Cedars Park | |
---|---|
Type | Historic public park |
Location | Cheshunt, Hertfordshire |
Coordinates | 51°41′30″N0°02′29″W / 51.69167°N 0.04139°W |
Opened | 1921 |
Operated by | Borough of Broxbourne |
Awards | Green Flag Award |
Designation | Queen Elizabeth II Field |
Website | https://www.parksherts.co.uk/parks/view/cedars-park |
Cedars Park is a historic public park located in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, England. It was originally the site of Theobalds Palace, King James I's favourite residence. The park has received a Green Flag Award every year since 2009, rewarding it for promoting high standards of management for green spaces. [1]
Cedars Park is the historic site of the 16th-century Royal Palace of Theobalds, which existed as a smaller estate in the 14th century, and possibly earlier. [2]
Sir William Cecil acquired Theobalds in 1563, and Queen Elizabeth I visited over 15 times between 1564 and 1598. Robert Cecil inherited the Palace and accommodated King James I and his associates on several occasions, including Christian IV of Denmark. [3] In May 1607, the King exchanged Hatfield House for Theobalds. [4] The estate was extended into a grand Royal Palace with a 2500-acre deer park. James I died here in 1625. Charles I rarely used Theobalds Palace and granted the estate to various nobles as an acknowledgement of their services.
The buildings were demolished to support the troops during the Civil War [5] and the estate was eventually sold to the Prescott family in the late 18th century, when new houses were constructed, including The Cedars. In 1820, Theobalds was rented to Sir Henry Meux, who stayed at The Cedars. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Hedworth Meux inherited The Cedars from Valerie, Lady Meux. The grounds were donated to the public in 1919 and opened in 1921.
Cedars Park contains several scheduled monuments, [6] as the site of a magnificent and influential Tudor house (now demolished) with extensive grounds, created by the leading architects, gardeners and craftsmen for Sir William Cecil, and becoming an occasional place for Elizabeth I to reside. Elements of the present park can be identified as probable parts of the original Elizabethan, Jacobean and Georgian gardens and outbuildings. [7]
Cedars Park is managed by Broxbourne Borough Council [8] supported by the Friends of Cedars Park. In 2011, the Council received a £1.89 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund to protect and improve Cedars Park, and conserve & promote its heritage. [9] The park was protected as a Queen Elizabeth II Field under Fields in Trust in 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. [10]
The park is located on Theobalds Lane with pedestrian and vehicle entrances and a free car park on site. Cedars Park is fully wheelchair accessible. [11]
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001, 39,201 at the 2011 Census, and 41,265 at the 2021 Census. The settlement is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, home of the Marquess of Salisbury, forms the nucleus of the old town. From the 1930s when de Havilland opened a factory, until the 1990s when British Aerospace closed it, aircraft design and manufacture employed more people there than any other industry. Hatfield was one of the post-war New Towns built around London and has much modernist architecture from the period. The University of Hertfordshire is based there.
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.
Hatfield House is a Grade I listed country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Chief Minister to King James I. It is a prime example of Jacobean architecture. The estate includes extensive grounds and surviving parts of an earlier palace. The house is currently the home of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury. It is open to the public.
Hoddesdon is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River.
The Borough of Broxbourne is a local government district with borough status in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Cheshunt. Other settlements in the borough include Broxbourne, Hoddesdon and Waltham Cross. The eastern boundary of the district is the River Lea. The borough covers 20 square miles (52 km2) in south east Hertfordshire, and had an estimated population of 99,000 in 2021.
Cheshunt is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, England, 13 miles (21 km) north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation and directly south of Broxbourne. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, Waltham Abbey to the east, Waltham Cross and Enfield to the south, and Cuffley to the west.
Broxbourne is a constituency in Hertfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Charles Walker of the Conservative Party.
Theobalds House in the parish of Cheshunt in the English county of Hertfordshire, north of London, was a significant stately home and (later) royal palace of the 16th and early 17th centuries.
Broxbourne is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, England, with a population of 15,303 at the 2011 Census. It is located to the south of Hoddesdon and to the north of Cheshunt, 17 miles (27 km) north of London. The town is near the River Lea, which forms the boundary with Essex, and 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the M25 motorway. To the west of the town are Broxbourne Woods, a national nature reserve. The Prime Meridian runs just east of Broxbourne.
Brocket Hall is a neo-classical country house set in a large park at the western side of the urban area of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England. The estate is equipped with two golf courses and seven smaller listed buildings, apart from the main house. The freehold on the estate is held by the 3rd Baron Brocket. The house is Grade I-listed.
Heath Mount School is a Church of England co-educational independent prep school near Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire, England. It admits pupils aged 3 to 13. It was founded as Heath Mount Academy in Hampstead in 1796. In 1934 it was relocated to a Georgian mansion on the Woodhall Estate in rural Hertfordshire. For the 2022 academic year, 498 students were enrolled: boarding pupils and day pupils and girls and boys.
Whittington Court is an Elizabethan manor house, five miles east of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, England.
The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the foundation of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, the title of Sheriff of Hertfordshire was retitled High Sheriff of Hertfordshire. The High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown in England and Wales, their purpose being to represent the monarch at a local level, historically in the shires.
Old Hatfield, sometimes called Bishops Hatfield, is a historic village in Hertfordshire, England. It is in the town of Hatfield.
Valerie Susan, Lady Meux, was a Devon-born socialite of the Victorian era. She was the wife of Sir Henry Bruce Meux, 3rd Baronet (1856–1900), who came from one of Britain’s richest brewing dynasties, Meux’s Brewery, founded in 1764, which was a major brewer of porter ale in London in the 19th century.
Tyttenhanger House is a 17th-century country mansion, now converted into commercial offices, at Tyttenhanger, near St Albans, Hertfordshire. It is a Grade I listed building.
Prodigy houses are large and showy English country houses built by courtiers and other wealthy families, either "noble palaces of an awesome scale" or "proud, ambitious heaps" according to taste. The prodigy houses stretch over the periods of Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean architecture, though the term may be restricted to a core period of roughly 1570 to 1620. Many of the grandest were built with a view to housing Elizabeth I and her large retinue as they made their annual royal progress around her realm. Many are therefore close to major roads, often in the English Midlands.
Sir Henry Bruce Meux, 3rd Baronet was an English baronet, the son of Sir Henry Meux, 2nd Baronet (1817–1883), a brewer and politician.
Queen Elizabeth's Oak was a tree in the grounds of Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, England. Elizabeth I is said to have been sitting beneath the tree when she was told of her accession to the throne in 1558. The tree was visited by Queen Victoria and Albert in 1846 and they were presented with a branch and an acorn from it as a memento. The tree had deteriorated by the early 20th century and its remains were removed in 1978. A replacement oak was planted on the site by Elizabeth II in 1985.