WHILE working on the series Watford and SW Herts in the 20th Century, it was sad to reflect a substantial amount of Watford’s pictorial heritage was lost in the 1970s. Dick (Richard) Greville told me that, in the early 1970s, when they had to leave their studios in Queens Road, they were in the process of moving out their negatives and files when they were informed the date had been brought forward for demolition to the Monday.

“We had the weekend to try and rescue as much as we could but we could not hope to clear it all. A lot of old pictures and negatives were lost,” he said.

Fortunately, most of Greville’s work was of a commercial nature – weddings, portraits and such – and most of the photographs commissioned by the Watford Observer, made up the Greville Collection now housed in Watford Library.

However, you would expect newspaper proprietors to be more aware of the heritage over which they preside. When Home Counties Newspapers, who no longer exist, closed down the West Herts (Watford) Post in 1970, the last issue had hit the streets.

I had worked on the newspaper for eight years and always joked, if the newspaper closed down, the Watford Observer would hear it first. I revere those days on the Post as I cut my journalistic teeth but the company was always thinking about the bottom line, husbanding the costs with eagle eyes yet even so it was hard to see how the newspaper broke even.

I started at £3-15s a week (£3.75) in 1960 as a probationary reporter and then signed three years indentures during which time my weekly salary rose to £16 per week. The sports editor earned some £3 more so it became apparent to me that I was never going to have a very good life style on such wages and I briefly flirted with the idea of bringing home a more sizeable pay-check. I went into computers, which was the coming thing in those days and worked on an Emidec at EMI. Manchester Square, off Baker Street for six months,.

The idea was that I would become a programmer but it was after a couple of months into the job, colleagues asked me if I had any cuttings from my journalistic days. I happened to have a cuttings book, took it in one day and they laughed and enthused over my work.

That reaction caused me to doubt the wisdom of leaving something I enjoyed and choosing a career that I found boring but relatively well paid. The longer I worked at EMI, the more bored I became and eventually I started looking for work back in journalism. A former colleague tipped me off there was a vacancy back at the West Herts Post and I quickly applied and was welcomed back.

“How do we know you really mean it when you come back here?” I was asked at the interview.

I replied to the effect that having told the Editor I was off to earn some proper money, it takes something to come back with the tail between my legs and ask for a job at the old rate.

I worked at the Post for another four years, during which I was promoted to sports editor. Then I was offered a post at the Watford Observer with a few extra projects to tackle, so I moved there.

One Thursday morning after I had moved to the Watford Observer, I was told they had heard the Post was closing. I telephoned former colleagues who knew nothing but revealed the Group MD was heading their way that afternoon.

The announcement was duly made and so many of my former colleagues, including a few friends who I have remained in contact with for years, were looking for jobs.

The next morning a skip arrived at the back of the West Herts and Watford Post Offices on The Parade. Two workmen then proceeded to spend the day clearing out the attic and all the negatives and all the old glass plates, stretching back many years, were dumped, lost forever.

It was a terrible unthinking and inconsiderate example of corporate vandalism, perpetrated in an effort to get the offices rented out as quickly as possible. The bottom line was always what they were all about: the communication with readers was paramount in the minds of the journalists but as for the bosses, that was never on the agenda.

So much for responsibility to the community.

Happily, by 1950, the Watford Observer was taking control of its own pictures and the negatives resided at their High Street offices or at their new headquarters in Rickmansworth Road where they moved 1962-63, even though they used freelance photographers up until the 1970s.

As a result the new book, Watford in the 20th Century – SW Herts in 1960-1979, contains over 300 photographs from the era, the majority of which are from the newspaper’s archives. Priced at £12.99 the book is out on October 3.