The Swan Hotel, Rickmansworth, which for centuries has contributed to the charm and character of the High Street, is due to be closed and, it is understood, demolished next summer, although there are moves to try to save it.

If it goes, a link with ancient Rickmans-worth will be severed, for the Swan is much older than the iron sign over the entrance, which bears the date 1799, indicates.

Mr Godfrey Cornwall, the local historian, states it is safe to assume an inn stood there many years before that date.

One county historian claims it was there Edward Prince of Wales was entertained when he passed through Rickmansworth in 1292.

Mr Cornwall, in an interview with the Watford Observer, says how the inn became to be known as ‘The Swan’ is obscure.

“It has been suggested its sign was derived from the crest of the Cary family who, as Earls of Monmouth, lived at Moor Park Mansion. Their crest was ‘a swan with wings expanded proper’,” he says.

For more than 300 years the inn was in the possession of the Skidmores, one of the wealthiest families in the parish, who owned a great deal of property in Rickmansworth. They were traders in cloth and malt. John Skidmore is known to have issued a halfpenny token coin in 1666.

Joseph Skidmore, a relative, was summoned before a Court Baron for disposing of the inn without the Lord of the Manor’s consent in 1830.
He was found guilty and the bailiff was ordered to seize his land, “into the hands of the Lord of the Manor”.

When Joseph Skidmore died in 1833, it was returned to a trustee “by special favour”.

Continuing the story, Mr Cornwall said: “During the 18th and 19th Centuries the inn was the favourite place to adjourn to after a Vestry meeting. It was the favourite inn of the overseers of the parish, who often met there to make the poor rate and to discuss the management of the poor.

“Town meetings were also held there, and one, in 1804, arranged for the removal of the old market hall in the centre of the High Street near the Swan where it had stood since built in 1542.

“There, too, was the headquarters of the Association for the Prevention of Crime and Prosecution of Felons from 1818 to 1858.”

It was there the famous auction of the O’Connerville Estate, now known as Heronsgate, took place in 1857. Fergus O’Connor, the Chartist leader, had developed the estate which was famous throughout the land.

And it was at the Swan, that the Manorial Courts were held, which was a bitter pill for Joseph Skidmore, mentioned earlier.

Within its walls in 1791 was formed Rickmansworth’s first Good Fellowship Society. Its members, for a nominal payment of a 1s 9d a month, received benefits of 6s a week during sickness. Other payments were also made when a member was unable to work because of permanent ill health.

As at present, the Swan has always been known for its good food.

And Mr Cornwall told of the “guzzling vestry man”. When the rates account had been allowed, he and his colleagues settled down to a sumptuous repast of hams, fowls, lamb and apple pie, washed down with beer, punch and wines. Even as late as 1813, a sum of £5 was allowed out of the poor rate towards the cost of the overseers’ dinner.

Many other wonderful repasts were enjoyed there. Mr Cornwall instanced the dinners which followed the manorial courts. And in the days when Harvey Coombe was Master of the Old Berkeley Hunt, the inn became famous for the meals and wines served after the meets.

Anglers used it in the days when trout fishing in the Colne was an outstanding sport.

William Bloodworth and other noted sportsmen used the meadow at the rear of the inn for their pigeon shooting contests.

The celebration dinner Lord Ebury and 100 guests enjoyed after the first sod was cut in preparation for the Rickmansworth to Watford railway in 1860 was prepared at the Swan and was noted for its excellence.

Posting house, excise office, branch office of the London Counties Bank, venue for cattle and horse dealers, it is all in the records of this colourful bit of old Rickmansworth.

Around the walls of the ground floor dining room still hang copies of the Armorial bearings of famous Rickmansworth families. Alongside is a list of the innkeepers of the past, from Ann Badwin in 1651 to the present mine host Reg Holland – a hall of memories where one can still raise a glass to the memory of the town’s immortals, says Mr Cornwall.

NOSTALGIA NOTE: After a brief stay of execution, The Swan was eventually demolished in 1966.