apart, separate wards had to be built away from each other. Jones’s design
incorporated all of these requirements - but who was going to build it?
There were eleven tenders from builders nationwide to construct the
new asylum, the only local builder to tender was Jeeves of Hitchin, who
Estimated a cost of £73,786 – but this was far too expensive.
William Webster of Boston Lincolnshire put in a tender to the sum
of £53,626. He was not the cheapest but Webster had worked with
George Fowler Jones on the Fulbourn Asylum in Cambridgeshire and
there is evidence that Jones had “Put In A Good Word” for Webster by
recommending him to the committee. After a meeting it was decided to
award the contract to Webster on the understanding that the commissioners
in Lunacy agreed. They did, and William Webster was awarded the contract.
Webster first built three or four cottages opposite the asylum build site,
these would be for his workforce to live in during the construction. By the 1st
May 1857 Webster had set up his workshops
and sheds along the east side of Stotfold Road.
Following a short ceremony the chairman of the
visiting committee, Marlborough Pryor, turned
the first sod of soil and work on the new asylum
began virtually straight away. Webster employed
many local tradesmen on a sub-contract
basis, these were watched over by a building
committee headed by Marlborough Pryor.
The work schedule slowed down when it was
found that the footings for the asylum had to
be dug down a further two feet. This was due
to the unsteady gravel nature of the soil. The
asylum was going to be a large construction,
and if this work was not carried out it would not
have been long before subsidence would have
occurred. The asylum was built mainly with
bricks from the Arlesey brick works, Arlesey and
the surrounding villages were expanding at the
time and unfortunately the brick ground could
not keep up with supplying the asylum. Tthis was
slowing down the schedule so Webster being a
very resourceful man, built his own small brick
making plant, on site.
Above: Marlborough Prior
With the building work fully under way the
committee looked at how to serve the asylum with a fresh sufficient supply of
water, as this was not looked at in great detail at the time of purchasing the
land. It was estimated that 21,600 gallons of water would be needed to supply
the asylum, per 24 hours, but after several bores it was soon discovered that
the lands natural well would not supply nearly enough so in July 1857 the
reverend James Clutterbuck was called in to see if he could do anything to
increase the water supply. Clutterbuck was an amateur geologist who was
known for so