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FRIENDS of LITTLE CASSIOBURY pages

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Drawing of Little Cassiobury - Drawn by Rev. J Brown when it was in use as the local Herts County Education Office

Building of this site started with the single page Hopper template made by Neil Judges for Serif Templates. It has been altered considerably by this site’s author.

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A series of maps are in our Ancient History pages showing Watford grew from not even being mentioned in the Domesday book are in our Ancient History page. The hardly grew until the middle of the 19th century. In his book “A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (English Library)” (1724-6) Daniel Defoe (a kindle edition) described Watford as a town consisting of little more than a high street. Maps show its having changed little until long after the railway was built in 1834. It remained little more than a high street well into the 1850s.

Mary Fosyth’s “Watford, A History is by far the best recent book (there is a kindle edition of that too).


“ To be LET ” - 1862 Times Newspaper Advertisement

Accommodation:  Four reception rooms and Eight bedrooms plus a “man’s room”

Located in: 9 acres of grounds.

Facilities including stables (with accommodation), and “out-door offices”.

Services Gas, Fresh water, and Drainage to the public sewer.

Description of the house in an 1862 Times newspaper To Be Let advertisement

DESCRIPTION OF LITTLE CASSIOBURY IN TO BE LET 1862 - TIMES ADVERTISEMENT

Lady Elizabeth Capell (nee Morrison), heiress to Cassiobury

The mother of Arthur Capell  2nd Baron Capell, created Earl of Essex in 1661.

She was the widowed wife of Arthur Capell, 1st Baron of Hadham.

A Civil War royalist officer he had been captured after the Seige of Colchester, and executed by order of Parliament).

Their lands had been sequestrated by Parliament.

Lady Elizabeth Capel successfully petitioned Parliament for return of her family lands 7-8th May 1649 (see Pariamentary record on our "Elizabeth Morrison's petition" page.

Her lands (including Cassiobury) seem to have been returned to her on the grounds that they were hers by right of inheritance from her father, )Sir Charles Morrison.

Lady Elizabeth Capell (nee Percy )

Her daughter in-law was the widow of the 2nd Arthur Capell

Having been created the 1st Earl of Essex in 1661 he aledgedly commited suicide while a condemned prisoner awaiting execution in the Tower of London.

He had been implicated in the Rye House Plot.

Lady Elizabeth Wilbraham (nee Mytton)

She is "asserted to have been" the first woman Architect, and the designer of Little Cassiobury House by Architectural Historian, John Miller.

The two Arthurs Capell

A father condemned as a leading Royalist soldier and his son condemned as a plotter against king the Protestant Charles II and his brother James, who was to become England's last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the three kingdoms (England, Ireland,& Scotland (Wales is a Principality - Incorporated int England under "Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542" by Henry V111)). In 1683 he was crowned James II of England & Ireland, and James VII of Scotland. His reign ended with the "Glorious Revolution" (1688).

The backdrop to the commisioning, and building of Little Cassiobury was the Civil War, Regicide, Parliamentary Comonwealth, Restoration, and the "Exclusion Crisis".

Its not clear which Arthur commisioned Little Cassiobury or for whom. Whose widow was its first resident is not clear either.

20th Century

● Watford College, where construction was completed soon after the end of World War 2 in the ground facing the front of the house.

● The residual Little Cassiobury ground to the front of the house was turned into a Car Park presumably for the County Council Education Authority Office.

● Private Housing.

21st Century

● Watford and West Herts College became the home Lanchester School.

● Part of the rear garden was used in making the Car Park of the new Watford and West Herts College.

● The Orangery (Little Cassiobury’s former Stable Block), and the remainder of its rear garden were incorporated into the new Watford Registry Office when it was moved from Clarendon Road.

• In 2018 Little Cassiobury again fails to be found when searching on the Royal Mail or the Post Office websites

• Googlemap and various other sites do not mention Little Cassiobury by name. They do show the site having been brought right up to date. Little Cassiobury is now shown as having an Electric Charging Point near its front door.

ORIGINS OF THIS DOWER HOUSE

The Ordnance Survey Map shows the location of Little Cassiobury, where all of the buildings on the same side of Hempstead Road to the North West were built in what were the former gardens, driveways, and grounds of Little Cassiobury.

THEY INCLUDE:-

THE GROUNDS OF LITTLE CASSIOBURY

THE LISTING NUMBER FOR THE LITTLE CASSIOBURY RECORD IS:- 1175392 ”. TRY USING THEIR “ MAP SEARCH ”

LISTED STATUS IS STILL “AT RISK AND CATEGORY C” IN 2 WEB PAGES.

HTTPS://HISTORIC ENGLAND.ORG.UK/LISTING/THE-LIST/LIST-ENTRY/1175392 - THE LEGACY PAGE:-  GIVES A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE HOUSE LAST UPDATED IN 1983

“ LATE C17 HOUSE BUILT AS DOWER HOUSE TO CASSIOBURY. LAST OCCUPIED AS OFFICES, THE BUILDING HAS BEEN EMPTY FOR MANY YEARS. VARIOUS REPAIRS HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT OVER THIS PERIOD. LEASE TAKEN FROM HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL BY WATFORD BOROUGH COUNCIL, WHO ACCEPTED A HERITAGE AT RISK GRANT FROM HISTORIC ENGLAND IN 2016 TOWARDS A CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT PLAN AND CONDITION SURVEY. DISCUSSIONS ONGOING. “

HTTPS://HISTORICENGLAND.ORG.UK/ADVICE/HERITAGE-AT-RISK/SEARCH-REGISTER/LIST-ENTRY/48816 - THE CURRENT ADVISORY PAGE:-  OMITS THAT DESCRIPTION , BUT GIVES THE FOLLOWING:-

IN THE “ ASSESSMENT INFORMATION “ SECTION BELOW THAT IT SHOWS THE FOLLOWING     

ASSESSMENT TYPE: BUILDING OR STRUCTURE

    CONDITION: POOR

    OCCUPANCY / USE: VACANT/NOT IN USE

    PRIORITY: C - SLOW DECAY; NO SOLUTION AGREED

    PREVIOUS PRIORITY: C

    OWNERSHIP: LOCAL AUTHORITY

    DESIGNATION: LISTED BUILDING GRADE II*, CA

From the Historic England website

CURRENT LISTING STATUS UPDATE


It is the last complete remnant of the Earls of Essex Cassiobury Estate in Watford. The was auctioned off in 1922. It is now mostly a housing estate and a public park.

Originally created for the Capell family’s widows and other family members, of the Cassiobury Estate this venerable building has been vacant for several years. It has remained unoccupied, mothballed and unused since its owners, Hertfordshire County Council, vacated it over 10 years ago.

They bought it in 1938 via a compulsory purchase order. In the 1950's much of Little Cassiobury’s grounds were used to build the old Watford College. From then until early this century they used the house as one their office sites.

The Friends of Little Cassiobury was founded by Richard Ahrens and a small group of people to work towards saving the house. (Details to appear in this site’s About US page)

At the request of the Little Cassiobury Community Interest Company, an updated version of the pages from the former Friends of Little Cassiobury website site is being published here by Daniel Meek (supporter, author, designer, and publisher (2011 to May 1018). With apologies for its being done piecemeal. The work entails finding and updating the original writings, with a greater emphasis on qualifying assertions, plus the addition of material not previously published in the old site. Work is ongoing to fill in the gaps and to make this site more “mobile friendly”

Little Cassiobury (built late in the 17th century) - listed as grade II* very important and at risk by Historic England

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