Cassiobury House Estate
The land on which Cassiobury Farm now resides was originally owned by St Albans Abbey under a grant by King Offa of Mercia dating from AD 793. It was then known as the manor of Albanestou (later Cashio) and continued as such until 1539 when King Henry VIII of England dissolved the monasteries. He declared himself lord of the manor of Cassiobury and then in 1564 granted the manor to Sir Richard Morrison, who started building Cassiobury House and its extensive gardens. His son, Sir Charles Morrison completed the mansion, which has 56 rooms, a long gallery, stables, a dairy and a brewhouse. Following the marriage of Sir Charles daughter, Elizabeth, to Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham, their son, Arthur Capell became the 1st Earl of Essex and Cassiobury House became the ancestral home of the Earls of Essex.
Cassiobury House and its ground were variously remodelled through the years, and in the 1820's Humphry Repton was commissioned to landscape the grounds, which at that point comprised 693 acres. They were divided into the Home Park and the Upper Park, separated by the River Gade.
The Upper Park is where Cassiobury Farm and the West Herts Golf Club now reside. A number of lodges and other buildings were also built during this remodelling, of which one, Cassiobury Lodge, still remains on Gade Avenue, immediately adjacent to the Farm.
Pictured above: Cassiobury House before it was demolished in 1927
Watercress Farming
Through the years land was sold off by Cassiobury House and early Ordinance Survey maps show a watercress farm being listed on the site of Cassiobury Farm around 1820's with watercress farming beginning here around the 1840's. Watercress requires fresh pure mineral-rich spring water to grow, and the natural springs at Cassiobury Farm, bubbling up through the chalk aquifer, brings water onto the site that exceeds modern day mineral water quality standards.
In its heyday, the watercress farm was the fourth largest in England, capable of producing 2 million bags of watercress a year, and a railway was built on the site to take the watercress down to the Grand Union Canal, where the product was transported into London by canal boat. The watercress industry continued through both World Wars, and a bomb shelter was built on the Farm to protect the workers during raids, which remains to this day. Sadly, a combination of liver fluke, competition from Spain, Portugal and other sunnier watercress-growing regions, as well as declining demand, meant that watercress production ceased at the site in the late 1980's.
Pictured left: Watercress workers at Cassiobury Farm in the 1920's
Pollution and Disrepair
For almost a century, the site was subject to actions we now understand as harmful to the biodiversity of the site.
In the 1920's and for a period of 5 years, gravel extraction took place on the site which was then partially filled with harmful deposits. Between 1930 and 1958 the site was granted a landfill license and everything from sunken oil drums, chemicals, asbestos and more were dumped on the property. Once watercress farming ended, the waterways silted up and became stagnant and polluted. The site at this time was unfenced, and became a popular location for drug parties and home to various vagrants.
A New Chapter
In 2009, the site was purchased and renamed Cassiobury Farm, with a plan to restore this once beautiful corner of the ancient Cassiobury House Estate and give it a bright and meaningful future, focused on Farming, Nature and Leisure. A perimeter fence was established, over 2,000 drug needles removed from the site, asbestos was extensively removed, the waterways cleared, and everything from burnt out cars, diggers, fridges and freezers removed from the land.
Today, Cassiobury Farm is a 15-acre wildlife haven, with interlinking streams and lakes, and home to numerous indigenous species including common kingfisher, green and lesser spotted woodpecker, Eurasian siskin, song thrush, Eurasian nuthatch, grass snake, adder, common frog & toad, great crested newt, daubenton's bat, muntjak deer, badger and many more. The site also houses a conservation collection of rare breed farm and exotic species, a wellness centre, carp & course fishery and Farm shop.