Mill End, Rickmansworth

Mill End
Mill End  Mill End shown within Hertfordshire
– London	0 mi (0.0 km) The London Borough of Hillingdon is to the S
Civil parish	Mainly unparished
	Chorleywood Parish Council
District	Three Rivers District
Shire county	Hertfordshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	RICKMANSWORTH
Postcode district	WD3
Dialling code	01923
Police	Hertfordshire
Fire	Hertfordshire
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Hertfordshire South West
List of places UK England Hertfordshire

Coordinates: 51°38′12″N 0°29′31″W / 51.63671°N 0.49187°W / 51.63671; -0.49187

Mill End is a semi-rural village in Hertfordshire, England, which has in recent times become a contiguous part of Rickmansworth. Most of it is unparished (i.e. it does not have a civil parish council); part comes under Chorleywood Parish Council. All of Mill End forms part of Three Rivers District and so is administered by Three Rivers District Council and Hertfordshire County Council.^[1]

History

By 1880, Mill End had church buildings and so had become a village; it was no longer a hamlet. It contained St. Peter's Church (built in 1874-5) and a Baptist chapel. St Peter's was a small flint building with Bath-stone dressings. The village also had a paper mill, tannery, and brewery.^[2]

Another notable ancient structure at Mill End was a timber-framed farmhouse called Shepherds Farm, mentioned in a 1294 subsidy roll with a reference to Robert Le Schephard. The subsidy roll of 1534 records the name of Robert Lane. The Lane family farmed there until 1773, when Joseph Lane sold the farm to Joseph Swannell. By 1839 the Thelluson trustees had bought it. They built a new farmhouse and used the original farmhouse as lodgings for single men employed on the farm. ^[3]

Tornado Cars used to manufacture kit cars at 90 Uxbridge Rd, Mill End. The company sold the cars either factory finished or in component form (in which case the buyer was responsible for assembling the car from the components). The first model was shown to the press in August 1958 and production of cars stopped in 1964. Tornado Cars won the 750 Motor Clubs' Six Hour Handicap Relay Race at Silverstone twice and, at its peak, employed 60 people. The new Fairway Tyre Services building on the site is called "Tornado House" as a tribute.^[4]

Government

Mill End lies within Three Rivers District and is associated with three wards of Three Rivers District Council:

Mill End and Maple Cross Ward contains the part of Mill End west of Church Lane/Shepherds Lane and north of the Uxbridge Road. It also contains Heronsgate, Maple Cross, and West Hyde.^[5] The district councillors representing the ward (following the 3 May 2012 elections) are Chris Lucas, Ann Shaw OBE, and Peter Wakeling. All are Liberal Democrats.^{[6]:7:23:27:28}

Penn Ward contains the part of Mill End east of Church Lane/Shepherds Lane and north of the Uxbridge Road.^[5] The district councillors representing the ward (following the 3 May 2012 elections) are Les Mead and Sarah Nelmes. Both are Liberal Democrats.^[6]:7:24:25

Rickmansworth Ward contains the part of Mill End south of the Uxbridge Road. It also contains central Rickmansworth, Batchworth, Batchworth Heath, and Woodcock Hill.^[5] The district councillors representing the ward (following the 3 May 2012 elections) are Paula Hiscocks and David Sansom. Both are Conservatives.^[6]:7:22:26

The main responsibilities of Three Rivers District Council are:

• electoral registration and organising elections;
• collecting Council Tax and Business Rates for itself, Chorleywood Parish Council, Hertfordshire County Council, and Hertfordshire Constabulary;
• paying Council Tax Support, Housing Benefit, and Local Housing Allowance;
• development control and building regulations;
• licensing of alcohol, gambling, collections for charities, street trading, minicabs, and taxis;
• refuse and recycling, environmental health, and pollution control (including noise pollution);
• parking, abandoned vehicles, and street cleaning;
• sport, parks, allotments, open spaces, cemeteries, housing, leisure, and arts.^{[7][6]:8[8][9]}

Three Rivers District lies within the county of Hertfordshire. So Mill End is also administered by Hertfordshire County Council.

Three Rivers District lies within Hertfordshire Constabulary's police area. The elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire sets the policing budget, holds the Chief Constable to account, determines local policing priorities, and represents the views of residents.^[10]

Most of Mill End is unparished, but the part of it north of Oakfield is in Chorleywood Civil Parish.^[5] This area forms the parish's Chorleywood Quickwood Ward.^[11] The parish councillor representing the ward (following the 27 May 2010 election) is Raj Khiroya, a Liberal Democrat who was the only Chorleywood Parish councillor to be elected unopposed.^[12]:3[13]

Geography

	Heronsgate	Sarratt and, before it, Chorleywood	Loudwater
	Chalfont Saint Giles		Moneyhill and, beyond it, Rickmansworth
		Mill End
	Maple Cross and, beyond it, West Hyde	Harefield	Moor Park Northwood

London is just to the south of Mill End (Mill End borders the London Borough of Hillingdon).^[14]

Notable people

Harry Edwin Curtis

Harry Edwin Curtis JP (known as H.E. Curtis) was living in Springwell Lodge (276 Uxbridge Road)^[15] Mill End when he died on 8 December 1948.^[16] He had been a Hertfordshire County Council alderman and a chairman of Rickmansworth Urban District Council "who worked for the good of Mill End for many years and who had taken great interest in the welfare of old people".^[17]:6

When Springwell Avenue, Mill End was built (in December 1925), Rickmansworth Urban District Council named it after Curtis' home, Springwell Lodge.^[17]:16 In 1953 the council named Curtis Close (which contained bungalows for old people) in commemoration of Curtis. These road names were kept in 1972 when their pre-fabricated bungalows and houses were demolished and rebuilt.^[17]:6

Job Lane

Job Lane (1620–1697) emigrated to America from Shepherds Farm, Mill End, in 1649 (with his brothers James and Edward). He was a carpenter who built bridges and houses in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He also imported goods from England.^[18][19]

In 1664 Lane became the owner of 1500 acres of land in Billerica in exchange for building a mansion at Norwich, Connecticut for Fitz John Winthrop, the grandson of Governor Winthrop. This land is now one-fifth of Bedford, Massachusetts. Lane also built one of the college buildings in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[20][21]

References

External links

• Photographs of Stockers Lake, Mill End (wildlife, fish, and the Grand Union Canal's Stockers Lock)