Life was not so dusty for the good folk of Rickmansworth way back in the mid 1920s, thanks to the antics of the town’s two dustmen – Messrs Rivet and Cornwall.

They performed their duties well, but they also brought many a smile to the populace.

For instance, at a Parliamentary election in 1927, where the local candidates were Mr Dennis Herbert and Mr Herman Macdonald, the dustmen appeared in frock coats, top hats, spats and sporting carnations as “Lord Dusty” and his agent.

The dustcart horse wore a top hat and on the side of the cart was the call “Vote For Lord Dusty”, who will “arrange for your ashes to be shifted”.

On polling day, the dustcart carried a tin trunk marked “ballot box”.

On another occasion, Messrs Rivet and Cornwall had a grand piano on the dustcart with Cornwall, known as the Singing Dustman, rendering Welsh folk songs. Hanging to the cart was a rolled umbrella and a copy of The Times newspaper, plus the notice “Something in the City”.

Then there was the time when Rivet lolled in a hammock slung across the cart, while Cornwall sang “Now the Day is Over” although it was only seven o’clock in the morning.

During one heatwave, the dustmen wore tropical gear, plus pith helmets, while the horse sheltered under a parasol.

Fleet Street photographers couldn’t resist a picture, so Rickmansworth made the front pages.

Of course St David’s Day was always a special occasion for the dusty duet – time to dress up and sing.

There was loads of rubbish and loads of frivolity. But Rickmansworth’s rumbustious dustmen did not let their fun and games interfere with the standard of their work.

Why, when old Dobbin went into the blacksmith’s to be reshod, the two heroes pulled the dustcart themselves. Could you ask for greater devotion to duty?

(From the John How Recalls... column. published in the Watford Observer of April 27, 1990)