was such a success that it will be held again on Saturday, 6 October, and a Seasonal drinks party on Friday, 14 December. Please add these dates to your The Island NEWS diary, and come along. March-April 2018 BLIRA NEWS Highlights of the January and February meetings NEWS is issued to all residents of Lock Island on behalf of BLIRA, Brentford Lock Island • Satellite TV re-cabling to Town Houses complete, Residents Association Ltd. Views expressed are not providing access to SkyQ for all those who want it, necessarily those of the Board. including owners of flats Editors: Les Brown and Ellen Cantor • Adams Quarter courtyard paving upgrade to match Moorings, when funds are available

• Car bay numbering – re-paint under way BLIRA AGM • Electric charging points for cars under consideration When: 7.30pm on Tuesday 20 March

Where: at St Paul’s Church (next to the old Police Station) (Owners will receive formal notification of the meeting from Blenheims, along with an agenda)

That’s odd – we now seem to get SkyQ on the sat-nav when the car’s charging

Blenheims: an appreciation Blenheims have been The Island’s property managers since 2012. During that time, they have worked closely with BLIRA’s board of directors and overseen a number of complex maintenance projects. Their staff, especially Whether or not you have attended previous Annual Stephen Savva, have coped gamely with the many General Meetings of BLIRA, Island Owners (only) questions, complaints, problems and emergencies should seriously consider attending this one. It will thrown at them by a (correctly) demanding Island be your first opportunity to meet and question the population. Clearly, there have been downs as well as new Property Managers, Michael Richards & Co., ups in BLIRA’s relationship with Blenheims – there at this critical time of hand-over from Blenheims. As wouldn’t have been a changeover otherwise – but we part on good terms, and wish our ex-team all the best in previous years, free refreshments will be for the future. served, so come along from 7.00pm onwards, and meet your neighbours in what has proved to be a very convivial environment. Supermarket, or no market? Questions and comments may be submitted in advance, Things are not looking good on the Brentford either to Blenheims or to the BLIRA address at the end supermarket scene. Morrisons’ lease will expire on 31 of this Newsletter. May, and talks with the site’s developer, Essential Living, about continuing the lease until work can start on Social Events site have broken down. Furthermore, there are The Social Committee is motoring! Work on the Island indications that Marks & Spencer and Lidl may be website has led to combining that site with the new cooling on their plans to replace Morrisons within the BLIRA site, so that the social committee news will be new development, and Essential Living is tight-lipped one of the links on the new BLIRA website. about both this and a start date for construction. It looks Looking ahead, an Art Show is planned for 19 and 20 more and more likely that the town will have no April, assuming that a suitable venue can be found, and supermarket for years to come – perhaps until the the Summer Barbecue will be held this year on much-delayed Ballymore project happens, on the South Saturday, 7July. That’s not all! Oktoberfest side of the High Street. (continues overleaf) It’s a dismal prospect for this community, even if many each day from , collectively working 36 hours of us Islanders buy our groceries online, or use our cars per day Monday to Saturday and 10 hours on Sunday. to shop further afield. Let’s continue to support small Still busy up to the cuts in the railway network proposed traders on the High Street, and the Sunday Farmers’ by Lord Beeching, the line was closed on 1st January Market - they could be the only shows in town! 1965.

The railway bridge serving Brentford MOBIKES Dock, which now carries Augustus Close You may have noticed these smart orange-wheeled bikes that appeared recently in Market Square and elsewhere in Brentford. They are Chinese-made and owned, and they will rival the long-established ‘Barclays/Santander bikes’, having the big advantage of not requiring docking stations – they can be picked up and left in just about any public space. Advanced tracking systems simplify use, and deter abuse. The bikes cost 50p an hour to use, plus a one-off refundable deposit of £1. To find out more about them, go to https://mobike.com/uk/about Be warned, though, they are hefty, The Island NEWS discovered, having lifted AT LAST! BLIRA’s new website one, and watched riders struggling with them on Thanks to BLIRA Director Paul Lang, a shiny new inclines. website came online on 8 February this year. Do check it out, at www.brentfordlockisland.com It is a work in progress, and will develop in whatever direction its users suggest, so please let the Board know what you would like to see - especially if you can help make it happen! Version 1.0 of the website shows the way forward, with sections on planned work and maintenance, the history of The Island, social events (to come), contacts and links, plus downloads of the Residents’ Handbook, Minutes of BLIRA Board meetings (starting from January 2018) and, of course, The Island NEWS! Brentford’s Lost Railway The Island’s resident Historian, Simon White, writes: The Great Western and Brentford Railway Company It was this grand title under which Isambard Kingdom planned Brentford Dock in the mid-1850s. The carriage of goods on this line was constrained because imports of goods, coal and other merchandise arrived in ships to the Port of . They had to be transhipped from there in barges to Brentford then again transhipped on to horse-drawn barges via the to the GWR depot at Bull’s Bridge at Hayes. The goal was to tranship from the barges in the Thames directly Viewed on a clear crisp February day… into railway trucks from a Brentford Dock. The Dock and railway line linking it to the main GWR line at Southall were opened in July 1859 at a cost of £300,000 - instead of Brunel’s estimate of £90,000. It included a Want to comment on any of the above? passenger service to Southall from a new station called Please contact the Board: Brentford Town, later called Brentford Central [email protected] (positioned alongside the present Pets at Home store). BLIRA’s Board is Margaret Bird, Still, the main business was goods transhipment from Nic Cantor, Peter Goddard, Paul Lang, Nigel Meakin 300-ton barges. There were a dozen passenger trains (joint Chair), Ian Parker, William Shaw (joint Chair) and each day in 1860, costing a two-penny fare: in 1910, Howard Vanderborght there were 35 carrying some 40,000 passengers. After Twitter: @BLIRAnews World War 2, four steam shunting-engines were sent