Patrick Comerford
I pass through Watford regularly on the train from Milton Keynes into London. It is just 24 km (15 miles) or 16 minutes from Euston, and it is also close to several motorway junctions on both the M1 and the M25. But until this week, I had never stopped to visit Watford itself.
In popular conversation and journalism, Watford Gap marks the divide between Northern England and Southern England, and the phrase ‘North of Watford’ usually refers to the north of England, especially to places remote from London. Watford in Northamptonshire is close to the north/south isogloss of the three key hallmarks of Northern English and Southern English: foot–strut split, bad-lad split and the Bath vowel.
Some writers say the original expression refers not to Watford in Northamptonshire but to the much larger Watford town in Hertfordshire and Watford Junction railway station, once the last urban stop on the main railway line out of London to the north of England.
I have been to Watford in Northamptonshire in search of Comberford family links. But Watford Junction is in the other direction from Milton Keynes, and while M1 Watford Gap services lead to the Midlands and the North, Watford Junction is the last urban stop on the main line to Euston for rail users.
I spent much yesterday in Watford, a modern town in Hertfordshire with a population of 102,000 or more. The name Watford is first mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 1007. The name Watford may come from the Old English waet (full of water) or wath (hunting), and -ford, and the High Street follows the line of part of an ancient trackway from the south-east to the north-west.
Watford developed on the banks of the River Colne on land belonging to St Albans Abbey, which claimed the manor of Casio (‘Albanestou’), dating from a grant by King Offa in AD 793, although it is not mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086).
By the 12th century, the area was part of St Albans Abbey’s manor of Cashio. The Abbey was granted a charter allowing it to hold a market, and Saint Mary’s Church began to be built. The town also grew because it was on the route to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings Langley.
The Cassiobury estate, which came to include Cassiobury House and Cassiobury Park, was granted to Sir Richard Morrison in the 16th century, and became the family seat of the Earls of Essex.
Arthur Capell (1631-1683), 1st Earl of Essex, rebuilt Cassiobury House, which he inherited from his mother, Elizabeth Morrison, daughter and heiress of Sir Charles Morrison (1587-1628). He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1672-1677, and gave his name to Capel Street, Essex Street and Essex Gate in Dublin. Essex was convicted for his role in the Rye House Plot to assassinate Charles II and his brother the Duke of York, the future James II, and he died in the Tower of London in 1683 while awaiting execution for treason.
From 1753-1923, The Grove was the seat of the Villiers family, who were descended from the Capell and Morrison families and who became Earls of Clarendon in 1776.
The Bedford Almshouses, built in 1580, are the oldest houses in Watford. They were endowed by Francis Russell (1527-1585), 2nd Earl of Bedford and godfather to Sir Francis Drake, and Russell’s second wife, Bridget Manners, former wife of Sir Richard Morison. They were built in Parsonage Barn Yard, close to Saint Mary’s Church, to provide housing ‘for eight poor women.’
The almshouses are Grade II listed and continue to provide housing as a charitable trust under the Bedford, Morison and Cordery Almshouses for 18 single men and women over the age of 60.
The earliest known schools in Watford include one run by George Redhead in 1595, a Free School near Saint Mary’s churchyard in 1640, and a Free School endowed by Elizabeth Fuller (1644-1709) of Watford Place in 1704. Her home was at Watford Place, although the white villa on the site is said to be the third house there, built around 1790.
When Daniel Defoe visited Watford in 1778, he described it as a ‘genteel market town, very long, having but one street.’
Watford remained an agricultural community with some cottage industry for many centuries. The Industrial Revolution brought the Grand Junction Canal (now Grand Union Canal) from 1798 and the London and Birmingham Railway from 1837. The canal and the railway brought rapid growth, with paper-making mills such as John Dickinson at Croxley, followed by the development of printing, as well as two brewers, Benskins and Sedgwicks, who flourished in Watford until the late 20th century.
As the town expanded, King Street, a new street off the High Street, opened in 1851, followed by Queens Road and Clarendon Road in the 1860s. Watford expanded rapidly in the decades that followed, with new inhabitants moving in from London, resulting in cramped and unsanitary houses that partly explain riots that erupted in 1902. A slum clearance programme was interrupted by World War I in 1914, but resumed in the 1920s.
By then, printing had become the biggest industry in Watford, with Sun Printers and Odhams Press, and for a time Watford was the biggest printing centre, until the printing industry went into decline after World War II. Odhams Press closed in 1978 and the Sun moved out of Watford in the 1980s.
In the heart of Watford, the High Street has a high concentration of bars, clubs and restaurants. The Harlequin Shopping Centre, which opened in 1992, was renamed ‘intu Watford’ in 2013, and is now known as Atria Watford.
In recent decades, Watford’s proximity to London and good rail and road links have attracted several businesses to the town. Watford has the head offices of a number of national companies such as JD Wetherspoon, and is the UK base of many multinationals, including Hilton Worldwide and JJ Kavanagh and Sons, Ireland’s largest private coach operator, was founded in 1919 with a service connecting Urlingford and Kilkenny City.
The Grove in Watford has been the venue for many international conferences and sporting events, including the 2006 World Golf Championship, the 2013 Bilderberg Conference and the 2019 NATO summit.
Watford has 92 listed buildings in Watford, including Saint Mary’s Church, which dates from the 12th century, and Holy Rood Church, dating from 1890. Cassiobury House was demolished in 1927, but the park has become one of the best green spaces in England. Other public parks and gardens in Watford include Cheslyn House and Gardens and Woodside Park.
The Watford Palace Theatre opened in 1908 and is the only producing theatre in Hertfordshire. The Palace Theatre was built in 1908 by WA Theobald and the red brick front was added in 1909-1910 by Wylson and Long. At the ends are tall towers with leaded domes and a frieze has a panel inscribed ‘Palace Theatre’. The entrances are under a flat canopy. Inside are two curved galleries and stage boxes.
The Pump House Theatre and Arts Centre is based in an old pumping station off the Lower High Street. Watford Colosseum has been the venue for concerts by Maria Callas (1954) and Luciano Pavarotti (1995), and is also a venue for plays, charity events, snooker championships and boxing fixtures.
Watford Museum has a collection that includes works by JMW Turner, Sir Joshua Reynolds, William Blake and Jacob Epstein.
Perhaps the major tourist attraction in Watford today is the Warner Bros Studios, an 80-ha film studio complex at Leavesden, about 4 km (2.5 miles) north of the town centre, in the former de Havilland factory.
The studios have been the location for many Hollywood productions, but the big attraction is that this is where the Harry Potter films were made. There are queues outside Watford Junction station throughout the day for a special shuttle bus to the studios.
However, I was not in search of Harry Potter or the Philosopher’s Stone … nor was I wondering whether I now live north of Watford or south of Watford. Instead, I wanted to see some of the churches, especially Saint Mary’s and Holy Rood, the synagogues, mosques and gurudwaras and the sculptures around the town, and learning about some of the town’s football history. And so, more about them in the days to come, I hope.
