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Local History Day 2010

Brentford Local History Day - Saturday June 5th 2010

Attendance was good with visitors from Essex, Northamptonshire, Kent, London and Hampshire as well as the lucky few who travelled a shorter distance (or walked!) on a beautiful sunny day.

It was great to meet up for the first time with several people who have been in contact for weeks, months or years and also to re-establish contact with others who have attended on previous occasions. As usual there were fortuitous chance encounters between visitors, who often found a common link 'He lived at no. 69? Well they lived at 67'.

During the day photographs and display items proved a draw: a display showing photos of McIlroys attracted much interest, as did a war time log meticulously kept, detailing each bomb which fell in the Brentford area. Other popular items were photocopied school admission pages from 1947. These were identified by visitors as being for Brentford Secondary Modern School. Typical entries:

Shirley WOOSTER, born 12.4.1936, daughter of William Wooster of 42 Windmill Road. Admitted 9/9/1947

Pauline WOOSTER, born 20.7.1936, daughter of Sodney Wooster of 7 Clayton Crescent. Admitted 9/9/1947. Re-admitted 4/1/1949

A number of mystery photos were on display, inviting attendees for ideas of their location: there were several suggestions by the time we packed up. Visitors to the bhsproject tables helped with names for people appearing in some of the website photos: thankyou, and for the brief family histories often provided at the same time. Photo pages will be updated over the next few weeks.

Roll on next year! As soon as a date is finalised it will be publicised on the website: themes for 2011 and 2012 are already being considered.

Finally, two photos taken as the day drew to a close, 'mouseover' for details.

Published June 2010