River Colne. Hampermill

River Colne
The Colne flows west and north

Post to the south Northwood
Post to the north Brightwells

Hampermill Lane
Hampermill. This mill was in Oxhey and belonged to the tenants of the Oxhey manor. Later there were probably two mills. One was called Hamper Mill by 1556.  They were later owned by the Clothworkers' Company but it was not used for paper making until the late 18th when Robert Williams leased the mill from them. It was taken over later by William Lepard who was a City stationer.  Much of the mill was burnt out in 1793 and it was rebuilt. The mill specialised in fine wove drawing paper. A Fourdrinier machine was installed around 1839 and for this a steam engine was acquired and a chimney built. The mill closed around 1908, when it was owned by J. G. Smith
Hamper Mill House. 18th house in red brick
Hamper Mill Cottage, this was built as labourer’s accommodation and storage for Hamper Mill. It is an 18th building in redbrick with a weather boarded attic.
The Old Cottage. Labourer’s house 1776 to 1908. It was built in the 17th or 18th and was originally timber framed with a brick ground floor,
Clock House. This was the wheel house to the paper mill but now a house. Built ariund.1800 and altered in the 20th .There is a Timber clock tower with an open bell turret and weathervane. Hamper Mill was used for the manufacture of paper 1776-1908 and this was probably built after a fire in 1793.
Roman track way found in this area

Sandy Lane
Hampermill Wood. This is dominated by oak, ash and wild cherry with hornbeam coppice. There is also hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn and a ground cover of wild flowers including bluebells and violets.
Hampermill Spring. This has a large area of hornbeam coppice, oak and ash. There is also wild cherry, birch, hawthorn and holly.  Ancient boundary features can be seen here.
Timber Yard

Sandy Lodge Lane
Sandy Lodge Golf Club began when, in 1908, James Francis Markes looked for a site with sandy soil on which to lay out a course which would resemble the seaside.  This area was suitably sandy and he leased the land.  In laying out large sandpits had to be dealt with and the ground was seeded with grass from Carters and a wooden halt built on the railway. It opened in 1910 and is said to have had a seaside appearance. In the Second World War it was used for grazing sheep who did not respect it.  The clubhouse became the headquarters of the local Home Guard. Since the war vegetation has grown up and it is no longer like the seaside.

Westbury Road
Westbury Primary electricity sub-station the blank wall of the sub-station has been broken by the introduction of protruding bricks in a darker colour to the main buff blocks in a repeating diamond pattern.

Sources
Airgale. Web site
British History on Line. Hertfordshire. Web site.
British Listed Buildings. Web site.
Sandy Lodge Golf Club. Web site
Three Rivers District Council. Web site

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