Growing Up In Lower High Street

A Memory of Watford.

My father Basil Leader was manager of the Co-op Funeral service which used to be the site of the Angel Inn and we lived in a maisonette above the premises. At the back were two branches of the river Colne - a fast flowing millstream where I used to catch crayfish and see kingfishers and a slower branch that iced over in winter where I skated in Winter. I attended Stanborough seventh Day adventist school and later Rosary Priory where my best friends were Lesley Parrish, Amanda Cook, Sally Tedd and Gillian Benton. I remember the stench of the gasworks, taking metal scraps to Ausdens next door for pocket money, going to dances at the Top Rank (once the Odeon and later Sainsburys)and taking my dog for walks across Watford Fields and through the park at the back of the Wheatsheaf pub. I attended Watford Tech college and George Stephenson where I befriended Peter Jones and Peter Jennings. Would love to share memories with anyone who remembers me.