Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for RICKMANSWORTH

RICKMANSWORTH, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Watford district, Herts. The town standsat the confluence of the rivers Chess and Colne, on the Grand Junction canal, and at the terminus of the Watford and Rickmansworth railway, 3¾ miles W by S of Watford; was originally called Richmeresweorth; haspleasant environs; attracts many anglers, for sake ofsport in the neighbouring waters; is irregularly laid out; was once a market-town; and has a head post-office, ‡designated Rickmansworth, Herts, a railway station, a banking office, a good inn, a timbered market house onpillars, a church, Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed school with £24 a year, alms-houses with £10, other charities £32, an extensive brewery, a silk mill, four paper mills, cattle fairs on 20 July and 24 Nov., and a fair on the Saturday before the third Monday of Sept. The church is large and good, with ancient embattled tower; has a fine painted window, 300 years old, brought from a church at Rouen; and contains a brass of 1585, and monuments of the Duke of Monmouth, the Fother-leys, the Coltes, and the Earles. The Wesleyan chapel was rebuilt in 1866, at a cost of about £2, 500; is in the early English style; and has an octagonal tower and spire75 feet high. The parish contains also Mill-End, Croxley-Green, West Hyde, Batchworth, and Chorley-Wood. Acres, 9, 937. Real property, £26, 550; of which £150 are in gas-works. Pop., 4, 873. Houses, 1,004. The property is much divided. The chief manor belonged to the Saxonkings; was given by Offa to St. Albans abbey; went, at the dissolution, to Bishop Ridley; was given, by Mary, to Bishop Bonner; reverted, in the time of Elizabeth, to the Crown; and passed to the Fotherleys and the Whitfields. Moor Park was formerly the residence of Cardinal Wolsey and the Duke of Monmouth; and is now the seat of Lord Ebury. Rickmansworth Park is the seat of J. Arden, Esq. There are several other goodresidences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £510.* Patron, the Bishop of Rochester. The p. curacies of West Hyde and Chorley-Wood are separate benefices. Baptist chapels are at Mill-End and Chorley-Wood.—The sub-district contains also Sarratt parish, and comprises 11, 487 acres. Pop., 5, 609. Houses, 1, 146.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Rickmansworth AP/CP       Rickmansworth Urban CP       Rickmansworth SubD       Watford RegD/PLU       Hertfordshire AncC
Place names: RICHMERESWEORTH     |     RICKMANSWORTH
Place: Rickmansworth

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