Theobalds Brook - Cheshunt
Theobald’s
Brook
Theobald’s Brook continues to flow eastwards towards the River Lee
TL 34448 00646
Suburban area near the Lea and including the great palace of Theobalds. Interesting area for market gardens and the early days of some national supermarket chains,.
Post to the east Theobalds
Post to the west Bury Green
Post to the south Waltham Cross
Albury Ride
This was built as an access road to Theobald’s estates and developed on the north side in the late 19th. The south side was built up in the 1930s. There was an entrance lodge at the end.
Albury Farm. Farmhouse built 1860. Some of the original wall of Theobald's Deer Park north of the farmhouse Garden. This was a red brick wall built for James I – because local people had vandalised the previous wooden fencing. Huts of a Second World War anti-aircraft site were used by the farm for mushroom growing, but since replaced. Important military remains from the Second World War however remain nearby.
Cheshunt Recreation Ground. Developed by the Cheshunt Cricket Club which was founded in 1860. Cheshunt Football Club played here when they were formed in the 1880s as did other sports. There is a clubhouse and other facilities.
Albury Walk
Also called Lovers Lane - it was Love Lane in the 18th
Cedars Park
Cedars Park. This was given to the local authority in 1921 by Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux. It was a condition that there would be no ball games in the park.
Theobald’s Palace. The palace was built by Elizabeth’s Secretary or State, Lord Burghley near the site of an older manor between 1564 and 1585. Elizabeth visited there and the gardens and house were improved greatly for these visits. In 1598 the site passed to Burghley’s Robert Cecil, also Secretary of State. When James I succeeded Theobald’s was his last stopping place before arriving in London and later he acquired the house and site having swapped it in 1607 with the Cecils for Hatfield. Theobald’s became James’s favourite country house and it was extended with materials from Enfield Palace, enhanced the gardens, and installed a menagerie. He died there in 1625. However under the Commonwealth, it was almost totally destroyed on the orders of Parliament and only fragments survive. The house had consisted of two quadrangles one with a cloister and a black and white marble fountain. There were two gatehouses, one between the two quadrangles. And on the south side of the house was an open cloister which existed until 1765. The estate was bought by the Prescott family in 1750 and a house built to the south, which is the current Theobald’s Park. The area was redeveloped as Theobald’s square in the 18th with grand house, since gone. Eventually the estate passed to the Meux family of brewers.
Brickwork – once part of a gardener’s cottage to Old Palace House. This is the surviving south west corner of the Theobald’s Palace. There is a strip of brickwork with a window, renovated in 1979.
Gardens. There were once two cedars, since dead. There is an Amur cork tree planted to commemorate a visit from people from Waltham. Massachusetts in 1932. Trees also include: an avenue of plane trees; a mulberry tree of the sort introduced by James I, a swamp cypress; an avenue of Tibetan cherry trees, camellia, yew, Japanese maple, fig, turkey oak, ginko, blue Atlas cedar and tulip tree
Dovecote – with corner stones and red brick from the former Palace. A new dovecote was planned as part of renovation work.
Milestone – this is a plaque, dated 1621, taken from thru from the nine mile Deer Park Wall at Albury which was demolished in the 1950s
Grotto and Summerhouse. Two 18th buildings of puddingstone, flint and burnt brick. There are five round-headed brick niches and a flint niche with two domed pavilions at the front
Kitchen garden of the Old Palace with original lower walls in red brick. Bee boles in the walls.
Lake. Originally used as a Tudor boating lake for Theobald’s Palace. At one end is a rounded wall
Canal – built for Elizabeth’s entertainment. Filled in.
Tank – there was a concrete ramp used to house a tank from the Great War. This was removed in the Second World War.
Orangery, café etc. there is a considerable complex of buildings in the park.
Old Palace House. Built in the 18th on the site of the gardens and terraces. It is said the old banqueting-table was in it and the ‘Tiger House’ had stuffed tigers in it given to the local authority by Sir Hepworth Meux. The house was burnt down 1971
Jackson’s House. Two brick pillars at the site of the entrance of 18th Jackson’s House, which was a private school in 1910, and an important educational establishment in its time. This was one of the Theobald’s Square buildings, now gone.
Turning bays for horse drawn carriages with tethering wings in the walls.
Crossbrook
Gibbet here in the 17th
178 Youth services in East Herts College annexe. This is what was the Territorial Army drill hall built in 1938 on the site of Sexton's Dairy.
171 at the rear a hall owned by the Comrades of the Great War. This was Cheshunt Hall and the site where the Cheshunt Methodists first met in the 1860s
149 Loretta’s. 18th cottages turned into a pub called The Eagle in the 19th.
137 Roman Urn pub. Built in the 1840s. The urn was found in a nearby field and is set in the front of the building with the Cecil motto above it.
151-155 18th cottages
133-135 17th
126 built for the Cheshunt building society as their first premises
117 16th timber frame building with stucco ground floor. One window was lost in an explosion at Waltham abbey
116 Dairy Glen house. This was the headquarters of Victor Value supermarket chain. It was founded by Victor Cohen. In 1968 it was sold to Tesco. The site is now housing including Dairy Glen Avenue, Cohen Close and Valley House.
Lea Valley Growers - An experimental station with glass houses, laboratories, etc. had been set up here in 1912 by the Lea Valley Growers as the Nursery and Market Gardens Development Society Ltd. What was then the Nursery Trades (Lea Valley) Association left their packing station here in 1955 and moved to the Experimental Station in Turners Hill.
113 Crossbrook Tyre and Auto. 18th Brown brick house
100 Care Aspirations and Britannia Building Society which has taken over the local Cheshunt Building Society for whom these were built. The extension is on the site of the Pope John Hall, a Roman Catholic social centre. Thus was originally built as a congregational church in 1856 replacing a dissenting chapel of 1706 designed by Isaac Watts whose initials were at the base of the tower.
99 -101 Springfield. 17th timber framed house, with 18th front. Owned by the Lee Conservancy
97 The Grange. 19th brick house and the HQ of the Lee Conservancy. Thames Water Eastern Division in 1782 a Friends Meeting House
88 Limes. 19th Yellow brick house now flats.
81-85 19th cottages
79 18th red brick house with a 19th cast iron porch
77 with a sun fire mark
75 1670 White Cottage 17th timber frame house
69 was a pub called The Crown
67 Stuart House 18th
64-74 these were Trinity Villas 1844
37 British Legion Hall
36 Coach and horses 18th rear
Kingdom Hall
Dairy Glen Avenue
Site of Victor Value Headquarters and previous the Lea Valley Growers Research Station.
Great Cambridge Road
Tesco Country Club. This was previously the Gothic sports ground. This was on an area of reclaimed land which was worked for gravel in 1936. After the Second World War it was developed as a sports area.
US bomber crashed between here and the New River in 1944 with its full bomb load. Memorial to the crew in the library. Flamstead End by pass was renamed after the pilot, Lt Ellis, because it was believed he had avoided homes rather than bale out.
Guinevere Gardens
Cheshunt Public Library. A Carnegie foundation library which was opened in 1907 and designed by J Myrtle Smith in red brick. Above the door is a carved plaque with fruit and winged cherubs. It was enlarged in 1965
Cheshunt Magistrates Court. Built 1906 and closed 2009.
High Street
The Wheatsheaf. The current building is 1892.
Biss Bros. This was a contractor’s private bus garage by the rail station in the 1920s.
