What memories are there of Bushey Arches? Former Watford resident John Norfolk, who now lives in Tiverton, Devon, emailed: “When I see the present day Bushey Arches traffic I remember how it used to be.

I first saw this area in 1956 when I would take the train from my schoolboy home in Hatch End to Bushey and Oxhey station (as it was called then) on Saturday afternoons to see Watford play football at Vicarage Road in the old Third Division South. Gosh – remember that? We called them the ‘Blues’ in the days before the golden boys’ shirts.

“Chalk Hill was a two way traffic road rather than part of the present day giant roundabout which snakes around shops and the Bushey Arches railway viaduct. The 142 bus would travel down London Road straight into Chalk Hill on its way to Watford High Street and the Junction station.

“If I was a little late on my journey to Vicarage Road I would leave the station by the back entrance and take a walk over Oxhey Park. Crossing the road was easy with so little traffic. These days it is all much changed with traffic snarled up in a giant jam at all hours of the day.

“Back then the centre of the Bushey Arches area comprised houses, a garage, the meeting place for the Watford Scooter Club and some shops. Little did I think as an 11-year-old going to football matches in 1956 that so many years later I would be getting my hair cut in Don’s barber shop and watching the slow moving traffic crawl past the window and – when I came to pay – qualifying for my senior citizen discount.”