While there are many of us who are rather fond of Watford, it won’t come as a surprise to you to hear that others can’t stand the place. However, I was quite puzzled to read in the Watford Observer of 41 years ago, the harsh words of Lord Arran who clearly hated Watford, and yet continued to live just a few miles up the road.

It seems he was asked to visit the town from faraway Pimlico near Bedmond, where he’d lived for more than three decades, to address the Chamber of Commerce. And boy did he lay into the place, describing Watford as “an abortion” and “a living hell” in what the Watford Observer of July 6, 1973, described rather unnecessarily as a “stinging speech”. He even compared it unfavourably with Hemel Hempstead.

Anyway, here’s the report from 41 years ago.

“Watford was described as an abortion and a living hell in a stinging speech made in the town by the Earl of Arran this week.

“Pulling no punches, Lord Arran was completely unequivocal in his criticism of Watford – he said he never visits the town – when he addressed the Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday.

“Lord Arran, who has lived at Pimlico near Bedmond for 36 years, said it was the first time he had been invited to speak in Watford.

“Perhaps because he lived outside he could see the changes in the town more objectively – ‘and let me say straight away that none have been for the better, with the possible exceptions of the railway service  and the opening of the M1,’ he said.

“‘In 1937 Watford was a minor mess. In 1973, it is a super mess,’ said Lord Arran, referring to ‘bad building and bad planning’.

“‘The general impression is one of confusion and purposelessness, which I must contrast unfavourably with Hemel Hempstead and its new town,’ he said.

“He said it appeared Watford had once been a little country town before the turn of the century, and had been described in an old diary he had seen as ‘a charming locality’.

“‘Could you call it that now?’ he asked.

“When the Watford Bypass was built, what Mr Heath rightly called the unacceptable face of capitalism started to show itself. Builders, property men, ribbon developers and profiteers made their developments regardless, and Watford spread its tentacles north, south, east and west.

“He talked of industrial development which was welcomed because of the lack of employment in the area, but which meant ‘mucking up the Gade Valley for all time’.

“Watford did not change much during the war, but in the 50s and 60s, the face of Britain and of Watford began to change.

“One saw the disappearance of the little stores and businesses, he said, and multiple stores began to take their place.

“He said the increase in traffic had changed Watford into a ‘living hell’.

“‘My wife and I have given up coming to Watford. We never come.

“‘We can’t find our way round, we can’t park, we can’t even find the town hall,’ said Lord Arran, who gave his speech at the town hall.

“Who was to blame? Was it the Government, the county council, the borough engineer or borough architect, successive mayors and corporations – or the Mothers’ Union, asked Lord Arran on a lighter note, to an audience which included two former mayors.

“‘I ask myself how there can have been so much massive incompetence and complacency over so many years,’ he said. ‘It is, and I use my words carefully, an abortion.

“‘Is it too late or can you do anything to prevent your town becoming a blot on the fair face of Hertfordshire?” he asked.

“Ending his speech he said he had been waiting for decades to say what he had just said and was not being outrageous just for the sake of it.”

Now you might think the shocked Chamber of Commerce would have politely ushered the earl out before making a mental note never to invite him anywhere ever again. It seems not.

The chairman of the Chamber in those days was Desmond Baker, and he said Lord Arran had telephoned him before the luncheon to tell him what he wanted to say and ask if it was alright to do so.

“I think you have put your finger on a sense of frustration which many people in Watford feel, and in other towns in this country affected by modern development,” Mr Baker is quoted as saying. “You have put your finger on the pulse and have said what many of us would like to have said.”

NOSTALGIA NOTE: Arthur Strange Kattendyke David Archibald Gore, the 8th Earl of Arran, died in 1983. He was a Conservative whip in the House of Lords and affectionately known as “Boofy”.

He was a passionate advocate of homosexual rights and also campaigned for the protection of badgers.

When asked why the House of Lords was packed for a debate on homosexual reform, but almost empty during a debate on protecting badgers, he is famously said to have replied: “My dear sir, because there are no badgers in the House of Lords.”

ONLINE TOMORROW: Miss Watford at Nascot Fair in 1973.