Introduction To The History of The Grove

Due to the Defence cutbacks by the then Conservative Government in 1981, Watford Design Office was closed and the site was sold. Staff were given the opportunity to be found positions with other GEC companies.

Since joining the staff at The Grove in October 1981, I had heard all manners of rumours regarding the history of The Grove Estate. 

``Lady Cunard once lived here, you know, and that's why we have such rare trees on the site." I was once told.
``The E-shaped buildings were used as hospital wards during the Second World War." Has also been said to me.
``The Grotto was once an Ice House", ``The Mountbattern Family once lived here", and who was Eliza Brightwen? The list of 'facts' went on and on.

I had been researching my own family history for over 20 years, successfully taking my surname back eight generations to 1735. When I heard that a video was to be produced, on the history of The Grove,  I thought I would be able to help in locating material, being that an estate does not move around the country, like a family.

Due to the short time scale given for the project, I only had about six months to do the research for the video in lunch times, weekends and the odd days holiday. Most of the information for the video came from Harrow Local Studies Library, Druets book of Stanmore and the books written by Eliza Brightwen.

I came across newspaper articles from the 1890s giving names of people owning The Grove but I was not able to complete the research in time for the video. After the video was produced in October 1997 I was still finding facts and details relating to the history of The Grove. I also managed to locate and purchase all of Eliza Brightwen's books.

My research into the history of The Grove has taken me to Southampton University, The British Library and The National Portrait Gallery in London. From locating a web site in Texas USA, I was put in touch with a guy who lives 3 miles away from The Grove. Research has also been gathered from a friend who lives and works as a family historian in Salt Lake City Utah USA.

I originally would have liked a book to have been published on my findings, but this would have been very expensive, with the amount of photographs that would have to have been included. A web site is a better solution in the long term, as it can be updated as and when more information can be found. In the short term, it has meant that I have had to get to grips with web site creation, jpgs, gifs, tables, scanning, up loading, down loading, ftp, icons, images, photo editing, etc, etc, etc.

This web site may not be one of the best presented for artistic impression or merit you have seen, but for me it is a virtual book and a way of sharing my findings with others interested in the history of The Grove Estate at Stanmore.

Wading through GEC company archive documents in early 1999, I noticed that GEC purchased the freehold of The Grove in January 1950. I passed this information on to someone who had an ear with the site director, saying that January 2000 would be the 50th anniversary of the site.  To mark this historic occasion events were organised at The Grove including a summer ball.

The research for this web site has taken 4 years to amass. Since starting this project 3 people who are mentioned in this web site have passed away, Sir Robert Clayton and George Benbow, who both worked for GEC at The Grove and Roy Abbott, who was a Stanmore local historian.

Since this website 'went live' on the internet I have been contacted by visitors to the site, these are a few things that have turned up:-
I have been sent some original Joseph Gillott pen nibs from a collector in Sweden.
I have been sent 2 audio tapes of an interview recorded in 1981, of Mrs.Windmill, whose husbands family worked for the Ashley family in the early 1920's. 
2 years after the site was launched, I have just received 10 photographs from the grandchild of Mr.Frederick Weston, who was a gardener for Mrs.Cunard and her sister Miss.Ella McPheeters.