Lovatts and Whitegates
Lovatts Farmhouse
The distinctive white house abutting the road at the top of The Green is Lovatts, an old farmhouse with many original features. The Manor of Croxley Green and Snells Hall Survey Map 1766 shows the house standing in “meadows”, suggesting agricultural activity. It had a broad frontage with two end wings. One occupant of Lovatts from 1951 to 1967 recalls a blackened open inglenook fireplace some two metres wide and made of small bricks in the northern wing (now Warren Cottage), a deep well in the east rear garden, a large brick-lined cellar with an earthen floor under the southern wing (now Lovatts Cottage) and the front house built of small bricks and flint in a timber frame structure with a thatched roof (still visible under the tiles in 1960).
The 1926 map of the Parrotts Estate shows Lovatts Farm as occupying plot 62 which comprised a farmyard with barns and a field of approximately 2 acres. By the 1950s the field had become an orchard, producing red and white cherries, apples, pears and gooseberries. The house was divided into two before WW2 and in the early 1950s the northern wing was renamed Warren Cottage and the southern wing Lovatts Cottage. During the 1950s there were significant changes in ownership of Lovatts’ land, as shown in the sketch below.
The 1926 map of the Parrotts Estate shows Lovatts Farm as occupying plot 62 which comprised a farmyard with barns and a field of approximately 2 acres. By the 1950s the field had become an orchard, producing red and white cherries, apples, pears and gooseberries. The house was divided into two before WW2 and in the early 1950s the northern wing was renamed Warren Cottage and the southern wing Lovatts Cottage. During the 1950s there were significant changes in ownership of Lovatts’ land, as shown in the sketch below.
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In the 1960s, properties 5,6,7 and 8 were all sold to developers to create Whitegates Close. |
Nabby Sear
During the first half of the 1900s, Lovatts was the home of a well- loved character called Nabby (Harry) Sear and his family. When he was a boy his family lived at the George and Dragon pub on Scots Hill and he went to work at Parrotts farm just off The Green. His mother, Jeanette Maria Sear, bought him a horse and as a young man he began buying fruit and vegetables including apples, cherries and potatoes that enabled him to start a small business selling them on at the Watford market.
He moved into Lovatts in the 1920's and progressed to having a farm including a herd of cows he pastured in fields down the Sarratt Lane near Redheath. The cows were driven twice a day from the fields to his milking parlour just behind the shops at the top of Scots Hill and opposite what is now Rickmansworth School. A passage way still exists that would have led to the parlour, now part of the Windmill Housing Estate. Nabby was not a 'commoner' and thus when driving the cows across The Green the cows had to keep moving and were not allowed to stop and graze.
During the Second World War, Nabby was able to take on Land Army girls to help out on the farm, driving tractors and lorries and assisting him and his two sons Clem and Terry. One of the girls, Phyllis Newell, married Clem Sear in 1946 and lived at the dairy house on Scots Hill with Terry who had married Marion Ewens of Chorleywood in 1944. The dairy business was sold in 1951 and Nabby passed away in 1952. Lovatts Farm was altered around this time so that Clem and Phyllis could live separately in Lovatts Cottage, where they raised two children, Christopher and Rachel. The name Lovatts is taken from a previous occupier of the house.
Clem Sear passed away in 1978 and Phyllis was forced to sell the house in 2013 due to failing health.
During the first half of the 1900s, Lovatts was the home of a well- loved character called Nabby (Harry) Sear and his family. When he was a boy his family lived at the George and Dragon pub on Scots Hill and he went to work at Parrotts farm just off The Green. His mother, Jeanette Maria Sear, bought him a horse and as a young man he began buying fruit and vegetables including apples, cherries and potatoes that enabled him to start a small business selling them on at the Watford market.
He moved into Lovatts in the 1920's and progressed to having a farm including a herd of cows he pastured in fields down the Sarratt Lane near Redheath. The cows were driven twice a day from the fields to his milking parlour just behind the shops at the top of Scots Hill and opposite what is now Rickmansworth School. A passage way still exists that would have led to the parlour, now part of the Windmill Housing Estate. Nabby was not a 'commoner' and thus when driving the cows across The Green the cows had to keep moving and were not allowed to stop and graze.
During the Second World War, Nabby was able to take on Land Army girls to help out on the farm, driving tractors and lorries and assisting him and his two sons Clem and Terry. One of the girls, Phyllis Newell, married Clem Sear in 1946 and lived at the dairy house on Scots Hill with Terry who had married Marion Ewens of Chorleywood in 1944. The dairy business was sold in 1951 and Nabby passed away in 1952. Lovatts Farm was altered around this time so that Clem and Phyllis could live separately in Lovatts Cottage, where they raised two children, Christopher and Rachel. The name Lovatts is taken from a previous occupier of the house.
Clem Sear passed away in 1978 and Phyllis was forced to sell the house in 2013 due to failing health.
Nabby Sear in one of his fields, using a sickle to harvest vegetables
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Phyllis Newell driving cows across the Green. Her mother Rose Newell stands on the right
Margaret Ryder delivering milk for Nabby Sear
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Clem is driving the tractor and Terry controls the grass cutter
A land army girl waits in one of Nabby’s Austin lorries (HBO 512) while cabbages are harvested
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Marion Nobbs on the right with another land army friend
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Three land army girls on one of Nabby Sear's Fordson tractors. Note the steel rear wheels used to gain traction on muddy soil, suggesting that Nabby’s farm was well equipped.
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Front view of Nabby's Austin van van with Terry Sear at the wheel
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Rear view of Nabby's Austin van
Lovatts in the final stages of conversion into two properties. Ca.1960. Note the central front door frame to the original Lovatts Farm.
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Lovatts Farm in the early 1950s undergoing conversion into two semi-detached houses with removal of the original front door. The property to the right is Tudor Cottage which has been extended more recently.
