Luxury Awnings and Pergolas in St Albans
Garden lighting with awnings and pergolas
A garden without lighting can be a rather drab affair, but when you have an awning or pergola, lighting becomes an essential extra to invest in.
Sitting out and relaxing under an awning or pergola is a great way to relax or enjoy some quality time with friends and family, but why restrict this activity to the daylight hours?
With a quality lighting system, you can enjoy your awning or pergola at any time of the day or night. With the addition of some heating, you can even extend your outdoor time into the colder months too.
LED lights come in so many forms, and all are energy efficient. The energy consumption of these lights is a major consideration these days when you consider the eye watering costs of energy at present.
LED strip lights, spotlights, hanging lights and rope lights are just a few of the configurations you can choose from. And a good light source under your awning or pergola will enable you to make use of these outdoor areas whenever you choose.
Awning and pergola lights for your down time
Whether you are reading a book, listening to some music or enjoying a barbecue with friends and family members, having the right amount of light is essential for your enjoyment.
For reading you will probably want to go for some down or spotlights, as these target the area that you want lit. Clearly, an ambient glow is not suitable for reading as you will just end up with eye strain. Similarly, strong and targeted spotlights are not the best choice if you are simply relaxing and desire some nice mood lighting.
Many forms of lighting can be dimmable or even have the ability to change colour. Some may even be able to fade between colours of the spectrum, making you feel relaxed as you sit and enjoy the fresh air.
Awning and pergola lights at the touch of a button
Many of the LED lighting solutions designed for awnings and pergolas have handy remote-control units that allow you to control the lights, switch between colours or various other effects. These lights have been available in the aquarium trade for many years and now they are being used to very good effect in the awning and pergola forum.
So, make the most of your time out in the garden. If you’ve invested in a pergola or awning, complete the ensemble with some good quality LED lighting and maybe a dedicated awning heating unit.
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St Albans and the one and only English Pope
Pope Adrian IV was actually born Nicholas Breakspear in about 1100. He was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 4th December 1154 to his death in 1159. He is the only Englishman to have been made pope.
Breakspear was born in Hertfordshire, but very little is known of his early life. Although he does not appear to have received a great degree of schooling, apart from the St Albans school he attended as a boy. The St Albans school is the only school in the English-speaking world to have educated a Pope.
While Breakspear was still a young lad, he travelled to France where he was schooled in Arles, studying law. He then travelled to Avignon, in the south, where he joined St Ruf. There he became a canon regular and was eventually appointed abbot. He travelled to Rome several times, where he was noticed by Pope Eugene III, who then sent the young Englishman on a mission to Catalonia where the Reconquista was attempting to reclaim land from the Muslim Al-Andalus. Around this time his abbey complained to Eugene that Breakspear was too much of a disciplinarian, and in order to make use of him as a papal legate as well as to pacify his monks, he was appointed Bishop of Albano around 1149.
Adrian’s relations with St Albans remained strong and he showered St Albans Abbey with many privileges.
Oldest pub claim by St Albans public house
On Abbey Mill Lane, the road between the Abbey and the school, are the palaces of the Bishops of St Albans and Hertford and Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, claimed to be the oldest pub in England. In fact, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, this ancient St Albans pub that dates back to 793 is officially the oldest pub in the United Kingdom, but sadly it recently went out of business. Unfortunately, even St Albans oldest public house couldn’t survive the Covid pandemic.
Another single honour for St Albans
Between 1403 and 1412 a clock tower was constructed in the St Albans Market Place. It is the only surviving medieval town belfry in England. The original bell, named for the Archangel Gabriel sounds F-natural and weighs one ton. Gabriel sounded at 04:00hrs for the Angelus and at 20:00 or 21:00hrs for the curfew. The ground floor of the tower was a shop until the 20th century. The first and second floor rooms were designed as living chambers. The shop and the first floor were connected by a flight of spiral stairs. Another flight rises the whole height of the tower by ninety three narrow steps to give access to the living chamber, the clock and the bell without disturbing the tenant of the shop.
The War of the Roses and St Albans
Two battles of the Wars of the Roses took place in or near to St Albans. The First Battle of St Albans was fought on 22 May 1455 within the town itself, and the Second Battle of St Albans was fought on 17 February 1461, just to the north.
St Albans from Victorian times to the present day
Before the 20th century St Albans was predominantly a rural market town, a world renowned Christian pilgrimage site owing to St Alban, and the first coaching stop of the route to and from London, which accounts for its many old coaching inns.
The railway arrived at St Albans in 1858. In 1869 the extension of the city boundaries was opposed by the Earl of Verulam and many of the townsfolk, but there was rapid expansion and much building at the end of the century, and between 1891 and 1901 the population grew by a massive thirty seven percent.
A street market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, founded by Abbot Ulsinus, still carries out its trade to this day. It gained its Royal Charter in 1553, and is now run by St Albans District Council.