During the construction of the Grand Union Canal where it flows through Boxmoor, the navvies who carried out the work lived on an encampment at Roughdown Common. The navvies where not the only group that made use of the Common; in 1809 a Good Friday funfair was held in the chalk pit, Joan and Roger Hands (2004). Royalty to Commoners - Four Hundred years of the Box Moor Trust page 59. pub. Alpine Press. Kings Langely. while 1939 saw the first recorded football match on the site, played by young evacuees from London. Joan and Roger Hands (2004). Royalty to Commoners - Four Hundred years of the Box Moor Trust, pages 88. pub. Alpine Press. Kings Langely. The war theme continued in 1946 when prisoners of war - who were based in a P.O.W. camp at nearby Howes Retreat - cleared scrub at the site.Joan and Roger Hands (2004). Royalty to Commoners - Four Hundred years of the Box Moor Trust, pages 136. pub. Alpine Press. Kings Langely.
