MICHAEL HODGETTS was born in England in 1936 and qualified by examination as a Chartered Quantity Surveyor. 

In recent years he has attended 24 units at  Summer School at Oxford University each July or August. His interests have in the main centred on English Literature and History, and writing has become a great passion. Interested in art, music and poetry Mike has especially found his detailed QS training helped in new research on subjects such as the Local History of the Hunter Valley; Oxhey, an English district where his family lived for seven generations; thoughts on Othello, the revisionist view of King Richard III, the folk song Green Grow the Rushes; and the life of the pioneer Colonial Surveyor Heneage Finch and his lifelong battle with Governor Darling.

Oxford also stimulated the production of a short play on the Trial of King Charles the First, a sketch called Macbeth in Five Minutes, and research on the Australian Generals in the First World War.

See below 1 - The Fascinating History of Oxhey, and 2 - a study of Shakespeare's treatment of Richard III versus his long time enemy the Bishop of Ely, later Cardinal John Morton, in Bishop Takes King. Shakespeare's Richard III is a brilliant poilitical satire. Queen Elizabeth was Henry VII's grandaughter and would order the hand to be sliced off any offending writer. She was Shakespeare's most important client until King James came to the throne when the canny WS offered the Scottish Kling the Scottish Play.

Sadly a comtemporary political presentation of R III became for over 500 years the accepted truth. The revision of Michael's early thesis Not King Richard has been updated and will be re-presented in 2012.

Michael Hodgetts
December 2011


1. THE FASCINATING HISTORY OF OXHEY

Introduction

Grandfather lived high on the hill across from Hampermill and we would carefully cross the busy road, stepping down the muddy footpath to the old wooden bridge which crossed the sinister fast flowing River Colne. The Romans had been at Hampermill, presumably milling flour. The wide Colne Valley which stretched across the fields, flooded in winter. 

Towards Rickmansworth the Colne was joined by the River Gade and the Chess. South from Rickmansworth the road to Bushey passed by the Manor of the More and Hampermill. In Charles Smith's map of 1808 Sandy Lane from Eastbury crossed the river at Hampermill and then forked west to Tolpits, and north east to Watford and the Abbey and St Albans.

Early Hunter/Gatherers, possibly Mesolithic, explored the river valleys following the native deer that migrated north after the Ice Age. The travellers found plentiful deposits of flints near the rivers including Tolpits, and worked flint mines in Oxhey Dell and parts of Oxhey Golf Course. In big floods the Colne and Gade became an enormous inland sea. One day driving with my uncle and father to Rickmansworth I saw the amazing sight of the High Bridge near Tolpits standing alone above the water. It occurred to me even then that if thewater was shallow enough to wade through and you knew the direction of the road, you could still get your cattle and wagons to market, as long as you knew where the river was. So having a High Hump Back Bridge that stood well above the flood waters, would give you a good idea of the approximate location of the river. i did not at that time know there had been a second High Bridge at Hampermill.*

* See A History of the County of Hertford - Volume 2 - William Page, Editor, 1908.

In the London Museum an exhibit shows the River Thames at different times flowed along three separate courses. One Proto-Thames followed the line of the present Colne, west/east through St Albans to the North Sea. This explained the Ice Age deposits of sand and gravel later dug from the Colne and Lea valleys. When the direction of the river reversed, the Colne became a tributary of the Thames.

Who would be clever enough, wealthy enough, and important enough to have these High Bridges built over the river? Cardinal Wolsey was the richest man in England after the King. And Cardinal Wolsey owned More Hall.

The Early Saxons

The Kingdom of the East Seaxe was founded in 500 AD. It covered much of the territory we know as Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex. The Middle Saxons were subservient to the East Saxons, and Middlesex which included the Romanised City of Verulamium, or St Albans, was something of a buffer zone between the East and South Saxons. In 664 AD the East Saxons became subject to the Kingdom of Mercia. In 739 AD  the Middle Saxons became part of the Kingdom of Mercia.

