Place:Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Leavesden is a residential and commercial area in the western part of Hertfordshire, England, contiguous with the northern suburbs of Watford. It lies within the circle of the M25 Motorway, the orbital motorway around London). On its eastern side it is bounded by the M1 Motorway. Leavesden is part of the modern Abbots Langley civil parish and is also the name of a district council ward in Three Rivers District. Leavesden Green is an adjoining residential community which lies partly in Three Rivers and partly in the Borough of Watford.

In the 19th century Leavesden was the location of the Metropolitan Asylum for Imbeciles, with accommodation for 2,000 inmates, and the St. Pancras Industrial School for 500 children. (Source: Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, Vol 2, chapter on Watford)

History

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

In the period before the Norman Conquest the hamlet of Leavesden was in the hundred of Dacorum, and was historically an exclave of the ecclesiastical parish of Watford, which was in the hundred of Cashio. In the 12th century Leavesden became part of the parish of Bushey. In 1853 it became an ecclesiastical parish, and the church of All Saints and St Hilda was built in the Victorian gothic style by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. In 1870 the Metropolitan Asylum for Imbeciles was founded by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Later known as Leavesden Hospital, it closed in 1997 and is now the site of Leavesden Country Park.

Before the First World War Leavesden was an agricultural community. During the 1930s several housing estates were built. In the 1950s major road network developments commenced with the building of the North Orbital Road and North Western Avenue in what is now the northwest corner of Greater London.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War II in 1940, RAF Leavesden was established. In addition to a runway suitable for heavy bombers, and associated aircraft hangars, the de Havilland company, which had plants at Hatfield, built two factories for Halifax bombers and Mosquitoes. After the war de Havillands gradually converted the factories into a gas turbine design and manufacturing facility which was subsequently transferred to the de Havilland Engine Company who operated the factories until about 1963. Together with the large scale contraction and reorganisation of the British Aircraft Industry at that time, the site was taken into ownership by Armstrong Siddeley, Hawker Siddeley, and finally Bristol Siddeley, and in the same hectic year consolidated the gas turbine businesses of Blackburn Engines and Napiers. Bristol Siddeley Engines then operated the site together with a factory at Stag Lane Edgeware and a test facility at the old Hatfield site until 1968 when Bristol Siddeley Engines (by then a very profitable company) was forced to merge with Rolls Royce by government pressure. The site continued under the Rolls Royce name until closed by that company in 1991.

Notable achievements by the engineering team were the world's first full authority electronically controlled helicopter engine and initial development of the first pedestal cooled turbine blade, now common throughout the industry. The site manufactured well over 3000 helicopter engines and designed and developed the RTM322 engine used for the UK Apache, Merlin and French NH90 aircraft. Rolls Royce has now sold the rights to this engine to a French company, and with that transfer all helicopter engine development in the UK has effectively ceased.

Research Tips

• The church registers date from 1853 and are held at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (Register Office Block CHR002, County Hall, Hertford SG13 8EJ) under reference DP117/G.
• GENUKI on Hertfordshire (pre-1900 individual parishes covered separately)
• Hertfordshire Family History Society
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time