Sir:— If all the empty houses and shops in Watford were to have occupation within the next year, the borough would add to its income from the rates many thousands of pounds yearly, the town would be more prosperous and trade booming.

How is this desirable state of affairs to be brought about? The very best way is to make Watford famous for its low rates.

People all over the country are complaining bitterly of high rates. Local extravagance and national expenditure (some of it forced on us) threaten us with national bankruptcy.

It is strange, but men who will look at both sides of a sixpence before parting with it for personal requirements become utterly indifferent when spending public money.

If our town councillors realised the actual distress caused by high rates they would appoint a rate reduction committee and set it to work at once. This would be for the good of all ratepayers and the very best advertisement for the town.

Yours faithfully, A Local Ratepayer

[A letter from the Watford Observer of November 4, 1938]

 

Watford and Hemel Hempstead will probably have traffic wardens by 1965.
But they will not have parking meters because they are “unsightly, expensive to install and maintain, and men have to be employed to collect the money and account for it.”

A report of Herts County Council’s Standing Joint Committee states there are 18 towns in the county where employment of traffic wardens could be justified. Watford and Hemel Hempstead are almost certainly two of them.

Adds the report: “Before embarking on a wholesale scheme throughout the county, the committee has decided traffic wardens might be tried in one town for an experimental period of one year.”

Subject to Home Office approval, the committee suggest starting the experimental scheme in St Albans on April 1, 1964. Eighteen wardens will be needed for this scheme, but if it takes in the whole county, 118 traffic wardens will be needed.

[From the Watford Observer of November 22, 1963]

 

The cutting of train services between Watford and London would mean “people will have to travel during the rush hours in conditions which the RSPCA would never permit for animals,” Mr Raphael Tuck MP for Watford told the Commons on Thursday.

Speaking in the debate on the Queen’s Speech, which sets out the Government’s new legislative programme, Mr Tuck protested against cutting, by over half, the number of trains on the slow line between Watford and Euston. He said that not only the number of trains would be cut but the number of coaches on each train would be reduced to three.

Mr Tuck: “These trains are already vastly overcrowded and if they go on overcrowding them much more they will have to push the passengers in with bulldozers.”

[From the Watford Observer of November 25, 1975]

 

There are 727,000 motor cars on the roads, 100,000 more than last year.

[From the Watford Observer of November 26, 1927]

NOSTALGIA NOTE: The current number of licensed vehicles on the road (2013) is 35 million, 1.5 per cent up on 2012. Around 2.72 million vehicles were registered for the first time during 2013, up 10 per cent on the previous year.


The total number of votes recorded in the Watford Borough election was 6,629. The number of electors on the register for the six wards where there were contests is 17,144.

Mr W Bickerton (Oxhey) secured the biggest majority – 531 – but his figures were only nine better than those of Mr G Timberlake (Cassiobury).

The first public engagement of the Mayor of Watford (Alderman T. R. Clark) was the Mayoral banquet. His last was tea on the Bushey sewage farm.

[From the Watford Observer of November 5, 1927]

 

Perhaps it doesn’t “look like rain” from the train, for although umbrellas are now in short supply, no less than 5,630 were collected by the LMS [London, Midland and Scottish Railway] last year.

Travellers on the LMS have forgotten other things too, such as a glass eye, a barrel organ, a case of butterflies, a case containing a calf with two heads, a three-legged cock, artificial teeth and artificial limbs. In 1943, no less than 86,540 articles were dealt with in the LMS Lost Property Depot.

[From the Watford Observer of November 17, 1944]

 

Centenarian printing firms combined in a special effort in connection with the Centenary Festival of the Printers’ Pension Corporation, and raised between them £1,777 15s, a cheque for which sum was handed to Prince Harry, who presided at the Festival dinner on Wednesday evening.

The firms included C.H.Peacock Ltd, Watford, whose history goes back to the middle of the 18th century. They were among the very early printers of playing cards and until fairly recently possessed the original woodcuts used for that purpose.

There is still at the “Observer” office the Columbian hand-press on which the paper was first printed. Though it has seen well over 100 years’ service, this press can still produce good proofs. It was used, in fact, for the contents bills of this issue of the “Observer”.

[From the Watford Observer of November 19, 1927]

 

Schooldays at the moment are particularly exciting for pupils of Francis Combe Secondary Modern School, Garston. Every day, as lessons proceed, film cameras start whirring and floodlights flash on and off.

It is all part of the production of another film commissioned by the National Union of Teachers as a sequel to their very successful film “I Want to go to School” which has already aroused great interest and has been shown three times on television.

The same director who was responsible for the first film, Mr J Krish, is also at work on the production at Francis Combe School.

Shooting started last week and is expected to take about a month to complete. A full crew of 12 are engaged on the production which, when finished, will last for about 40 minutes. In this film, which is to be entitled Our School, Mr Krish aims to spotlight the relationship between pupil and teacher in the two-way process of learning.

[From the Watford Observer of November 25, 1960]

NOSTALGIA NOTE: The film ended up being 28 minutes long and an extract can be seen on YouTube. Alternatively it is one of four films available to buy on a DVD collection called A Day in the Life – Four Portraits of Post-War Britain by John Krish. The DVD/Bluray is available from the British Film Institute for £19.99 (other online retailers may be cheaper).