Theobald’s Grove Station. Opened 1891 by the Great Eastern Railway. It is now Between Cheshunt and Turkey Street on One Railway. It was opened on the Churchbury Loop which and Called ‘Theobald’s Grove’ because there was already a Waltham Cross station. It is built on a curve carried on blue brick arches. There were two original entrances, and a booking office and an original name board survived on the up platform until the 1950s. In closed in 1909 but reopened in 1915 for munitions workers. It closed again in 1919 and was used as housing. It opened once again in 1960. Since then it has been refurbished and altered with the waiting rooms replaced by shelters. The bases of the original building survive behind new brick walls. The original booking office, and the stairways remain but the old down side is fenced off.
The Goods yard was at the London end and opened in 1900. A single track served it going down to ground level. It closed in 1966 and is now the. Car park and some housing.
Signal box – this which handled movements in and out of the goods yard. Removed in the 1950s.
King Arthur Court
Cheshunt Community Hospital
Longlands Close
The Close is built on the site of the old Vicarage, sold by the local church in order to finance new buildings.
Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School. Replacing a building in Trinity Lane
Theobald’s Lane
Cheshunt Stadium. This was a gravel pit and a tip which was cleared for the football club in 1949. Two Nissen huts were erected at the entrance. It was not an easy site and the club moved out to return in the mid 1950s when the site was drained and levelled and a Clubhouse built. Later a stand was built followed by Floodlights and a function room. In 1982 seating was installed with fittings and wood from an old Tottenham Hotspur stand.
Rush Lodge. Built 1850 with the Meux crest on the façade.
Gates to Cedars Park. Were commissioned by the local authority for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. They give a bronze timeline of historical events in the park
Hennons. A private house, this was a farmhouse from the 17th. Called Walkers Farm. A fire mark on the façade is not genuine.
Turners Hill
Halsey Masonic Hall, once known as Walnut Tree House. 18th house with white painted stucco front.
37-39 Lea Valley Growers HQ and experimental station. Moved there in 1957 and built the current building on the site of two cottages
Sources
British History online. Cheshunt
Cheshunt Football Club. Web site
Hertfordshire County Council. Web site
Holy Trinity School. Web site
Lewis.Industrial History of the Lea Valley. Growers
Mee. Hertfordshire
Pevsner and Cherry. Hertfordshire
Walford. Village London
Theobald’s Brook continues to flow eastwards towards the River Lee
TL 34448 00646
Suburban area near the Lea and including the great palace of Theobalds. Interesting area for market gardens and the early days of some national supermarket chains,.
Post to the east Theobalds
Post to the west Bury Green
Post to the south Waltham Cross
Albury Ride
This was built as an access road to Theobald’s estates and developed on the north side in the late 19th. The south side was built up in the 1930s. There was an entrance lodge at the end.
Albury Farm. Farmhouse built 1860. Some of the original wall of Theobald's Deer Park north of the farmhouse Garden. This was a red brick wall built for James I – because local people had vandalised the previous wooden fencing. Huts of a Second World War anti-aircraft site were used by the farm for mushroom growing, but since replaced. Important military remains from the Second World War however remain nearby.
Cheshunt Recreation Ground. Developed by the Cheshunt Cricket Club which was founded in 1860. Cheshunt Football Club played here when they were formed in the 1880s as did other sports. There is a clubhouse and other facilities.
Albury Walk
Also called Lovers Lane - it was Love Lane in the 18th
Cedars Park
Cedars Park. This was given to the local authority in 1921 by Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux. It was a condition that there would be no ball games in the park.
Theobald’s Palace. The palace was built by Elizabeth’s Secretary or State, Lord Burghley near the site of an older manor between 1564 and 1585. Elizabeth visited there and the gardens and house were improved greatly for these visits. In 1598 the site passed to Burghley’s Robert Cecil, also Secretary of State. When James I succeeded Theobald’s was his last stopping place before arriving in London and later he acquired the house and site having swapped it in 1607 with the Cecils for Hatfield. Theobald’s became James’s favourite country house and it was extended with materials from Enfield Palace, enhanced the gardens, and installed a menagerie. He died there in 1625. However under the Commonwealth, it was almost totally destroyed on the orders of Parliament and only fragments survive. The house had consisted of two quadrangles one with a cloister and a black and white marble fountain. There were two gatehouses, one between the two quadrangles. And on the south side of the house was an open cloister which existed until 1765. The estate was bought by the Prescott family in 1750 and a house built to the south, which is the current Theobald’s Park. The area was redeveloped as Theobald’s square in the 18th with grand house, since gone. Eventually the estate passed to the Meux family of brewers.
