‘There is not, never has been, and never will be, a player worth £10,000!” With this statement, made by Sir Charles Clegg, President of the Football Association, at the annual meeting of the Sheffield United FC, there will be very hearty and general agreement. The ridiculously inflated transfer fees paid in recent years are doing no good to the game or to the players either.

[From the Watford Observer of July 14, 1928]

 

A 13-year-old schoolboy Eric Waller, of 357 Prestwick Road, Oxhey, Watford, caught a 125-pound shark 14 miles out from Newquay, Cornwall, on Sunday, the biggest shark caught by rod and line off Newquay.

[From the Watford Observer of July 29, 1960]

 

The Grand Junction Canal Co intend putting a stop to the indecent bathing which has been indulged in of late in the canal in Rickmansworth and any person found committing the offence will be prosecuted. It is not unlikely the canal authorities will prohibit bathing altogether.

[From the Watford Observer of July 7, 1894]

 

Living in Tring today, it is stated, in six houses and within 300 yards distance, are 11 people whose combined ages total 888 years – nine women and two men.

[From the Watford Observer of July 28, 1928]

 

In the nine o’clock news on Sunday night, the BBC mentioned a display of model aeroplanes at Kings Langley. People of our Kings Langley wondered how they had come to miss such a spectacle. The fact is there was no display to miss. Roy Merridan, of the Kings Langley modellers, was on the Common trying out a few of his latest models, “but they didn’t broadcast that,” he said.

“Strange thing is, I’ve searched many maps and I can’t find another Kings Langley,” he added.

[From the Watford Observer of July 25, 1947]

 

When the mill which had stood in Mill Street, Berkhamsted, for over 1,000 years was demolished for street improvement purposes, a stone with a Latin inscription was erected to mark the site of the old building.

Mr Edward Greene, the sponsor of the improvement scheme, offered a prize of two guineas for the best translation of the inscription. The winning translation was announced at the Berkhamsted School Founders’ Day on Friday. It was sent in by Professor L W Lyde, of University College, London, and is as follows:

Here for 1,000 years the old mill stood

And gave men bread

Here now our school in rival motherhood

Feeds minds instead

One inscription which Mr Mitchell Innes stated was sent in by a member of Mr Greene’s family, who had a keen sense of humour, read:

Here for 1,000 years a mill has been

Until pulled down by Edward Greene.

[From the Watford Observer of July 2, 1927]

 

Every penny spent at Rickmansworth Grammar School’s giant fete in the school grounds on Saturday was a drop of water in the pool. The swimming pool the school hopes to build will be partly financed by the proceeds of the fete – if there were enough pennies gathered. If the school cannot make its target of around £2,000 it cannot be blamed for not trying, for the organisation and out-of-the-rut entertainment was worth paying to see.

The fete was opened by television personality, aptly named Professor Gobble D Gook by some, Stanley Unwin.

What he said on the subject of cooking an omelette and playing the game of chess cannot be written down too well, although it sounded something like “etrudied flam, eartrops . . .” or something.

[From the Watford Observer of July 1, 1960]

 

Watford Observer advertisement rep Andy Page was worried he would land in the drink when he went to help out a tanker driver in Radlett High Street.

Andy was asked by the milk tanker driver to put his finger over a leak in the vehicle’s barrel while the driver went for some repair material.

He quickly applied his finger to stop the jet of milk from causing floods in the High Street.

 What the conscientious young salesman did not realise was that he was “game for a laugh”. For as he was standing there, out popped TV star Jeremy Beadle from the popular ITV programme.

Andy said: “I was caught unawares but I realise it was all game for a laugh. I was well and truly in the milk.”

[From the Watford Observer of July 22, 1983]

 

On Thursday, the sparks from an engine attached to a train on its way from Rickmansworth to Watford set fire to the herbage on the bank as it passed through Mr Snewing’s farm. The fire extended to his field adjoining, and before it could be subdued the entire herbage of more than eight acres was entirely burnt.

[From the Watford Observer of July 30, 1881]

 

William Penn, the Quaker, who died on July 30, 1718, came to live at Hasing House, Rickmansworth, in 1672, on his marriage to Guliama Springett, which took place at King John’s Farm, Chorleywood. Here he spent about five years and wrote a number of his controversial pamphlets. It was while he lived in Rickmansworth that he had a notable debate with Richard Baxter which lasted for seven hours. When Penn died his body was interred in the burial ground adjoining the Old Jordans Meeting Houses.

[From the Watford Observer of July 26, 1946]

 

Aylesbury, where the rates are over 20 shillings in the pound, is looking round for new sources of revenue. The charging of a small fee for the privilege of parking a motor in the Market Square is suggested, the collection to be let by tender to persons willing to undertake the liability of collection and insurance.

[From the Watford Observer of July 16, 1927]

 

A Berkhamsted ‘bus one night this week suddenly slowed up near the Grove, Hempstead Road. The conductor jumped off and walked along beside it. “I’ll be lucky if I find it,” he said to the driver. After going about 50 yards he picked up a silver coin, which he had dropped while going into Watford three-quarters of an hour before.

[From the Watford Observer of July 21, 1928]