– OLD HATFIELD –
ABOUT
Park Meadow Estate is located in historic Old Hatfield and consists of 137 modernist houses, a 2 minute walk from both Hatfield mainline station and iconic Hatfield House and its surrounding Hatfield Park. Due to its location, the Estate's households get special access to the Jacobean mansion's park and gardens. Park Meadow Estate also provides a real sense of community for residents and is a wonderful place to live, with fantastic communal grounds that have been beautifully landscaped with a rich variety of mature trees, plants and well-maintained lawns.
The Estate’s environment is truly remarkable for its lush greenery, open spaces and generously spaced roads; particularly bearing in mind its proximity to Hatfield and London’s amenities. Constructed in the mid-1960s on erstwhile farmland, the Estate features 4 types of light and airy three-bedroom modernist houses; three-storey town houses, two-storey flat roof L-shaped houses, and 2 further two-storey house types with alternative gable roof designs.
Park Meadow Estate encompasses Old Hertford Road and Park Meadow and is managed by a limited company run by volunteer resident directors who are elected on an annual basis.
Hatfield mainline railway serves London’s terminal stations via contactless, including Finsbury Park (16 minutes), London Kings Cross (22 minutes) and Moorgate; it also serves Blackfriars and Gatwick Airport directly via St Pancras International.
HISTORY
After the Second World War the Wates Company, long-established builders in the south of England, completed several housing developments circled around central London, including the large Dulwich Estate, the Park Hill / Brownborne Estate in Croydon, the Ham Estate in Richmond, the Grange & White Ledges Estate in Ealing and, of course, Park Meadow Estate in Old Hatfield.
With the first residents buying off-plan and moving into their new homes in 1967, Park Meadow Estate pre-dated the redevelopment of the Great North Road and much of Old Hatfield in the late 1960s. From day one, the Estate provided an idyllic place for people to live in modern houses, in an environment of seclusion and spaciousness... And continues to do so to this day, with some original owners still in their homes over 50 years later.
A principle of the Estate was to keep traffic and parking away from housing. So every house was provided with a garage either integrated with the house or accessible by service roads, and the secluded road layout was designed to discourage through-traffic. Restrictive covenants were also put in place to ensure that the buildings were kept in a good condition and in harmony with their neighbours by not allowing any alteration to the original design.
Provision was made for generous planting of trees and shrubs within the communal green areas throughout the Estate and having now achieved maturity – and thanks to meticulous year-round maintenance – what a marvellous asset it is.
Do you have any historic photographs of Park Meadow Estate that you would like to share on this website? If so, please let us know by using the contact form further below.
MANAGEMENT
PARK MEADOW Estate with its 137 houses is one of the uk's premier modernist estates both in terms of its architectural and visual integrity. this is in large part because of a strict adherence to the estate covenants defined in a Scheme of Management.
The Scheme, which was approved in the High Court of Justice in December 1971 under the provisions of Section 19 of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, sets out the covenants and conditions applying to the estate and is registered as a Local Land Charge against all the properties on the estate.
Each homeowner is a shareholder in Park Meadow (Hatfield) Management Ltd – a private company with volunteer resident directors formed to own and manage all the common grounds and ensure compliance by householders with the covenants.
A plain english guide to the Estate’s covenants will soon be available to download below. It should be emphasised that this will only be a guide and the full content of the covenants included in the Scheme of Management should always be consulted.
