Apsley | |
---|---|
London Road, Apsley, looking south. | |
Location within Hertfordshire | |
OS grid reference | TL0505 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | HEMEL HEMPSTEAD |
Postcode district | HP3 |
Dialling code | 01442 |
Police | Hertfordshire |
Fire | Hertfordshire |
Ambulance | East of England |
UK Parliament | |
Apsley is a village in Hertfordshire, England, in a valley of the Chiltern Hills below the confluence of the River Gade and Bulbourne. It was the site of water mills serving local agriculture and from the early 19th century became an important centre for papermaking. Today it is a suburb of Hemel Hempstead.
The name Apsley dates from the Anglo-Saxon period and means aspen wood.
It was the construction of the trunk canal (later to be called the Grand Union Canal) between London and the Midlands through the valley in 1798 that began its industrial rise at the start of the 19th century. The canal gave an easy way of transporting the raw and manufactured products to and from the mills.
John Dickinson, the inventor of a new method of continuous papermaking, purchased Apsley Mill in 1809. [1] During the 1930s, Apsley Mill became a vast industrial complex and its owner, John Dickinson Stationery, acquired Shendish Manor for use as its sports and social club. [2]
In the 1950s the adjacent town of Hemel Hempstead was designated a New Town as part of the provision of new residential areas surrounding London and Apsley became a part of the development, also giving its name to the new school of Apsley Grammar School at Bennetts End.
Apsley is an outer district of Hemel Hempstead and is still a busy commercial centre. The Victorian shops that grew up when it was a mill town now house newsagents, public houses, restaurants, and a range of small businesses. The former mill sites are taken up with supermarkets, retail parks and offices (including large offices on the Dolittle Meadows site occupied by Hertfordshire County Council, Epson, HSBC and until recently, British Telecom). Housing developments combining the canal-side location with the ease of access to Apsley railway station have been very successful, and Apsley Marina is a thriving location for boaters. [3]
The local parish church is St Mary's, in London Road. There is also a Methodist church.
An important local issue since the summer of 2003 is the proposal to build on land surrounding the Manor Estate in Apsley that had previously been designated as green belt land. A new housing estate, called the Aspen Estate, has since been built on the hills above the Manor Estate.
Frogmore Paper Mill is a working paper mill and visitor centre located in some of the original mill buildings. [4] Paper continued to be made until 2006 a short distance away at Nash Mill by the global Sappi group. This too closed for production in 2006 but continued as a distribution centre for some time. [5]
A large Jacobean style country house, built on the site of an ancient manor house in 1854-56 for Charles Longman of the publishing family. Now a hotel and country club, it is a Grade II listed building. [6]
Built in London Road in 1871 at the instigation of, and largely funded by Charles Longman, to the design of architect Joseph Clarke. It is a Grade II listed building. [7]
A group of cottages in London Road designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1898 in the Arts and Crafts style. They are Grade II* listed. [8]
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Watford, and the county town is Hertford.
Berkhamsted is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, 26 miles (42 km) north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town of Hemel Hempstead. Berkhamsted, along with the adjoining village of Northchurch, is encircled by countryside, much of it in the Chiltern Hills which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Hemel Hempstead is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is 24 miles (39 km) northwest of London. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 mi (24 km) north-west of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne.
Kings Langley is a village, former manor and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, 21 miles north-west of Westminster in the historic centre of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills. It now forms part of the London commuter belt. The village is divided between two local government districts by the River Gade with the larger western portion in the Borough of Dacorum and smaller part, to the east of the river, in Three Rivers District. It was the location of Kings Langley Palace and the associated King's Langley Priory, of which few traces survive.
John Dickinson invented a continuous mechanised papermaking process. He established in 1809 the English paper and stationery producer Longman & Dickinson, which later evolved into John Dickinson Stationery.
Nash Mills is a civil parish within Hemel Hempstead and Dacorum Borough Council on the northern side of the Grand Union Canal, formerly the River Gade, and in the southernmost corner of Hemel Hempstead. There is evidence of a mill in this location since the 11th century and the row of 16th century mill cottages still remain. John Dickinson established a number of papermaking mills in the area in the 19th century.
Hemel Hempstead Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Affiliated to the Hertfordshire County Football Association, they are currently members of the National League South and play at Vauxhall Road.
Hemel Hempstead railway station is on the West Coast Main Line, on the western edge of the town of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. The station is 24+1⁄2 miles (39.4 km) north-west of London Euston on the West Coast Main Line. Hemel Hempstead is managed by London Northwestern Railway and all train services are operated by London Northwestern Railway and Southern.
Nash Mill was a paper mill near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The local residential area takes its name from the mill.
John Dickinson Stationery Limited was a leading English stationery company founded in southwest Hertfordshire. In the 19th century, the company pioneered a number of innovations in papermaking. It became part of Dickinson Robinson Group in 1966; after changes of ownership, the John Dickinson brand was retired in 2008.
The River Gade is a river running almost entirely through Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, then along the west side of Watford through Cassiobury Park. After passing Croxley Green it reaches Rickmansworth, where it joins the River Colne. For its whole course the Gade is unnavigable.
Boxmoor is part of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. It is within the district of Dacorum and comprises mainly 19th-century housing and meadowland, with transport links from London to the Midlands. At the 2011 Census, the population of Boxmoor was included in the Dacorum ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield.
This article gives brief information on schools that cater for pupils up to the age of 11 in the Dacorum district of Hertfordshire, England. Most are county maintained primary schools, sometimes known as "junior mixed infant" (JMI). A small number are voluntary aided church schools or independent (fee-paying). The Local Education Authority is Hertfordshire County Council.
Frogmore is a village 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Radlett in Hertfordshire, and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of St Albans city centre. It is located in St Stephen civil parish, within the City and District of St Albans, and the county of Hertfordshire.
Shendish Manor is a country house at Apsley in Hertfordshire.
George Longman (1776-1822), of 22 Bloomsbury Square, Middlesex, was a politician.
Frogmore Paper Mill is a working paper mill situated in Apsley, Hertfordshire, near Hemel Hempstead. The mill is on an island in the River Gade, which forms part of the Grand Union Canal. It is the oldest mechanical paper mill in the world.
Apsley Marina, also referred to as Apsley Lock Marina, is a basin used for mooring narrowboats on the east side of the Grand Union Canal at Apsley, Hertfordshire, England.
Apsley Mill was a paper mill at Apsley, near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.
A Hertfordshire Valley by Scott Hastie photographs by David Spain, Alpine Press Ltd, Kings Langley, 1996, ISBN 0-9528631-0-3