River Colne - Brightwells

River Colne
The Colne flows south westwards and then turns abruptly west
TQ 09214 94232

Open area to the south of Watford with old gravel extraction sites along the Colne and a large private school.


Post to the east Oxhey
Post to the south Hampermill
Post to the west Tolpits

Vicarage Road
Brightwells Farm. The site is referred to from the Middle Ages and was the name of a manor. It is thought that there was a hamlet or village associated with the site. It has also been known as Hatters Farm.
Brightwells Spring

Chaffinch Lane
Community Centre. Run by Watford CVS
King George V Playing Fields

Hampermill Lake.
Gravel extraction site until the 1960s.
 
Merchant Taylors School.
This is a private school for boys, originally located in the City. Since 1933 it has been at Sandy Lodge. It was founded in 1561 by Sir Thomas White Sir Richard Hilles, Emanuel Lucar and Stephen Hales.

Tolpits Lane
Holywell Hospital. Watford and District Isolation Hospital.  In the late 19th Watford local authority were offered land by the Earl of Essex for an isolation hospital.  It was built to a design by Charles Ayres ad consisted of four blocks with forty two beds plus other buildings and a garden, During the Second World War it was used by Canadian soldiers with Diphtheria. When the NHS was created in 1948 it was renamed the Holywell Hospital and during the 1950’s was used as a TB hospital. It later became the Holywell Wing of Watford General Hospital and in 1972 it became the Geriatric wing. It finally closed in 1982 and was demolished in 1985. In 1988 it was announced that the site would be used for housing

Sources
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
Merchant Taylors School. Web site
West Watford History Group. Web site
Watford Council. Web site.

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