the Virgin was built in 1230 on the same site as an earlier Saxon church,
along with stalls for a weekly market. The town grew modestly - assisted by
travellers passing through to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings
Langley, with the main developments being the 17th-century houses of Cassiobury
and The Grove. Both the Grand Junction Canal in 1798, and the London and
Birmingham Railway in 1837, allowed the town to grow faster, with paper-making
mills, such as John Dickinson and Co. at Croxley, influencing the development
of printing in the town which continues today. Two industrial scale brewers
Benskins and Sedgwicks flourished in the town until their closure in the late
20th century. Today, Watford is a major regional centre for the northern home
counties. Hertfordshire County Council designates Watford, along with Stevenage,
to be its major sub-regional centre. The town contains the head offices of a
number of national companies such as J D Wetherspoon; Camelot Group, operator
of the National Lottery; construction firm Taylor Woodrow; and Mothercare; and
is also the UK base of various multi-nationals including Total Oil, TK Maxx,
Costco and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Both the 2006 World Golf
Championship and the 2013 Bilderberg Conference, took place at The Grove hotel.
Watford was created as an urban district
under the Local Government Act 1894, and became a municipal borough by grant of
a charter in 1922. The borough had 90,301 inhabitants at the time of the 2011
census. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the
urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District. The Watford
subdivision of the Greater London Urban Area, which includes much of the
neighbouring districts, had a total population of 120,960 in the 2001 census.
Watford Borough Council is the local authority, with a directly elected mayor
as head. The Mayor of Watford is one
