Hunton Bridge, St Paul's Church, Langleybury - geograph

Langleybury is a country house and estate in

Abbots Langley Abbots Langley is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is an old settlement and is mentioned (under the name of Langelai) in the Domesday Book. Economically the village is closely linked to Watford and was ...

, Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of the centre of the town of

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

. The house stands on a low hill above the valley of the

River Gade The River Gade is a river running almost entirely through Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, then along the west side of Watfo ...

Owners

Raymond 1711–1756

The estate was purchased in 1711 by

Robert Raymond Robert Alwyn Raymond OAM (7 July 1922 – 26 September 2003) was an Australian Logie Award winning producer, director, writer, filmmaker and journalist. A pioneer of Australian television, he with Michael Charlton in 1961, co-founded the Austra ...

, then Solicitor General and later Attorney General, subsequently Baron Raymond, who was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1724 until 1732. In 1720 he demolished the original house, of which little is known, and built the mansion which still stands on the site today. A park was laid out around the house in the later eighteenth century. His cipher, a griffin in a crown, can still be seen on the building.

Filmer 1756–1838

On the death of his son,

Robert Raymond, 2nd Baron Raymond Lord Raymond, Baron of Abbots Langley in the County of Hertford, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created on 15 January 1731 for Sir Robert Raymond, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. The title became extinct on the deat ...

, without issue in 1756, the manor was left to Sir Beversham Filmer, 5th Baronet, of East Sutton in Kent. He, dying without children in 1805, bequeathed it to his nephew, Sir John Filmer, 7th Baronet.) It then descended in the family till 1838. The Filmers were absentee landlords. In 1762 the road at the lower edge of the park became the Sparrows Herne turnpike, and in the 1790s the Grand Junction Canal was dug along the valley bottom alongside the road.

Fearnley Whittingstall 1838–1856

In 1838 Sir Edmund Filmer (8th Bt) sold the estate to Edmund Fearnley Whittingstall (né Fearnley), a Watford brewer. He started a bank in partnership with William Smith which went into bankruptcy soon after Whittingstall's death, forcing the sale of the estate in 1856.

Jones Loyd 1856–1947

The estate was then held by William Jones Loyd (1821–1885), a partner in the London branch of Jones Loyd & Co, who was

High Sheriff of Hertfordshire The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the foundation of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisio ...

in 1861Herts High Shrievalty
and cousin to

Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone (25 September 1796 – 17 November 1883) was a British banker and politician. Background and education Loyd was the only son of the Rev. Lewis Loyd and Sarah, daughter of John Jones, a Manchester banker. H ...

. Jones Loyd built the nearby church of St Paul in 1864. His son, Edward Henry Loyd, was

in 1894. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

the house was leased to the Equity and Law Insurance Company.Three Rivers Museum
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School 1947–1996

In 1947 the estate was sold to

Hertfordshire County Council Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the 2021 election, it consists of 78 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, ...

who converted the house and grounds into a secondary school, named Langleybury School, which opened in 1949. In the late 1950s a modern school was built to the south of the mansion, which remained in use as part of the school and as teacher accommodation. The mansion was designated as Grade II* listed in 1953.

Present day

Langleybury School closed in 1996 and for a time partly housed Hertfordshire County Council's Social Services offices. The empty modern school became a favoured film location site, notably for the '' Hope and Glory'' TV series of 1999. The site has been used in numerous TV shows and adverts, as well as films such as ''St Trinians'' and ''In The Heart Of The Sea''. It is also used as a CCB (close combat battle) area for people who play

Airsoft Airsoft is a team game in which participants eliminate opposing players by tagging them out of play with spherical plastic projectiles shot with mock air weapons(usually powered by an electronic motor) called airsoft guns. Although similar ...

(an outdoor combat game) in the buildings which are still safe to enter. A children’s farm is situated in the old farm attached to the mansion house. In conjunction with

Newby Hall Newby Hall is a country house beside the River Ure in the parish of Skelton-on-Ure in North Yorkshire, England. It is 3 miles south-east of Ripon and 6 miles south of Topcliffe Castle, by which the manor of Newby was originally held. A Grade ...

the Langleybury House was used in crafting the look of the fictitious manor house Hundreds Hall in the 2018 film ''

The Little Stranger :The Little Stranger ''is also the title of one of the Color Classics series produced 13 March 1936, in three-strip Technicolor, by Fleischer Studios. It is also the 2018 film adaptation of Waters' novel.'' ''The Little Stranger'' is a 2009 g ...

,'' which was directed by Lenny Abrahamson and starred Domhnall Gleeson and Ruth Wilson. In the article "Domestic Disturbances: Crafting The Look Of The Little Stranger" the production designer, Simon Elliott, explained how he was given free rein by the owners to modify Langleybury House for the production of the movie, including knocking down walls. The house and its stable block (dated 1726) have been converted into flats.

Notable people

Violet Cressy-Marcks (1895–1970), explorer and journalist, buried at Langleybury church.

References

* Williamson, Tom & The Hertfordshire Gardens Trust ''The parks and Gardens of West Hertfordshire'' pub. The Hertfordshire Gardens Trust, 2000
I Remember Living at Langleybury House
by Jill Tidmarsh, Abbots Langley Local History Society, 2000.

External links

Langleybury Children's FarmLangleybury Cricket Club
{{Listed buildings in Hertfordshire Country houses in Hertfordshire Three Rivers District Houses completed in 1720 Defunct schools in Hertfordshire Grade II* listed buildings in Hertfordshire 1720 establishments in England