Comment from front page of the Borehamwood Post on July 27, 1972: "How do you write the name of our town?

Boreham Wood or Borehamwood?

Most people who write to us use Borehamwood.

The council uses the same manner of writing.

Most new signs read Borehamwood.

So from now on, the Post will adhere to the general trend and for us, Boreham Wood becomes BOREHAMWOOD."

The spelling of Borehamwood is still a matter of debate should it be one word or two?

Only the town's football and athletics clubs and the Elstree and Boreham Wood Museum have stuck to the two-word tradition, but it was once the norm.

But what is the correct name for the town?

One of the earliest recorded references to Borehamwood is from the 1549 will of Humfrey Roberts, which refers to his dwellinge in Borramwode'. Yet two years later, the will of John Meryden calls his place of abode, Boram Woode'.

Another will, from 1636 mentions Borham Wood'. Then a 1736 map of Hertfordshire shows it as Barham Wood'.

The spelling of what was then a hamlet, gets confusing in the 19th century. In 1873, Ordnance Survey maps called the hamlet, Borehamwood', and the company has always stuck to this one-word spelling. Yet local directories such as Pigott's and Kelly's referred to Boreham Wood' throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Hertfordshire County Council have records of it being spelled as one-word in the 13th and 16th centuries.

A spokeswoman said: "We cannot give a conclusive answer because it keeps changing. It's open to interpretation and it's changed in different periods."

When Boreham Wood was subjected to massive post-war expansion to house Londoners who lost their homes in the Blitz, residents called for Elstree Station to be renamed to include Boreham Wood.

When residents finally got their wish in 1953, the station was named Elstree & Borehamwood Station'. Newcomers to the area may have started using the one-word version of the town due to the station.

Some say that the final nail in the coffin came for Boreham Wood in 1972, when this newspaper then known as the Post decided to use the one-word version.

Paul Welsh, deputy clerk of the Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council, said: "I don't think there's ever been a definite date when it's been decided, but once the Borehamwood Post started to spell it as one word, that was it. As people moved into the town, they only knew it as a one-word spelling."

He said the parish council discussed the issue in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

"The general consensus was that it had drifted into one word," he said. "People do still spell it as a personal choice.

"When I was at school we spelled it as two words. It looks nice in a way, like Bricket Wood."

Current chair of the council, Eileen Stanley, said: "As far as I know there was no official decision, but when Elstree Town Council changed to Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council in 1982, it was one word."