Boxmoor

Boxmoor, or Boxmoor Village, is a district of Dacorum in Hertfordshire, England. It is now part of Hemel Hempstead. It is a district of mainly nineteenth century housing and meadowland, repeatedly cut through by transport links from London to the The Midlands.

History
The name Boxmoor derives from the box tree a bushy inhabitant of the chalky hills that surround the location. This is linked together with the word 'mor' which signifies a marshy spot; Boxmoor's ancient watermeadows are still a major feature of the locality.

The remains of a Roman villa have been found in the grounds of Boxmoor House School near the railway station dating from around the 1st or early 2nd century AD.

The Box Moor Trust owns meadow land in the area alongside the River Bulbourne. This is land purchased by tenants in secret during the sixteenth century to prevent it being enclosed and depriving them of grazing. It is still held by the same trust established at that time and is used for summer grazing and has open access for recreational use.

The ancient Box Lane runs uphill from Boxmoor to Bovingdon. On this lane, close to the Boxmoor end, stood the historic early seventeenth century Box Lane Chapel, see section below on places of worship.

The Sparrows Herne turnpike, set up in 1762, was the stagecoach route from London to Aylesbury and passed along the valley bottom through Boxmoor following the present day London Road (A4251). The Grand Junction Canal, latterly known as the Grand Union, and the trunk canal from London to the Midlands followed along the same route in 1804. A local pub, The Fishery Inn, was an historic refreshment stop on the canal.

Robert Snooks, in 1802, the last highwayman to be hung and buried at the scene of his crime robbed a post boy on the turnpike on Boxmoor meadows. His remains are interred in Boxmoor meadows near the place where he was hung and the likely spot is marked by two stones, erected by the Box Moor Trust in 1904.

Boxmoor village itself was developed after 1837 when the London and Birmingham Railway was forced, by local landed interests, to build its main line and station about a mile to the west of Hemel Hempstead town The station, originally called Boxmoor, offered fast commuting to London combined with a small country town life, attractive to wealthier commuters and this stimulated the development of Victorian era housing near the station but outside the original bounds of Hemel Hempstead.

In 1877 a branch line - known as the "Nicky Line" - was opened by the Midland Railway running from the station, through Hemel Hempstead to Harpenden. Disputes between the railway companies however prevented this from ever being used for a passenger connecting service and the station's link to Hemel town was always via horse bus or on foot across the Boxmoor meadows. Hemel Hempstead railway station was from 1912 known as "Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead".

The area was absorbed into the expanded Hemel Hempstead new town during the 1950s and 1960s but retains a local character. The station was then renamed from Boxmoor to Hemel Hempstead.

A four lane duel carriageway, the A41 trunk road, was built through the district in the 1990s, connecting the M25 to Aylesbury. This crosses Boxmoor meadows in a strip of land in which all the earlier links run side by side, turnpike, canal, railway and modern trunk road.

Boxmoor Hall was built in 1889 from surplus funds by the local trust,it has been used as a magistrates court, more recently as a arts centre run by Dacorum Boriugh Council, and in 2007 the hall became privately owned as used for performing arts. Boxmoor Hall is now a licenced premises and host special occasions. www.boxmoorhall.co.uk

Economy
The area has little industry and limited commerce but its mostly Victorian family houses are in demand for those who work elsewhere in Hemel Hempstead and especially commuters who use the rail station to reach London in around 30 minutes.

Religious sites
Box Lane Chapel, a non-conformist chapel founded in 1668 on land owned by the Westbrook Hay estate, was re-built in 1690 and then altered in 1856 and again in 1876. Tradition has it that Oliver Cromwell once worshiped here at an earlier building on the site. It is now a private house after being sold in 1969.

St John's Church in Boxmoor was built, in 1874, on part of the Box Moor Trust land.

Sports
Boxmoor Cricket Club was founded in 1857 when the Box Moor Trust let some of their land be used as a cricket pitch that is known as the Boxmoor oval which had a pavilion added in the 1930s.