Hundreds of years ago was there a river running parallel with Melbourne Road, Bushey, and crossing the main road near the Congregational Church?

This is the interesting geological problem raised by discoveries during the work of shoring up the fabric of Bushey Congregational Church required by a subsidence in September, when the building suddenly sank some six inches in the south-east corner.

The Church Secretary, Mr G. Roberts, who has always taken a great interest in geology, [said] that Watford is built on chalk with local gravels, and Bushey on London clay, also with local gravels but of different origin. Grange Road appears to mark the separating line between the two formations.

The Bushey clay reaches its peak at the junction of Bushey Heath and Stanmore at a height of 500ft above sea level, at which point there exists an extensive capping of gravel known to geologists as drift or plateau gravel.

The present Congregational Church, near the junction of the High Street and Melbourne Road, was built in 1904 and was the third on the same site. Both the others, it is significant to mention, collapsed for some unexplained reason.

“The land is pure London clay – not a bad subsoil,” said Mr Roberts. “But ever since the church was built we have had recurring trouble with cracking walls and minor subsidences, and we had to underpin one corner of the building some years ago, but that was done satisfactorily. During the last two or three years there have been cracks in the south-west walls. We did not worry greatly about it, concluding it was the natural shrinkage of the clay as the result of the long period of dry weather. We carried out certain repairs, bonded-up bricks and such like.

“But in September the south-east wall simply bulged out. There were huge cracks in the wall, bricks nearly fell out, windows almost came out, the organ tilted, the big arch gave signs of disturbance and the pastor’s vestry looked like a wrecked room. It all happened very suddenly and the effect was somewhat startling.

“The report of the engineers revealed a subsidence at the south-east corner of something like six inches, and they recommended a series of 17 concrete piles driven down vertically on which steel girders would rest. These piles would lie immediately beneath the walls which show the defects as the result of the subsidence.

“Thus the weight of the church in its weakest part would rest on the piles driven some 22ft into the clay.

“When the contractors were boring for these piles I took careful record of the soil,” Mr Roberts proceeded. “To a depth of 3ft was ordinary loam, but certain of the borings showed that below the soil there existed fine gravel and sand to a depth, in some cases, of 7ft. The gravel ran in a definite line almost the whole length of the south-east wall, which suggested to me a very old river at this spot. How old? Why, hundreds of years probably. It was a fairly wide stream at this point, probably 12 to 15ft.

“The course of the river was apparently parallel with Melbourne Road, then by the side of the present London Road for a little way, crossing above our Congregational Church and upwards as the contour rises to its probable source at Bushey Heath from underneath the gravels. How do you account for the existence of these gravels? They were probably denuded by rivers from the west, and over the course of centuries redistributed in these parts. The gravel found in the river course corresponds with the plateau gravel at Bushey Heath.

“It contains quartz pebbles, probably from the west of England, and flint pebbles once forming part of the Reading beds below the London clay and redistributed at a later period above the clay.”

[From the Watford Observer of February 9, 1935]

Watford Observer: Mrs Kathleen Trigg with the surprise gift from Princess Anne

A piece of Princess Anne’s wedding cake was delivered to Coltspring Riding Stables, near Sarratt, on Wednesday [February 13, 1974].

Mrs Kathleen Trigg, wife of the proprietor, told the Watford Observer: “It was such a surprise. When the postman handed me this small parcel I wondered what on earth it could be. I was thrilled.”

The Triggs are members of the Riding for the Disabled Association, of which Princess Anne is patron and, with their young riders from Watford Spastics Centre, were among those who contributed toward a wedding present for the Princess.

Says Mrs Trigg: “The association gave her a lovely eight-sphere candelabrum in sterling silver and siver gilt.”

With the wedding cake – a sizeable chunk – was a letter from the Master of the Household, Peter Ashman, which read: “Her Royal Highness the Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips have asked that the enclosed wedding cake be sent to you and would be grateful if you would distribute it, with their best wishes, amongst those working for the Riding for the Disabled Association.”

[From the Watford Observer of February 15, 1974]

These stories formed part of the Nostalgia column first published in the Watford Observer on February 7, 2014. The next Nostalgia column – a Valentine's Day special featuring a lovesick ghost, a heart-shaped bed and a recipe for Cupid's Cake, among many other things – can be found in this week’s Watford Observer (dated February 14, 2014 and available in newsagents now, priced just 90p) or read online here from 4pm on Thursday.

If you have anything to add – or would like to tell us anything you think our readers may enjoy about Watford’s history – we are always pleased to hear from you. Contact Nostalgia, by clicking here watfordnostalgia@london.newsquest.co.uk