Paranormal Investigations Ltd

Thomas Meadows was born in the early 18th century and was a Trustee of the Watford Free school founded by Dame Elizabeth Fuller to which he granted £400- approx £50,000 at todays rate. This became the Watford Grammer Schools that exist today. He lived at Watford House, the location of which is now under TJ Hughes store in Watford.

Watford house 

In 1781 after the death of Thomas Meadows, a curious Mausoleum was then built for his body to be moved to however it is not known if this ever happend we are looking into this. It consisted of a chamber approximately 9x9ft with a pyramid 25ft high on top. There were two chambers joined by a small corridoor leading off from the rear where the furthermost chamber was apparently an ice house. As can be seen from the pictures, it is a strange marriage of burial chamber and ice house, a worrying prospect for the poor servant sent to collect ice. The picture below shows the entrance to the Mausoleum.

The entrance to Thomas Meadow's Mausoleum, built 1781

Below are the plans drawn by P W R LYON dated 1929. The plans and the photos were drawn up and taken just before the mausoleum was dismantled in 1930. The reason given for the pyramid to be levelled was that it had become dangerous and children were playing inside the structure. When the Palace of Varieties was built in 1908,  the back wall was on a strange alignment owing to the position of the Mausoleum, later this was rectified when the modern day Palace Theatre was extended and the remains of the Mausoleum ended up below the new stage.

The plans drawn by P W R LYON 1929.

 The pyramid was 25ft high above groud but the rest was underground with the ice chamber at the rear. The structure was on a north east - south west  alignment and approximatly 60ft long by 10ft wide.The east and west walls both had a single alcove presumably for statues or urns. The main entrance was in the north wall and the entrance to the middle chamber was down 5 steps through an arch in the south wall. By  zooming in on the photo of the entrance, an arch leading to the middle chamber can be made out.

A Post card from 1929

The Text

A post card sent to us by watford museum showing the mausaleum in 1929 just prior to being pulled down.This structures location is at present under the palace theaters stage. The Palace Theater has reportedly got a ghost, the origin of which is not known ,but believed to be a women who fell from a lighting gantree.

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