(The life of Barbara Owen written by her daughter Helen Swaris, nee Owen. Spoken at the Thanksgiving Service at St Marys Church Rickmansworth on Friday 10 January 2020) We are here today to give thanks for the life of our mother, known to many of you as Barbara and fondly by her grandchildren as Baba. […]Read Post ›

Church Street Station (Once nearly opposite St. Mary’s Church)   The LMS line between Rickmansworth and Watford closed in 1952, but from 1940 to 1945 I was, along with a number of other pupils, a regular traveller to and from Watford High Street Station on the way to Watford Grammar School for Girls (there was […]Read Post ›

Josceline Percy, who lived at Scotsbridge House from 1826 to 1856, was the grandson of Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Scotsbridge House, from the grounds His naval service began at the age of 11 in 1797 on Lord Hugh Seymour’s flagship HMS Sans Pareil. In her book Links with the Past, his daughter, Mrs […]Read Post ›

When Admiral Percy’s daughter, Sophia, married Colonel Charles Bagot in 1846, he persuaded her to destroy her journal which she had kept for many years. Fortunately, she had an excellent memory and so, in 1901, her book, Links with the Past was published. It gives a vivid picture of her early recollections of her father […]Read Post ›

An extra bit of our local history A small piece of the local history of Rickmansworth was made on 23 May. In the middle of the COVID crisis, one of the last canal craft built by W.H. Walker and Brothers (Walkers of Ricky) was re-launched having been painstakingly reconstructed at the boatyard of one of […]Read Post ›

Scotsbridge House from the garden 2015 Article taken from the Yorkshire Post. Wednesday November 13 1901. Mrs Charles Bagot’s Reminiscences When Colonel Charles Bagot of Levens Hall in the Lake District married, he induced his wife to destroy a journal she had kept of her early days. He seems to have thought that he had […]Read Post ›

On a plaque outside Basing House in Rickmansworth, which is now the home of the Three Rivers Museum Trust, are the words. ‘HERE WILLIAM PENN (1644 – 1718) QUAKER STATESMAN, MAN OF VISION, FOUNDER OF PENNSYLVANIA AND PLANNER OF PHILADELPHIA. FRIEND OF THE INDIANS, CRUSADER FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, DESIGNER OF EUROPEAN PEACE, RESIDED FOR 5 […]Read Post ›

100 years ago, on February 6, 1918, the Representation of the people Act granted the vote to some women over the age of 30. At the time, women were unable to celebrate, as the First World War would continue for another nine months. Women had been flghting for suffrage for years. Throughout the 19th Century […]Read Post ›

St John’s Church, Heronsgate In 1838, a People’s Charter was drawn up which had six demands: universal manhood suffrage, secret ballot voting, abolition of property qualifications for MPs, payment of MPs, equal electoral districts, and annual elections. The Charter was presented to the House of Commons the following year, having gained over 1.25 million signatures. […]Read Post ›

The First World War ended on 11th November 1918 and within three days the Rickmansworth Urban District Council were seeking ways to commemorate the dead. The routine Council meeting took place on 14th and there was immediate, extraordinary business because the local benefactor (2nd) Lord Ebury had died a day earlier. A letter of condolence […]Read Post ›