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The Old Ale House Guest House

1 Batchworth Hill, Off London Road, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire WD3 1JL
Telephone: 01923 775824
Fax: 01923 775824

The pleasant little country town of Rickmansworth,recorded in the Domesday Book, lies in south-west Hertfordshire, close to the borders of both Buckinghamshire and Middlesex, in the valley of the River Colne, where it is joined by the Rivers Chess and Gade (hence the name of thelocal district council, Three Rivers). The Grand Union Canal, just over 200 years old and mainly a canalized versionof the colne in the vicinity, passes down the valley, and Batchworth Lock in Church Street, with a Canal Centre and Museum, is the centre of a popular and colourful annual Canal Festival in May.

Rickmansworth, which had a population of just 3,200 in 1821 and 7,500 in 1921, now has over 30,000 residents, the greater part of housing development having spread south down the valley to Mill End and Maple Cross. It became a market town in 1542 under a charter granted by Henry VIII, and until the early nineteenth century possessed a markethall in the middle of the compact High Street at its broadest point similar to that still in existence not far away at Amersham.

The wide Green Belt swathe of Batchworth Heath and Moor Park separates Rickmansworth from Greater London suburbia, yet an ancient milestone on the main London Road (the A404) across the Heath, recording a distance of 19 miles from Marble Arch, shows how close London is.

Although Rickmansworth has lost some of its more historic buildings and other features over the last few decades, several still remain, notably the thirteenth-century parish church, albeit much altered in the nineteenth century, which replaced a late Saxon wooden chapel, and its mediaeval former vicarage; the former adjacent manor house of Rickmansworth, the Bury, which in its present form dates from the reignof Henry VIII and has recently been restored and converted to luxury apartments. Basing House in the High Street,the home of William Penn from 1672 to 1677, contains a local museum and is next to the local civic centre with theatre and cinema facilities, Watersmeet. Moor Park mansion, originally dating from about 1675 and now home to a golf club and a famous venue for international golf tournaments, is close by.

The Old Ale House is ten minutes walk from Rickmansworth Station where communications are excellent: there are frequent services on the Chiltern Line from Aylesbury to Marylebone(under 25 minutes from Rickmansworth) and the Metropolitan Line from Amersham to Baker Street and, in the rush hour, the City. Two main roads, the A404 from London to Amersham and Reading and the A412from Watford to Uxbridge and Slough, cross here, and the M25 is little more than five minutes' drive up the A404to Junction 18. Heathrow is under 30 minutes' drive to the south and the Green Line 724 runs from Heathrow toStansted Airport,calling at Rickmansworth station. The larger shopping centre of Watford is under 10 minutes' drive away along theA4145 (Moor Lane) from the bottom of Batchworth Hill and served by frequent buses from the town centre, but thereare plenty of shops in Rickmansworth itself (a Tesco superstore by the canal at Batchworth is only a few minutes' walk from The Old Ale House) and eating-houses for all tastes.

The Old Ale House, a Grade II listedbuilding which takes its name from its former existence as a public house (The Queen's Head) to the hamlet ofBatchworth until 1912, dates back to the early 16th century and was purchased by Salter's Brewery in 1839. It liesat the bottom of Batchworth Hill in the old London Road, now a quiet cul-de-sac following the construction of a newdual carriageway section of the A404, from which it is separated by a thick belt of trees and bushes. The uppersection of Batchworth Hill was considerably winding until the end of the Great War, when it was straightened out by German prisoners-of-war prior to repatriation.

Unrestricted parking outside is possible.

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