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By the mid 1800s, in some areas of the country, middle class housing developments of detached houses, standing in their own grounds, were forming the basis for the idea of garden cities – combining the best of town and country.
Nationally, these ideas were given added impetus by Ebenezer Howard (1850–1928) in his now famous book Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Reform published in 1898. It laid the foundations for garden cities and garden suburbs that would become popular in the early 20th century, the first of these being Letchworth in Hertfordshire, built among green fields in 1903.
But in Bishop's Stortford, Walter Gilbey was ahead of the game. Included in his purchase of the Manor of Stortford from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1868, was 950 acres of land east of the river Stort known as the Bishops Park, and on it, long before publication of Howard's book, he created Hockerill Park Estate. Developed with wide roads, avenues of trees, grass verges and easy access to the town’s railway station, it was the perfect 'garden suburb'. The only thing missing was houses.
Gilbey built and owned No 14 Warwick Road (though he never lived in it) and a school was erected in 1909 (see below). The most notable person to live in Warwick Road around this time was the renowned Hertfordshire antiquarian *William Blyth Gerish (1864 –1921), who lived at Ivy Lodge. But no large scale development took place until after Gilbey's death in 1915, and only then were previously un-named roads given titles: Warwick Road (named after the Countess of Warwick), Crescent Road, Avenue Road, Pine Grove and Thorn Grove. A later thoroughfare constructed between Avenue Road and Pine Grove was named Gilbey Avenue in memory of the estate's founder.
The estate's northern entrance opposite the railway station is via Crescent Road and Warwick Road, the terrace of Victorian houses at its start being built in 1878 and very likely here before Gilbey's plan was implemented.
*William Blyth Gerish (pronounced Gearish) was born in Norfolk and educated at Great Yarmouth College. He then entered the service of the London & Provincial Bank and soon after moved to the bank's Chesthunt branch in Hertfordshire. From there he transferred to Hoddesdon and then to the Bishop's Stortford branch. From early on his hobby had been the study of antiquarian matters and after moving to Hertfordshire his life's work was in connection with the county. In 1898 he was instrumental in founding the East Herts Archaelogical Society (EHAS), of which he became Hon. Secretary.
When he learned, in 1907, that the Suffolk Archaeological Society were starting a scheme to record Monumental Inscriptions in the churchyards there, he started his own similar scheme in Hertfordshire under the aegis of the EHAS . Assisted by a small group of helpers all of Hertfordshire's monuments were recorded within six years, the first county to complete the task. The manuscript filled 13 large quarto volumes, comprising 8,000 pages containing some 70,000 entries, but unfortunately Gerish had overlooked one important point. The transcriptions contained no maps or reference points as to where any particular inscription was located. All the volumes are preserved at the British Library.
Poor health finally forced William Blyth Gerish to resign his post in London and in 1915 he left the county to live in Caister, Norfolk, where he died 12 March 1921, aged 56 years.
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When the County Council first proposed a school for girls in this area Sir Walter Gilbey readily allocated them land here, safe in the knowledge that such an establishment would greatly enhance his Hockerill Park Estate. Built in 1909/10 at a cost in excess of £6,000, the school was initially fee-paying and accommodated 120 girls. And because the town effectively covered two counties, it was jointly run by school boards in both Essex and Hertfordshire and aptly named The Herts and Essex High School for Girls.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, thousands of London children were evacuated to the relative safety of the countryside, many finding themselves in Bishop’s Stortford. Pupils from Clapton County Secondary School for Girls in Hackney, East London, were specifically sent here to be educated at this school. But with few teachers and little space, local children were taught in the mornings and London children in the afternoons.
The financial burden on foster parents was also great, and many evacuees ate their main meals in the town’s communal kitchen – a large ‘tin hut’ sited on land that is currently a car park at Riverside (See Guide 11). After the war the school reverted to normal, but in the 1950s and 60s took in boarders aged 11-19 and housed them at nearby Plaw Hatch (See Guide 10).
Now re-named The Hertfordshire and Essex High School, it has successfully fended off numerous attempts to change to co-educational and is Bishop’s Stortford’s only school for girls – although boys are admitted for sixth form studies. Its acreage is large and the many additions to the building’s original structure have made it one of Bishop’s Stortford’s premier schools with an intake of almost 1,000 pupils.
In the not too distant future it is planned that this school, and the Boys High school at London Road, will share a new site at Thorley. The land currently occupied by both schools will be sold for property development.
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 Before Bishop’s Stortford’s first bypass opened in 1670 between Southmill and Hockerill, the section of road between Hockerill crossroads and today’s railway bridge was called the Hallingbury Road. That road now begins beyond the bridge, the modern offices of the local Tax office standing on the former site of Southmill Farm.
London Road itself continues over the bridge and then descends gradually towards the river and Southmill. From this point it becomes apparent just how much of this hillside had to be excavated to accommodate the railway when it arrived in 1842; not only for the cutting that leads into the station, but also for the goods yard that covers nearly 12 acres.
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