I have just been watching a lady behaving in a very strange fashion. Having unloaded the contents of her shopping trolley into her car, she then set about returning the trolley to the supermarket, a good 100 yards away.

I wondered whether I ought to explain to her that the established procedure is to dump the trolley immediately in front of my parked car or else on the pavement where it will cause the greatest obstruction to pedestrians.

If shopping in Watford, the trolley should be taken to the top of the spiral ramp in the Church car park and hurled down the well.

Before Christmas, in Charter Place, I saw a schoolgirl, who ought to have known better, take a sweet wrapper and deliberately place it in a litter bin.

Good heavens! If this sort of thing continues, Watford is in serious danger of losing its reputation as the scruffiest town in Hertfordshire. — FW, Chorleywood.

[A letter published in the Watford Observer of February 8, 1985]

 

Two shilling tickets in a national competition organised by the National Fund for the Research into Poliomyelitis and other crippling diseases proved to be money well spent for Mrs D Metcalfe, of Greenhill Close, Chorleywood. For not only did her money benefit a worthy cause, but she also won first prize – a Morris Oxford car.

At Tucker Brothers garage in St Albans Road, last Friday, the Mayor of Watford, Alderman E.H. Harrowell, handed over the log book and keys to Mrs Metcalfe.

In a brief address, Alderman Harrowell said this was not only a special afternoon for Mrs Metcalfe but also for Watford, as he believed this was the first time a local resident had won a competition run by the National Research Fund.

Mrs Metcalfe, who does not take her driving test until March, told the Observer reporter that she had asked her husband on several occasions if she could have a little car of her own, but they had been unable to afford it.

[From the Watford Observer of February 10, 1961]

 

Police were called into Watford Borough Council chamber on Monday night when taxi drivers demonstrated after a long debate on which type of taxis should be used in the town. The meeting was held up for about ten minutes while copies of the council minutes and seat paddings were thrown down from the public gallery. The demonstrators were twice reprimanded by the Mayor (Councillor Ronald Jackson).

Shouts of “There will be no taxi service in Watford”, “You have sold us out to private hire” and “Ask the public what they want” were hurled at councillors before Alderman Robert Caton, leader of the Conservative Group, described by one of the group as Satan Caton, moved that the meeting be adjourned.

During the demonstration, one of the cushions hit Alderman W.H.T. Price in the back. Someone shouted: “Hope your corns are all right, Mr Price (he is a chiropodist) because you will have to walk.”

Alderman John Chapman, who dodged missiles coming from the gallery, commented: “I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years on the council.”

[From the Watford Observer of February 12, 1971]