Isolation Hospital
Through the 18th and up to the late 19th 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 24th 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 4th 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.