Brickwork – once part of a gardener’s cottage to Old Palace House. This is the surviving south west corner of the Theobald’s Palace. There is a strip of brickwork with a window, renovated in 1979.
Gardens. There were once two cedars, since dead. There is an Amur cork tree planted to commemorate a visit from people from Waltham. Massachusetts in 1932. Trees also include: an avenue of plane trees; a mulberry tree of the sort introduced by James I, a swamp cypress; an avenue of Tibetan cherry trees, camellia, yew, Japanese maple, fig, turkey oak, ginko, blue Atlas cedar and tulip tree
Dovecote – with corner stones and red brick from the former Palace. A new dovecote was planned as part of renovation work.
Milestone – this is a plaque, dated 1621, taken from thru from the nine mile Deer Park Wall at Albury which was demolished in the 1950s
Grotto and Summerhouse. Two 18th buildings of puddingstone, flint and burnt brick. There are five round-headed brick niches and a flint niche with two domed pavilions at the front
Kitchen garden of the Old Palace with original lower walls in red brick. Bee boles in the walls.
Lake. Originally used as a Tudor boating lake for Theobald’s Palace. At one end is a rounded wall
Canal – built for Elizabeth’s entertainment. Filled in.
Tank – there was a concrete ramp used to house a tank from the Great War. This was removed in the Second World War.
Orangery, café etc. there is a considerable complex of buildings in the park.
Old Palace House. Built in the 18th on the site of the gardens and terraces. It is said the old banqueting-table was in it and the ‘Tiger House’ had stuffed tigers in it given to the local authority by Sir Hepworth Meux. The house was burnt down 1971
Jackson’s House. Two brick pillars at the site of the entrance of 18th Jackson’s House, which was a private school in 1910, and an important educational establishment in its time. This was one of the Theobald’s Square buildings, now gone.
Turning bays for horse drawn carriages with tethering wings in the walls.
Crossbrook
Gibbet here in the 17th
178 Youth services in East Herts College annexe. This is what was the Territorial Army drill hall built in 1938 on the site of Sexton's Dairy.
171 at the rear a hall owned by the Comrades of the Great War. This was Cheshunt Hall and the site where the Cheshunt Methodists first met in the 1860s
149 Loretta’s. 18th cottages turned into a pub called The Eagle in the 19th.
137 Roman Urn pub. Built in the 1840s. The urn was found in a nearby field and is set in the front of the building with the Cecil motto above it.
151-155 18th cottages
133-135 17th
126 built for the Cheshunt building society as their first premises
117 16th timber frame building with stucco ground floor. One window was lost in an explosion at Waltham abbey
116 Dairy Glen house. This was the headquarters of Victor Value supermarket chain. It was founded by Victor Cohen. In 1968 it was sold to Tesco. The site is now housing including Dairy Glen Avenue, Cohen Close and Valley House.
Lea Valley Growers - An experimental station with glass houses, laboratories, etc. had been set up here in 1912 by the Lea Valley Growers as the Nursery and Market Gardens Development Society Ltd. What was then the Nursery Trades (Lea Valley) Association left their packing station here in 1955 and moved to the Experimental Station in Turners Hill.
113 Crossbrook Tyre and Auto. 18th Brown brick house
100 Care Aspirations and Britannia Building Society which has taken over the local Cheshunt Building Society for whom these were built. The extension is on the site of the Pope John Hall, a Roman Catholic social centre. Thus was originally built as a congregational church in 1856 replacing a dissenting chapel of 1706 designed by Isaac Watts whose initials were at the base of the tower.
