Evidence that wolves once lived in Watford has recently been brought to light by dredging of the River Colne in Oxhey Park, writes Arthur Boyt.

Mixed with the silt heaped on the bank were bones, some of which had lain for centuries undisturbed on the bed of the river. One bone, a lower jaw or mandible, was identified by the Natural History Museum as belonging to a small wolf, probably a female.

The mandible is very well preserved, it has lost only a very few teeth and is 7½ inches long (a fox’s manible would be about 4½ins).

The animal it came from weighed between 60 and 70lb. Foxes weigh about 10 or 15lb.

It is not possible to tell how old it is without destroying it in a carbon dating test, but as it is not mineralised, it is not likely to be older than the end of the last glaciation – 50,000 years ago – and, as wolves were exterminated in England during the reign of Henry VII, it must be at least 500 years old.

It is a great shame that excavations of the river bed are done without someone present who can appreciate the value of objects disturbed in this way. The riverbed holds a unique collection of Watford’s historic and pre-historic existence. It should not be ravaged willy-nilly.

Officials responsible for Watford’s rivers should realise the value of what lies in those rivers and, if possible, arrange for aomeone to be on hand from local archeological or natural history societies when dredging work is done.

The jaw, along with many of the other bones, is to be given to the public library.

[From the Watford Observer of March 29, 1974]