Another fascinating aspect of the cottages relates to Astley House at No. 138. In 1826 it was demolished and converted into the West Herts Infirmary, effectively the country’s first cottage hospital ‘for the gratuitous relief of the necessitous poor’. Sir Astley Paston Cooper (1768-1841) an eminent surgeon and anatomist who lived at nearby Gadebridge House was a key founder of the infirmary. In 1820 his private patients included the Duke of Wellington and George IV, who later made him a baronet after having a successful operation.
Author: B Hunt