Rickmansworth,Hertfordshi re - Basing House Gardens - local postcard c.1970s

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Basing Hosue Gardens, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire
• Publisher:  Three Rivers District Council
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition:  a few marks on back

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Basing House was a major Tudor palace and castle in the village of Old Basing in the English county of Hampshire. It once rivaled Hampton Court Palace in its size and opulence. Today only its foundations and earthworks remain. The ruins are a Grade II listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.^[1]

In its final form, Basing House was made up of two linked houses. The Old House replaced the keep of an older motte-and-bailey castle, so was located within a defensive ring of earthworks and walls, whilst the slightly later New House was located outside the defences. A bridge and gateway linked the two across and through the defences, a link that was to prove fatal in the final battle for Basing House. Taken together, the house had 360 rooms, was five storeys high and was considered by many to be the greatest private house in the country.

For the first half of the 1630s the house was shut up and the windows boarded over, while the family decamped to other houses held by the family. The 4th Marquess' entertainments almost bankrupted the family, maintenance of the house fell behind, and the design of such a large brick built (and somewhat experimental) complex after one hundred years had its problems with dry and wet rot, broken windows, leaking roofs, and keeping the various wings heated. On taking the title the 5th Marquess down-sized, moved the family out, and waited until returns from the extensive estates all over England allowed him to start restorations later in the decade.

At the time of the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, Basing House belonged to John Paulet, the fifth Marquis of Winchester, who was a supporter of King Charles I. As a consequence, parliamentary forces invested Basing House on three different occasions, with the Royalists successfully breaking the first two sieges.

The final siege started in August 1645 when Colonel John Dalbier, with 800 troops, took up position around the walls. The garrison held out, despite further reinforcements to the attacking force, until Oliver Cromwell arrived with a heavy siege-train. By October 13, 1645, the New House had been taken and the defences of the Old House breached. The final storming took place across the link from the New House. Many valuable goods were carried off and a fire destroyed the building. As with other houses and castles destroyed at the time, its dressed stone was sold off at auction. Local villagers were encouraged to replace wattle and daub panels in their houses with bricks from the house, or to build new houses in brick.

John Paulet had his estates confiscated and was sent to the Tower of London on a charge of high treason, although these charges were later dropped, and the site of Basing House returned to him by King Charles II. His son Charles Paulet became wealthy again as a consequence of his support for William of Orange during the Glorious Revolution. This wealth was used to hack down what was left of Basing House and to build a new house at Hackwood.^[2] The history of the area on which the house stands has an unclear history before the house's construction.

Basing House is located in the village of Old Basing, approximately one mile east of the centre of the town of Basingstoke, in the north of the English county of Hampshire. The house is situated close to the upper reaches of the River Loddon. Because of congestion in Old Basing, the car park for the house is situated several hundred yards away and is accessed by an attractive riverside walk.

The route of the former Basingstoke Canal also ran around Basing House and then through and around parts of Old Basing.

Rickmansworth is a small town in south-west Hertfordshire, England, situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and the River Colne. The nearest large town is Watford, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) to the east. Rickmansworth is the administrative seat of the Three Rivers District Council, the local authority named from the confluence of three rivers within its borders. The River Gade and the Grand Union Canal join the upper River Colne near Rickmansworth's eastern boundary and are joined by the River Chess near the town centre from where the enlarged Colne flows south to form a major tributary of the River Thames.

The name Rickmansworth comes from the Saxon name Ryckmer, the local landowner, and worth meaning a farm or stockade. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as the Manor of Prichemaresworde. Other spellings include Rykemarwurthe (1119–46), Richemaresworthe (1180), Rykemerewrthe (1248), Richemereworthe (1259), Rikesmareswrth (1287) and Rikmansworth (1382) & Rykemerysworth (1418).^[1]

There was a settlement in this part of the Colne valley in the Stone age. Rickmansworth was one of five manors with which the great Abbey of St Albans had been endowed when founded in 793 by King Offa. Local tithes supported the abbey, which provided clergy to serve the people until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. Around the time of the Domesday Book, the population of ""Prichemareworth"" may have been about 200.

Cardinal Wolsey, in his capacity as Abbot of St Albans, held the Manor of le More in the valley. The manor house was replaced by the hill-top mansion Moor Park, which eventually became the residence of Admiral Lord Anson, who commissioned Capability Brown to remake the formal gardens, and in 1828 of the Barons Ebury; it is now the Golf Club House. The wider area, including Croxley Green, Moor Park, Batchworth, Mill End, West Hyde and Chorleywood, formed the original parish of Rickmansworth.

In 1851, the population had grown to 4,800, and the parish was divided. St Mary's Church serves the parish concentrated in the town and extending to Batchworth and parts of Moor Park. The town had a population of 14,571 recorded at the 2001 census.

The three rivers, the Colne, Chess and Gade, provided water for the watercress trade and power for corn milling, silk weaving, paper making and brewing, all long gone. Other industries have included leather-tanning, soft drinks, soya processing, laundry, straw-plaiting and stocking production. Now there are commercial offices and commuter homes, and the rivers, canal and flooded gravel pits provide for recreation.

West Mill, a water mill, existed at the time of the Domesday Survey. It was leased to the abbot and convent of St Albans by Ralph Bukberd for a term of years ending in 1539. In 1533, they leased it from the end of this term for twenty-six years to Richard Wilson of Watford. He was to keep in repair the mill and also two millstones, 10 inches (25 centimetres) thick, and 4 ft 8 in (142 cm) in breadth.^[2] The mill was leased in 1544 to William Hutchinson, yeoman of the spicery, and Janet his wife for their lives.^[3] It afterwards came to John Wilson, and was granted in 1576–77 to Richard Master.^[3] There was also a water-mill called Batchworth Mill, and a fishery called Blacketts Mill in Rickmansworth.^[3] Batchworth Mill was later used as a cotton mill, but was bought in 1820 by Messrs. John Dickinson & Co., and converted into paper mills, now the site of Affinity Water.^[3] Scotsbridge Mill was also productive but now is home to a restaurant with the unusual feature of a salmon run. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many of the principal inhabitants were described as 'clothiers,' from which it may be inferred that the manufacture of cloth was at one time carried on in the parish, but this industry has long since ceased. There were also silk and flock mills here, described in 1808 as recently built.

A long-running dispute over water levels in the Batchford area, following construction of the Grand Junction Canal, was resolved in 1825, when an 8.2-foot (2.5 m) obelisk was erected in a pond, to act as a water gauge. It records the agreement made between the canal company, John Dickinson the miller at Batchworth Mill, and R. Williams of Moor Park the landowner.^[4]

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=hertfordshire

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted