Rickmansworth

Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth  Rickmansworth shown within Hertfordshire
Population	14,571
OS grid reference	TQ061944
District	Three Rivers
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
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	South West Hertfordshire
List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire

Rickmansworth is the home town of the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England, 4¼ miles (7 km) west of Watford. Population is approximately 15,000 people.

Location

Rickmansworth is positioned mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne in South-West Hertfordshire. It is a small town with a wide range of leisure activities, amenities and good quality schools.

It began to grow in the 1920s and 1930s as part of the Metro-land area, due to the extension of Metropolitan Railway, and as such, it became a commuter town. Chiltern Main Line diesel-express trains from Marylebone station, London, via Harrow-on-the Hill, to Aylesbury–change for Birmingham–and fast, electric Metropolitan trains from the City of London, via Baker Street, to Amersham-on-the-Hill, together with the rural surroundings, have all contributed to the success of Rickmansworth.

The M25 motorway, Junctions 17 and 18, gives easy, fast access to both Heathrow Airport, and to the M1 motorway and Luton Airport as well as the national motorway network.

Etymology

The name Rickmansworth comes from the Saxon name "Ryckmer", the local magnate, and "worth" meaning farm or stockade. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is known as The Manor of Prichemaresworde. Later spellings are Rykemarwurthe (1119–46), Richemaresworthe (1180), Rykemerewrthe (1248), Richemereworthe (1259), Rikesmareswrth (1287) and Rikmansworth (1382).

History

The three rivers, Colne, Chess and Gade, provided the water for the watercress trade and motive power for corn milling, silk weaving, paper making and brewing, all long gone. Now, there are commercial offices and the homes of a commuting population, and the rivers, canal and flooded gravel pits provide for recreation. Cardinal Wolsey, in his capacity as Abbot of St Albans, held the Manor of le More in the valley, now vanished but superseded by the hill-top mansion of Moor Park, once the residence of Admiral Lord Anson and the Barons Ebury, and now the Golf Club House. The wider area, including Croxley Green, Moor Park, Batchworth, Mill End, West Hyde and Chorleywood, formed the original parish of Rickmansworth. In 1851, this had a population of only 4,800, but even that represented great growth necessitating division of the parish. St Mary's Church today serves a parish area concentrated around the town and extending over Batchworth and parts of Moor Park. Today, the town has an ever-growing number of residents in many new apartments and houses. Around the time of the Domesday Book there may have been as few as 200 people in the vicinity; then it was called Prichemareworth, one of the five local manors with which the great Abbey of St Albans had been endowed when founded in 793 by King Offa. Local tithes supported the abbey, which in turn provided clergy to serve the local people until the Dissolution of 1539.

Historic industry

There was a mill at Rickmansworth at the time of the Domesday Survey. The water-mill, called West Mill, belonged to the abbot and convent of St. Albans, and was leased by them to Ralph Bukberd for a term of years ending in 1539. In 1533 they leased it from the end of this term for twenty-six years to Richard Wilson of Watford. He was to keep in repair the mill and also two millstones, 10 in. in thickness, and 4 ft. 8 in. in breadth. (fn. 57) The mill was leased in 1544 to William Hutchinson, yeoman of the spicery, and Janet his wife for their lives. (fn. 57a) It afterward came to John Wilson, and was granted in 1576–77 to Richard Master. (fn. 58) There was also a water-mill called Batchworth Mill, and a fishery called Blacketts Mill in Rickmansworth. (fn. 59) Batchworth Mill was later used as a cotton mill, but was bought in 1820 by Messrs. John Dickinson & Co., and converted into paper mills. (fn. 60) Strawplaiting was carried on in the parish. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many of the principal inhabitants were described as 'clothiers,' from which it may be inferred that the manufacture of cloth was at one time carried on in the parish, but this industry has long since ceased. There were also silk and flock mills here, described in 1808 as recently built.

