|
|
TIMELINE [1840] Gentlemen of the parish wore pigtails at this tine and were dressed in fancy coats, knee-breeches and 'black, silk stockings with silver buckled shoes. Williams records that the "red cloak with hood” was much worn by the wives and daughters of labouring men, with "wooden pattens shod with iron rings, to be followed by wooden clogs with leather toe-caps and heels". TIMELINE [1849] He tells how in 1849 "an affray took place at Scots Hill, when a ruffian attacked a young woman on her way home at night, and no doubt she would have been roughly treated, had not her presence of mind suggested the use of one of her iron-ringed pattens as a weapon of defence. She managed to take one off, and with it dealt the fellow two or three violent blows on the head, which cut his forehead open, and so disconcerted him that he left her, threatening to renew the attack when he found her "without pattens"! Around the 1870’s the Watford Road between the present L.M.S. and Met. Station was considered a highly dangerous spot. It was frequented by footpads, operating particularly on Watford and Rickmansworth market days. Plenty of getaway across the Moor was assured these wrongdoers, and there were some convenient hollows (now filled in) from which they operated. In the middle nineteenth century there lived at Hollow Tree Farm (now Hollow Tree House) a quaint character, by name Joey Austin. The wooden cross he fixed to the highest tree on the Green as a symbol of his religious fervour is still remembered, and this has given rise to the erroneous belief that the name Croxley is derived from Cross-ley. It is popularly believed that in eager anticipation of the after life, Joey kept his coffin in readiness for forty years 'under his bed’ but it is actual fact that he played a big part in the foundation of All Saints Church. |