Angry parents whose children have been refused a place at the school of their choice are preparing to teach the education authorities a lesson as the autumn term begins today.

At least six couples from all over the Watford area have been told their children cannot go to Queens’ School, Bushey, because it has been oversubscribed.

Today some of them are threatening to keep their children away from school, while others will be taking them to Queens’ regardless.

Roderick Moyle’s 11-year-old daughter Claudine has been given a place at Bushey Hall. But her parents want her to go to Queens’ and they have even bought her the school’s uniform. This morning Mr and Mrs Moyle, of Trident Road, in Leavesden, intend to take their daughter to Queens’ and ask the headmaster to educate her. “We feel we have got no choice,” said a determined Mr Moyle. He does not think he will be alone in taking this kind of action.

[From the Watford Observer of September 4, 1979]

 

Watford Parish Churchyard has long been famous for its fig tree. Now comes news of a memorial stone, which credits a woman of over 60 with becoming a mother.

On a tombstone opposite the Free School, a certain Maria Dyson is shown as having died in 1847 at the age of 68, followed by Mary Ann, her daughter, ten years later at the age of 17. This makes the latter born when her mother was 61.

Parish registers reveal, however, that Mary Ann was 47, not 17, when she died – the stonemason’s chisel having subsequently made a 30-year slip.

[From the Watford Observer of September 30, 1949]

 

A surprise was prepared for Watford FC’s Tuesday evening hat-trick hero Tony Currie when he reported to the Vicarage Road ground on Wednesday.

Fellow members of the team had autographed the ball which he had so sweetly placed into the net on three occasions against Peterborough and it was presented to Currie.

That must have made the youngster happy at having missed England Youth team squad training at Cleethorpes. His performance certainly pleased the fans.

[From the Watford Observer of September 29, 1967]

 

What an army bomb disposal officer described as “two tons of sudden death” was dumped near a Chorleywood road on Tuesday night.

At first the objects – two large cylinders with pointed noses – were believed to be bombs, but the experts recognised them as naval shells, one 16 inches, the other 13.5 inches. They were “alive”.

A bomb disposal unit from Hounslow, helped by Rickmansworth police officers, loaded the shells by crane on to a lorry and took them away.

Gareth Evans, who found the shells, told the Observer: “They must have dumped them there during the night because I am sure they were not there at 5 o’clock the previous evening.”

The shells will now be disposed of. “The riddle is where did they come from and who dumped them on a Chorleywood roadside,” said an officer.

[From the Watford Observer of September 17, 1965]