In the South East of Mercia King Offa, AD 757-796, endowed the Benedictine Monastery of St Albans in atonement for the murder by his Queen, of Ethelbert King of the neighbouring East Angles,

The southern boundary of Offa's grant was the Limit of the Franchises of the Abbot of St Albans.

In 912-3 King Edward the Elder founded a defended town at Hertford on the frontier. The region around Hertford would become a new shire or county, reconstituted from reconquered Danelaw Territory, in which Berkhamsted, Hitchin and St Albans were also important. A one time local authority region was called Dacorum, which means 'of the Danes'.

The original Saxon boundary of Oxhey continued to be recognized, firstly in the division of Middlesex where it marked the border between that county and the new Hertfordshire, and also in later Local Government changes.

From an examination of exisiting Saxon Place Names we can speculate on where the early Saxons may have had their farms. For example Cudhelming at Brightwells, Edeswyk (Aede at OxheyPlace ), Oxhey Hall, Wiggenhall (low place), Puda or Peoda at Watford Heath, Oxhey Grange, Carpenders Park, farms to the east of Oxhey Lane , and farms to the west like Oxhey Lane Farm, Pinner Hill, Oxhey Lodge, Eastbury, Batchworh Heath (Baecci), Tolpits and The More.

The Saxon Parish Boundary of Oxhey (about 850 AD) is defined later in thisweb site in the original Saxon German. The southern extent of the 1605 'bounds of the Manor and Parish of Watford' are also included.. It is the same line.

Medieval Oxhey

References are to A History of the County of Hertford -Volume 2 - William Page, Editor, 1908

43. Mention in the 13th century of Great Oxhey, Little Oxhey, Est Oxhey, and Oxhey Abbatis.

103-117. Owners of the manor adopt the name Oxhey - see Walchelin and Philip de Oxhey, Colmer,  Nicholas and Richard de Oxhey. 

119. In 1282 Richard de Oxhey again granted Little Oxhey which comprised 'a grove and a pasture between the stream coming from Watford and the highway (Hampermill Lane?) as far as the mill of Oxhey'. Two separate manors are now called Oxhey Richard and Oxhey Walround, a local  corruption of the name of Waleran Tyeis. Richard died in 1295.

146. After1482 the Manor of Oxhey was called Oxhey Hall. 147. Oxhey Richard included in the Manor of Wiggenhall.

149. Two portions of the title to Oxhey Hall consolidated by Francis Heydon who transferred it to John Franklyn and his family for three generations. 153. Oxhey Hall joined with the Manor of Wiggenhall.

Oxhey known as Edeswyk or St Cleeres

In 1360 Roger de Louthe was given license to 'inclose' and make a park of his woods at Gipps and Edeswyk. 156. This land was 'disparked' in 1598 when Francis Heydon was licensed to cut down timber and convert the park to tillage. In 1601 the property passed to Henry Fleetwood of Grays Inn and now called St Cleeres or St Clowes in Oxhey and classed as 'impaled' or 'warren ground'. (see later local name included in Warren Dell.)

The house variously called Warren House or Edeswyk or Oxhey Lodge. Elsewhere there are references to Giles de Saint Clere who may have been a tenant. (Hence variations of Sinkler, Sinklers and Sinklees)

See also Map of Hertfordshire by John Spede in 1610 in which there are entries for Caisho, Caisho Bridge, Bushye, Bushye Hall, Watford, High Bridge, More House, More Park and Sinkler. (Note no reference to Oxhey!)

159. In 1602 Fleetwood sells St Cleeres to Robert Bowyer and Richard Fusse of London.

160. In 1604 property purchased by James Altham, knighted in 1604 and Baron of the Exchequer. Property passed to James, died 1623, and Sutton died 1630, and sold to John Heydon of Lincoln's Inn in 1639. 164.

There is a local legend of a Priest's Hole in the Old Chapel, rebuilt 1612, with an underground escape passage from the manor house to the chapel and thence outside to waiting horses. In 1950 two Oxhey boys discover the top of a brick arch at the very foot of the south face of wooded Warren Dell. Is this the end of the escape tunnel?

