February 2011
The Marlowes Waterstone’s book shop has closed, inevitably as they were never going to keep it and the more recent one in Riverside. But what will happen to the lovely mural painted by Chris Burke when it opened as Ottakars six or seven years back? Apparently Ottakars commissioned about 30 such murals, at a cost of about £20,000 each,
January 2011
Our daily newspaper delivery, which got off to an excellent start last year with 6.30am deliveries, has been a bit patchy of late, even when there was no snow. But I have to take my hat off to Parry’s, the Boxmoor newsagents, and the Daily Mail, for their performance on Friday January 7th. That was the day England
December 2010 Up to now I can’t remember two successive white Christmases. But we’ve just had them – even if it didn’t snow on the day they were certainly white. Snow stories, which didn’t really exist throughout most of the Nineties, have become commonplace this past few years. Everyone can tell you of that nightmare…
December 2005
Not many who were in the village on the morning of Sunday December 11th are likely to forget what we were doing at around 6.30am. Most of us were asleep! I know I was when I was awoken from my slumbers by what sounded like a sonic boom.
December 2005
Villagers were awoken in the early hours of Sunday December 11 by a huge explosion at the Buncefield oil depot. Fortunately no one was injured but there was a widespread damage to buildings nearby. Piccotts End was spared the worst of the shockwave because it was sheltered in the Gade valley. However many residents reported cupboards and doors blown open by the force of the blast. This photo was taken at 8.17am from Marchmont Cottage.
June 2002
Residents celebrated the Queen’s Golden Jubilee with a garden party. It was organised by Mill Close resident Marilyn Hughes, who has revived the village’s social life after years in abeyance. The event was marked by the distribution of specially commissioned leather book marks, one of which is shown here courtesy of Margaret Stanier.
1991
A village man has been jailed for 15 years for the kidnap of a Markyate woman. John Warrington seized the wife of a wealthy Markyate businessman and locked her up in the attic of a shop in the Old Town. A ransom of £500,000 was demanded via a series of bizarre telephone calls in which the kidnapper disguised his voice to sound like a Dalek. The victim was only rescued when a milkman doing his early morning round heard her cries for help.
1991
The village’s historic mill has been burned down in what is believed to be an arson attack. The mill, which was a working water mill powered by the river Gate in the 19th century, has stood on the site for several centuries and probably dates back to Roman times.
June 1977
The village celebrated the Queen’s Silver Jubilee with much cheering and flag-waving. Recent village arrivals Val Corbett and Joyce Lear, who both moved to Piccotts End earlier in the decade, got the party under way, arranging a road closure and festooning it with flags and bunting. Afterwards a very tired but elated Val said: ‘I can’t remember much about it except that it was all very jolly. It was very well attended and I do remember all of us singing a very off-key God Save the Queen after many glasses of wine followed by gales of laughter.’
1973
Marchmont House (pictured), the former home of the 3rd Earl Marchmont, has been sold to the brewers Bass Charrington. They plan to convert the building, which dates back to the 18th century when Lord Marchmont made it his English country house, into a pub to be called the Marchmont Arms.