Carpenders Park
| Carpenders Park | |
| Hertfordshire | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ119934 |
| Location: | 51°37’41"N, 0°23’2"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Watford |
| Postcode: | WD19 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Three Rivers |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Watford |
Carpenders Park is a residential village in Hertfordshire developed as a suburb south of Watford, largely consisting of low-cost housing thrown up in the 1950s and 1960s and in the style of the time.
The village is in the south-western corner of Hertfordshire, close to the boundary with Middlesex, bounded to the west by a railway line that separates it from South Oxhey, its twin to the east. Carpenders Park Station is on this line. The A4008 Watford to Harrow road (Oxhey Lane) bounds Carpenders Park to the east, and the B4542 (Little Oxhey Lane) runs along the south. Green Belt surrouds it. To the north is some woodland; Margeholes Wood and Sherwood Wood.
History
Carpenders Park was originally an estate based around a manor house of the same name. This was later a girls school, Highfields, which was demolished in 1960 to make way for USAF married quarters. These were in turn demolished in 1997/98.[1][2] The base was also known as Highfields.
The houses and bungalows of Carpenders Park were originally built in the 1930s. There was subsequent development in the 1950s including some council housing built for the Watford Rural District Council. The vast majority of the dwellings, though, are privately owned.
The estate was significantly enlarged in the late 1960s. Many of these later houses have flat roofs and the area gained some notoriety as Plummers Park, the setting for Leslie Thomas' Tropic of Ruislip,[3] which had wife swapping as one of its themes.
Church
Carpenders Park Cemetery
Carpenders Park Lawn Cemetery is a municipally owned cemetery, opened in 1954. The cemetery is a lawn type cemetery which means there are no upright memorials allowed, only approved bronze resin plaques set into the ground.
The Hartsbourne stream meanders through fourteen acres of mature woodland - the key feature of the cemetery - and there is a small lake.
Outside links
- Map of Oxhey showing Carpenders Park c.1940
- Carpenders Park Horticultural Society
- London Borough of Brent Carpenders Park Cemetery
- Carpenders Park Residents' Association
References
- ↑ Short History of Carpenders Park accessed 5 May 2008
- ↑ Pulham in Hertfordshire accessed 5 May 2008
- ↑ Three Rivers DC Towns and Villages accessed 6 May 2008