The history of Folly Island begins in the
days of William the Conqueror when a mill
was built on the site of a priory close
to modern day Priory Street. In 1636 it was
relocated down stream to where the Dicker
Mill Industrial Estate is today as other mills
closer to the centre of town took more water
for their own workings.
A 1700 map of Hertford shows Folly island
as an open
space between the two branches of the Lea
and split into three separate parcels of land;
Old Hall Mead (Old Hall Street is named after
this), Little Hartham and Priory Orchard,
now cultivated as allotments.
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The earliest recorded use of the 'the Folly' (the street called The Folly runs from Folly Bridge to the crossroads with Thornton Street) was in 1732 when Little Hartham was conveyed by Thomas Ashby to John Nicholson and referred to as 'Ashby's Folly; that small piece of land was later to be the site for a militia hospital and a dumping ground for the waste from Hertford goal.
The transfer of the lease to Nicholson signalled a dramatic increase in the development of commercial interests on the adjoining stretch of the island. Late nineteenth century maps show an abundance of malthouses, timber mills and warehousnig operations.
The Lea was the dominant inland route for the transport of malt and barley, tapping into some of the richest barley country in Hertfordshire, most especially around Ware, Hoddesdon and Stanstead Abbotts. Ware prospered to become the centre of England's malting industry.
Much of the evidence for this activity has perished beneath modern house building and commercial development. Old malting firms and timber companies have long deserted Hertford but McMullens brewery remains at its Hartham Lane premises.
The Navigation Act of 1738 was of such importance to the prosperity of Hertford that the corporation paid ten shillings for the bells to be rung. It enabled the then mill stream to be widened and navigation improved to allow barges right into the centre of Hertford and alongside the mills rather than along the course of the old river.
Although it was essential for the malt to be transported down to London the Lea also opened up opportunities for barge owners to return from London with coal, dung to fetilise the market gardens along what is now the A10 corridor; and animal feed for the continuing reliance on horse drawn transport.
For many years the only access to Folly island was over a footbridge at Bull Plain. Mill owners successfully apllied for the widening of the bridge to allow carts but the high sides still made getting goods off the island easier by barge than by road. Folly Bridge remains the only road access to the island today; the only way on for cars and the only way off.
The narrowness of the bridge was as much
the reason for the decline in the Folly as
a trading centre as the coming of the railways.
Movement by barge was still far cheaper but
the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 had reduced
the price of corn and encouraged large landowners
to sell
off land to commuters that craved the greener
fields of Hertfordshire.
Folly Island has now been designated a Local Conservation Area and lime trees planted along Thornton Street recreate an original feature from the end of the last century. Freed from commercial pressures Folly Island can be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike; be they boat owners, fishermen or walkers.
© John Barber - this article was published
in Hertfordshire Countryside November 1998.
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