What is housing like around Rickmansworth?

The WD3 district is bigger than the town. It takes in Rickmansworth itself, Croxley Green, Loudwater, Mill End, Maple Cross, Chorleywood and the villages out to Sarratt, and the housing changes from one to the next. The town centre has a short old High Street and Church Street with Georgian and Victorian frontages, and newer flats near the station and the Aquadrome. Around it, and across Croxley Green, is Metroland: the estates laid out in the 1920s and 1930s after the Metropolitan Railway arrived, where the typical home is a semi with a bay window, a side passage to the garden, a narrow drive and a garage at the back built for a car of that era and now full of everything except a car. Loudwater and Chorleywood have larger detached houses on private roads with long drives, and Mill End and Maple Cross have post-war council-built estates and later infill. Rickmansworth and Croxley Green are in Three Rivers, so Three Rivers District Council deals with any parking suspension.

Why does a Metroland semi need a careful survey?

Because it hides things. The drive is often too narrow for a lorry, so the vehicle stops in the road, and the roads were planned when few families had a car; today both sides are parked. The side passage is the only way to the garden and the garage without going through the house, and it is usually a shoulder-width gap between the wall and the fence. Inside, a 1930s semi has a staircase with a half turn, a small landing and a bathroom door that opens into the stairwell. Loft conversions and rear extensions have been added to a great many of them, and a wardrobe or a bed that was carried up before the loft stairs went in may no longer come down the same way.

What about Croxley Green?

Croxley has two faces: the old village around the green, with cottages and the terraces built for the paper mill workers, and the Metroland roads between the green and the station. The mill terraces are small, with front doors on to the pavement and alleys behind, and the streets are tight. The Metroland roads are wider but parked up. Croxley also has newer flats on the Watford side, near the business park, with lifts and barrier car parks that a lorry cannot enter.

Loudwater, Chorleywood and the private roads

Many of the larger houses stand on private roads. Ask whether the road has any restriction on lorries, whether it has a gate and who controls it, because the firm will want to know before they arrive rather than at the entrance. Long gravel drives are hard on a loaded vehicle, and some firms prefer to stop at the road and carry or use a smaller van. The houses themselves are big, often with a separate garage block, a garden room or a summerhouse, and the volume to move is larger than the family expects. Chorleywood's common and the lanes beyond it are narrow, and some houses have a drive that drops steeply from the road.

The canal, the lakes and the flats near them

Rickmansworth's newer flats are mainly south of the High Street, between the town and the canal, the river and the lakes of the Aquadrome. They are managed blocks: fobs, lifts, allocated bays, sometimes a loading area and sometimes not. Ask the managing agent what the rules for a move are. Batchworth and the canal-side roads have older cottages, and a few houses are reached over a bridge where a lorry's access is limited.

What about Mill End and Maple Cross?

These are the parts of WD3 with the most post-war housing: terraces and semis on estates with garage courts and greens, and a good deal of later infill. A lorry can usually get close, but the garage courts have the same problem as everywhere else, a space built for the cars of fifty years ago, and a terrace with no side access means everything from the garden comes through the house. Maple Cross sits by the motorway, which is handy for a lorry and noisy for a crew.

What should a Rickmansworth or Croxley enquiry include?

which part of WD3 you are in, so the firm knows whether to expect a semi, a cottage, a private road or a block of flats
whether a lorry can reach the door, or must stop in the road or at the gate
loft rooms, extensions and anything that will need to come apart
the garage and garden contents
your postcode and the date

With your consent, one local removals firm that covers WD3 receives the enquiry, if there is one.

Who you will hear from

We pass your enquiry to one local removals firm, if one covers your postcode. It is never sent to a list of companies. If nobody covers your postcode, we will tell you and will not pass your details on.