TOWN CRIER March 2019
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Ruislip Residents’ Association TOWN CRIER March 2019 www.ruislipresidents.org.uk O N’T F RG O ET D 2019 Subscription Due See page 23 or visit www.ruislipresidents.org.uk to pay online Centenary of the Ruislip Residents’ Association Read about our history in an eight-page article by Eileen Bowlt RUISLIP RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION Founded 1919 PRESIDENT CONTENTS Brian Cowley VICE-PRESIDENTS Joan Davis Peter Lansdown 3 Editorial CHAIRMAN 4 Community Noticeboard Graham Bartram 5 Chairman's Message VICE-CHAIRMAN Mike Hodge 6 Education News TREASURER John Hawley 11 Our History & Centenary SECRETARY 19 Ruislip Bowls Club - An Ode Patricia Wardle CHIEF ROAD STEWARD 20 Conservation Concerns Alan Jones 22 Health Matters DEPUTY CHIEF ROAD STEWARD Vacant 23 Treasurer’s Corner EXECUTIVE Vivien Alcorn 24 Scams - Be Aware Brian Gunn Susan Midgley 24 Subscription Form Paul Mitchell John Swindells Phil Taylor 26 The Arts Society EDITOR 28 Police Points Graham Bartram ✎ [email protected] 30 Planning Update ✆ 01895 673310 CONTACT US 31 Houses of Parliament Visits Patricia Wardle Honorary Secretary 32 General Meeting - Poster Ruislip Residents’ Association Mail Boxes Etc. Box No. 231 113 High Street Ruislip Middlesex HA4 8JN ✎ [email protected] www.ruislipresidents.org.uk 2 Ruislip TOWN CRIER COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES Editorial Vacant POLICE LIAISON Brian Gunn CONSERVATION This is our Centenary edition Paul Mitchell PUBLIC TRANSPORT Graham Bartram We made it to 100 years old! In this edition of the Town Crier we have an excellent article on the history EDUCATION Susan Midgley of Ruislip Residents’ Association from 1919 to today by Eileen Bowlt, the eminent local historian. RAF NORTHOLT LIAISON Peter Lansdown Our Centenary is shared by Ruislip Bowls Club, WOODLANDS & ENVIRONMENT Graeme Shaw who have kindly supplied an ode to mark our joint anniversary – its on page 19. We wish them the RUISLIP LIDO Peter Lansdown best for their Centenary! HEALTH Joan Davis Don’t forget that this year’s subscriptions are now due and there is an article about them by our Hon. RUISLIP RETAIL AREA Treasurer, John Hawley on page 23. Vacant MANOR RETAIL AREA We also have our normal coverage of conservation, John Hawley education, health, planning and police. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES Vivien Alcorn And no editorial would be complete without a plea MEMBERSHIP for more volunteers! Look at the vacancies on the Vacant right for ideas. TRAFFIC & PARKING Vacant HS2 Graham Bartram Phil Taylor Graham Bartram, Editor Pro Tem WEBSITE & IT John Swindells PLANNING Mike Hodge Please note that the views expressed in articles in the Town Crier are those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Ruislip Residents’ Association. Ruislip TOWN CRIER 3 FRIENDS OF EASTCOTE HOUSE GARDEN www.eastcotehousegardens.weebly.com Eastcote House Volunteer Gardeners meet on the 1st Friday, 2nd Friday and 3rd Thursday of every month, at 9.30am. Everyone welcome - tools and refreshments provided - no experience necessary. Meet in the car park at Eastcote House Gardens. Gardening dates: March 1st, 8th, 21st; April 5th, 12th, 18th; May 3rd, 10th, 16th; June 7th, 14th, 20th; July 5th, 12th, 18th; August 2nd, 9th, 15th. Conservation dates: March 28th; April 25th; May 23rd; June 27th; July 25th; August 22nd. The Gardens Café is now open daily from 8.30am (10am on Sunday) until 2.00pm. THE ARTS SOCIETY, HILLINGDON Lecture Programme March-August 2019 Wednesdays at 2.00pm, Winston Churchill Hall - admission £7 to non-members 13 March Zaha Hadid Architectural Superstar Colin Davies 8 May Christopher Marlowe - Poet & Spy Giles Ramsey 12 June Heatherwick - A Modern Leonardo Ian Swankie 10 July French Impressionists in London Jenifer Toynbee- Holmes 14 August John Russell - An Australian Impressionist Lucrezia Walker RUISLIP, NORTHWOOD & EASTCOTE LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY Lecture Programme February-April 2019 Meetings held in St Martin’s Church Hall, 8.15pm. Visitors welcome. 