St Albans. St Stephens

 

The system for workhouses in St Albans was a success. One result of this was that in 1725 St Stephens parish (just to the south of St Albans) decided to build a brick-built workhouse next to the almshouse. This tells us nothing about the almshouse except that it existed before that date.

Clutterbuck, writing in about 1827, recorded that three tenements belonged to the parish, in which poor persons were permitted to reside. One was at Park Street, a mile to the south east of St Stephens. The other two were at Smallford, a couple of miles to the east of St Albans.

Victoria County History mentions an unknown donor’s charity. The parish formerly possessed three tenements at Smallford and one at Park Street, known as the Parish House. The property at Smallford was sold in 1836, the proceeds being applied towards the erection of the Union workhouse. The Park Street property was also sold in 1836 for £200 following a Vestry order. The resulting income from the interest was applied in augmentation of the Coal Clubs of the ecclesiastical districts of St. Stephen’s, Holy Trinity Frogmore, Colney Heath, and Leavesden.

References

The History & Antiquities of the County of Hertford, by Robert Clutterbuck
Page 235
Printed by and for John Bowyer Nichols, 25 Parliament Street, London. 1827

The Victoria County History of the County of Hertford, Ed William Page
Vol 2 p 43.
Issued Archibald Constable & Co. 1908. Reprint by Dawsons of Pall Mall 1971 ISBN 0 7129 0476 X
This publication been digitised by British History Online (BHO) and is available online at https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol2/pp424-432

www.workhouses.org.uk/StAlbans. Website accessed Nov 2021