There may not be fairies at the bottom of the garden, but two 12-year-old girls, searching for a ball there, came up with something unusual.

It was a cannonball which, it is thought, may have been fired in a 1643 skirmish between the King’s troops and the Parliamentary troops of the Earl of Essex.

This tangible link with history set Judith Hazelden, of Links Way, Radlett, and her friend and neighbour Julia Ladds, on the quest for knowledge and this week they have been showing their find to friends.

They were helped by the curator of the Verulamium Museum, St Albans, who dated the find between the 17th and 19th centuries. Mention in books of local history of the Watford skirmish gave clues to identification.

[From the Watford Observer of October 14, 1966]

 

Lord Brocket opened the Devil’s Dyke, Wheathampstead, which has been presented to the parish by him, on Saturday, and formally handed over the documents relating to the Dyke. The history of the Dyke goes back beyond the era of Verulamium, towards the earliest phase of Belgic invasion.

[From the Watford Observer of October 29, 1937]

NOSTALGIA NOTE: Devil’s Dyke is the remains of a defensive ditch around an ancient settlement of the Catuvellauni tribe of Ancient Britain. It lies at the east side of Wheathampstead. The site is said to be where Julius Caesar defeated Cassivellaunus in 54BC, although historical evidence neither supports nor disproves this. It is believed to have been occupied by invading Belgae and archaeological finds in excavations during the 1970s, appear to confirm their influence.

 

Freelance cinematographer Arthur Ibbetson, of Chalfont Lane, Chorleywood, had no idea he had won an Emmy award for his film Little Lord Fauntleroy, until he received a congratulatory cable from one of the other nominees.

Mr Ibbetson said: “It seems I won it in Los Angeles. I knew I had been nominated. I have now had a letter confirming it.”

The award is made by the Academy of television Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, and is the television equivalent of the Oscar. Little Lord Fauntleroy is a remake of the original film and features Sir Alec Guinness.

[From the Watford Observer of October 2, 1981]

 

Screams from adoring teenagers and a “mini-riot” made up the fantastic reception BBC Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn received when opening the new Strawberry Fields boutique in Rickmansworth.

Several times the police cordon around the shop front was broken as frantic teenagers peered closer into the glass window. A small child was trampled in the rush and the decorative flowerbeds outside the shop crushed.

Tempers frayed as limited numbers of fans were allowed into the shop to receive autographed photographs of this quietly spoken doctor’s son, who himself had to be rescued by police in the scramble.

Second sensation of the morning was the first showing of a “see-through” blouse in the area, bravely worn by curvy model Astrid Kemble.

[From the Watford Observer of October 11, 1968]