The much-loved toy company that once thrived in our area

But let’s go back to a time when children were seen and not heard, and the choice of playthings was limited to items made of wood or tin.

In the first half of the 19th century, Friedrich Fröbel, the German creator of the kindergarten system, invented wooden building blocks in cylinder, cube, and sphere shapes for children’s hands-on learning and creativity.

Forty years later, F.A. Richter & Co. of Rudolstadt, Thuringia acquired the patent for miniature ‘Anchor stone’ building blocks from Otto Lilienthal, the first German aviator known as the ‘winged man’, and his brother, the inventor Gustav Lilienthal.

They used the funds for their aviation experiments.

Richter thus became Germany’s leading manufacturer of ‘stone’ building blocks.

The blocks were made from moulded quartz sand, chalk, and linseed oil, in imitation of stone masonry.

In creamy limestone, brick red, and slate blue, the colours mimicked European architecture.

Now fast forward to World War One when German imports were banned and anti-German sentiments were widespread.

It was then that a new firm started up in Bushey and satisfied the demand for children’s architectural building blocks that Richter had previously filled.

After returning from war service in the Royal Navy, Ernest A. Lott moved to Aldenham Road, Bushey with his wife Louise and family.

He set up business at Vale Works, 26-30 Vale Road, developing moulded interlocking artificial stone building blocks on a slightly larger scale than Richter’s and in colour shades that were to evolve over the years.

With exact miniature replicas of buildings in mind, he secured the dedicated assistance of Harrow-based Arnold Bidlake Mitchell, a leading British architect.

Arnold Mitchell designed charming miniature buildings in his own prize-winning Arts and Crafts style and advised on the cutting of the relatively weighty ‘stone’ blocks.

In 1918, Ernest Lott exhibited his building blocks at the British Industries Fair at London Docks and caught the attention of Queen Mary who purchased a box.

His success was then realised and demand for his products was boosted.

The ranges that followed included Kindergarten Blocks (c1920), Tudor Blocks (1922), embossed and painted Lodomo bricks (1929), revised embossed and painted Tudor Blocks (1936), Buildec paint-it-yourself bricks (1936), embossed and painted Lott’s Bricks New Series (1938) and Wonderbrix, with its station buildings and footbridges scaled for use with 00-gauge model railways (1938).

Ernest Lott launched numerous box sets, each with detailed instructions for building miniature houses, bungalows, churches, cathedrals, bridges, market halls, and barns.

Over the years, he expanded his range to include contemporary and Tudor building styles; the latter incorporating leaded light windows and mock beams.

They were mass-produced at Vale Works to wide acclaim.

Block puzzles and chemistry sets were added to the product range.

As a boy in the 1920s, my father lived at 21 Haydon Road, across from the then-thriving Lott’s Bricks in Vale Road.

He was fortunate to own a Lott’s box set that he built into a fortress made, he noted, of ‘hard, dense miniature bricks of all shapes and sizes.

Lintels, arches, cardboard roofs; almost everything with which to build modest cottages or Norman keeps.’

He and a friend met each week during the winter months in an empty upstairs room, heated by a ‘round black paraffin stove standing perilously on three splayed legs.’

The linoleum floor provided the battlefield for their ‘war games’.

To quote my father from Echoes of Old Watford, Bushey & Oxhey, ‘the attacking army ranged from World War One soldiers in khaki of no particular regiment throwing hand grenades or charging with fixed bayonets to the Black Watch in ceremonial uniform.

The artillery back-up was represented by two field guns firing wood dowling and percussion caps and one naval gun mounted on wheels.’

His Lott’s keep held out well against the weekly incursions.

My father wrote that at the end of each ‘war game’ afternoon, he dismantled the ‘carefully prepared action set 'stone by stone, gun by gun and soldier by soldier, each piece lovingly returned to its allotted box.’

In those days, toys ‘did not come easily and breakages could not be replaced,’ he added.

But, by 1939, real war games intervened.

He later lamented that his trusty war games companion joined the Army during World War Two and was killed.

My father bought his lead soldiers and field guns from Mayfield’s at 172 High Street; his favourite toyshop in Watford, next door to Steabbens, the gentleman’s outfitters, just above Watford High Street Station.

He recalled the shop’s interior and the toy soldiers ‘packed in long cardboard boxes neatly tied into place by their necks and feet were hand-painted lead soldiers of all regiments marching, charging, kneeling and firing and cavalry officers in full dress uniform mounted on brown painted horses.’

His choice of soldiers over the years was dependent on available pocket money.

Presents were only given at birthdays or Christmas.

Years later, it was my favourite toyshop for lead and later plastic farm animals, but by that time there had been a change of ownership.

I knew it as Cramers.

The shop was gutted by a devastating fire in 1963.

Lott’s Bricks ceased to exist in the 1960s when imported interlocking plastic bricks took the children’s building bricks market by storm.

In the summer of 2008, Bushey Museum held a nostalgic exhibition of Lott’s Bricks; a once-significant employer in the village.

The Brighton Toy & Model Museum in Trafalgar Street is home to an impressive collection of Lott’s Bricks and related documentation.

Lesley Dunlop

With thanks to Jan & Eric, Brighton Toy & Model Museum (brightontoymuseum.co.uk) and Andy Harris, Bayko Collectors’ Club

Lesley 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.

In the summer of 2008, Bushey Museum held a nostalgic exhibition of Lott’s Bricks; a once-significant employer in the village.

The museum also holds a collection of Lott's Bricks exhibits.