'They are worth preserving'

More true than ever these days, but it was also the case back in 1968 when there were proposals to demolish the Cassiobury Park Gates.

Many people were outraged but few more so than a teenage Watford Grammar School pupil.

Peter Holloway, of Garden Close, was so appalled at this vandalism that he placed a sign on the threatened gates (above) which appeared on the front page of the Watford Observer of April 26, 1968.

Over the following few days, the protester’s identity was discovered and the following week [May 3, 1968], under the heading Schoolboy makes a solitary stand, the Watford Observer ran a more detailed story.

It read: “The person who cared enough about the threatened destruction of the park gates to make his own personal protest is a 17-year-old Watford Grammar School pupil, Peter Holloway, of Garden Close.

“Peter says: ‘I am horrified over the possible demolition of OUR park gates,’ and was the person responsible for the ‘Hands Off Our Park Gates’ notice which appeared at the park entrance and was featured on the front page of last week’s Observer.

“The sign has now been removed.

“In addition to the sign, Peter has started a petition and he says that people he has approached so far about trying to save the lodge all seem very keen indeed. But he did object to the defeatist attitude of some of his school fellows.

“‘Too many people at school seem to say ‘You have got almost no chance of saving this so why bother,’’ he said. He believes fervently that every effort must be made to save the entrance lodge.

“Peter, who feels very strongly about the ‘faceless people’ who are ‘intent on destroying every piece of unspoilt countryside in England and every historical building one by one,’ also organised a petition objecting to the siting of the third London airport at Stansted.

“He is just one of the many correspondents who have written letters to the editor on the controversial park gates issue. This is what Peter has to say.

“‘Here in Watford we are faced with the rougish demolition of our park lodge gates, not so much through selfish capitalists as by engineers and planners working under the guise of what is known as progress. If progress entails leaving a wake of ghastly destruction behind it then it’s a pretty poor show...

“‘These lodge gates cannot be measured in pounds, shillings and pence, thank God. Think of the joy people have when passing by, or through, or just looking at these gates. They ARE worth preserving.

“‘What do I say in 15 years’ time when my child picks up a photograph of the gates and asks me where they are? My reply will be ‘buried long ago because your grandparents couldn’t be bothered to save them for you.’

“‘The vandalistic planners in Watford are fast creating an artificial concrete and plastic ‘1984’ atmosphere and we just stand here and watch.

“‘Come on you apathetic crowd. Rally together and save one of the few remaining pieces of beauty and history in the town for your children and your children’s children. It is a fact that those gates can be re-erected 50 yards further back. Dare anyone dismiss this letter as young sentiment.’” Sadly it was all in vain, as we all now know.

Four years later, in the Watford Observer of May 26, 1972, it wasn’t gates that was getting people hot under the collar but a film.

Ken Russell’s The Devils, starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, won an award for best foreign film at the Venice Film Festival, but its naked nuns and torture scenes were all a little too much for Watford, as the paper reports:

“Shocked local residents who saw The Devils this week in Watford are trying to get the film banned.

“A county councillor took a petition from local people to county hall yesterday in an effort to get the film banned by the local licensing committee.”

The report went on to say that the controversial film “is on at the Empire until tomorrow evening and has been doing good business all week.”

The report says one county councillor had been visited by a “deputation” of residents, claiming the film to be “pornographic and dangerous to teenagers”.

He is quoted in the report as saying: “I explained the film has been granted a Board of Film Censors’ X certificate for exhibition to adults only, and that the county council does not normally seek to express an opinion on films unless the board has previously refused a certificate, which in this case it had not done.”

Nonetheless, he went to see the film and was horrified enough to take up the cudgel on residents’ behalf.

He told a reporter: “It is pretty horrible,” adding: “Nothing shocks me; I have been around quite a lot, but this is something I could well do without.”

The film was described in its Watford Observer review at the time as “horrific, melodramatic, flamboyant, gruesome ... with sexual hysterics ... detailed torture scenes ... definitely not for the squeamish.”

Empire manager Victor Cheesewright said if people felt it was not their sort of film, they should stay away. Common sense, really.

Councillor Draper was not convinced however. “I don’t think this is entertaining,” he said. “I don’t think it teaches anybody anything. It is repulsive.”

Others agreed. It was banned by more than a dozen authorities up and down the country and even today, versions which exist are heavily cut. It has its champions, however. Film critic Mark Kermode has described it as “a fearsome, breathtaking masterpiece.”

ONLINE TOMORROW: Watford Observed - stories from Mays past