Boxmoor

Boxmoor
Boxmoor
	St.John's Road, Boxmoor
	Boxmoor Location within Hertfordshire
OS grid reference	TL046064
Shire county	Hertfordshire ;
Region	East ;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Hemel Hempstead
Postcode district	HP1, HP3
Dialling code	01442
Police	Hertfordshire
Fire	Hertfordshire
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	Hemel Hempstead ;
	List of places UK England Hertfordshire 51°44′47″N0°29′10″W / 51.746282°N 0.486152°W

Last updated December 28, 2023

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.

History

The name Boxmoor derives from the box tree, a bushy inhabitant of the chalky hills that surround the location. This is linked together with the word 'mor', which signifies a marshy spot; Boxmoor's ancient watermeadows alongside the River Bulbourne are still a major feature of the locality.^[1]

A mesolithic camp site was discovered in 1975 on the site of what is now Boxmoor trout fishery, close to Fisheries wharf. Finds include 'pot boiler' stones, bones of the wild ox, Bos Primigenius and a hand-crafted grinding quern made of the hard local rock known as Hertfordshire puddingstone. All were dated to around 1500 BCE.^[2] An even older stone axe head dated to 6000 BCE was also discovered.

The remains of a Roman villa have been found in the grounds of Boxmoor House School, near the railway station, dating from around the 1st or early 2nd century AD.^[3]^[4]

The Box Moor Trust owns meadow land in the area alongside the River Bulbourne. This was land purchased by tenants in secret during the 16th century to prevent it being enclosed, which would have deprived them of grazing. It is still held by the same trust established at that time. Today, it is used for summer grazing and has open access for recreational use.

The ancient Box Lane runs uphill from Boxmoor to Bovingdon. On this lane, close to the Boxmoor end, stood the historic early 17th century Box Lane Chapel. See the section below on places of worship.

The Sparrows Herne turnpike, set up in 1762, was the stagecoach route from London to Aylesbury and passed along the valley bottom through Boxmoor following the present day London Road (A4251). The Grand Junction Canal, latterly known as the Grand Union, and the trunk canal from London to the Midlands followed along the same route in 1804. A local public house, the Fishery Inn, was an historic refreshment stop on the canal.

Boxmoor village itself was developed after 1837 when the London and Birmingham Railway was forced, by local landed interests, to build its main line and station about a mile to the west of Hemel Hempstead town. The railway station, originally called Boxmoor, offered fast commuting to London combined with a small country town life, attractive to wealthier commuters and this stimulated the development of Victorian era housing near the railway station but outside the original bounds of Hemel Hempstead. In 1846, it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR).

In 1877 a branch line – known as the "Nicky Line" – was opened by the Midland Railway running from the London and North Western Railway's Boxmoor railway station, through Hemel Hempstead to Harpenden. However, disputes between the railway companies prevented this from ever being used for a passenger connecting service and the railway station's link to Hemel town was always via horse, bus or on foot across the Boxmoor meadows. Hemel Hempstead railway station was from 1912 known as "Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead".

The area was absorbed into the expanded Hemel Hempstead new town during the 1950s and 1960s but retains a local character. The railway station was then renamed from Boxmoor to Hemel Hempstead.

A four-lane dual carriageway, the A41 trunk road, was built through the district in the 1990s, connecting the M25 to Aylesbury. This crosses Boxmoor meadows in a strip of land in which all the earlier links run side by side: turnpike, canal, railway and modern trunk road.

Boxmoor Hall was built by the local trust in 1889 from surplus funds. It has been used as a magistrates' court, and more recently as an arts centre run by Dacorum Borough Council. In 2007 the hall became privately owned. It is now used for performing arts, and is a licensed premises hosting special occasions.^[5]

Economy

The area has little industry and limited commerce but its mostly Victorian family houses are in demand for those who work elsewhere in Hemel Hempstead and especially commuters who use the railway station to reach London in around 30 minutes.

Religious sites

Box Lane Chapel, a Non-conformist chapel founded in 1668 on land owned by the Westbrook Hay estate, was re-built in 1690 and then altered in 1856 and again in 1876. Tradition has it that Oliver Cromwell once worshiped here at an earlier building on the site. It is now a private house after being sold in 1969.

There was a Primitive Methodist chapel at Crouchfield built in 1849, which was in the St Albans Circuit. This stood until the congregation moved to Bourne Chapel in Chaulden in 1959, which is now called Hemel Hempstead Methodist Church.

St John's Church was built, in 1874, on part of the Box Moor Trust land.

