A History of Allotments in Watford

The following is a transcript of a talk given by Mary Reid at a meeting of the West Watford History Group in April 2012. 

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Background Information:

I became Chairman of the West Watford and Oxhey Garden and Allotment Society in 1999 and Site Supervisor for my own site (I had had a plot since 1975) soon afterwards.

In 2002 I started researching. I read the Council Minutes up to 1907, cross-referencing with the Watford Observer reports of the meetings up to 1902.

The Watford Museum has a cuttings book of newspaper reports of Council meetings in the First World War - not full, but useful.

As Paddock Road celebrated 120 in 2009, I wanted some more recent information, so have also covered some random years over the decades 20's - 50's.  

I have found some maps which are helpful in identifying these sites, which are no longer here.

Peacocks - 1895, 1900, 1909, 1913

Watford Museum 1951 map of allotments

Ordnance Survey maps and plans - coutresy of Mouchel

Maps of Watford 1766 - 1938 by Mary Forsyth

Aerial photos - 1945/8 - courtesy of Mouchesl

                        1921 Rookery, p 158, Book of Watford

                        1962 Scammells p 273, Book of Watford

1948 Council plans of sites.

The West Watford Sites 

Farm Terrace: Behind Vicarage Road F.C. The second oldest site, set up in 1896.

Holywell: Remaining part of a bigger "Holywell" begun in 1900 where Rose Gardens/Laurence Haines School are now. The Council plan shows how the numbering started there and continued onto the current site. I'm not yet sure of a start date for this section; it is not in the Peacocks 1913, but it is on the Mouchel 1914 Segment A8.

Brightwells: Started around 1959 - on Mouchel, segment A8.

Chester Road:  I'm not sure of the origins - a 1914 map marks it as an old gravel pit. It is not on the Council 1948 plans and the first map I've seen marking it as allotments is 1959. Part of the original Harwoods Farm ?  The 1905 Peacocks map has a small black mark no. 7, as if there was a building, but there was no index.  

Old sites now gone. 

Harwoods Farm:   A private site set up by the Hon. Reginald Capel, son of the 6th Earl of Essex in 1881. It was west of Cassio Road between the West Herts Sports Club and the cemetery. By 1887, there were 8 acres with 110 plots. The land was sold for building and was replaced by the Council site of Farm Terrace. 

Willow Lane:  Bordered by Willow Lane and the extension of Cardiff Road, this was given up in the 80's and is now designated for the new Hospital expansion. The ruins of the old Pest House in the corner would be worth exploring. 

Tolpits Lane:   This pre-dated the current Holywell site and can be seen on the Peacocks 1913 map. It is still shown on a 1960 map, but not 1965 when the pub and church are shown. Westfield School occupies the W section. The full extent is visible on the aerial photo.

West Watford:  This was by the Isolation Hospital (in Tolpits Lane) and was laid out by the Council in 1920 to accommodate people who had lost the extra plots provided during the First World War. 

Colne Valley Narrow Gauge Railway

The Colne Valley Light Railway

The Colne Valley Water Company opened the Eastbury Pumping Station near Watford in 1873. In 1931/1932, the company opened a narrow gauge railway connecting the pumping station with the LNWR's standard gauge branch line that ran between Watford and Rickmansworth.  The 2.0' narrow gauge line ran southeast from a private siding on the LNWR (the remains of which can still be seen) across the fields of Brightwell Farm, crossing the River Colne via a relatively substantial plate girder bridge. The line ended in a yard at the pumping station.

Coal and salt were delivered by the LMS via its Watford to Rickmansworth branch line as far as the Brightwells Farm transfer sidings and transferred to the Water Company's own 2.0' gauge wagons, then hauled the short distance by one of two Ruston Hornsby twin cylinder 16hp diesel locomotives. The coal was to power the pumping station and salt and chlorine were used for the water softening plant.

When the pumping station switched from coal to diesel power in 1956, the use of the railway declined significantly, though chlorine and salt were still carried by rail.
The line closed in 1967 and the two locomotives (RH166015, 4wDM, 1932 and RH1662024, 4wDM, 1933)  were purchased for preservation by the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum near Arundel in West Sussex.

ISOLATION HOSPITAL

Isolation Hospital 

Through the 18^th and up to the late 19^th century, if you were unfortunate enough to contract an infectious disease you had three choices, go to the Pest House, go into the Work House Infirmary or die. Then in1893 an Act was passed which related solely to the provision of Isolation Hospitals. It stated that on application of 25 or more rate payers the local authority had to provide an Isolation Hospital. If you were in receipt of Poor Relief for 14 days prior to admission then your treatment would be paid from the Poor Rate, any other pauper patient would be paid for from the general rates. Anyone else was liable to pay for themselves, expenses to be paid on discharge or out of the estate should they die in hospital. This Act did not cover sufferers of VD or TB. VD patients were still sent to the Work House Infirmary and TB patients went to special Sanatoriums. Holywell Hospital, at this time, was situated on the Work House site.

So the search began for a suitable site for the Watford Isolation Hospital and negotiations began for the purchase of the land. At this point the Earl of Essex stepped in and offered four acres of a nineteen acre arable field called Spring Field free of charge which was one and a half miles from Watford. Some cynics claimed that this was a ploy on his part, as the land he owned around the proposed site would decline in value, but whatever the reason the land was accepted and the building began. It was built by J and W Waters to a design by Mr Charles Ayres, one of three who submitted designs. It was located in Tolpits Lane and took 17 months to complete at a cost of £12,058.

The floors were oak blocks set in concrete. Heat was provided by fireplaces and open stoves in the middle of the wards. Ventilation was vents in the roof and windows and air inlets in the wall below bed height. There were four blocks containing 10 wards accommodating 42 beds. There were two discharge blocks, a mortuary, a laundry, a disinfection station and a Porters Lodge (see photo gallery). The Administrative block contained bedrooms, doctor’s office, dining room and sitting room for the nurses, the dispensary and the kitchen. A telephone was installed. In the grounds there was an orchard, kitchen garden and a poultry run to supply fresh eggs, meat and vegetables for the hospital. There was even a stable for the horse used for ambulance duty.

The opening ceremony was performed with great pomp at 3pm on the 24^th March 1896 by Lady Essex. Holywell Hospital (where Watford General Hospital is now) was placed under a caretaker to be used for Small Pox cases as this disease was to be kept separate from the others. Dentons Hospital (site of which is still unknown) was to be dismantled and re-erected on the Isolation Hospital site. Patients began to move in on 4^th April transferred from Holywell Hospital. The main diseases treated were Small Pox, Scarlatina (Scarlet Fever), Diphtheria, Enteric Fever (Typhoid and Paratyphoid), Erysipelas (Acute Skin Infection) and any other dangerous infectious disease.