New edition of local history journal published
Articles range from Civil War to the Second World War
The Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society Journal 2005 is now available. It contains a range of articles covering several centuries of local history from the Civil War to World War II.
Leafy Chiswick is not known for being a battleground but it was here that what is thought to have been the largest engagement of troops in British history took place. In 1642 during the English Civil War, two armies numbering around 36,000 men, faced each other across Turnham Green (then much larger than it is today). The Battle of Turnham Green describes the event fully and is one of the articles in the Journal.
Other articles in the 2005 Journal include:
Commemorating the First V2 - an account of how the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society and the Battlefields Trust succeeded in erecting a memorial to the three people who died when the first V2 rocket landed in Staveley Road, Chiswick in 1944. Members of the team who organised the event recently attended a VE Day ceremony in Germany at the site where the rocket was built. They planted a cherry tree there in memory of those who died.
The Tukes' Asylum in Chiswick - our area's architectural gem, Chiswick House, was a private mental asylum between 1892 and 1928, run on very humane lines by the Tuke family. This article describes the premises, the proprietors and the patients.
Royal Brewery, Brentford - the history of Brentford's large brewery which had the unique distinction of being named personally by a king of England.
Alice Woods: Bedford Park and Co-Education - an account of the life and work of the first headmistress of the school formed in 1884 by residents of the newly-built Bedford Park. This school was unusual for its time, being co-educational and non-sectarian.
Bedford Park and the Lindley Connection - offers a vivid insight from the letters and diaries of Sarah Crease (née Lindley) into the home and family of her father, John Lindley, the naturalist and botanist who was connected with the Royal Horticultural Society for 42 years and was recently honoured with a blue plaque at his former home at Bedford Corner.
Local paintings by Lucien and Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro - the great French Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro was not the only member of his family to paint pictures of Chiswick. Two of his sons both lived and worked in our area. There will be a talk on the Pissarro family in Chiswick at St. Michael and All Angels Parish Hall during the Bedford Park festival
The Brentford & Chiswick Local History Journal 2005 has 32 pages and, for the first time, a full colour cover with two illustrations. It costs £5 and is available in Brentford and Chiswick Libraries or by post from the Society at 25 Hartington Road, Chiswick, W4 3TL (please add 65p for postage and packing).
May 27, 2005
