Great North Road (A1), and apart from a pair of Victorian railway cottages by the railway bridge saw no development until 1901 when the famous architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who had family connections with Knebworth House, drew up plans for a pair of farm cottages for his father-in-law the Earl of Lytton. In 1904 Lutyens returned to extend and convert the cottages into a single dwelling, Hillcroft (#7). in 1908 the idea of Knebworth Garden Village started to become a realistic prospect and Lutyens was retained as consulting architect. He went on to design The Beacon (#15) for the Golf club secretary and the Golf Clubhouse in 1908, and Wych Elms (#3) in 1912. The Lutyens properties together with the farmhouse and various surviving barns from Deards Farm are all Grade II Listed. The Garden Village was never realised, but a number of substantial distinctive detached dwellings, with the approval of Lutyens, were built in the Lane in the period 1910 to 1920. The style is predominantly of red brick with gabled terracotta-tiled roofs.  It is this style of building with traditional materials and appearance, and the olde worlde spacious setting of hedges and trees that the current conservation area seeks to preserve.