165. In 1688 the property purchased by William Bucknall of London and in 1688 his son Sir John Bucknall pulled down the old mansion known as St Cleeres to erect a large square brick building reputed to have100 windows on each side.

167. 111 years later, in 1799, the house was demolished by Sir William Bucknall. The next house was sold to Thomas Sotheron Estcourt in 1866, and then to Right Hon Willam Henry Smith, who sold part of the estate in separate lots. 168.

169. In 1877 the remainder went to Thomas Blackwell of Crosse and Blackwell and then to Walter R Blackwell 'who resides at Oxhey Place, an entirely new house' - this is written in 1908. 170. 

See also Blackwells Drive near Wiggenhall and its alignment with Wood Waye near Oxhey Farm, which suggests this was an early link to Green Lane and Oxhey Place before the cutting of the new road down Tommy Deacon's Hill. 

Note also a longstanding private sealed road to Blackwell's Farm, one of the first sealed roads in the locality and a feature of Oxhey Golf Course.

Oxhey Walround

174. Oxhey Walround is a local version from the early landowner Waleran Tyeis in 1282. It comprised the rest of Oxhey not included in Oxhey Richard. In 1303 it was divided into three portions and known as Wiggenhall. In 1866 the Manor of Wiggenhall was sold to WH Smith MP. in 1872 it was purchased by William Thomas Ely who built his new house at Oxhey Grange in High Victorian Gothic Style in 1876.

211. The manor house at Wiggenhall on separate title to the estate was occupied by the Deacon family at the end of the 17th century. Thomas Deacon died in 1780 and the new road when cut as an alternative to Blackwell's Drive was known locally as Tommy Deacon's Hill.

Many of the prized Middle East scenes painted by Artist Frederick K Goodall RA 1822-1904 were purchsed by his patron Thomas Blackwell. Goodall also painted a view of Oxhey Place in 1878. At one time there was a picture of this painting on the Goodall Family web site but this now appears to have been withdrawn.

In 1856 Frederick Goodall purchased the site of a house to be styled Graeme's Dyke (rather than the local name Grimes Dyke). The house was completed in 1872 and subsequently became the home of WS Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame. It is now a hotel.

Oxhey Place House was burnt down in 1955.



2. RICHARD III STUDIES - BISHOP TAKES KING

John Morton, Bishop of Ely, and his treatment by William Shakespeare in Richard III

1. The Government of England

In 1588 many in England remembered Queen Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII. Some also recalled her grandfather Henry VII. Also famous was Henry's Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England, Cardinal Morton, who had helped put him on the throne. When Edward IV died unexpectedly,  the country was thrown into turmoil. His eldest son was a boy. The late king's council which included the influential Lord Hastings, Archbishop Rotherham of York, Morton Bishop of Ely, and Lord Stanley, were in danger of losing the power they had long taken for granted. The centre had become the outer. Richard Duke of Gloucester was nominated as Lord Protector, Henry Duke of Buckingham became his new friend and confidant.

Two committees were set up, the first to detail the arrangements for the young prince's coronation. The second committee met in the council chamber in the Tower. By accident or design, the four plotters were on that committee. After arriving late and asking Bishop Morton to provide some of the excellent stawberries from his garden at Ely Place, Richard withdrew. Returning later his mood had changed. In a dramatic scene Richard alleged witchcraft had caused his withered arm, nominated the Queen and Jane Shaw as responsible, and after some interchange with Hastings ordered his execution and the arrest of the other three. It was brilliantly done and coincidentally the date for the coronation had been postponed.

It was not customary to execute priests. The aged Rotherham was soon released. Bishop Morton was put in the care of the Duke of Buckingham who took him to his country seat in Brecknock. Lord Stanley was put under house arrest.

As Buckingham says in IV. 2 : O let me think on Hastings, and be gone to Brecknock while my fearful head is on!

