page_title: Cassiobury Park
section_title: Lay out
hierarchical_section_title: Cassiobury Park / Lay out
context_page_description: Cassiobury Park is the principal public park in Watford, Hertfordshire, in England. It was created in 1909 from the purchase by Watford Borough Council of part of the estate of the Earls of Essex around Cassiobury House which was subsequently demolished in 1927. It comprises over 190 acres and extends from the A412 Rickmansworth Road in the east to the Grand Union Canal in the west, and lies to the south of the Watford suburb of Cassiobury, which was also created from the estate. The western part is a 25.1 hectare Local Nature Reserve managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. The park hosts the free, weekly timed parkrun 5km event every Saturday morning at 9am, starting at the Rickmansworth Road entrance to the park.
context_section_description: Much of the park is covered by mown grass and scattered trees. There are notable specimens of American oaks such as the pin oak Quercus palustris Muenchh. and the scarlet oak Q. coccinea Muenchh. The cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani A. Richard is a prominent feature, though some of the older and unsafe specimens have been removed. Many more recent plantings of exotics have been made, such as swamp cypress Taxodium distichum (L.) Richards and various Asian rowans Sorbus spp.
  The park slopes generally downhill from east to west, into the alluvial valley of the River Gade. The broadly meandering river and its bridges add much charm; the canal takes a more direct route. The direction of flow is north to south. The Gade is a tributary of the Colne, which ultimately flows into the Thames at Staines.
  The valley is partly wooded. Some of the woodland is rather wet and gloomy, but very beautiful; alder Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. is frequent beside the streams. Here also may be found the remains of beds and ditches for growing watercress Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum (L.) Hayek. These are largely silted up and overgrown, but the original springs are still flowing.
  Beyond the river and canal the ground rises quite steeply to the West Herts Golf Course, beyond which lies Whippendell Wood. The whole area is freely accessible and surprisingly unspoilt, given its proximity to London, about 20 miles away.
  Man-made structures in the park include a complex of paddling-pools and an adjacent miniature railway near the Gade, tennis-courts, a bowling green, a system of all-weather asphalt paths, and a number of shelters.
  The Watford Miniature Railway has a gauge of 10​¹⁄₄" and runs for 1010 yards around part of the park. Steam and Diesel locomotives are used on passenger trains.
caption: A stream near the River Gade
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