The
Pest House in Watford
The Watford pest house was situated at the end of Willow
Lane, and it was known as Pest House Lane. It was situated near the river Colne
and old lime kiln mills. This house was demolished in 1914. It is mentioned in
the Book of Watford, and includes an entry about a nurse being paid to look
after smallpox sufferers there (see below).
An earlier entry of 1694
in the Vestry Books records: ‘It is
ordered that in case of sickness, no physic be allowed to the poor, but in
providential distress, plague or small pox, broken bones or wounds’. In May
1738, it is noted that Edward Finch was appointed ‘to look after the poor of the parish as an apothecary, to be paid £12
for the year’, then in March 1749, Mr I Aihway, Surgeon ‘to take care and find suitable medications
for the poor for the year enforcing at the rate of £12 per annum and that all
surgeons and apothecaries belonging to the town take it alternatively at the
same rate’. In cases of sickness in
the workhouse, a separate room was taken as an Infirmary, but in the case of
infectious diseases, such as smallpox, there were Pest Houses. These, however,
were not always in good repair and in 1754 it was noted that the local pest
houses were not fit for the reception of sick persons, estimates being passed
for their repair. In 1758 the governorship of the workhouse had passed to
William Jennings, who resigned his agreement with not satisfying the Pest House
nurse who, for nursing the sick with the smallpox at her annual salary of 10s.
per week for nine weeks. It was after agreed that the nurse, for her good
services in times for the poor of the parish, be paid the sum of £4.10s. for
her nine weeks’ servitude, the Master having refused to do such nursing. The
Watford Pest House was situated near the end of Pest House Lane (now Willow
Lane alongside Watford General Hospital), some distance from the town (the land
surrounding the town at this time being predominantly fields). It is noted in
the records of May 1765, that William Jennings, of Hemel Hempstead, was still
Governor at a salary of £70 per annum. Probably the same William Jennings who
drew up the contract between himself, along with his executors and
administrators and the Churchwardens and Overseers in 1765.
