Detailed Information on the Information Board at Oxhey Park (1)

Image: © David Hillas Taken: 22 Oct 2021

This photo shows detailed information below the map on the Information Board in Wiggenhall Road. It has the following wording: Oxhey Park Oxhey Park is situated on land originally part of the Wiggen Hall Estate, with a history which goes back hundreds of years. In the 15th Century the manor of Wiggenhall cum Oxhey was owned by St Alban's Abbey (now Cathedral). After the dissolution of the Church during the reign of Henry VIII the land then passed to private ownership. During the 16th and 17th Centuries Sir William Bucknall and his heirs owned the Oxhey/Wiggen Hall Estate (living at Oxhey Place). Wiggen Hall Manor was leased to the Deacon family who lived there until the mid-19th Century. In 1826 Wiggen Hall and the Estate were bought by Jonathon King passing to his nephew Joseph Gutteridge Smith in 1881. Ordnance Survey records from the 1870s show the Wiggen Hall as a large country house overlooking the River Colne, with elaborate gardens, a walled garden, woodland pleasure grounds and landscaped parklands. During World War I a large proportion of the land was requisitioned for food production. By 1929 Wiggen Hall was unoccupied and then eventually demolished in 1955. How Oxhey Park came to be In 1920 Watford Borough Council (with help from a Government Grant) bought 85 acres of the Estate for £14,000 in order that they could build a housing development and provide recreational space for the local community. In January 1924 the Estates Committee at the Council recommended that the newly allocated public park be known as Oxhey Park. In the 1920s, as now, a walk along the river was one of the main attractions of the park. By the 1930s refreshments were being sold from a boathouse to the north of the River Colne and fishing, boating and swimming were all allowed. The first children's playground was built in 1930. The two images show the Colne Viaduct or Bushey Arches.

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