In 2004, a study by The Social Disadvantage Research Centre at the University of Oxford named Chorleywood as the "happiest place" to live in the UK.[2][3] Of the 32,482 communities surveyed, Chorleywood came out top. More recently, Chorleywood has been ranked as the "least deprived" area in the country by the Department of Communities and Local Government.[4]
History
Cricket Ground Chorleywood CommonMap of "Metro-land", from the 1924 Metro-land booklet published by the Metropolitan Railway
Settlement at Chorleywood dates to the Paleolithic era when the plentiful flint supply led to swift development of tools by man. The Romans built a village on the ancient site complete with a mill and brewery.[5]
Though variants have been proposed, the name has been derived from the Anglo-Saxonleah, meaning a clearing or a wood, of the ceorla or peasants.[6] A line runs through Chorleywood that once divided the Kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex and now divides the counties of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Edward the Confessor gave Chorleywood to the Monastery of St Albans.[5]
By 1278, it was known, perhaps duplicating the "woodland" element, as 'Bosco de Cherle' or 'Churl's Wood', Norman for 'Peasant's Wood'.[5] Upon the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it passed to the Bishopric of London, being renamed 'Charleywoode'. It became Crown property during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Turnpike Act (1663) gave Chorleywood a chance to exploit its strategic position, allowing locals the opportunity to charge civilians to use the road from Hatfield to Reading.[5]
Chorleywood is most famous for its Quakers. Non-conformists flocked to Chorleywood, promised sanctuary by the locals. William Penn founded the Pennsylvania Colony with settlers from Chorleywood, Rickmansworth and nearby towns in southern Buckinghamshire, having lived and married in Chorleywood.[5]
Chorleywood House, a Regency mansion, was built in 1822 by John Barnes, replacing an earlier house. John Saunders Gilliat, the Governor of the Bank of England in 1883–1885, lived in it. In 1892, the house was bought by Lady Ela Sackville Russell, eldest daughter of the 9th Duke of Bedford. She modified and enlarged the house turning the grounds into a model estate with market gardens.
In the early 1960s, researchers at the British Baking Industries Research Association in Chorleywood improved upon an earlier American bread-making process. This resulted in the Chorleywood bread process which is now used in over 80% of commercial bread production throughout the UK.[7]
Chorleywood Common is 0.8 square kilometres (200 acres) of wooded common land. The Common is a County Heritage Site, a Conservation Area and a Local Nature Reserve with significant biodiversity and rich in fauna and flora, fungi, birds and wildlife. Since cattle grazing ended soon after the First World War, the land has been used for recreational purposes. Chorleywood Golf Club maintains a nine-hole golf course on the Common; the golf club was founded in 1890 and is the oldest in Hertfordshire.[12]
In the 19th century, the MCC established a cricket pitch on the Common, which is used by Chorleywood Cricket Club's senior and junior teams to this day.
Chorleywood was historically part of the parish of Rickmansworth. A separate ecclesiastical parish of Chorleywood was created in 1845, following the construction of Christ Church, but Chorleywood remained part of the civil parish of Rickmansworth until 1898.[14] When the Local Government Act 1894 created parish and district councils in December 1894, a parish council was established for Rickmansworth, which was in turn part of the Watford Rural District. Shortly afterwards inquiries were held into creating an urban district of Rickmansworth. It was eventually decided that it would not be appropriate to apply urban powers to the whole civil parish of Rickmansworth, and therefore that it would be split into three new parishes: Rickmansworth Urban, Rickmansworth Rural, and Chorleywood. These changes took effect on 15 April 1898, with the Chorleywood and Rickmansworth Rural parishes remaining in the Watford Rural District.[15] The first meeting of Chorleywood Parish Council was held on 16 April 1898 at the village school, with Charles Barnes being appointed the first chairman.[16]
Chorleywood became an urban district itself on 1 April 1913, making it independent of Watford Rural District.[17] The first meeting of Chorleywood Urban District Council was held on 15 April 1913 at the clubhouse of Chorleywood Golf Club on Common Road. Arthur Capell was elected as first chairman of the council.[18] The council generally met at the Golf Club until the Second World War. A council chamber and surveyor's office was incorporated into the Chorleywood Memorial Hall on Common Road, built in 1922, and the council did meet there during 1923 and 1924, but then decided that the meeting room at the Golf Club was preferable and reverted to holding meetings there in 1925.[19][20][21]
In 1939 Chorleywood Urban District Council bought Chorleywood House for £5,000. The house became the council's offices and meeting place until the council's abolition in 1974.[22]
The two wards, Chorleywood North & Sarratt and Chorleywood South & Maple Cross, are divided by the railway line. Chorleywood South & Maple Cross includes most of Chorleywood village and Maple Cross. Chorleywood North & Sarratt includes the north area of Chorleywood, Loudwater, Sarratt and Belsize.
↑ Annual Report of the Local Government Board. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1898. p.289. Retrieved 21 December 2021. The County of Hertford (Rickmansworth) Confirmation Order, 1897, made 11 December 1897, coming into effect 15 April 1898
↑ Annual Report of the Local Government Board. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. 1913. pp.255–256. Retrieved 21 December 2021. The County of Hertford (Chorleywood Urban District) Confirmation Order, 1912, made 3 September 1912, coming into effect 1 April 1913.
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