Watford Workhouse Bricks
The
building fronting Vicarage Road next to the football ground, formerly known as
Shrodells, was initially the Watford Union Workhouse. One of the courtyards at
the rear was the exercise yard for the male inmates and on two of the walls are
a number of bricks etched with a name and a date (approximately 50 in all).
They were likely inscribed by the same person (perhaps a particular inmate with stone mason training) during the
years from 1845 to 1858 and show the names of those who died in the workhouse
and a date. They are probably the only memorial these men had and as such, are
unique not only to workhouse history, but to social history as a whole.
Although graffiti has been found in some former workhouses, usually in the day
wards/rooms used by casuals, there does not appear to be any other place with
etched bricks such as those at Watford.
Work has
been done by one member in particular to match up the names on the bricks with
the actual people who resided in the House. Using workhouse death records for
the Watford area and census records, all the bricks have been researched and
the Group has put together a Book of Remembrance (held in the Group's Archives).
