‘Who was Joe the Rag-slasher?” asked a questioner of Mr Godfrey Cornwall, who gave a detailed account of 19th Century Rickmansworth when he spoke at the county library on Thursday to residents interested in forming a historical society.

Mr Cornwall was unable to answer this particular problem, but he did dilate at some length on the history of the Mill End gravel-bashers, a talented drum and fife ensemble who gave their last performance as recently as 1936.

[From the Watford Observer of May 28, 1954]

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