The coronets of the Earl and Countess of Essex. Credit: David Parker The
Watford Observer has teamed up with Watford Museum and its curator Sarah Priestley to take a journey back to the town’s past through items or places of historical significance. The 23nd item in ‘a history of Watford in 50 objects’ are two of the most glamorous objects in the museum s collection - the coronets of the Earl and Countess of Essex. Sarah said: These small crowns with rich velvet and trimmed with ermine would have been worn for the coronation of a new monarch. Only those of the title of baron/baroness or above are entitled to wear a coronet, and you can tell these were specifically made for an earl and countess because of the decoration of strawberry leaves and ‘pearls’.
The proposed new hotel and offices on the site of Cassiobury House in Station Road. Credit: Tellon Capital A tired and outdated building will be demolished and replaced with a 168-bed hotel and new offices. Watford Borough Council’s planning committee narrowly approved a proposal to redevelop Cassiobury House in Station Road, by Watford Junction, on Wednesday evening. Tellon Capital received permission for a 13-storey hotel, along with an eight-storey office building on the site of the current five-storey Cassiobury House. Wednesday’s meeting was not plain sailing for the applicants, with several councillors on the planning committee raising concerns about the visual impact the new hotel - believed to be a Premier Inn - and offices will have on neighbouring residential streets.
Circa 1928: Looking south down Watford High Street. St Mary s Church and Queen s Road Methodist Church (now demolished) can be clearly seen as can the gasometers in Lower High Street One of the best ways of illustrating how much a town has changed is from the air and thanks to an old publication we can give an insight into how Watford altered over a near 70-year period. Roger Middleton shared these newspaper cuttings with fellow members of the Watford Observer s nostalgia Facebook group We grew up in Watford . They were taken from a magazine this newspaper published in 1994 called Past and Present - A History in Pictures .