Type | Weekly newspaper |
---|---|
Owner(s) | Newsquest |
Editor | Peter Wilson-Leary |
Founded | 1863 |
Language | English |
Headquarters | Observer House, Watford Business Park |
Circulation | 4,807(as of 2022) [1] |
Website | www.watfordobserver.co.uk |
The Watford Observer is a weekly local newspaper, published by Newsquest. It serves the town of Watford in southwest Hertfordshire, as well as the surrounding area. The paper covers local news, politics and sport, including the town's largest football club Watford FC.
The Watford Observer and General Advertiser for Watford, Bushey and Rickmansworth was first published on 24 January 1863 by Samuel Alexander Peacock, the son of John Peackock, a local bookbinder. In the early years of the 20th century it took over a number of other local titles including The Watford Leader and West Herts News was renamed The West Herts and Watford Observer. Its circulation covered Watford, Bushey, Rickmansworth, Harrow, St Albans, Tring and Chesham. [2]
The newspaper had a weekly circulation of 14,869 in the first six months of 2012. [3] The Watford Observer also publishes a free paper, appropriately named the Watford Free. [4]
Hertfordshire is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it forms part of the East of England region.
The Observer is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to The Guardian and The Guardian Weekly, whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 mi (24 km) northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne.
Rickmansworth is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about 17 miles (27 km) northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne. The town of Watford is 5 miles (8 km) to the northeast. Rickmansworth is the administrative seat of the Three Rivers District Council. The confluence of the River Chess and the River Gade with the Colne in Rickmansworth inspired the district's name. The enlarged Colne flows south to form a major tributary of the River Thames. The town is served by the Metropolitan line of the London Underground and Chiltern Railways from London Marylebone to Aylesbury railway station.
Watford Junction is a railway station that serves Watford, Hertfordshire. The station is on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), 17 miles 34 chains from London Euston and the Abbey Line, a branch line to St Albans. Journeys to London take between 16 and 52 minutes depending on the service used: shorter times on fast non-stop trains and slower on the stopping Watford DC line services. Trains also run to Clapham Junction and East Croydon via the West London Line. The station is a major hub for local bus services and the connecting station for buses to Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter. The station is located north of a viaduct over the Colne valley and immediately south of Watford Tunnel.
South West Hertfordshire is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, represented since 2019 by Gagan Mohindra, a Conservative.
Watford is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Conservative Party MP Dean Russell.
Watford Rural District was a rural district in Hertfordshire from 1894 to 1974. It initially surrounded but did not including the town of Watford, which was a separate urban district. It gradually ceded territory to other districts, and by the time of its abolition in 1974 the district comprised three separate pieces of land, lying to the north-west, north-east, and south of Watford.
The WD postcode area, also known as the Watford postcode area, is a group of eleven postcode districts in Greater London and Hertfordshire, within seven post towns. These cover south-west Hertfordshire, plus very small parts of Buckinghamshire and the London Borough of Hillingdon.
The Camden New Journal is a British independent newspaper published in the London Borough of Camden. It was launched by editor Eric Gordon in 1982 following a two-year strike at its predecessor, the Camden Journal. The newspaper was supported by campaigning journalist Paul Foot and former Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson. It carries significant influence locally, due to its high news content, investigations and large circulation.
The West Briton is a local weekly newspaper published every Thursday. It serves various areas of Cornwall in the United Kingdom: there are four separate editions – Truro and mid-Cornwall; Falmouth and Penryn; Redruth, Camborne and Hayle; and Helston and The Lizard. It was established in 1810 and is part of the Cornwall & Devon Media group of companies. It is based in Truro.
The Croxley Rail Link, or the Metropolitan Line Extension, is a proposed railway engineering project in the Watford and Three Rivers districts of Hertfordshire, England, that would have connected the London Overground and the London Underground's Metropolitan line at Watford Junction. If the link were to go ahead, the Metropolitan line's terminus at Watford Underground station would be closed and the line diverted and extended from Croxley to Watford Junction via a reopened section of closed line. The main proponent of the scheme has been Hertfordshire County Council but it failed to win the support of Transport for London (TfL) which owns the Watford branch. The engineering works would have consisted of the realignment of the disused Watford and Rickmansworth Railway's line between Croxley Green and Watford High Street, with the construction of a viaduct over the Grand Union Canal, River Gade and A412 road and two new stations before branching into the London Overground line near Watford High Street and continuing to Watford Junction.
Dorothy Thornhill, Baroness Thornhill, was the first directly elected mayor of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. She was the Liberal Democrats' first directly elected mayor, and was also the first female directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. She served as Mayor of Watford from May 2002 until May 2018. She was nominated for a life peerage in August 2015.
The Burton Mail is a British daily newspaper published each weekday and on Saturdays. It covers the East Staffordshire, South Derbyshire and North West Leicestershire areas. In the period December 2010 to June 2011, it had an average daily circulation of 12,198. The only paid-for title in Burton-on-Trent, the Mail has been established for more than a century, and prints news from the town and its surrounding area.
The Bucks Herald is a weekly newspaper, published every Wednesday and covering Aylesbury and its surrounding villages in the Aylesbury Vale area of Buckinghamshire, England. It was first published on 7 January 1832.
The Buckinghamshire Examiner more usually known as the Bucks Examiner was a weekly newspaper, published on Wednesdays and distributed in the towns of Amersham, Chesham, and the surrounding villages in the Chiltern area of Buckinghamshire, England. Its last owner and publisher was Trinity Mirror.
Watford General Hospital is a 521-bed acute District General Hospital situated on Vicarage Road, Watford, Hertfordshire. Together with Hemel Hempstead Hospital and St Albans City Hospital, it is operated by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
The Comet is a weekly newspaper covering the English towns of Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock, as well as the surrounding villages in north Hertfordshire and south-east Bedfordshire. It is based in Stevenage and part of the Archant group. The vast majority of its copies are delivered locally or picked up as a free newspaper, but it is also sold. It is published each Thursday in three editions—one concentrates on the Stevenage area, another focuses on Hitchin and a third pays particular attention to Letchworth and Baldock. Nick Gill has been editor since January 2017; previous permanent editors were Darren Isted (2002–14) and John Francis, who retired in June 2016.
Watford Town Hall is a municipal building in Rickmansworth Road, Watford, England. It is a Grade II listed building.