New year, new displays

To start the New Year, new displays! And a new style of what visitors can do as well as see....

Our main display takes us to the canal - what was it like to work on the canal?

Horse boats and motor boats, decorations and clothes,. things to do as well as look at... . You can paint and make up a ribbon plate, read about the costumes worn by the working boaters, and even do a bit of 'dressing up'. Of course this is aimed at the youngsters, but you never know, adults might like to release the inner child....

And on the digital kiosk we have a set of images and a short video to complement the rest of the display.

You can also see a reminiscence of Francis Reckitt, as recently featured in out Watford Observer column. A very interesting man, Mr Reckitt, and his Artists' Rest Home an important but little known part of the story of the town.

We're also showing the 1917 diary of a local girl, Elizabeth Giles of Stockers Farm. She was 13 at the time, and her simple diary tells us a lot about what it was like to be at school round here (actually, in Watford, at Garbetts School, where she travelled by train - unless she missed it!). Not a mention of the war - but that wasn't the point. The diary, and a wonderful transcription, have recently been donated by her son, to whom we're very grateful.

Come and have a closer look!