The history of Cassiobury Park is long, dating back to the 14th century. In this documentary, I will go into detail abou | dG1fcVBaZ1d6UmxLMnc
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00:00Cassiobury Park, a beautiful green area in South Hertfordshire. The history of the park
00:25is long and rich with the social changes in Britain. It's time for a summary of the life
00:31and history of Cassiobury Park. The first recorded mention of the area is in the 14th
00:42century, when St Albans Abbey claimed the rights to the area of Cassio, dating a grant
00:47from the Anglo-Saxon King Offa in 793 AD. But when King Henry VIII dissolved the churches
00:53and monasteries in 1539, Henry assumed lordship of the manor. And in 1543, he gave the area to Sir
01:02Richard Morrison, a politician in his later life. Morrison built the historic Cassiobury House.
01:08Richard Morrison never saw the completion of the house as he was sent into exile. However,
01:15his son, Sir Charles Morrison, did see it complete. The completed house boasted 56
01:20bedrooms, a long gallery, stables, dairy, and a brew house. Charles Morrison's granddaughter
01:27Elizabeth married Arthur Caple in 1627, and the estate was passed into their family. Caple was
01:33a royalist during the English Civil War and was tried and executed for treason by Earl of Cromwell.
01:39Elizabeth made a plea to the Parliament, asking for Cassiobury and other estates to be passed
01:46back to her and her son Arthur. After the restoration of the monarchy, Arthur Caple
01:54became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He also ordered a redecoration of the house.
01:59I'm in the Watford Museum looking through this excellent book, Cassiobury, the Ancient Seat of
02:10the Earl of Essex, by Paul Robertson and Sarah Kensley Bruceley, who helped look after the
02:15exhibits here. And you can see in the book there are the different styles that would have been used
02:19in the house at the time. We've got sort of stuff like the neoclassical style. In 1799, the fifth
02:28Earl of Essex, George Caple, came to Cassiobury and he commissioned architect James Wyatt to
02:35restyle the house into the popular Gothic Revival style used in buildings such as Tower Bridge and
02:41St Pancras Station. Where I'm standing right now is the site of where the old gates used to stand
02:46in 1967. The main house was demolished in 1927 and the various materials were sold off. The
02:54turret clock is in the British Museum and the ground staircase is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.