Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it, wrote novelist LM Montgomery.

But how often have you sat with a relative or elderly neighbour as they reminisce about what life was like in Watford, telling you fascinating details about when Cassiobury Park still had its gates, you could drive a car all the way down the High Street and then afterwards struggled to remember the delicate details they wove into their anecdote?

Well now a team of dedicated volunteers has set about ensuring that these precious visions of our town’s past do not slip away forever.

They have been busy gathering stories for Watford’s newly established Audio History Archive, part of recently launched website ourwatfordhistory.org.uk produced by Watford Museum.

And it is being launched with a special exhibition entitled Memories, held as part of Watford Live!, where you can hear some of the recordings and see accompanying photographs and historical artefacts.

The project was possible thanks to £6,800 funding to Watford Live! from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and to prepare them the volunteers to have special oral history training.

The Our Watford History website has information stretching from the 12th Century to the present day and includes the former Watford Junction website, but for their audio project the volunteers decided to start by focussing on stories from life in Watford in the 40s and 50s.

They interviewed the West Watford residents memories group at West Watford Community Association and the West Watford History Society and subjects included wartime, shops, markets, school, social clubs, healthcare, sweets, TV and music.

The memories they have preserved include charming tales of meeting girls at dances held at Watford Town Hall every Saturday during the Second World War, “You could fit 750 couples in there”; the North Watford Odeon Cinema in St Albans Road being built, “I remember going with my brother and seeing this huge hole for the foundations and being terrified I would fall in”; and playing in Cassiobury Park: “We used to walk past the peace memorial hospital by the library and find it quite a joke to look at the statues of the men from the war because none of them had clothes on which to a 10-year-old boy was highly amusing”.

Ian Niven from Watford Live! says of the project: “Audio history gives a voice to the individual that conventional history cannot – it conveys feelings and emotions as well as preserving local dialects and accents.

“It was a fascinating project for us, and for the participants it was a way of sharing a part of their lives with the community.

“We hope that by working in partnership with the museum we have kick-started a wonderful archive of the voices of Watford, filled with memories and experiences of locals, and newcomers, young ones, older ones and even the inbetweeners – reflecting the rich diversity that makes up our town today.”

It is hoped that more people will come forward to record their own memories of life in the town for the archive, which is available to hear on the website.

  • Watford Museum, Lower High Street, Watford, until July 4. Details: 01923 232297, watfordmuseum.org.uk