A story told at a Watford Methodist gathering the other evening concerned two circuit stewards meeting a new minister – whom neither knew – at a railway station.

There was no passenger alighting from a train wearing a clerical collar.

At length they approached a gentleman with the query: “Are you the new Methodist minister?” and received the unexpected reply: “No; it’s dyspepsia makes me look like this.”

Another story also concerned a new parson who had been at the church some months before he had visited all his members. Calling on one woman he observed: “I don’t think we’ve met before.” “O, yes we have,” replied the woman; “I heard you preach the first Sunday you were here six months ago and I’ve been ill ever since.”

[From the Watford Observer of October 29, 1937]

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