This dramatic picture showing how the occupants of a taxicab had a lucky escape when it was almost sliced in half during a gale made national headlines a century ago.

The Watford Observer has again teamed up with the Watford Museum and is delighted to showcase some pictures from its archive.

This week's image, which is in the form of a postcard, was taken during a severe gale which struck this country exactly 105 years ago.

High winds and blizzards hit a large part of the UK on March 27 and 28, 1916, causing considerable damage in many places.

Read more: A wonderful picture of market day in Watford almost a century ago

The museum's volunteer archivist Christine Orchard explained the taxicab accident was significant enough to be reported beyond Watford, making the regional press and it also featured in the Daily Mirror where a different photograph was printed.

The Daily Mirror reported on April 3, 2016: "During the blizzard a tree fell right across a taxicab in Grove Mill-lane, Watford. The vehicle had had its passage barred by another fallen tree, so the occupants had alighted and no one was hurt."

Two days earlier, the Hertford Mercury and Reformer had reported: "Near Sparrow Pot Lodge, off Hempstead Road, the driver of a taxi-cab found his way blocked, and no sooner had his ‘fare’ got out than a large tree crashed on to the top of the taxi, almost cutting it in two."

Christine believes the handwritten date on the postcard is incorrect because it gives the day before the gale struck.