In my early 20s, I became an avid reader and collector of material relating to Watford, Bushey and Oxhey and a collector of early maps of Hertfordshire. My interest has never waned but, on occasion, it has wandered.
One offshoot was a small collection of local commemorative china and ceramics from the Victorian and Edwardian eras to the 1980s. But one early example of enterprising local commemorative ware that sadly evaded me was Mr Reynolds Vale of Oxhey Supply Stores’ commission of a china mug bearing an impressive image of Oxhey Parish Church, built in 1880. It was sold to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Mr Vale’s name, his shop and location, then appearing as New Bushey, appeared in capital letters below.
I referred to crested china in a Watford Observer article in October 2022, in connection with the centenary of Watford’s Charter Day. But the context was the change of the town’s ‘device’ to a coat of arms that year. I’d like to return to the subject in broader detail.
Initially popular as souvenirs in popular coastal towns, these miniature pieces soon found their way to inland counties, including Hertfordshire. Victorians and Edwardians bought them in great quantities, filling their display cabinets, mantelpieces and window sills. The pieces were decorated with the heraldic crests of towns or cities and bought as reminders of specific holidays or given as gifts. The arms of a number of prominent Hertfordshire schools and families, as well as the badge of the Hertfordshire Regiment, were also produced. Crested china or heraldic ware became an enormous craze, which continued until the start of World War Two.
The name most associated with crested china is Goss. The company W.H. Goss was the first manufacturer. Owner William Henry Goss transferred his skills as designer and artist at the Copeland pottery factory to his own business in the mid-1850s but it was his son who, in later years, saw the potential for producing tiny crested china as souvenirs. The first examples of translucent off-white Parian porcelain coated with brightly coloured enamelling were created in the late 1880s. William Goss kept details of their production a closely guarded secret and trademarked each piece with the mark of a goshawk. His town or city crests are accurate; he was an authority on heraldry. Some also bear the name of the shop selling them, for example Goodsons Bazaar in Watford High Street. To roughly date Watford pieces, it’s a case of checking whether the crest is pre- or post-Charter Day (1922), when the town’s status changed.
The company’s success attracted many competitors into the market in Britain, especially in the Staffordshire pottery areas, and also abroad, particularly Germany. Arcadian, Grafton, Fenton, Kingsway, Gemma and Coronet were amongst the other British makes, but they were of lesser quality. The variety of models was prodigious. I have just two examples of Goss amongst a collection of 18 pieces. Some commemorated medieval, Roman or prehistoric finds, including ewers, urns and posset cups, not necessarily from the towns or cities matching the crests. There were china boots; shaped condiment sets; grandfather clocks; old fashioned gramophones; sea shell shapes with openings for tooth picks; animals; and, reminiscent of the era, warming pans. The list is endless but, with no crest of its own, I do not believe that Oxhey appeared on Goss china.
World War One was represented by china guns, U-boats and tanks. My china landship (early name for a tank), circa 1916, is represented as H.M. Landship ‘Crème de Menthe’ and bears Watford’s pre-1922 ‘device’. Curiously, it has a circular opening underneath, designed as a ‘mini bottle’, with enough capacity for a tot of spirit to toast victory.
But the real tank most associated with Watford wasn’t ‘Crème de Menthe’; it was ‘Julian’. Brought to Watford in May 1918, it was positioned in the High Street by Market Street for just four days, with the aim of raising £150,000. An enormously successful focus for a local Tank Bank appeal, it attracted hordes of investors in War Bonds and Certificates. The amount raised was in excess of £162,000 (£7.7+ million today). My postcard of ‘Julian’, sent from the Anchor public house, was used by Bob Nunn in his Book of Watford.
The pink teapot depicting Watford Parish Church may have been produced by a travelling pottery business that visited the area, producing local souvenirs to order. The same could be said for the two candlesticks, likely from late Victorian times, bearing an image of the iconic Cassiobury Park Gates and a dark representation of the ‘fig tree tomb’ in Watford Parish Churchyard, under the south wall of St Katharine’s Chapel. It was the tomb of an atheist who declared that if there was a God, a fig tree would grow from their heart. A fig tree did appear from the grave and historian Henry Williams tells us in 1884 that it had been growing for 100 years. But the vault became visible when the churchyard was lowered in the 19th century and it was observed that the tree’s roots were in the crown of the arch, several feet above the vault, though a few tendrils had made their way downwards. Neither the teapot, the candlesticks nor the plain blue Watford vase bear makers’ marks.
Despite their age and local interest, such little pieces of history can easily be found online or in charity or second-hand shops for just a few pounds.
- 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.
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