Croxley Green
Croxley Green is a village and large suburb of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, and a civil parish in England. Located on the A412 between Watford to the northeast and Rickmansworth to the southwest, it is approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of central London.
Croxley Green | |
---|---|
Croxley Green Location within Hertfordshire | |
Population | 12,562 (2011 Census)[1] |
OS grid reference | TQ075955 |
District |
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Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Rickmansworth |
Postcode district | WD3 |
Dialling code | 01923 |
Police | Hertfordshire |
Fire | Hertfordshire |
Ambulance | East of England |
UK Parliament | |
Croxley Green has changed considerably in the years since John Dickinson built paper mills in the area. The area has grown into a semi-urban community, thanks to Croxley tube station on the Metropolitan line providing connections to London's West End at Baker Street and stations through to the City at Aldgate.
The population at the 2011 Census was 12,562.[1] Croxley Green is a part of the UK Parliament constituency, South West Hertfordshire. Gagan Mohindra is the Member of Parliament since the December 2019 United Kingdom general election.[2]
History
Croxley Green has a large village green. The Croxley Green Windmill was built c. 1860 and survives today converted to residential accommodation.
The Green houses the "Revels on The Green", an annual village fair which includes a traditional maypole dance, which used to be illustrated on the road signs on entering the village. The revels were featured in Metro-land, the 1973 television documentary by John Betjeman, who referred to them solemnly as "a tradition dating back to 1952". The annual Mummers play, "St. George & The Dragon", is played out during the Christmas period at a number of village hostelries. Since 2006 the Parish Council have organised a firework display on The Green for New Year's Eve.
Croxley Mill was built in 1830 adjacent to the Grand Union Canal by the paper manufacturer John Dickinson. Croxley Script stationery used to be produced there by John Dickinson and Co. Ltd. Dickinson Square, Dickinson Avenue, and Barton Way are streets named after the mill owner and some contain the houses built by the company for their workers at the end of the 19th Century. The mill closed in 1980.[3][4]
In 1986, Croxley Common Moor to the south of the village, OS grid reference TQ083949, is a 39.5 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Local Nature Reserve. In 2008 a group of residents were successful in gaining village green status for Buddleia Wood, a small area of woodland to the south of the village, thereby protecting the area for generations to come. The village signs were replaced in February 2008 with a scene of All Saints Church and The Green.
Rail
Train services are provided from Croxley station on the Watford branch of the London Underground Metropolitan line, providing connections to London's West End at Baker Street and stations through to the City at Aldgate. The journey is between 40 and 45 minutes to Baker Street, and 60 minutes to the terminus at Aldgate.
Churches
Schools
- Morris Minors Pre School [11]
- Malvern Way Infant and Nursery School [12]
- Little Green Junior School [13]
- Harvey Road Primary School [14]
- Yorke Mead Primary School [15]
- Rickmansworth School [16]
In 2016, Rickmansworth School took in an extra class of 30 students of which would now occur with every new year group joining with £2.3 million funding to upgrade their facilities from the government.
- Croxley Danes School
They started to build it in 2017 and they finished building it in the late 2020.
York House School
York House School is an independent preparatory day school for girls and boys aged from 3 to 13 years of age, located on Sarratt Road near Croxley Green in Redhead, an eighteenth-century mansion. The redhead was built and rebuilt in stages by the Baldwin, Finch, and Baldwin Finch families. The current features date variously from 1712, 1743 and 1866.[17]
The school was founded in Hampstead in 1910 by Rev. Cambridge Victor Hawkins. It relocated to Rickmansworth in the late 1940s, then moved again to its current location in 1966.[18][19]
The school motto is "Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam", which is Latin for "Either I shall find a way or I shall make one".
The school's alumni are referred to as Old Yorkists. Notable alumni include:[20]
- Alan King-Hamilton, former Old Bailey judge
- Sir John Sulston, Nobel Prize winner
Local organisations
Croxley Green has a Residents Association and a Parish Council. There are local organisations dedicated to pastimes and leisure. The Croxley Green Society runs the "Revels", an event hosted on The Green in June/July every year. There are varying clubs including the camera, needlecraft, wine, vineyard, bicycle, jazz, and folk. Additionally there is an annual free of charge festival, called 'CroxFest', which takes place on The Green in September.
Notable residents
- Barbara Woodhouse the dog trainer presented Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way on television in the 1980s and lived at Campions from the 1940s to the 1980s.[21]
- Fred Housego, the 1980 BBC Mastermind winner, and sometime London black cab driver.[22]
- Ron Tarr, a British actor, best known for playing the part of "Big Ron" in EastEnders, lived in Durrants Drive. In a report about Tarr's death in the Daily Mirror, journalist Chris Hughes stated the character had "a cult following".[23]
References
- "Civil Parish population 2011". Newighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- "Hertfordshire South West parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
- Ailsa Jenkins, ‘Dickinson, John (1782–1869)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Oct 2007 accessed 20 Dec 2008
- Evans, Joan. The endless web: John Dickinson and Co. Ltd., 1804–1954 (1955)
- "All Saints' Church". Croxleygreenallsaints.org. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- "St Oswald's Church". Stoswaldschurch.org.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- "Explore Church". Explore Church. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- Croxley Green Baptist Church
- "Croxley Green Methodist Church". Croxleymethodist.org.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- "Croxley Green Christian Assembly". Archive.org. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- http://www.morrisminorspre-school.com/
- "Home Page". Malvern Way Infant and Nursery School. 10 March 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- R.Hyde. "Home". Little Green Junior School. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- "Harvey Road Primary School". Harveyroad.herts.sch.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- "Home Page". Yorke Mead Primary School. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- "Home". Rickmansworth School. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- William Page, ed. (1908). "Watford: Manors". A History of the County of Hertford. Victoria County History. 2. pp. 451–464. Retrieved 26 February 2009.
REDHEATH is an estate about four miles north-west of Watford, on the borders of the parish of Rickmansworth, consisting partly of freehold and partly of copyhold land held of the manors of Croxley Hall and Cassio. It was occupied by the Baldwins in the early part of the sixteenth century, and remained with owners of that name till 1709, when Thomas son of Henry Baldwin died without issue, and was succeeded by his nephew Charles, son of Charles Finch and Mary sister of Thomas Baldwin. Charles Finch died without issue in 1718, and was succeeded by his brother John, from whom the estate descended in a direct line to Henry Baldwin Finch, the present owner. The Baldwin family appear to have built a house here, but all of that building has disappeared. In 1712 Charles Finch added a new front to the house, and that date appears on it. Further additions were made in 1866 by Henry Charles Finch. The front part is the only old portion remaining. The house is a three-storied building of brick, the roof being surmounted by a large square wooden clock turret, with an open octagonal cupola on the top. The clock in the tower bears the inscription GEORGE CLARKE, WHITE-CHAPPLE, 1743. There are moulded brick cornices over the first-floor windows, and the entrance door, which is in the centre of the front, has a fine semicircular projecting wooden hood, supported on richly-carved brackets. There is a very fine avenue of beech trees, stretching from the back of the house to Chandler's Cross.
- History, York House School
- Gym lessons from army instructor Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- Alumni, York House School
- Stephen Follows, ‘Woodhouse , Barbara Kathleen Vera (1910–1988)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 20 Dec 2008
- David Crozier (15 September 2014). "September 18, 1981". News Shopper. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- "Big Ron Dies of Cancer at 60". Daily Mirror. Trinity Mirror. 22 October 1997. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
External links
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