Aerial View of Oxhey in 1927

Aerial View of Oxhey 1927
P93-1974 Photograph Courtesy of Watford Library

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This page was added on 18/01/2012.

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  • This fine image is an oblique aerial photograph of part of Oxhey Village in the late 1920s, during a period of rapid change. In the foreground, the new road of Woodwaye (1925) has been laid out. In the middle distance, trees and large, well-spaced detached houses line both sides of Green Lane, which eventually leads to Oxhey Place, less than a mile to the south of the camera position. More continuous housing development is observed on Oxhey Road, from which Kingsfield Road and Cedar Road extend in a north-easterly direction towards the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMSR) line. Just visible on the extreme right-hand edge is one of the two reservoirs which served the railway troughs at Bushey until the mid-1960s. On the left of picture, woods occupy Deacon’s Hill and the western part of Oxhey Park, beyond which is the 1912 viaduct over the river Colne and the LMSR Bushey Curve. Almost obscured by trees in the middle of the photo is the distinctive spire of St. Matthew’s Parish Church (1880), on the western side of Bushey Station. Beyond the railway viaduct are the familiar gasholders on Watford’s Lower High Street. In the background, on the right-hand side, is the tall clock tower of the Royal Masonic School, by which umpires officiating at Bushey Cricket Club (Moat Field) used to call time for more than half a century from 1927. The writer played seven seasons for the Club between 1958 and 1965. References used:- Fieldpath Map of the Watford District 1938; Six Inch Ordnance Survey Map, Herts, Sheet XLIV NW, 1912-13 (1938 additions); Maps of Watford 1766-1938, Mary Forsyth; The Book of Watford, Bob Nunn, 1987 and 2003. Further images from the Aerofilms Collection may be viewed on http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk

    By John Swain (19/07/2012)