Sports And Entertainment

Boxmoor Cricket Club

Boxmoor Cricket Club was founded in 1857 when the Box Moor Trust let some of their land be used as a cricket pitch that is known as the Boxmoor oval which had a pavilion added in the 1930s.^[6]

Hemel Hempstead Theatre Company

Originally known as The Hemel Hempstead Operatic and Dramatic Society, the Hemel Hempstead Theatre Company has operated since 1925. Over the years the company performed in a number of locations, including the Luxor Cinemas in the Marlowes and St. John’s Hall at 72 St. John's Road, which had been built in 1930 as extension of the nearby St. John’s Church. The first-ever theatrical performance at St. John’s Hall was given by the Theatre Company in April 1932. Hemel Hempstead Theatre Company purchased the St. John's Hall building in 1997 and renamed it the Boxmoor Playhouse. Holding up to 200 seats, The Boxmoor Playhouse is said to be the largest theatre in Hemel Hempstead. Each year the Company produces a variety of productions from plays to musicals to pantomimes. Due to the flexibility of the space, the Company also holds social events such as quiz nights, creative workshops and cabaret evenings. ^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]

Notable residents and people

Robert Snooks became, in 1802, the last highwayman to be hanged and buried at the scene of his crime, after he robbed a postboy on the turnpike on Boxmoor meadows. His remains are interred in Boxmoor meadows near the place where he was hanged and the likely spot is marked by two stones, erected by the Box Moor Trust in 1904.

Rock musician and producer Steven Wilson spent his childhood in Boxmoor, and for many years maintained his No Man's Land studio in his former bedroom in his parents’ bungalow.

British/Canadian actor Michael Bradshaw grew up in Boxmoor from 1938 until the mid-1950s.

Related Research Articles

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, and is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.

Dacorum is a local government district with borough status in Hertfordshire, England. The council is based in Hemel Hempstead. The borough also includes the towns of Berkhamsted and Tring and surrounding villages. The borough had a population of 155,081 in 2021. Dacorum was created in 1974 and is named after the ancient hundred of Dacorum which had covered a similar area. The borough of Dacorum is the westernmost of Hertfordshire's ten districts. It borders St Albans, Three Rivers, Buckinghamshire and Central Bedfordshire.

Bourne End is a village in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated on the ancient Roman Akeman Street between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead, on the former A41 London-Liverpool Trunk Route, on the Grand Union Canal that runs between London and Birmingham and at the confluence of the Chiltern chalk stream, the Bourne Gutter and the River Bulbourne. It is in the Dacorum Ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield.

The Nickey line is a disused railway that once linked the towns of Hemel Hempstead and, initially, Luton but later Harpenden via Redbourn, in Hertfordshire, England. The course of most of the railway has been redeveloped as a cycle and walking path, and is part of the Oxford to Welwyn Garden City route of the National Cycle Network. It is approximately nine miles (14 km) long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hemel Hempstead (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom 1918-1983 & 1997 onwards

Hemel Hempstead is a constituency in Hertfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system. Since 2005, it has been represented by Mike Penning, a member of the Conservative Party.

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.

The River Bulbourne is a small river in Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. The word bourne derives from the Anglo-Saxon word for a stream. It is an unnavigable tributary of the River Gade, which flows into the River Colne, which in turn is a tributary of the River Thames. The Bulbourne is an example of a chalk stream, which is a watercourse that flows from chalk-fed groundwater. Chalk streams are a very rare habitat globally, with more than 85% of all the 210 chalk streams in the world are found in England. The river is reduced in size, due to human activity, the main one being the building of the London to Birmingham Grand Union Canal through the narrow valley which takes most of the river's water.

Heath Park Halt was a railway station in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in England, UK. It was the terminus for passenger services on the Nickey line, a 9-mile (14 km) branch line which ran from Harpenden into Hemel Hempstead town centre. Passenger services were withdrawn in 1947, and the line through the station was closed completely in 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Box Moor Trust</span>

The Box Moor Trust is a charitable trust responsible for the management of nearly 500 acres of land within the parishes of Hemel Hempstead and Bovingdon, in Hertfordshire, England. The Trust was officially founded in 1594 in order to ensure that the land in the Boxmoor area remained free for residents to use and enjoy. As a result, almost all of the land that comprises the Box Moor Trust estate is open access, with just over a quarter being common land.

Felden is a semi-rural neighbourhood of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, situated to the south west of the town, close to the railway station. At the 2011 Census the population of the neighbourhood 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.

