Mill End, Rickmansworth

Mill End, Rickmansworth
Mill End, Rickmansworth Location within Hertfordshire
•  London	0 mi (0.0 km)The London Borough of Hillingdon is to the  S or SE
District	Three Rivers District
Shire county	Hertfordshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	RICKMANSWORTH
Postcode district	WD3
Dialling code	01923
Police	Hertfordshire
Fire	Hertfordshire
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	Hertfordshire South West
List of places UK England Hertfordshire 51°38′12″N0°29′31″W / 51.63671°N 0.49187°W / 51.63671; -0.49187

Mill End is a suburb of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. Most of it is an unparished area, not being within a civil parish, although part of the built-up area comes under Chorleywood Parish Council. All of Mill End forms part of Three Rivers District and so is administered by Three Rivers District Council and Hertfordshire County Council. ^[1]

History

Mill End was historically a hamlet in the parish of Rickmansworth. By the 1870s, Mill End had church buildings and so had become a village; it was no longer a hamlet. It contained St. Peter's Church (built in 1874–5) and a Baptist chapel. St Peter's was a small flint building with Bath-stone dressings. The village also had a paper mill, tannery, and brewery. ^[2]

Mill End was included within the Rickmansworth Urban District from its creation in 1898 until it was abolished in 1974. ^[3]

Another notable ancient structure at Mill End was a timber-framed farmhouse called Shepherds Farm, mentioned in a 1294 subsidy roll with a reference to Robert Le Schephard. The subsidy roll of 1534 records the name of Robert Lane. The Lane family farmed there until 1773, when Joseph Lane sold the farm to Joseph Swannell. By 1839 the Thelluson trustees had bought it. They built a new farmhouse and used the original farmhouse as lodgings for single men employed on the farm. ^[4]

Tornado Cars used to manufacture kit cars at 90 Uxbridge Rd, Mill End. The company sold the cars either factory finished or in component form (in which case the buyer was responsible for assembling the car from the components). The first model was shown to the press in August 1958 and production of cars stopped in 1964. Tornado Cars won the 750 Motor Clubs' Six Hour Handicap Relay Race at Silverstone twice and, at its peak, employed 60 people. The new Fairway Tyre Services building on the site is called "Tornado House" as a tribute. ^[5]

Most of Mill End is unparished, but the part of it north of Oakfield is in Chorleywood Civil Parish. ^[6]

Geography

London is just to the south of Mill End (Mill End borders the London Borough of Hillingdon). ^[7]

Notable people

Harry Edwin Curtis

Harry Edwin Curtis JP (known as H.E. Curtis) was living in Springwell Lodge (276 Uxbridge Road) ^[8] Mill End when he died on 8 December 1948. ^[9] He had been a Hertfordshire County Council alderman and a chairman of Rickmansworth Urban District Council "who worked for the good of Mill End for many years and who had taken great interest in the welfare of old people". ^{[10] : 6}

When Springwell Avenue, Mill End was built (in December 1925), Rickmansworth Urban District Council named it after Curtis' home, Springwell Lodge. ^{[10] : 16} In 1953 the council named Curtis Close (which contained bungalows for old people) in commemoration of Curtis. These road names were kept in 1972 when their pre-fabricated bungalows and houses were demolished and rebuilt. ^{[10] : 6}

Job Lane

Job Lane (1620–1697) emigrated to America from Shepherds Farm, Mill End, in 1649 (with his brothers James and Edward). He was a carpenter who built bridges and houses in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He also imported goods from England. ^{[11] [12]}

In 1664 Lane became the owner of 1500 acres of land in Billerica in exchange for building a mansion at Norwich, Connecticut for Fitz John Winthrop, the grandson of Governor Winthrop. This land is now one-fifth of Bedford, Massachusetts. Lane also built one of the college buildings in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ^{[13] [14]}

References

1. "Mill End (Rickmansworth), Hertfordshire". UK Genealogy Archives. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
2. An Old Inhabitant (Young Crawley) (1880). Guide to Hertfordshire, A Concise History of the County. Hertford, UK: Simson & Company. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
3. 1898 Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map
4. "Mill End". hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
5. Malins, Dave. "The History of the Tornado". www.astruc.s.easynet.co.uk/tornado_register. Tornado Register. Archived from the original on 14 December 2001. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
6. "Ordnance Survey Election Maps" . Retrieved 11 September 2021.
7. "Hillingdon Borough Council - MapIt". mapit.mysociety.org. mySociety (Powered by MapIt). Retrieved 24 August 2013.
8. "For the house number and street name see SPRINGWELL LODGE under the "Company directors and board members" tab for Jayfruit Limited". www.companieslist.co.uk. UK Companies List.
9. "The London Gazette, 15 April 1949" (PDF). www.london-gazette.co.uk. The Stationery Office . Retrieved 22 August 2013.
10. Jacques, Adrienne (April 1987). Street Names of Rickmansworth. Rickmansworth, UK: Three Rivers District Council.
11. "Three Rivers History, Rickmansworth". trmt.org.uk. Three Rivers Museum of Local History. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
12. "The Lane Family Papers, Biographies". www.bedfordmahistory.org. Bedford Historical Society. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
13. "The Lane Family Papers, Home". www.bedfordmahistory.org. Bedford Historical Society. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
14. Brown, Abram English (1891). History of the town of Bedford, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to the year of Our Lord 1891. Bedford, Massachusetts: Published by the author. p.  7 . Retrieved 29 August 2013.

External links

• Photographs of Stockers Lake, Mill End (wildlife, fish, and the Grand Union Canal's Stockers Lock)