'An unnecessary act of vandalism'

One person who was particularly interested to read the full story (now available to see online if you missed it – click HERE) was Peter himself, now 63 and living in Cheshire.

He wrote: “I well remember my efforts to save the splendid gates at the Rickmansworth Road entrance to Cassiobury Park, including my nocturnal visit to position the placard, which you feature, in the flowerbed in front of the gates imploring Watford residents to save them.

“In fact, the campaign went further than this and 300 signatures were collected for a petition to the council demanding the gates be preserved through dismantling them brick by brick and rebuilding them further back inside the park.

“In 1970, however, the gates were demolished and as far as I know the building materials were disposed of. It was an act of vandalism and, since Rickmansworth Road was never widened to the extent originally planned, probably unnecessary.

“The gates made a wonderfully distinctive entrance to the park and gave residents a small reminder of the glory that had once been Cassiobury House. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that they were one of the emblematic symbols of the town.”

He continued: “In some respects we have become more aware of our heritage and value it more than we did in those days, but this government’s approach to planning, all too often permitting developments which override the wishes of local communities, is of great concern.

“I am enclosing a photograph which my great uncle, Owen Weller, took of the Cassiobury Park Gates in August 1899, when he was 18, which your readers may like to see.

“Owen Weller was the eldest of four brothers born in the 1880s at 86, Estcourt Road, Watford. Philip Weller died in his late teens, Adrian Weller entered the family estate agency business, W S Weller & Son, and was a well-known Watford figure for many years. George Weller was killed at Gallipoli in 1915.

“Owen Weller was educated at Watford Endowed School (later Watford Grammar School) and then at Lynton House School, Witney. He attended the school at Witney with Arthur Gough. The firm W S Weller collected rents for Clifford & Gough for the cottages they built in Watford.

“Owen Weller took an engineering degree in Glasgow University. He travelled to India in 1904 and worked on the Eastern Bengal State Railway. Later, he lived and worked in Kenya where he died in 1948.

“As a boy, Owen was a keen photographer and some of his first photographs were taken when he was 16, on a ‘guinea pocket Kodak’ camera. He was also a very keen cyclist and member of the Cyclist’s Touring Club. At the age of 17, in May or June 1898, he toured Wales by bicycle, visiting Barmouth, Aberystwyth, Wrexham and Hawarden.”

Bob Palmer, named at last.

Last month, we featured a picture story from 1977 which featured a barrel tossing contest at The Grapevine pub, in Heysham Drive, South Oxhey.

Although we named the winner as Garry Bunning, it wasn’t him we featured in our picture. But as the person in that original picture wasn’t named in 1977, we couldn’t name him in our article. But we can now.

The gentleman whose picture is printed again above is Bob Palmer.

His daughter, Amanda, wrote: “Your Nostalgia page on April 11 features a picture of a barrel throwing contest at The Grapevine. The man pictured is my father, Bob Palmer. My dad passed away three years ago from COPD so seeing him in the paper, a picture none of our family have seen before, was very touching. Not a day goes by when we don’t all miss him.”

Another sporting triumph featured in the past month or so was Watford’s first ever wheelchair pancake race, in March 1981. As our story demonstrated, complete with a picture, it was a close finish but at the finish, Watford FC manager Graham Taylor and wheelchair-bound Neil McDonald were pipped by the club’s “explosive talent” Luther Blissett and his wheelchair partner Brian Hunter.

But it wasn’t the wheelchair race our correspondent was interested in.

Further down the story, it said: “In the traditional race, Watford full-back Keith Pritchett repeated his 1979 pancake race victory to win four bottles of wine, £10 from Jif and tickets for Baileys, the Odeon and Watford Palace Theatre.

“He will be presented with the Jif bronze frying pan at Saturday’s match against Cardiff.” And it was Keith who wrote in.

He wrote: “My name is Keith Pritchett, two time winner of the pancake race.

“I have used the story down the years with friends and family alike. Now, with your article, I have the documented evidence. Brilliant.”

He continued: “I remember the races being competitive and you had to toss the pancake three times during the run. My tactic was to do that in the first 20 yards and then go for it.

“We live in New Zealand now and the brass pan was left at my parents’ home when we moved. It took pride of place hanging in our kitchen in Abbots Langley.”

Regular correspondent Ernie Mackenzie comments about the “absurd behaviour” of Watford FC fans dancing in the pond fountain when Watford achieved promotion in 1969, as featured in the column last month.

He writes: “This story reminded me of an anecdote told to me by my late, dear friend Reg Cox who worked for Dumbleton the butcher as a delivery man with horse and cart in the late 1920s.

“Reg said on one of his delivery routes it took him from Dumbletons, whose shop was in Lower High Street, then right along Ricky Road.

“Reg said a regular thing on this trip was for him and the horse to have something to eat and drink when reaching the pond.

“On this particular day, Reg put the nosebag on the horse for her lunch. After finishing the nosebag, Reg then led her to the water for a drink.

“In those days the pond had a slipway at one end specially designed for horses to enter and drink from the water’s edge.

“While the horse was drinking, Reg decided to have a roll-up cigarette. When he turned round to see if she had finished drinking, to his horror, he saw she had decided to travel to the centre of the pond where the water was about three feet deep.

“Reg said it was no good rolling his trouser legs up because the water would have come up to near his waist, so he decided to remove his butcher’s apron and trousers, then wade in to guide her back to dry land.

“When he reached her in the middle of the pond, he checked on the contents of the cart and was shocked to see meat and sausages floating about.

“Reg said when he got her back to dry land, he dried off the meat and sausages with his apron and carried on delivering them to the customers. I asked Reg if he had any complaints on the state of the meat and sausages but he said he didn’t. I consider it an honour and privilege to be given the chance of the company of dear old Reg, bless his old heart.”

I was hoping to have room to give you more information from that 1948 Spread Eagle pub coach trip which featured in Nostalgia on April 11, including many of the names, but sadly I’ve run out of room so it’ll have to wait until next week.

In the meantime, if you have anything to add to any of these stories – or anything about the past which you think might interest our readers – please get in touch.

ONLINE TOMORROW: Film star Liz at the car wash in 1970