The original campus for the University was at Roe Green in Hatfield, where it was founded as a technical college with a particular focus on training aerospace engineers for the aerospace industry that was then prevalent in Hatfield. The Gape family of St Michael's Manor in St Albans owned the land at Roe Green from the late 17th century. In the 1920s they sold it to Hill, a farmer, who then sold it to Alan Butler, chairman of the de Havilland Aircraft Company who lived at Beech Farm nearby.