Back to the 1970s

THE 1970s are back in a big way with fashion, music and film all gazing back to the decade of flared trousers, glam rock and the blockbuster movie.

The Gazette offices in 1973

Heritage decided to take a look beyond the television pictures and find out what life really was like in 1973, the year that Life On Mars is set.

It was the year when the UK joined the EU (or EEC), the Vietnam war ended, the Watergate Scandal rocked America, the three-day week came into force and the Chopper bike was introduced, but what was life really like in 1973?

• A THREE-bedroom house in Chaulden would set you back around £11,500 and in Berkhamsted £12,850.
• For entertainment in your living room a television set could be rented from DER for £2.20 a month while in the kitchen a box of PG Tips cost 7p, pork chops were 49p per pound, a four pack of Swan lager cost 29p and a bottle of Bacardi £2.99.
• New fitted bedroom furniture was being offered by Perrings in the Marlowes, a full double bedroom including twin beds would set you back £633.
• It was the year of M car registration and a brand new Skoda S100 cost £756.71 and a Toyota 1200 Saloon £1,151.
• Marks and Spencer announced they were coming to Hemel Hempstead in the Spring. Staff were needed at 43p per hour. Other employment opportunities included being a stacker at the new distribution centre at Kodak in Swallowdale Lane - for £22.60 per week.
• Keeping viewers glued to the box in '73 was Return to Peyton Place, The Osmonds, The Partridge Family, Dickie Davies' World of Sport and On the Ball with Jimmy Hill.
  Raymond Burr starred in Ironside and Parkinson met Jon Pertwee who was playing Doctor Who.
• In the world of film it was the year of Dirty Harry, Klute, The Exorcist, The Sting, Jesus Christ Superstar and Live and Let Die.
• The Rex in Berkhamsted, which has just celebrated its first anniversary since it reopened, showed its last Saturday film. The cinema became the Studio One Bingo Hall, with films Monday to Wednesday and bingo at the end of the week. Later the circle was divided into a two-screen cinema. Films showing included Cabaret and Ryan's Daughter
  
  
• The Pavilion was the main centre of entertainment. In one week it offered a pantomime (Dick Whittington), wrestling, old time and modern sequence dancing, a supper dance with cabaret and ballroom dancing.
  Other acts appearing at the Pavilion in 1973 were Golden Earring, String Driven Thing, The New Seekers and Edwin Hawkins Singers, best known for their hit Oh Happy Day.
  One of the biggest draws of the year was the performance of glam rockers Sweet, with The Gazette reporting on the massive queues for tickets to catch their appearance in Hemel Hempstead.
• Herbert Christopher of the Hemel Hempstead Amateur Dramatic Society declared that the town needed a theatre. He said: “What a terrible thing it is to confess that a town beginning to approach 80,000 people does not possess its own theatre.
  HHAODS went on to buy the former St John's church hall at Boxmoor (now Boxmoor Theatre).
  
• There were also threats to close Boxmoor Hall, Young People's Arts Centre, due to lack of funds.
  
• Ballroom dancing was enjoying something of a resurgence, as it is today.
  Those wishing to learn could contact Keith and Christine Burton who hosted popular ballroom dance classes at 40p adults, 25p children.
• The Gazette's music reviews showed a varying degree of foresight. A review of Queen's first album read: “It does not pretend to be a great musical triumph. It is entertaining and easy to listen to and I predict they will be a monster band next year.”
  
• Other predictions weren't quite so accurate. A review of the year's Christmas singles described Slade's now legendary song Merry Christmas Everybody as “pretty dull” and claimed Wizzard's perennial favourite I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday “clattered along but doesn't get very far with a jumpy, gallopy sound.”
• Also in the news this year:
• Enoch Powell visited Northchurch in March to talk about de-nationalisation while Prime Minister Edward Heath paid a visit to Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead in September. However, neither of these notable visits brought in the crowds that Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee's appearance in Hemel Hempstead achieved, when more than 800 people turned out.
• Postcodes arrived with the introduction of the HP code to the area.
• Also introduced was VAT, which left many shopkeepers confused. Rates took an unprecedented leap with some increases in excess of 55 per cent.
• Mead's Flour Mill in New Mill, Tring, closed. It dated back to 1829.
• Bovingdon Retained Fire Brigade was declared the best in Hertfordshire - having beaten five other teams in a national quiz competition. But later in the year, in an echo of things to come, there was talk of Bovingdon fire service being axed.
• Hemel Hempstead's outdoor pool closed.
• Members of the ACTT union went on strike at Kodak for several months.
• There were serious concerns in Bovingdon about the proposed prison.
• The Roman Villa was found in Northchurch.
• A motorway route to bypass Kings Langley, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring was approved by the government. The Department of the Environment over-ruled many local objectors. “No sane body would allow it to happen” said Mr Herbert Christopher, then chairman of the Boxmoor Trust.
  There were protests about possible land loss and inadequate land exchanges.
• The Magic Roundabout experiment began.
• A proposed expansion of Luton Airport was rejected by the Government. The £2.5m scheme would have included new terminal buildings, strengthened runways and wider taxiways and extra car parking.
  Too many people would suffer extra noise, it was said.
• Permission for 1,100 homes at Grovehill and Woodhall Farm for Fairview and Wimpey was refused. The council said the homes were too small. n In Berkhamsted 341 houses were being built on the Ashlyns estate in Berkhamsted at a cost of around £1 million and there was discussion about the building of 800 homes at Tunnel fields.