99 -101 Springfield. 17th timber framed house, with 18th front. Owned by the Lee Conservancy
97 The Grange. 19th brick house and the HQ of the Lee Conservancy. Thames Water Eastern Division in 1782 a Friends Meeting House
88 Limes. 19th Yellow brick house now flats.
81-85 19th cottages
79 18th red brick house with a 19th cast iron porch
77 with a sun fire mark
75 1670 White Cottage 17th timber frame house
69 was a pub called The Crown
67 Stuart House 18th
64-74 these were Trinity Villas 1844
37 British Legion Hall
36 Coach and horses 18th rear
Kingdom Hall
Dairy Glen Avenue
Site of Victor Value Headquarters and previous the Lea Valley Growers Research Station.
Great Cambridge Road
Tesco Country Club. This was previously the Gothic sports ground. This was on an area of reclaimed land which was worked for gravel in 1936. After the Second World War it was developed as a sports area.
US bomber crashed between here and the New River in 1944 with its full bomb load. Memorial to the crew in the library. Flamstead End by pass was renamed after the pilot, Lt Ellis, because it was believed he had avoided homes rather than bale out.
Guinevere Gardens
Cheshunt Public Library. A Carnegie foundation library which was opened in 1907 and designed by J Myrtle Smith in red brick. Above the door is a carved plaque with fruit and winged cherubs. It was enlarged in 1965
Cheshunt Magistrates Court. Built 1906 and closed 2009.
High Street
The Wheatsheaf. The current building is 1892.
Biss Bros. This was a contractor’s private bus garage by the rail station in the 1920s.
Theobald’s Grove Station. Opened 1891 by the Great Eastern Railway. It is now Between Cheshunt and Turkey Street on One Railway. It was opened on the Churchbury Loop which and Called ‘Theobald’s Grove’ because there was already a Waltham Cross station. It is built on a curve carried on blue brick arches. There were two original entrances, and a booking office and an original name board survived on the up platform until the 1950s. In closed in 1909 but reopened in 1915 for munitions workers. It closed again in 1919 and was used as housing. It opened once again in 1960. Since then it has been refurbished and altered with the waiting rooms replaced by shelters. The bases of the original building survive behind new brick walls. The original booking office, and the stairways remain but the old down side is fenced off.
The Goods yard was at the London end and opened in 1900. A single track served it going down to ground level. It closed in 1966 and is now the. Car park and some housing.
Signal box – this which handled movements in and out of the goods yard. Removed in the 1950s.
King Arthur Court
Cheshunt Community Hospital
Longlands Close
The Close is built on the site of the old Vicarage, sold by the local church in order to finance new buildings.
Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School. Replacing a building in Trinity Lane
Theobald’s Lane
Cheshunt Stadium. This was a gravel pit and a tip which was cleared for the football club in 1949. Two Nissen huts were erected at the entrance. It was not an easy site and the club moved out to return in the mid 1950s when the site was drained and levelled and a Clubhouse built. Later a stand was built followed by Floodlights and a function room. In 1982 seating was installed with fittings and wood from an old Tottenham Hotspur stand.
Rush Lodge. Built 1850 with the Meux crest on the façade.
Gates to Cedars Park. Were commissioned by the local authority for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. They give a bronze timeline of historical events in the park
Hennons. A private house, this was a farmhouse from the 17th. Called Walkers Farm. A fire mark on the façade is not genuine.
Turners Hill
Halsey Masonic Hall, once known as Walnut Tree House. 18th house with white painted stucco front.
37-39 Lea Valley Growers HQ and experimental station. Moved there in 1957 and built the current building on the site of two cottages
Sources
British History online. Cheshunt
Cheshunt Football Club. Web site
Hertfordshire County Council. Web site
Holy Trinity School. Web site
Lewis.Industrial History of the Lea Valley. Growers
Mee. Hertfordshire
Pevsner and Cherry. Hertfordshire
Walford. Village London
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