I have fond memories of being on the committee of the Oxhey Village Environment Group (OVEG) for 13 years, from early 1978. Chaired by founder Bunny Hensby, guided by Geoff Greenstreet and a hard-working team, our meetings were held in Bunny’s house in Grover Road. I was tasked with editing the members’ newsletter, organising monthly talks between September and April in the Galahad Room, Bushey & Oxhey Methodist Church, and organising occasional outside trips.
Nearly 40 members came on our first trip in 1980, to Moor Park Mansion. Greeted by the much-respected Rickmansworth historian Godfrey Cornwell, we were treated to a detailed talk on the mansion’s history and art collection, which he presented in his wonderful Welsh lilt.
A tour of Watford Fire Station and a demonstration of its Simon Snorkel fire engine and extending arm bucket followed in May 1983, when OVEG links were forged with fire officer Roger Culverhouse, a local fire service memorabilia collector and historian.
In May 1984, 24 OVEG members visited The Grove, a month after the Double Arrow Club, the Management Training Centre of British Railways Board, launched ‘The Grove Story’, a well-researched history of the site from its earliest days as a manor. A private venture by staff members, the book described the eras of ownership by the Earls of Clarendon, day-to-day life in the house and on the estate, the 1909 visit of King Edward VII, its sale in the 1920s and transition to a hotel and health centre, riding school, then a girls’ boarding school.
During World War Two, the red brick building was used as the location for the then-top-secret evacuation of London, Midland & Scottish Railway staff from the London headquarters; a topic well documented and illustrated in ‘The Grove Story’.
From Easter 1939, huts and air raid shelters were built in the grounds and rooms in the empty house were turned into offices. Known as ‘Project X’, 3,000 staff moved in on Friday, September 1, 1939 and, miraculously, relocation was completed before war was declared at 11am just two days later. Staff were able to walk to work through The Grove’s grounds; eat in a specially constructed canteen, the most notable dish of which was vegetarian ‘Grove Pie’; grow fruit and vegetables in prepared allotments aided by the Women’s Land Army; and enjoy cricket and punting on the lake. A Home Guard unit (formerly Local Defence Volunteers) was formed there and a stable block utilised as a guard room with dormitories.
OVEG members were regaled with interesting stories of The Grove’s long, colourful and extremely varied past and we all left with a better understanding of its importance during World War Two.
On April 28, 1988 members were granted access to Reed’s School before its full-scale redevelopment into a residential estate. After the evacuation of staff and pupils at the outbreak of World War Two, the buildings were requisitioned for use as an army hospital and were later occupied by the Ministry of Labour.
The 15 OVEG members included Gwen Dargavel who was Senior Reporter for the Watford Observer; Barbara King, whose father Frederick started a nursery business at Park House in Upper Paddock Road, Oxhey in 1912; Rodney Salter; Joan Gunton; Win Boxall; and my father. With a knowledgeable uniformed guide who answered our numerous questions, we wandered around the eerily quiet site that had once echoed to the sounds of hundreds of school children.
We explored the chapel, which cost £5,000 when it was built in 1871; the gift of Mrs Peckett, a matron at the school and wife of a governor. Her name and that of the architect, Mr Wilson, were inscribed above the entrance, with the words: ‘My House shall be called the House of Prayer’. A further benefactor was the Hon Gilbert Johnstone, asylum treasurer, who donated funds for the library, opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother just before the outbreak of war in 1939.
The walls were panelled with Burma teak and stained-glass windows featured the arms of various Dominions. One of the windows bore a coat of arms with the motto of the Capel family: ‘Fide Et Fortitudine’, by faith and fortitude. ‘Fide’ was the motto of the London Orphan School, renamed Reed’s after its founder. Another window had coats of arms bearing the names John Norburn and James Capel who died in 1871 and 1872 respectively.
We wended in and out of the various rooms and buildings, impressed by the generously-sized accommodation and sheer scale of the site.
A guided tour of Gothic-style Wall Hall, originally known as Aldenham Abbey and now converted into luxury apartments, followed on May 23, 1988, the last OVEG visit for which I was responsible.
Lesley Dunlop is the daughter of the late Ted Parrish, a well-known local historian and documentary filmmaker. He wrote 96 nostalgic articles for the ‘Evening Post-Echo’ in 1982-83 which have since been published in ‘Echoes of Old Watford, Bushey & Oxhey’, available at www.pastdayspublishing.com and Bushey Museum.
Lesley is currently working on ‘Two Lives, Two World Wars’, a companion volume that explores her father’s and grandfather’s lives and war experiences, in which Watford, Bushey and Oxhey’s history will take to the stage once again.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel