River Colne. Watford Stadium

River Colne
The Colne flows south and divides in two, and reunites

Post to the east Watford Lower High Street
Post to the south Oxhey

Cardiff Road
At one time called Pest House Lane,
Sewage works and pumping station. The sewage pumping station was initially at the end of what is now Cardiff Road, and dates from before 1870.  A sewage works was built later further to the west.
Cardiff Road Power Station.  Watford Council were granted an Electric Lighting Order in 1897 for the supply of e1cctrical energy, and two years later works were erected and cables laid. The power station was built in the early 1900s and operated by the Watford Corporation Electricity Department until nationalisation. It was by the railway and there was a rail siding into the site. It appears to have been a large gothic building with six chimneys.  It was later converted to oil firing. Eastern Electricity Board had a maintenance depot and workshop on the site after the power station itself was demolished. In 1970 the Central Electricity Generating Board built a gas-turbine peak-load plant of 150 MW here
A refuse destructor was erected in 1904 and demolished in 1947.

Colney Butts
The name for this area west of the main part of Watford. Butts may refer to an archery practise area.

Queens Avenue
10 Warehouse complex behind

Railway
Watford Junction to Rickmansworth. In 1862 a single line railway, later doubled, was opened by the Watford & Rickmansworth Railway. It ran electric trains from 1927 but closed to passengers in 1952 although freight continued until 1967. The line follows the Colne Valley an crossed the Colne three times and some of this area is mow a local park
Croxley Green Branch. Under its New Lines Act, the London North West Railway built a short branch to Croxley Green from the line to Rickmansworth – from Croxley Green Junction. It opened in 1912 and was electrified in 1922. In 1988 it was called the Harlequin Line Services were reduced gradually and withdrawn in 1996 and closed in 2003
Croxley Green Sheds Carriage sheds built for the London & North-Western Railway in 1914/15 to house electric trains, some Bakerloo stick. It was demolished in 1987. They were used for stabling rail stock and carrying out minor maintenance for the London North Western Railway 1915-23, London, Midland & Scottish Railway 1923-1948 and British Rail 1948-1987.

River Colne
Ford
Tumbling Bay

Riverside Road
The Riverside Road Community Park in Watford was opened in November 2001, completing the eastern end of the Ebury Way rail line. The park has a skate park and a children’s playground.
Riverside works
Watford South Sub station

St. James Road
Baptist Church. St James Road Baptist Church began in a private house in 1902. Mr & Mrs Bareham donated the site for the original building on the corner of St James Road and Farraline Road. The first baptismal service took place in 1904. An organ was acquired in 1906 and gas lighting was installed in 1907. In 1951 was agreed in principle to rebuild. A house for use as a manse became available at no 21 St James Road, which had an adjacent plot of orchard land. A new structure was built here and the building remaining in use as a Hall. Work was needed to be done on the old church building and it was demolished. The new building was officially opened in 1966 and the 1955 building then reverted to use as a Church Hall.
Baptist Church Hall. This is the second church now the hall.

Vicarage Road
This was originally named as part of Hagden Lane
45-47 cottage hospital building. This is thought to be Watford’s first hospital, financed by public subscription, designed Charles Ayres and opened in 1886 by Lady Clarendon. It has been used for a variety of medical uses, including as a geriatric hospital and Day Centre. It is now offices. Memorial tablets commemorate the opening by Lady Clarendon and later by Adeline, Duchess of Bedford. Others commemorate the Diamond Jubilee and the coronation of the king in 1901.
58 Watford Printers. Established in 1921, and is a Workers Co-partnership Society. They are in what was Colney Butts House, and partly designed by William H. Syme. Colney Butts House was part of a farm in the 18th, and extended during the 19th. In 1910 it was bought as a home by Syme, who added a single storey extension in 1911. He sold it to the Watford Printers in 1924 and they added to it in the 1930s.
105 Red Lion. Pub with a brick stable block on a linear plot alongside the road. It was designed in the 1890s for Benskin's by Charles P Ayres but a pub here dates back to at least 1751. Now called the Yellow and Red Lion
Watford Stadium. This has been used by Watford Football club since 1922, when the club moved here from elsewhere. The ground was opened by Col. Charles Healey of Benskins Brewery. It is also used by Wealdstone Football Club and Saracens Rugby Club.
The Vicarage Road Stand. This was built in 1993 and was previously an open terrace on an earth bank. It was paid for by selling a football player.
The Rookery Stand. This was built in 1995 and is used fir administration and a shop. The area was originally a roofed over cinder bank and this was concreted in 1959; the new stand includes housing on an adjacent site.
The Rous Stand. Built in 1986 this is alongside the pitch and is used for executive boxes and a TV camera gantry.  It replaced the Shrodells Stand which itself replaced an earlier Union Stand brought here from an earlier site.
The Main Stand. This includes changing rooms, director's box and press area and is part of the original stadium built in 1922,
60 Watford Union workhouse.  The Watford Union workhouse was built in 1836-7. It was designed by T.L. Evans and opened in 1838.  Its buildings were built of brick, and were mainly two storeys high. The former workhouse buildings now contain various hospital departments.
119a West Watford Christian fellowship church. Founded in the 1890s
Sycamore House, This is the administration building of the workhouse and still in use by the Hospital. Courtyard buildings in front of it were demolished in 1950.
Workhouse chapel. Renamed St Barnabas' chapel under the NHS. Its organ, built by Thomas S. Jones & Son, was moved to All Saints' Church, South Oxhey.
60 Watford General Hospital. In 1929 Poor Law Unions were abolished and workhouses came under the control of the local authorities. Watford Borough Council renamed their workhouse as the Shrodells Public Assistance Institution -'Shrodells' apparently means ‘shrubberies’. In the Second World War it became part of the Emergency Medical Scheme as an Advanced Base for University College Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital.  It joined the NHS in 1948 as Shrodell's Hospital with 464 general beds.  In 1965 it became the Watford General Hospital merging officially with the Watford and District Peace Memorial Hospital as Shrodells Wing. It became a geriatric hospital. In 1972 the Shrodells Psychiatric Unit was established. 
Nurses' Home built in 1983 by Willow Lane.  Built in a U-shaped building and linked to existing staff accommodation. 
Princess Michael of Kent Wing opened in the 1980s, for the Out-Patients Department, and Accident and Emergency Department,
Acute Admissions Unit. Opened in 2010. Believed to be the largest such unit in the country, and includes beds for emergency admissions, laboratories, a pharmacy and an Imaging Department for X-ray,
Lodge at the Hospital entrance
Dermatology Centre and Medical Education Centre are housed in the infirmary block of the workhouse.
Harwood’s Recreation Ground. With a new adventure playground
Cemetery. Opened in 1858. Chapel in the 14th style built when time the Cemetery opened in 1858. Originally this was the Anglican chapel with another for non-conformists.
War Memorial. This is in the cemetery erected by the Imperial War Graves Commission. To the memory of servicemen who died during the Great War. It was unveiled at a civic ceremony in 1929. It is stone with a large cross on a stepped plinth. On the front is a bronze sword. and an Inscription ‘THIS CROSS OF SACRIFICE IS ONE IN DESIGN AND INTENTION WITH THOSE WHICH HAVE BEEN SET UP IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM AND OTHER PLACES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WHERE OUR DEAD OF THE GREAT WAR ARE LAID TO REST THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE’.
West Watford and Oxhey Garden and Allotment Society. The allotment site is Holywell once much bigger and in in 1900 extended across the road to Rose Gardens and Laurence Haines School are now.
Laurence Haines School. Primary School opened in 1972
Watford Stadium Station. Opened in 1982 by Elton John. Funded by the Football Trust, Watford Football Club and Watford Borough Council to try and ease congestion at football match times. Used only when the club were playing at home and including footpaths to take crowds away from residential areas. It had a single concrete platform and no shelters. It was closed when the line closed in the 1990s but remains in place although overgrown.
Railway bridge
Electric sub station
Holywell Farm. The site is now housing
Abattoir replaced Holywell Farm before the current housing was built

Willow Lane
On the line of Pest House Lane
Pest House. Ruins of the old Pest House said to be in the corner of the allotment site. It was in bad repair in 1754 and demolished in 1914
Willow Lane allotment. Given up in the 80's
Farm Terrace allotments. The second oldest site in Watford, set up in 1896
Lime kilns

Sources
Bygone Lines of the LNWR. Web site
Diamond Geezer. Web site
Disused Stations. Web site
Hertfordshire County Council. Web site
Lost Hospitals of London. Web site
St.James Road Baptist church. Web site
The Workhouse. Web site
Three River District Council. Web site
Watford Council, web site
Watford Printers Web site
Watford Stadium. Wikipedia. Web site
West Watford Christian Fellowship Church. Web site
West Watford History Group. Web site

Comments

Lynda said…
I've not heard of Cardiff Road being known as Pest House Lane, I think this was solely what is now Willow Lane.
The Red Lion Pub was part of the Colney Butts estate, along with the Watford Printers.
I've not heard of the Croxley Branch Line being known as the Harlequin Line (Harlequin being the former name of the main shopping centre), but stand to be corrected on that one.
Anonymous said…
'Harlequin' line is supposed to derive from Harlesden -Queens Park stations on that rail line. I too had never heard it reffered to in that way but apparently this was railway staff usage.

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