Cow Roast is a hamlet within the civil parishes of Northchurch and Wigginton in Hertfordshire, England. It is between Tring and Berkhamsted, along the A4251, adjacent to the Grand Union Canal and the West Coast Main Line. Today it comprises a row of 20th-century houses and a marina, together with several older properties including a restaurant. There are three car dealerships and a petrol station beside the main road.

Potten End is a village in west Hertfordshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, two miles (3.2 km) east-north-east of Berkhamsted, three miles (4.8 km) north west of Hemel Hempstead and two miles south east of the National Trust estate of Ashridge. Nearby villages include Nettleden, Great Gaddesden and the hamlet of Frithsden. The village is part of the parish of Nettleden with Potten End within the borough of Dacorum.

Chaulden is a residential district in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England located west of the town centre and bordering on open countryside. It was an early development in the construction of Hemel Hempstead new town, commenced in 1953 and has its own neighbourhood shopping centre.

Roughdown Common is a 3.6-hectare (8.9-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. The planning authority is Dacorum Borough Council. The site is Common land, and it is owned by the Box Moor Trust having been officially brought by the trust in April 1886 from the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's. It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Common is a steeply sloping chalk hill in south Hemel Hempstead.

The Church of St John the Evangelist is a Grade II listed church in Boxmoor, Hertfordshire, England. The church was consecrated in 1874 on land purchased from the Box Moor Trust.

Dacorum Heritage (DH) is a local history advocacy group in the United Kingdom. It collects and records the history of the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, in the south of England, and aims to encourage the appreciation of the heritage of Dacorum.

Boxmoor Roman Villa is a ruined Roman Villa at Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. The remains have been excavated, but they are now buried. The Roman villa was occupied from the first century AD up to the Fourth century.

The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. The town hall, which was the meeting place of Hemel Hempstead Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.

References

↑ Hertfordshire Federation of Women's Institutes; Ann Roxburgh (Forward) (1986). The Hertfordshire Village Book. Countryside Books. Section on Redbourn ISBN 0-905392-71-X.
↑ Hands & Davis (1989), page 14
↑ "MONUMENT NO. 359304". English Heritage: Pastscape. Archived from the original on 24 December 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
↑ Baker, John T. (2007). Cultural Transition in the Chilterns and Essex Region, 350 AD to 650 AD: Volume 4. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-902806-53-2.
↑ Bowmoor Hall
↑ "Boxmoor Cricket Club- 150 not out: Boxmoor Cricket Club 150th Anniversary in 2007". hemeltoday from The Hemel Gazette. 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
↑ "About Us". Hemel Hempstead Theatre Company. HHTheatreCo. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
↑ John, Emma (15 December 2012). ""Luvvies with wobbly sets? Oh no they're not! Raising the curtain on the new am-dram"". The Observer. London. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
↑ Hands, Joan & Roger (2004). "Royalty to Commoners: 400 Years of the Box Moor Trust". Hemel Hempstead, England, UK: Boxmoor Trust. p. 174. ISBN 0 95045 322 6.
↑ Hands, Roger & Joan; Davis, Eve (1989). "The Book of Boxmoor". Buckingham, England, UK: Barracuda Books Limited. p. 104. ISBN 0 86023 419 3.

External links

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[1] Hertfordshire Federation of Women's Institutes; Ann Roxburgh (Forward) (1986). The Hertfordshire Village Book. Countryside Books. Section on Redbourn ISBN 0-905392-71-X.

[2] Hands & Davis (1989), page 14

[romanpastscape-3] "MONUMENT NO. 359304". English Heritage: Pastscape. Archived from the original on 24 December 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2009.

[4] Baker, John T. (2007). Cultural Transition in the Chilterns and Essex Region, 350 AD to 650 AD: Volume 4. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-902806-53-2.

[5] Bowmoor Hall

[6] "Boxmoor Cricket Club- 150 not out: Boxmoor Cricket Club 150th Anniversary in 2007". hemeltoday from The Hemel Gazette. 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2016.

[7] "About Us". Hemel Hempstead Theatre Company. HHTheatreCo. Retrieved 7 October 2020.

[8] John, Emma (15 December 2012). ""Luvvies with wobbly sets? Oh no they're not! Raising the curtain on the new am-dram"". The Observer. London. Retrieved 7 October 2020.

[9] Hands, Joan & Roger (2004). "Royalty to Commoners: 400 Years of the Box Moor Trust". Hemel Hempstead, England, UK: Boxmoor Trust. p. 174. ISBN 0 95045 322 6.

[10] Hands, Roger & Joan; Davis, Eve (1989). "The Book of Boxmoor". Buckingham, England, UK: Barracuda Books Limited. p. 104. ISBN 0 86023 419 3.

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