Sales fever hit Watford High Street on Saturday with thousands of people queueing for Blue Cross Day at Clements department store.

When the doors opened shortly before 8.30am, the queue, brandishing a colourful array of umbrellas, stretched for almost 200 yards along the High Street.

Shoppers rushed into the store when the central doors were unlocked. By nine o’clock, 10,000 people had poured in.

[From the Watford Observer of February 1, 1985]