2. John Morton

John Morton was born in 1420 in Dorset and died on October 12 at Knole. He was educated at Cerne Abbey and Balliol College Oxford. He took Holy Orders and was swiftly promoted. Paul Murray Kendall writes : most formidable in ability was John Morton, Bishop of Ely. His strength was in the manipulation of power rather than service of God and he had accumulated a vast experience of men and affairs. Morton was appointed Bishop of Ely in 1479 and was one of the executors of Edward's will in 1483.

Shakespeare knew More's History of Richard III, the prime source for writers like Hall and Holinshed from whom he drew. But his play is a study of Richard. The activities of Morton are peripheral. Greater focus on Morton would have detracted from the study of Richard and possibly involved Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, to a greater extent than Shakespeare wished. Bishop Morton is in Buckingham's custody in Wales when Thomas More again takes up the story :

- This man, Morton .... had gotten by great experience the very mother and masters of wisdom, a deep insight into political worldly drifts. Whereby perceiving now this duke glad to converse with him, he fed him with fair words and many pleasant praises. And perceiving ... the Duke's pride now and then give vent to a little outburst of envy towards the glory of the king, he craftily sought the ways to prick him forward ... that he seemed rather to follow him than to lead him.

Buckingham praises Richard. Morton expresses his acceptance of God's will revealed through the course of events leading to Richard becoming king. But he hints he could have wished it otherwise. The Duke is entranced and urges Morton to continue. For him this is heady stuff. Morton continues his siren song :

- I was about to wish, that to those good abilities whereof he Richard hath already right many, little needing my praise, it might yet have pleased God for the better store, to have given him some such other excellent virtues meet for the rule of a realm, as our lord hath planted in the person of your Grace.

Thomas More stops writing here. This is subversion. Furthermore it is important to remember his Richard III was never published in his lifetime. But in 1490, five years after the Battle of Bosworth in which Henry Tudor and his allies deposed Richard, young Tom More aged 13 became a page in the household of John Morton, Chancellor, and Archbishop of Canterbury.

The encouraged Buckingham himself plots to replace Richard; Morton knows a few people who might be useful to him and he can put him in touch with those who have the most to gain from Richard's downfall. Morton usefully escapes from Brecknock slipping away to Ely where he packs his cases and collects some money. He is next heard of in Flanders and soon warns Henry Tudor who is living in Brittany that Henry is in danger from Richard who is seeking his extradition.

3. Armed Rebellions

After an abortive strike against Richard, the Duke of Buckingham is executed by Richard, apparently much to his surprise.
Shakespeare now merges the two rebellions of Buckingham and the later one mounted by Henry Tudor (Richmond) :

IV . 3

RATCLIFFE : Bad news, my Lord, Morton is fled to Richmond, and Buckingham, backed with the hardy Welshmen, is in the field, and still his power increaseth.

KING RICHARD : Ely with Richmond troubles me more near than Buckingham and his rash levied strength.

Morton is a shadow behind a curtain, a face in a mirror, seen but unseen. Shakespeare knows wherever Morton is playing his games there will be trouble for Richard. The character is hardly defined at all except in a reference to strawberries and by implication.

IV. 4

DERBY (another name for Lord Stanley) : Stirred up by Dorset, Buckingham and Morton 'Richmond' makes for England here to claim the crown.

KING RICHARD : Is the chair empty?

Richmond's allies win the Battle of Bosworth Field. Despite Richard's conspicuous bravery the two Stanley Armies wait and then change sides. The Earl of Northumberland also is politically too late to help Richard in the battle.

Thus Richmond became King Henry VII; John Morton became Henry's Archbishop in 1486, and Chancellor in 1487.

And Richard III became a Tragedy



Michael Hodgetts : At Oxford in 2004 the short play ‘The Trial of King Charles First’ was performed by the Summer School Class with great enthusiasm. Other subjects taken at Summer School in 1998 and recent years include Creative Writing; Shakespeare’s History Plays, Macbeth, Othello, Late Plays and Comedies; the Geography of Saxon Place Names; Domesday Book; World War II, the Western Front, Civil War, and Behind the Lines; Geology and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; in 2006 Richard III and Lawrence of Arabia. These studies influence and are reflected in his writing.