Attendance and takings at the 27th Watford United Charities Bazaar at the town hall were down on last year but, even so, the proceeds are expected to be in the region of £3,500.

“With money as it is, the result is tremendous,” said Mrs Kay Maskell, president.

She added: “We had a feeling with things being so expensive and people thinking twice about luxury buying that the result could not possibly be quite so good. It is beyond our expectations.”

Actress Dulcie Gray, who was to have opened the bazaar, later found she would be unable to come. Her place was taken at the eleventh hour by another actress, Joanna Lumley, who has appeared in a Bond film and was recently on the panel of the television programme Call My Bluff.

In an amusing and sparkling speech, Ms Lumley, accompanied by her seven-year-old son Jimmy, said she had intended wearing a hat, but had placed the hat on top of the car as she was getting ready to leave for Watford, got in and drove off. “Somewhere in Holland Park Avenue there’s this leopard-skin pillbox hat.”

She said she had a birthday list and a drawer at home into which she put articles bought at bazaars like the United Charities. “If you do this, you are never caught out when a birthday comes round,” she confided.

Her own gift to the bazaar was a Rod Stewart record in a cover autographed by the singer.

Ten children’s charities took part in the bazaar. Each charity kept what it made on its own stall and shared in the expenses. “No one charity can afford the town hall,” said Mrs Maskell, “but split ten ways, we can.”

Many elderly people look on the bazaar as a treat, hire a taxi to take them to the town hall, stay for lunch and tea, and make it a day out.

[From the Watford Observer of October 25, 1974]