Coordinates: 51°40′01″N 0°23′49″W / 51.667°N 0.397°W / 51.667; -0.397 Not to be confused with the Watford Rural civil parish.
Watford was a rural district in Hertfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It originally consisted of contiguous land to the west, north and east of Watford, which was a separate urban district. Eventually expansion and creation of urban districts led to it becoming a number of exclaves
It consisted initially of the parishes of
- Abbots Langley
- Aldenham
- Bushey Rural
- Rickmansworth
- Sarratt
- Watford Rural
The parish of Rickmansworth was abolished in 1898, being split between a new Rickmansworth urban district, and the new parishes of Chorleywood and Rickmansworth Rural, which remained in Watford RD. The parish of Bushey Rural was split off in 1906 as a separate urban district called Bushey.
Under the Local Government Act 1972 the district was abolished in 1974, and its territory was split, with the parish of Aldenham going to Hertsmere, part of Abbots Langley parish going to Dacorum, and the rest going to Three Rivers.
Famous quotes containing the words rural and/or district:
“What life is best?
Courts are but only superficial schools
To dandle fools:
The rural parts are turned into a den
Of savage men:
And where ‘s a city from all vice so free,
But may be termed the worst of all the three?”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)