Massacre in Pets’ Corner

19 animals were attacked and killed in the recently opened Pets’ Corner of Leavesden Hospital when intruders broke into the enclosure on Saturday night. Youths were seen running away from the enclosure and out of the hospital grounds. Largely responsible for the building and stocking of the Pets’ Corner, Mr John Robbins broke down and wept as he surveyed the pathetic heap of small bodies.

[June 4, 1971]

Woolworth store closing

One of the largest stores in Rickmansworth, F.W. Woolworth in the High Street, is to close down on June 19, because of the new store in Watford. Woolworth are trying to get rid of their old image of a penny-an-item store. Explained Mr L. Gill, deputy assistant district manager: “It is company policy to build bigger, better and brighter stores. We want to provide shops which have a wide range of higher-priced goods.

[June 4, 1971]

Thrills and spills

Hundreds of people crowded into Rickmansworth Aquadrome on Bank Holiday Monday to see the many events in the Aqua ’71 show, the major event of Rickmansworth Week. The demonstration of jumping by the Metroparas, the Metropolitan Parachute team, stole the show.

[June 4, 1971]

Race demos

Watford Race Relations Committee chairman, Councillor Sam Deakin, has hit out at what he calls “a load of cranks” who have threatened to hold anti-immigration demonstrations in the town. The threat comes from the South Herts Branch of the National Front, who say they are considering large scale leafletting, motorcades and public meetings as demonstrations against what they describe as “the town council’s willingness to abandon its responsibilities to the indigenous population.”

[June 11, 1971]

Clock moves

There are times when, in order to move with the times, it becomes necessary to move time. Well, that would appear to be what has happened at Cawdells Watford High Street store. The company are in the process of refurbishing their frontage, and as part of this “facelift” they have removed the large clock which has been a feature of the frontage for more years than many can remember.

[June 18, 1971]

Swearing

Bad and blasphemous language is more widely and more openly in vogue nowadays than ever it was even a few years ago. It’s the “in” thing now, like antiestablishmentarianism, nudity and cut-price marketeering. Is TV responsible for the growing popularity of swearing and the like? Probably.

[June 18, 1971]

Dogs’ day out

It was dogs’ day at Campions, Croxley Green, on Saturday – probably better described as the canine version of “It’s a Knockout”. A large attendance of dog lovers turned up with a variety of breeds from the biggest shaggy sheepdogs to the fastest wagging tail dachshund. Surprisingly enough, the great congregation of barking guests behaved very well throughout the afternoon.

[June 18, 1971]

Shopping complex

The uncertain saga of a proposed new district centre for Bushey took another step forward when the London Transport Board applied for planning permission for a shopping complex at Meadow Studios, near the bottom of Clay Hill. The proposed plan for the 60,000 square feet site comprises a two-storey building containing an unresolved number of shops and a library, and a public car park.

[June 25, 1971]

Lassie

Lassie, the border collie, first made the news in 1969, when her sad-looking picture appeared in the Watford Observer under the heading: “To be destroyed – nobody wants her.” But somebody did want her, and on Saturday at Abbots Langley Youth and Community Fete, nine-year-old Deborah McLoughlin proudly led a very different Lassie forward to receive first prize in the junior section of the pet show.

[June 25, 1971]

What was happening in the world in June 1971?

• The satellite Kosmos 426 is launched by the Soviet Union for the purpose of studying charged particles and radiation in the Earth’s magnetosphere (June 4)

• King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand celebrates his Silver Jubilee (June 9)

• The US ends its trade embargo of China (June 10)

• A student rally on the streets of Mexico City is repressed by the authorities, leading to the Corpus Christi Massacre in which 120 people died (June 10)

• The 19-month occupation of Alcatraz by the group Indians of All Tribes ends when government officers removed the remaining 15 people from the island (June 11)

• The New York Times begins to publish the Pentagon Papers, a history of the United States’ political-military involvement in Vietnam (June 13)

• In defiance of a government ban, members of the Protestant Orange Order march through the largely Catholic town of Dungiven, Northern Ireland, causing a riot (June 13)

• The first Hard Rock Café opens in London (June 14)

• Australia’s Experimental Military Unit is withdrawn from Vietnam (June 16)

• The Mayor declares a state of emergency in Columbus, Georgia, following disturbances which broke out after a civil rights protest march (June 19)

• Assassin Jerome A. Johnson shoots Joe Colombo, the boss of the Colombo crime family in New York, in the middle of an Italian-American rally, putting him in a coma (June 28)

• Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are sentenced on drug offences (June 29)

• The crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve (June 30)