Cassiobury House was a country house in Watford

Watford

Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, now demolished.

History

The house was started in 1546 by Sir Richard Morrison

Richard Morrison

Richard Morrison is the name of:* Richard Morrison , Edward VI's ambassador to Charles V* Richard Morrison , columnist for The Times newspaper...

. On the marriage of his granddaughter it passed into the ownership of the Capel family, later Earls of Essex

Earl of Essex

Earl of Essex is a title that has been held by several families and individuals. The earldom was first created in the 12th century for Geoffrey II de Mandeville . Upon the death of the third earl in 1189, the title became dormant or extinct...

. It was demolished in 1927. The staircase is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

. The stables remain and were converted into a retirement home. Part of the grounds, but not the site of the house, now form the public Cassiobury Park

Cassiobury Park

Cassiobury Park is the principal public open space in Watford, Hertfordshire, in England. It comprises over and extends from the A412 Rickmansworth Road in the east to the Grand Union Canal in the west....

.

External links

• Cassiobury Park - house history
• Watford Museum - Cassiobury collection
• Lost Heritage - house exterior photos
• Genealogy in Hertfordshire - house prints
• Genealogy in Hertfordshire - house and park postcards
• Metropolitan Museum of Art - The "Grinling Gibbons" staircase
• Country Life - staircase in situ
• British History Online - Manors of Watford