Fairfield Park

Fairfield Park is built on 253 acres that formed part of the Three Counties Psychiatric and Fairfield Hospitals that closed in 1999 following changes to the provision of mental health nationally.

The hospital itself dates back to 1860 and was the subject of a preservation order in 1985 by English Heritage who declared it a Grade II listed building. Huts were added to cater for the emergency declared in the war years and Fairfield Hospital was built in the grounds at act as an isolation hospital for the tuberculosis outbreak. The order also covered the grounds and thanks to this it has meant that the architects have had to keep the Victorian charm to streets and house frontages as well as incorporating the mature woodland and shrubs that existed.

The original developers hived off sections of the area and the hospital restoration to a consortium of building companies. The hospital has been converted into apartments while the outbuildings and farmhouse have also been restored and converted for residential use.

Originally, it was intended that Fairfield Park was to become a "new village" but Stotfold Council then suggested that the Park came under its umbrella and this was agreed by planners.

Large-scale new development planning applications include what is known as "section 106" agreements under the Town and Country Planning Act. In effect this means the provision of certain social amenities as well as carrying out transport improvements. For Fairfield Park this has included the pedestrian/cycle underpass that links Fairfield Park with Stotfold, the building of a School, a sports hall comprising two badminton courts and many play areas and green open spaces.

1. A detailed background to the Fairfield Park development can be downloaded here. (pdf)
2. Records on the Fairfield Park site date back to 800BC (see The Big Dig 2002)
3. No ghosts are recorded in the history of Three Counties Hospital but there is a murder, a hospital chaplain who married a girl 40 years his junior, and the wartime and post war-time records of the hospital. Huts became an evacuation centre for the Royal Free Hospital in London and while Fairfield Hospital was built as an isolation unit for the tuberculosis outbreak for the London Chest Hospital. (see Three Counties and Fairfield Hospital).