‘So Near and Yet So – Dear!’ was the title of a reader’s letter in the West Herts Post on July 3, 1947. Jean Dawson wrote: ‘Sir, It is a scandal that here, with watercress beds all round Watford, we should be asked two shillings [equivalent to £3 today] a pound for this ‘poor man’s salad’. The Ministry’s plea that the ‘size’ of it cannot be controlled is absurd, though true of lettuce. It has always been sold by weight – thoroughly wet too!
‘The fact is that, unlike other greenstuff, the man in the street cannot grow it in his garden, yet transport charges are next to nil and, in the winter, when the price is even higher, the bulk of it goes to London hotels. I understand that our MP has been approached on this matter.’
I don’t know the outcome, but the forthright Jean had her point! Today’s price is more realistic but ‘poor man’s salad’ it is no longer. The nutritious superfood, well recognised for its health benefits, now costs a pound or two a pack, depending where you shop.
I remember the Cassiobury Park watercress beds in the river Gade in the 1960s; incredibly well tucked away in a tranquil green area. So quiet, it didn’t seem part of the busy park, where watercress growing has long been in the hands of the Sansom family.
As a by the way, in 1909, Richard Lydekker told us in Hertfordshire, his Cambridge County Geographies book: ‘After cutting, the watercress is tied up in bundles and packed in flat, oblong, osier hampers or baskets of which, during the spring season, huge stacks may be seen at the local railway stations awaiting dispatch to the metropolis or the great manufacturing towns of the Midlands. For ordinary purposes, the land on which watercress is grown is almost valueless but the watercress beds yield a big rental. To furnish material for the aforesaid watercress, hampers as well as for basketwork generally, osiers are cultivated in some of the river valleys.’
Returning to my tattered copy of the West Herts Post in which I found Jean Dawson’s letter, there’s a report headed ‘Household Aids Are So Fascinating’ by ‘Beryl’. Jean may well have found the advice on coke boilers and ‘ground bottom utensils’ of help, but I think she would have been alarmed at the following verbiage, especially after her rightful outcry. ‘The big snag most women find in connection with electricity is that it is ‘hard to understand’ and ‘Four out of five vacuum cleaners need never be returned for overhaul if the canister or dust bag were emptied more frequently.’ Oh, and ‘Spring cleaning should always include the washing of lamps as well as shades’. Real shades of Mrs Beeton… in 1947!
In the same newspaper, the women of Watford were being encouraged to go out to work to help Britain ‘back to prosperity’ with a version of Your Country Needs You. Advertisements bring a realisation of life in the immediate post-war era. An announcement that tea cost 4d per pound more, even after ‘the Ministry have done their best to keep prices down’, is followed by mention of a two-and-a-half-ounce tea ration. Then there’s: ‘Save Soap with Solo Ammonia Washing Powder, Coupon Free.’
Advertisements for holidays in St Leonards, Herne Bay, the Isle of Wight and Hunstanton remind us that foreign package tours were the rare exception, not the rule… but I did spot a 10-day autumn tour of Lucerne or Interlaken offered to the few who could afford it for £20 (equivalent to £655 today).
In those reasonably law-abiding times, Edgar Timson of Judge Street was reported as being stopped by a policeman who saw him carrying a dustbin on his shoulder down the High Street. Timson said he had taken the dustbin to sit on while waiting for a bus, having had a few drinks. It transpired that he had stolen it from Eastmans Ltd in the High Street and was promptly fined £2 by Watford Magistrates, the equivalent of £33 today.
Looking through the 16-page newspaper, I’m taken aback to find so many advertisements for remedies for health issues in those immediate postwar days: insomnia, rheumatism, headaches, constipation, heartburn, indigestion, skin irritations, grazes, throbbing feet, coughs, lumbago and asthma. I thought they were generally healthier times.
There’s an eye-catching advertisement for Fowler’s preserves, a Watford company established in 1905 and based in Sydney Road. Note the encouragement to youngsters to return empty jam jars for pocket money!
Amongst the local photographs is one described as ‘a tense moment’ at the South West Herts Boy Scouts’ Association sports, as points scored by the successful sports day competitors are added up. I wonder which group won.
The decision to open a Civic Restaurant in Watford, following the closure of the wartime British Restaurant, aroused some concern. The 204-strong membership of the National Union of Retail Confectioners were up in arms after the council began parallel discussions on the granting of a confectionery and tobacco licence. ‘We do not want municipal trading up against us’, said the chairman, newsagent and tobacconist Sidney Barke of 352 St Albans Road. When councils start this sort of thing, you don’t know where it’s going to stop.’
There’s so much fascinating information in this copy of the West Herts Post that I plan to return to it soon!
- 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.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here