18 February Saxons at the Adelphi, Strand 18 March Trent Park’s Secret History Douglas Killock 29 April Londoners and the preservation of Helen Fry open spaces Mark Gorman 4 Ruislip TOWN CRIER Chairman’s Message RRA One hundred years ago, We rely on your subscriptions to pay for in February 1919, a the running of the association, including group of residents printing the Town Crier, so please take a of Ruislip and East- few moments to try out the online system cote decided that and pay this year’s subscription - it’s £5.00. if they wanted to preserve the rural sur- HS2 has decided to cause more pain in roundings of their homes and have more Ruislip. They want to run a high-voltage say about the area they lived in, they power supply from Rayner’s Lane to West would need to form an association – and Ruislip, via (in our area) Westholme Gardens, so they created the Ruislip & Eastcote As- Manor Way, Midcroft and then along sociation. Now 100 years later we are cel- Ickenham Road. The idea is that the route ebrating Ruislip Residents’ Association’s is going via residential streets to minimise Centenary (Eastcote formed its own resi- traffic problems, but the Ickenham Road dents’ association in 1930). That is quite can hardly be described as a residential an achievement, indeed the National Or- road - a main artery would be closer to the ganisation of Residents’ Associations be- truth. We are still trying to persuade them lieve we are probably the oldest associa- to get their electricity from the West, from tion of our kind in the country! where the cables would run over fields, or to run it along the Metropolitan and During that time we have tried to repre- Central lines. You should be able to find sent the interests of the people of Ruislip out more on HS2’s community website: in a range of areas, including conservation, http://hs2inhillingdon.commonplace.is planning, education, police, environment, but I can’t find much there about it - hope- etc. We have had some great successes, but fully it will appear soon as the project is also some failures. Eileen Bowlt has kindly due to kick-off in Spring! written an article about our history which highlights both (it starts on page 11). I hope to see as many of you as possible at our meeting in April (see the back page), It’s membership subscription time and but in the meantime if you see me on the now you can pay it online on our website: High Street feel free to stop me for a chat! http://www.ruislipresidents.org.uk Graham Bartram, Chairman, ✆ 01895 673310 Ruislip TOWN CRIER 5 Schools Education News Susan Midgley TOP AWARD FOR UXBRIDGE COLLEGE James said, “I will never forget that day. I WHEELCHAIR SLALOM CHAMPION never realised that I’d win – I couldn’t be- Student James Hillier has been honoured lieve it. My mum cried and my dad nearly for his sporting achievements with the cried too! I would like to thank everyone Panathlon’s top annual honour for com- who came on the night and everyone petitors in London and Essex. James, 16, who has supported me in doing sport. I was named the tenth winner of the Jack would love to enter more competitions.” Petchey Outstanding Achievement Award for his achievements with Pantathlon, a Access to Further Education student, James, charity that gives more than 17,500 chil- who is quadriplegic and has cerebral pal- dren and young people with disabilities sy, also loves trampolining and has been and special needs an opportunity to take part of the Brunel University wheelchair part in competitive sport each year. basketball club. He competed with a group from his previ- BISHOP RAMSEY’S EVENING OF DRAMA ous school, Ruislip High School, in events Towards the end of the Autumn Term 2018 including Powerchair Slalom and bean- the school’s Drama Department presented bag throwing. Competitors in the slalom An Evening of Drama to showcase the de- have to manoeuvre a high performance partment’s extra-curricular activities. The electric wheelchair through a set of ob- comperes for the evening, Rachel Dun- stacles as fast as possible; in the beanbag leavey and Nathan Pike, both Year 11 stu- competition they have to hit a target. dents, introduced all the items on the pro- gramme with clever and amusing rhyming James’s prize was presented to him by couplets composed by the students and Panathlon Ambassador and Paralympic much appreciated by the audience. swimming gold medallist, Liz Johnson and Gemma Juma from the Jack Petchey The first part of the evening was devot- Foundation at a ceremony which took ed to School Poetry which consisted of place at John Lewis, Stratford City. scenes from Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahl- 6 Ruislip TOWN CRIER berg which portrayed a variety of school scenarios in rhyme. Many of the scenes were between students and their teach- ers with a very funny response from the teacher. All the scenes were performed by members of the Drama Club. After the interval the programme brought a more serious tone to the evening. To commemorate one hundred years since the end of WW1 there was a performance of the final scene ofJourney’s End by R C Sheriff, directed by Year 9 student Katie Hall who has been a member of the Drama Club since Year 7. This is a very powerful scene which movingly depicts the death of a young officer who had recently joined Gemma Juma, James Hillier & Liz Johnson his battalion straight from public school at the age of eighteen as well as the de- struction of the trench, dugout and all the personnel. The brutal fighting was cleverly represented by vivid mimed actions.