Carpenders Park

infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Carpenders Park
latitude= 51.628
longitude= -0.384
MapY= 203
shire_district= Three Rivers
shire_county = Hertfordshire
region= East of England
constituency_westminster= Watford
post_town= WATFORD
postcode_district = WD19 5
postcode_area= WD
dial_code= 020
os_grid_reference= TQ119934

Carpenders Park is a suburb of Watford in the Watford Rural parish of the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England. It is located in the south western corner of Hertfordshire and close to the boundary with Greater London. It is bounded to the West by a railway line that separates it from South Oxhey, to the East by the A4008 Watford to Harrow Road (Oxhey Lane), to the South by the B4542 (Little Oxhey Lane), Green Belt and the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow and to the North by woodland (Margeholes Wood and Sherwood Wood).

History

Carpenders Park was originally an estate based around a manor house of the same name. This was later a girls school, Highfields, which was demolished in 1960 to make way for USAF married quarters. These were in turn demolished in 1997/98 [ [http://londoncentral.org/photos/carpenders.htm Short History of Carpenders Park] accessed 5 May 2008] [ [http://www.pulham.org.uk/Portfolio/07%20-%20Pulham%20in%20Herts/5%20-%20Rediscovered%20Treasures/7-5%20-%20Rediscovered%20James%20Pulham%20Treasures.html Pulham in Hertfordshire] accessed 5 May 2008] . The base was also known as Highfields.

The houses and bungalows of Carpenders Park were originally built in the 1930s. There was subsequent development in the 1950s including some council housing built for the Watford Rural District Council. The vast majority of the dwellings, though, are privately owned.

The estate was significantly enlarged in the late 1960s. Many of these later houses have flat roofs and the area gained some notoriety as "Plummers Park", the setting for Leslie Thomas' "Tropic of Ruislip" [ [http://www.threerivers.gov.uk/Default.aspx/Web/TownsandVillages Three Rivers DC Towns and Villages] accessed 6 May 2008] , which had wife-swapping as one of its themes.

The ventriloquist Roger DeCourcey also lived on the estate in the 1970s.

Local facilities

*Carpenders Park railway station
* [http://www.attenboroughsurgery.co.uk/t6630.html Attenborough Doctors' Surgery] , Harrow Way
*Carpenders Park Community Hall, next to the station
*Post office and shops are Delta Gain

Other facilities may be found in South Oxhey.

Education

* [http://www.stmeryl.herts.sch.uk/ St Meryl Primary School]
*Woodhall School

Religion

* [http://www.hertsdirect.org/comdirectory/comvol/relig2y/recspir5y/11984862 Carpenders Park Spiritualist Church]
*Carpenders Park Church [ [http://www.croxleygreen.com/AA-Info-903.asp Churches near Croxley Green] accessed 5 May 2008]

External links

* [http://www.maps-of-london.com/map-oxhey.htm Map of Oxhey showing Carpenders Park c.1940]
* [http://www.herts.police.uk/neighbourhood_policing/y_np_thr.php?nptId=28 Neighbourhood policing strategy]

References