Historical book giving insight into Watford church life in hard times

Around the mid-1980s, I bought a hard-back book into which were bound the ‘Watford Parish Magazines’ of 1895. An inscription reads: ‘Dorothy Dyde, born February 28, 1895, Cardiff Road, Watford, Herts.’ The volume was presented to Dorothy to mark her baptism at St Mary’s Church on April 7, 1895.

The volume combines ‘The Church Monthly’, a national illustrated magazine for home reading, with the monthly ‘Watford Parish Church Magazine’. The former included stories, puzzles, poems, recipes, gardening advice and nature articles. The latter, of which 1,000 copies were published each month (800 at a loss, offset by 200 at 2d each for those who could afford to pay in full), included St Mary’s Church, St John’s Church and St James’ Church services and activities. Copies were available from Mr David Downer, hairdresser, stationer and stamp distributor of 91 High Street and brother of Watford’s renowned photographer, Frederick Downer; Mrs Bilson, 37 High Street; Mrs Ross, 219 High Street; Mr Horn, 207 Queen’s Road; and Mr Joseph Dorrofield, manufacturing stationer at 38 Queens Road. A quiet word by the less well-off to a distributor or the editor, the Rev J H White of 229 High Street, could secure a copy for 1d. In June 1895, local advertisers were sought for the first time to help subsidise publishing costs.

An inscription in Dorothy Dyde's book (Image: Lesley Dunlop)

Rev Richard Lee James, Watford’s longest serving vicar, was kept busy at St Mary’s. On Sundays, services were held at 8am, 9.45am, 11.15am, 3pm and 6.30pm. Each month service notices and monthly balance sheet entries were followed by notifications of baptisms, marriages and burials. There were around 20 to 25 baptisms each month, occasionally more, at which a number of children from the same families were baptised together; some from the infamously insanitary Ballard’s Buildings. There were a handful of weddings each month and more than a handful of burials, a significant proportion being children and young people, a number also from Ballard’s Buildings. Of the deceased elderly, ‘the Union’ (workhouse) is given as the address of several. They were hard times indeed.

Coincidentally, I was looking at ‘Watford, A Pictorial Record’ published in 1951 by the Festival of Britain Committee of the Borough of Watford. On a page dedicated to the workhouse, a name in a photo caption caught my eye. Mr SW Dyde. An unusual surname, so was there a connection to Dorothy?

It transpired that Samuel William Dyde was Dorothy’s father. At 17 he was a zinc and tin plate worker who progressed to becoming a tin smith. He plied his trade until 1921 from the old kitchen in Watford’s first workhouse across St Mary’s churchyard. He was also Sexton at St Mary’s for many years and was responsible for the maintenance of the church and churchyard. Further delving revealed that his wife, Dorothy’s mother, was Elizabeth Ann, nee Hoggett. As a newly married couple, Dorothy’s parents had lived at 273 High Street, next to Susannah Dyde, Samuel’s mother, who was a widow. In 1891, when Samuel and Elizabeth’s first children were born - twin sons Alfred and Edward - they were living at 212 High Street.

Samuel Dyde working in the kitchen of the old workhouse. Credit: 'Watford, A Pictorial Record', 1951 (Image: Watford: A Pictoral Record)

By the time Dorothy was born, her family had moved to 31 Cardiff Road. She was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died young. At 16 she became a dressmaker’s apprentice before setting up as a dressmaking machinist. She did not marry and lived through two world wars, dying in 1985 at the age of 90. Afterwards, her possessions would have been disposed of and it was then that I came across her prized volume.

Dorothy and her family would have enjoyed the benefits of an active community at St Mary’s. There was a wide choice of groups and societies for all ages and the range of activities in those far-off days was impressive and included a men’s guild, mothers’ meetings, a girls’ guild and busy bee club, bible classes, choir, Sunday School, Band of Hope, clothing and coal clubs, football and cricket groups, a carving class and ‘Blanket, Loan and Lying-in Charities’. The occasional bazaars, magic lantern shows, picnics and garden parties must have been high points for local people living humdrum, hard-working lives. The Watford Parish Magazines and attendance at St Mary’s, St John’s and St James’ Churches’ numerous meetings, clubs, guilds and classes must surely have helped Dorothy and her family, as well as numerous others, in times of hardship.

One of two pages of advertisements, showing that the Watford Observer contributed to the appeal (Image: Lesley Dunlop)

Lesley Dunlop is the daughter of the late Ted Parrish, a well-known local historian and documentary filmmaker. He wrote 96 nostalgic articles for the ‘Evening Post-Echo’ in 1982-83 which have since been published in ‘Echoes of Old Watford, Bushey & Oxhey’, available at www.pastdayspublishing.com and Bushey Museum. Lesley is currently working on ‘Two Lives, Two World Wars’, a companion volume that explores her father’s and grandfather’s lives and war experiences, in which Watford, Bushey and Oxhey’s history will take to the stage once again.