Although the Watford Observer has existed for more than 150 years, the idea of celebrating the past via a weekly Nostalgia column like this one is a relatively new invention.

In the past, the only nod to what went before was in a weekly column called In Days Gone By which delved back exactly 50 years into what it rather grandly called “the Observer Files” and provided an often crushingly dull item of rarely more than three paragraphs.

To give an idea of what readers of the day might expect, here’s a gem from In Days Gone By of August 16, 1884: “His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador arrived at Rickmansworth by train on Saturday and was a visitor to Rickmansworth Park until Monday morning.”

See what I mean? I’m sure all our lives have been enriched by that little nugget.

Sometimes, however, the brief item leaves you open mouthed and panting for more.

One such item appeared in the Watford Observer of September 27, 1930, which reprinted the following, from the “Observer Files” of September 25, 1880: “The London and North Western Railway Company on Friday issued a notice offering £100 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons who placed some explosive packages on the railway near Bushey on the night of the 12th or morning of the 13th inst. (This was a sequel to a discovery of a package of dynamite placed on the main line on the high embankment between Bushey and Watford).”

And that was that, as if no further explanation was necessary.

Needless to say, however, I couldn’t leave it there and 20 years later, in the Watford Observer, I found the full story. And it makes interesting reading.

“September 12 this year [1950] marks the 70th anniversary of an attempt to blow up the ‘Irish Mail’ train near Watford which, but for a mere chance, might have caused the loss of hundreds of lives,” began the piece in the Watford Observer of September 8, 1950.

It continues: “At that time The London and North-Western Railway was receiving frequent warnings that Irish Nationalists, then using violence in their campaigns against the British Government, were plotting to blow up the ‘Irish Mail’ and important bridges on the route, in particular the Britannia Tubular Bridge joining Anglesey to the mainland.

“On September 12, 1880, when the driver of the ‘Irish Mail’ express was between Bushey and Watford, he heard a muffled explosion coming from under the wheels of the engine. The train passed on and, apparently at the end of his journey, the driver reported that he had run over a defective fog signal. The official who read the report knew there were no fog signals on the line near Watford or Bushey that day.

“A surface gang was sent to investigate and between the rails they found the unexploded bomb. The cartridge connected to the fuse had slipped partly off the rail and had failed to go off properly. An examination showed that, if it had, the train would have been blown sky-high, so great was the amount of explosive in the bomb.

“Both the railway company and the Government offered rewards of £100 for information which would have led to the arrest of the attempted train wreckers. The written order supplied to a London firm which had produced the explosives was reproduced in facsimile in The Times. The criminals were never, however, brought to justice.

“So alarmed were the Government and the railway authorities that when, in 1881, Michael Davitt, a famous Irish revolutionary, was brought to London in custody, a light engine was sent a few miles ahead of the ‘Irish Mail’ all the way from Holyhead to London.

“In the issue of the Watford Observer of September 18, 1880, there is a detailed account of the affair – three and a half columns of closely-set type, with only one heading: Attempt to blow up an express train.

“‘The stationmaster is at a loss to account for the motive which prompted the diabolical attempt,’ runs the report. ‘He remarked that no officials had been recently discharged, and that up to the present no explanation whatever has been forthcoming from any quarter.

“The stationmaster’s report added: ‘I have to report to you that platelayer Heath, of 20 gang, who was going to fetch the up-distance signal lamps on the morning at about 7.10am, found a parcel of some explosive material of a reddish colour in a hole which had been dug by the side of the sleeper at the joint. The two fish-plates had been taken off and an india rubber tube filled with gunpowder and long gun caps fitted at the end, was attached to it (the explosive material).

“The authorities have taken the precaution of placing extra officials along the line on either side of Bushey Station at close distances to each other.

“‘A strange looking man standing on the embankment,’ is mentioned by another witness – a guard of a train.

“The report also adds: ‘Among the curious theories there is one that the attempt is connected with a Nihilist plot to destroy the train in which is was expected the Grand Duke Constantine would travel . . . At all events, police inquiries are being directed to the Nihilist quarters in London.’

“This latter innuendo brought an amazing retort – a letter in the Daily Telegraph from an alleged representative of the Nihilists.”

The letter, in somewhat irregular English, claimed the “Russian Socialists, or as you call them Nihilists” would not behave in an ungrateful manner towards any European nation who gives them hospitality."

So those behind the attack, failing though it did, remained undiscovered.

ONLINE SATURDAY AT 4PM: Joanna Lumley visits Garston (1982)