Aquadrome

Bury Lake

Rickmansworth contains a large public park called the Aquadrome. Covering 41 hectares, the Aquadrome Local Nature Reserve consists of lakes, grassland and woodland and is an ideal place for walks. In July 2009, the reserve received a Green Flag award, which is only given to parks and open spaces with meet certain high standards. The area includes three large lakes, Batchworth, Bury and Stockers, grass and woodland areas, and a children's play area (renovated in 2008). A new café opened in the Aquadrome in early 2009. The building also hosts a range of community activities, e.g. children's musical workshops, and provides a welcome focal point for park users.

The Aquadrome boundaries are: to the North, the River Colne, the East and South, the Grand Union Canal, and to the West, Stockers Lake.

Batchworth Lake is popular for Water Skiing events and hosts the Rickmansworth Water Ski Club. The lakes are suitable for canoeing, sailing and fishing. Bury Lake is home to BLYM (Bury Lake Young Mariners) which a sailing club and also an RYA-recognised teaching establishment. The lakes are artificial, being former quarries that have been filled with water and fish, there are also ducks, geese and swans. Some of the stone from the site was used in the building of the original Wembley Stadium.

Sport

• Rickmansworth Golf Course is adjacent to Moor Park golf course.

• Rickmansworth Cricket Club was founded in 1787 and is one of the oldest recorded clubs in England.

The present clubhouse was built in 1921 by Sir William Francis Reckitt - a member of the Reckitt and Colman Mustard dynasty. Rickmansworth Sports Club was the home of Rickmansworth Cricket Club, which currently runs 4 sides in the Saracens Hertfordshire Cricket League.

Over the years, other sports have moved into the grounds, including the Chess Valley Rugby Football Club and the Rickmansworth & Chess Valley Hockey Clubs.

• William Penn Leisure Centre has a swimming pool and indoor sports facilities.

• Rickmansworth Lawn Tennis Club. (Also hosts Rickmansworth Table Tennis Club matches)

Schools

Primary schools

• Arnett Hills JMI School
• Rickmansworth Park JMI School
• Shepherds Primary School
• St. John's Catholic Primary School
• St. Mary's C of E Primary School
• St. Peter's C of E Voluntary Aided Primary School

Secondary schools

• Rickmansworth School
• Royal Masonic School for Girls
• St Clement Danes School
• St Joan of Arc Catholic School

Watersmeet, societies/clubs and annual events

• Watersmeet is a 515 seat venue complex for hire owned by Three Rivers District Council, situated in the centre Rickmansworth on the High Street. The auditorium can transform from a raked theatre to a flat floor for performances "in the round" or dinner dances, cabarets, weddings, indoor markets and craft fairs.

• The Rickmansworth Players (affiliated to NODA) are a well-established amateur dramatics society based in Rickmansworth that perform musicals and plays on a regular basis.

• Rickmansworth also hosts a Sub-Aqua Club.

• Rickmansworth Historical Society meets at 8pm on the second Thursday of the month from September to June in the Cloisters Hall.

• Colloquially, Rickmansworth is often shortened to "Ricky", as used in the town's annual "Ricky Week" celebrations which occur in May.

• The town's canal history is remembered every year at the end of Ricky Week with the Rickmansworth Festival, organised by Rickmansworth Waterways Trust.

• There is an annual Ricky Road Run with more than 500 runners taking to the streets of Rickmansworth.

• Up until 2010, an annual "Victorian Evening" was held in the town centre every November, but this changed in 2011, and became a "Starlight Evening". This was inspired by the reference to Rickmansworth by Douglas Adams' in the first page of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A girl named Fenchurch finds the true Question to the ultimate answer of life, the universe and everything when sitting in a small café in Rickmansworth.

Cinema and TV Filming: Rickmansworth

• The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Withnail and I (1986)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• Midsomer Murders (2009)
• Ashes to Ashes (2009)
• Harry and Paul (2010)
• The First Men in the Moon (2010)

Grand Union Canal

Grand Union canal at Rickmansworth with a barge framed by a bridge (circa 1895)

See also

• Rickmansworth station
• W.H. Walker and Brothers

References

• Population figures (PDF)

External links

• Local historian's site
• Local news site
• Pictures of Rickmansworth
• [1] Batchworth Lake at the Aquadrome
• [2] Batchworth Lake at the Aquadrome