Time to throw open the column to readers this week and, once again, I must thank you for your continued support. Any extra information you can send about the stories we publish here in the Nostalgia pages is always useful and it’s always good to hear from you.
We start with last week’s picture of identical twins Lauren and Grace Cantle, then aged two, meeting their new-born brothers – also identical twins – Thomas Charles and James Philip from 1990.
Tom, one of the newborn babies, now aged 25, saw the picture and wrote: “It was great to see this in the Watford Observer, as I do not remember that photograph being taken or seeing the original article, being one of the newborns!”
“It may not surprise you that our parents didn’t have any more children,” he continued. “Out of the four of us, only I still live in Watford. James has moved to Sheffield to pursue a career as a mechanical engineer. My sisters, Lauren and Grace, have moved out to Aston Clinton and Edlesborough. Grace is a primary school teacher and Lauren has had the first of our next generation, a boy, Oliver, born on Saturday, April 25. She was very relieved that identical twins are non-hereditary!”
He also sent a picture of the four as they are today, which is printed here..
Incidentally, I also spoke to grandma Audrey Churchman, who was also pleased to see the picture as she hadn’t seen it before (the negative of the similar picture we published 25 years ago has gone missing so I published this one instead, taken at the same time but also featuring mum Alison).
A few weeks ago, we featured a piece about Elton John’s concert at Vicarage Road back in 1974 – the first pop concert to be held at a football league ground.
Following the report, I had an email from Jeanette Reynolds, who remembers the gig well.
“I attended the concert at Vicarage Road,” she wrote, “in fact I won a competition run by the Evening Echo. I received a signed Elton John T-shirt, an Elton John watch and tickets to the concert. I already had some, so my mum and dad attended in the stand.
“I have a great picture of EJ taken by an Evening Echo photographer, showing the open Vicarage Road end of the football ground. And yes I still have the T-shirt and watch."
Staying at Watford FC, I mentioned back on May 1 a medal discovered by a metal detectorist in 1989 which had been presented to a Mr E. Beevor for his part in the Herts County Cup winning team of 1891/92 when the team was still known as Watford Rovers. At the time, the finder was trying to track down a relative of Mr Beevor to return the medal to its rightful home.
Trefor Jones, the club’s historian, wrote to let me know that Mr Beevor’s first name, which I’d been unable to discover, was Edmund and that the medal was at the time (1989) owned by Ivor Rosenberg of Eros Watches and Jewellery in Borehamwood.
“I put him in touch with Sir Thomas Beevor, who was a grandson of Edmund’s older brother Sir Hugh, and I believe the outcome was Sir Thomas purchased the medal,” Mr Jones said.
Finally, a picture from VE Day (above), from Anthony Wildig.
He wrote: “Here is a photograph of my mother celebrating VE Day in London with two friends. There were Wrens with HMS Excellent. My mother is on the left, Hazel Wildig, nee Alexander, and had been a Watford resident all her life. I thought this captured the special moment 70 years ago.” So do I, Mr Wildig.
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