There was a guarded welcome from commuters this week for “new” trains on the local Watford to Euston service.

Most travellers agreed with British Rail that the underground style 313 carriages gave a smoother ride than the old “bonerattlers”. But there were complaints about the seats, the electric doors and the lack of ashtrays in the smokers’ compartments.

[From the Watford Observer of May 17, 1985]

 

Motorists have been helping themselves to petrol in Abbots Langley this week. But before you jump into your car in search of free fuel, heed this warning: You will have to pay for it!

The first of a chain of self-service petrol statings selling Apex petrol at 8d off for the top grades opened in Breakspear Road on Tuesday.

Customers help themselves and pay at a cash desk.

Commented Miss Joan Buchanan, an operator supervisor: “Motorists seem to be tickled at being able to serve themselves. They think it’s marvellous.”
The station requires only one attendant, a woman, who has the power to immobilise the pumps from her office by pressing a button.

This particular device is essential, for motorists may forget or neglect to put out their cigarettes on arrival.

[From the Watford Observer of May 28, 1965]

 

‘In no school in England – public, grammar, technical, comprehensive or even Borstal – do there exist four finer violinists than these four boys of Watford Grammar School.”

This was what Anthony Hopkins, the adjudicator in one of the string classes at Watford Music Festival and famous for his broadcasts on music for the BBC told four boys from Watford Grammar School.

The boys had won the Festival’s Open Chamber Music Ensemble Class and had carried off the Watford and District Music Festival Cup. They were Peter Gartrell (the leader), Stewart Field, David Pinchin and Nicholas Maxted-Jones. In the competition they had been accompanied by Andrew Davis.

They won with a concerto for four violins by Vivaldi.

[From the Watford Observer of May 25, 1962]

 

A security guard had to be rescued by firemen after being trapped in a lift for more than seven hours.

Mr John Boswell was working at the Harlequin Centre, High Street, Watford, when he became trapped in the lift at about 8pm on Friday evening.

He was noticed missing at about 3.30am the following morning after another guard failed to find him during routine checks.

Firemen from Watford were called to the centre, which is still being built in High Street, Watford, to free the fed-up guard.

One of the firefighters said they had to search the site for tools to build a makeshift handle to manually work the lift near the top of the building.

[From the Watford Observer of May 25, 1990]

 

On the instructions of the headmaster. Mr J S. Robinson, 20 boys and girls attending Hemel Hempstead Grammar School were sent home to surprised parents on Monday. The same course was adopted with another six on the following day. Their offences – failure to observe school uniform regulations.

Some of the boys had arrived wearing blue or cream shirts instead of the regulation grey, while in a number of other cases black jackets were being worn instead of the regulation blue. The girls, for their part, had been guilty of wearing “slip-on” type shoes instead of laced shoes or sandals, and stockings instead of socks that should be worn during the summer.

In a few other cases the girls had arrived without their panama hats.

[From the Watford Observer of May 24, 1957]

 

Odds better than 7-1 were offered by an insurance company when the Hertfordshire Agricultural Society wanted to cover themselves against really bad weather on the day of the Hertfordshire Show.

The society won their bet. Not only will they receive £1,000 for a premium of only £140, but the rain came too late to affect the success of the show.

The period covered was from 7.30am until 3.30pm on May 16, and by 3 o’clock when a heavy thunderstorm broke over the ground at Childwickbury, St Albans, 18,000 people had passed through the gates and the financial success of the show was already assured.

The rain recording, taken at Rothamsted Experimental Station and verified by three independent gauges, showed a fifth of an inch of rain had fallen during the eight-hour period and the policy guaranteed full payment for a tenth of an inch of rain or more.

[From the Watford Observer of May 24, 1957]

 

Unique attraction at Watford Public Library Hall this week is an exhibition of nearly 5,000 playing cards, many of them hundreds of years old.

They are part of the collection of Mr H.T. Morley, of Reading, a noted antiquarian. The cards are choice selections from the collection. There are fascinating exhibits from places as far afield as India, Persia, China and Tibet, and cards designed to express typical French satire. One complete set bears the music and words of Jon Gay’s “Beggar’s Opera” and another, from Austria, has the music of 1,001 waltzes.

The oldest cards on view come from Spain and are dated 1597. The smallest are painted on chicken skin and measure only six thirty-seconds by nine thirty seconds of an inch.

[From the Watford Observer of May 23, 1947]

 

Reports in the “Observer” that two Garston housewives claimed to have seen a “flying saucer” have brought forward a host of counter claims and theories.

The most startling came from the director of the British “Flying Saucer Review”, Mr Gordon Creighton of Cedars Avenue. Rickmansworth. Mr Creighton, who has made 10 broadcasts and television appearances in the past year on the subject of “unidentified flying objects” said he would not be surprised if the two housewives had witnessed a landing.

“We don’t think the public are coming forward and saying what they have seen,” Mr Creighton told an Observer reporter. “Some of them may be afraid. We do know from reports that there have been many such things seen in and around Watford.”

Mr Creighton said that he believed there had been landings in Chipperfield and in the Chilterns and he had heard reports that a flying saucer actually landed on Berkhamsted Common abut ten years ago.

Mr Creighton claims a lot of reports on flying saucers and other unidentified objects are “hushed up” by the Government. He also believes that similar reports are very carefully censored in the national press.

[From the Watford Observer of May 27, 1966]