Oxhey - The History of a Parish - Informative Booklet

 The Booklet "Oxhey: The History of a Parish" by Marjorie Bray was published in 1979, in the centenary year of St Matthew's Parish, Oxhey, It provides a useful history of the church, plus a good backgruond of the history of the parish, a list of vicars, etc. and at the time of writing second hand copies were available online. The land on which the church was built was donated by Jonathan King of Wiggenhall, which  I mentioned on this blog recently.

Oxhey was formed from the parishes of Bushey, Watford and Northwood (Middlesex) and I have used this opportunity to give Oxhey a proper "home" page.

Note that I can only afford to include reviews of new books and booklets relating to Hertfordshire if I am sent a review copy.

Jonathan King and Watford in the 19th century.

Jackie wrote asking about Jonathan King, of Watford, whose 1881 will shows he owned a lot of property in Watford.  It turns out that Jonathan married the niece of George Whittingstall, brewer in Watford, in 1825, and in 1826 was living in Watford Place. Watford started expanding after the railway arrived in 1837 and in 1850 the Watford Place estate was sold as building land, and Jonathan moved to Wiggenhall, another estate to the South West of St Mary's, Watford which was later extensively build on. He also has connections with the churches of  of St Andrew's Watford, St Mary's Rickmansworth and the church at Oxhey.

Wiggenhall Park crica 1850
Note how Watford was then little more than a strip of houses on either
side of the main road out of London