Rickmansworth police are looking for the “Great Sarratt Wheel-Wobbler” and some of the local ladies would like to give him a piece of their mind as well...

A gentleman patrolling Sarratt Road between the village and Croxley Green has been flagging down lady car drivers and informing them their rear offside wheel is coming off.

One victim, Mrs Joyce Styles, of Great Sarratt Hall Farm, takes up the story...

“I was driving along when there was a flashing of lights behind me. I pulled up and was told by this man that my back wheel was falling off and I should either change it or limp back home. I drove back to the village at ten miles an hour and the next day went to John Biggerstaff’s garage and asked him if he could do something about the back wheel.

“I was greeted with: ‘Oh no! Not another one!’ Apparently several women drivers had been flagged down and there was nothing wrong with any of the wheels.”

A spokesman for the garage said: “One lady had ignored the flashing lights only to be overtaken and forced to a halt. The matter has been reported to the police.”

There was, however, an amusing tailpiece. Mrs Styles’s son, Mr Richard Styles, was driving a lorry load of bricks to the village the next day.

“I was flagged down and warned not to take the direct route to Sarratt because there was a big lorry stuck across Sarratt Road,” said Mr Styles, who is managing director of Peter Mobbs Ltd. “I told him: ‘I’ve heard it all before, sunbeam’ and told him where to go.”

Mr Styles continued to Sarratt only to find that round the corner, the road was blocked “by the biggest lorry I’ve ever seen!”

[From the Watford Observer of March 23, 1979]

ONLINE TOMORROW: Coffins found by workmen at car park site

This story formed part of the Nostalgia column first published in the Watford Observer on March 7, 2014. The next Nostalgia column can be found in this week’s Watford Observer (dated March 14, 2014 and available in newsagents now, priced just 90p) or read online here from 4pm on Thursday.

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