Did You Know?

Watford has made huge contributions to the printing industry. Rotary photogravure was a technique which was first used in Watford to reproduce very fine, high quality fine art prints and then it went on to be used to produce colour magazines.

The grand staircase of Cassiobury House was removed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, when the house demolished in 1927.

The One Bell pub in Watford, adjacent to St Mary’s Church, holds the oldest existing licence dating back to 1750.

Watford is referenced in the following songs: The Prisoner by The Clash, Albion by Babyshambles, Lesson One by Just Jack, Watford John by Badfinger and I Love London by Crystal Fighters.

Parts of St Mary’s Church on Watford High Street date back to the Anglo-Saxon period.

The only Englishman to ever become pope, Pope Adrian IV, was born Nicholas Breakspear in Abbots Langley in 1100.

Watford Football Club was formed as Watford Rovers in 1886. One of its first members was Charlie Peacock, who became the proprietor of the Watford Observer.

In the 1770s, Captain Cook presented Thomas Villiers, Earl of Clarendon, with a sapling of Black Walnut Tree. The tree still stands today in the grounds of the Grove Hotel.

In the early 20th century, the Trewin Brothers shop – which would later become John Lewis – was provided with electricity two days before the rest of Watford.

In 1939, when the London, Midland and Scottish Railway decided to transfer its headquarters out of London to the Grove estate in Watford, the move was completed in two days.

The Colosseum in Watford is renowned for its acoustic qualities. It has been used to record the soundtracks of The Lord of the Rings, The Sound of Music and Star Wars.