This article was written by Barbara King. It was originally serialised in the Oxhey Village Environment Group newsletters of November 1988, January 1989 and February 1989.
Footnotes with additional information are available after Barbara’s article. If you have additional information on the subjects covered in this article, please contact history@oveg.org.
I lived for many years at the top of Paddock Road and, during my childhood, the piece of land we now know as ‘Oxhey Green’ was a very big hole in the ground. It was a disused clay pit, used for making bricks in the last century. There was a pond at the bottom, with a few ducks I believe, and our own local ‘Steptoe’ was a Mr Narraway who kept his old horse in a shed on the site. This, unfortunately, developed into a dump and was called ‘The Dump’ or ‘Grover’s Tip’ (having being bought by Mr. Grover (a builder who, of course, has a road named after him). Eventually, the Borough Council acquired the site and had it filled in to make what is now Oxhey Green.
In the 20s milk was ladled by the milkman from a can into our own jug and our milkman was a Mr. Cutchee who lived in Upper Paddock Road and put his cows out to grass in fields at the rear, which we called Cutchee’s Fields.’ These fields are now Wilcot and Talbot Avenues. His old dairy has only recently being demolished to make way for the new council flat development in Field End.
‘Cutchee’s Dairy’ had been used as a piggery during World War II and more recently used by the Allotment Holders Association. There was another milkman halfway down Lower Paddock Road called Mr. Barnet and also Lee, Wiggs & Clarke at the corner of King Edward Road and also at Ye Corner. No. 81 Upper Paddock Road had a small shop attached to the side of it which sold almost everything in the household line and was owned by a Mrs. Parsons who lived there for many years. When she moved, her garden and the adjoining plot were used to form Maxwell Rise but the old house still remains, minus the shop.
When my father married in 1912, he moved to the cottage at the top of Paddock Road, built in 1867 on land acquired from the British Land Company by a Mr. Joseph Foster, who I was given to understand was Head Gardener at Oxhey Grange at that time. My father started up a nursery which existed until 1959 when numbers 85 and 87 Upper Paddock Road were built on the front of the land. The old cottage remains at the rear and has been considerably extended.
My father had competition in the road, as Mr. Laws also had a nursery next to Barnet’s dairy and also a shop just over the River Colne in Lower High Street, now demolished. Maisonettes have been built on the site of the nursery but the old cottage still remains. There was a nice old house called Hope Cottage next to the Keyser Hall with a large garden. This has gone to make way for Rowley Close.
We all used lots of coal in ‘The Good Old Days’ and our coal merchant was Mr. Wilson who lived and had his premises in Upper Paddock Road. The shops, of course, have changed. Eastman’s, the butchers, was where the launderette is in Villiers Road and ‘a snub’ or shoe repairer opposite where the estate agent is now. Palmer’s Shop was a draper’s called ‘Morrells,’ I think and our chemist in those days was Mr Gant who produced his own cures in various bottles.
We also had a very thriving Co-op in Pinner Road which is now a hairdressers. Table Hall was, of course, St. Matthew’s Church Hall. Mr Hunsdon was one of the local bakers and brought his bread round in a horse and cart. His shop and bakery was in Villiers Road. On Chalk Hill we had W.H. Smith’s bookshop on the corner and Vale’s the grocers, and further towards the Arches of butchers (Mr. Barker and later Mr. Pitts) and a greengrocer (Mr. Foakes) and a public house. Oxhey had many pubs but quite a few of them have now either been demolished or turned into private houses.
Gas in those days was, of course, made from coal and this coal was transported by horse and cart from Bushey Station to the Gas Works in Lower High Street. There was an endless procession of carts full of coal going down what was then the cobbled Pinner Road and under the Arches. In the winter it was quite pitiful to see the poor old horses slipping and sliding their way down the frozen street.
These are just a few things which I hope will stir up memories for some of you. Luckily old Oxhey has not changed so much as other parts of the town and does still keep its character. Long made it so remain!
Further information
Maxwell Rise
Several OVEG history articles reference the construction of Maxwell Rise. Dora Duncan’s 1999 article ‘Paddock Cottage during the post-war years‘ described the land as a “sort of smallholding” that was purchased by a builder, a Mr Maxwell. However, a follow-up piece by Lawrence Larcombe claimed that Maxwell Rise was actually built by a James Maxey; not Maxwell. We currently have no evidence to prove nor disprove either claim! Laurence noted that Mr Maxey lived in “the detached house at the far end of the cul-de-sac” – presumably 14 Maxwell Rise.
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