South Oxhey - Housing Estate Office

Aerial View of Estate Office and Yard

Home Counties Newspapers at Watford Library - P10714

Garden at Estate Office - 1962

Frank Waller

Garden at Estate Office - 1962

Frank Waller

37 Oxhey Drive

By Susan Waller

When the South Oxhey Estate was built the ' Estate Office' was built at 37 Oxhey Drive.  This was where people would visit when they were allocated a house and where they would collect the keys.

For some years there were rent collectors who travelled around the estate collecting the rents but later on you could choose to pay it at the Estate Office.

The Estate Office had a yard attached to it and the entry to this was in Seacroft Gardens ( where the road now goes behind the Estate Office and the flats that were built on the site of the yard).

The estate then had its own group of workmen and the painters, carpenters, glaziers and grounds staff all worked from this yard or from the smaller yard behind Hallowes Crescent shops.  If repairs were required then these were reported to the Estate Office and then one of the local workmen would do the work.

There was also a greenhouse attached to the yard where the plants were grown for the lovely gardens outside the Estate Office.  The gardeners on the estate were very proud of their efforts in maintaining the garden and the shrub beds all around the estate.