Brackenbury Primary School Library Project Auction Event The Brackenbury School Library Refurbishment project seeks to address the inadequacies of the school library, which is a lifeless place where temporary furniture houses second- rate books, by replacing it with a vibrant environment that positively encourages learning and will be an invaluable resource to the pupils and teachers in the school. This new library, which will be ready for the autumn term will be an inspiring space where a life- long love of reading can be fostered. Our fundraising project for the library refurbishment is gathering momentum and so far we have raised 66,000 towards the total cost of 80,000. We therefore need an additional 14,000 that will allow us to rebuild the library over the coming summer holidays. For the final push to raise the remaining 14,000 we are planning an auction event to take place in June and are looking for sought- after prizes in exchange for publicity or just a warm fuzzy feeling for contributing to a worthwhile cause. With your continued help we can reach our goal! If you are able to donate a prize or a service (e.g. catering, life coaching, design, architecture, yoga, painting and decorating, tutoring, accountancy, IT, etc) please do so. IT S FOR A GOOD CAUSE! Registered Charity: 1106765 FRIENDS OF BRACKENBURY SCHOOL
Homebake Jewellery Tombola Raffle Spring Fete Gifts Grove Neighbourhood Centre 7 Bradmore Park Road Hammersmith W6 0DT Designer Clothes Games Saturday 20 th April 2013 1pm 3pm Admission 1 / Children Free Books Toys Clairvoyant Bric-a-Brac
FULL TIME ASSISTANT Required for a thriving Community Centre in Hammersmith We are looking for a highly motivated and reliable individual who can work on own initiative to join a friendly hardworking team. Good communication skills and experience of working with the public essential. You will be required to attend and help organise fundraising and community events. You will be responsible for opening the centre each morning and setting up the halls and rooms ready for the day also for the evenings. Basic domestic skills required. You will need to be computer literate and numerate, a knowledge of Sage is helpful though not essential. Hours: 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Salary: 17,000 p.a. Post to start Monday 2 nd September 2013 Interested? Please post your C.V. with a covering letter to:- Theresa Tobin and Pat Gregory Grove Neighbourhood Centre 7 Bradmore Park Road London W6 0DT. Closing date for applicants 30 th April 2013.
Friends of the Walled Garden in Ravenscourt Park March 2013 Newsletter We shall hope that the weather warms up a bit for our next morning in the garden on Saturday 6 th April at 10.30am. In February we moved all the plants that we wanted to rescue out of the back right hand herbaceous bed so that the Council can remove most of the earth during April (and we hope all the bindweed roots) and leave it fallow until this time next year when new earth will be brought in and a new planting scheme. This coming Saturday we will be replacing the plants in the four small beds round the sundial plinth with box and rosemary which was the collective decision last time. The existing plants that are worth saving can be planted elsewhere. This is part of the WREF-funded project for a new sundial. The armillary sundial is about to be delivered and the Council are currently sorting out a new secure plinth for it to go on. So lots happening in the walled garden. The other dates in 2013 will be 11 May (a week later due to May holiday weekend) 1 June, 6 July, 3 August, 7 September, 5 October, 2 November, 7 December. Also for your diary, Sunday 19 th May is the 125 th anniversary to the day of Ravenscourt Park being first opened to the public in 1888. There will be a number of celebrations during the summer but on the 19 th there is to be a special evensong service at Holy Innocents Church in Paddenwick Road at 6pm followed by drinks after the service. George and many others of us expect to be there. The usual reminders: Although we have tools - do bring your own gloves and in particular secateurs if you have them. But come anyway if you haven't any or know nothing about gardening - we'll show you what to do. If you use the tools supplied, do please remember not to leave them lying around or in flower beds but put them back in whichever shelter we are using! Everyone is welcome and our group ranges in age from just a few years old (who must be accompanied by a parent or responsible adult) through to many in their 'riper years'. And remember to bring coffee, water, biscuits (whatever you wish or can) for our mid morning 10 minute break Please too continue to put the word around about our work in the walled garden - just once a month for us - the more we are, the more we can achieve - and the more new local people we can get to know. Do have a look too at our website on www.ravenscourtgarden.btck.co.uk
Chair: Annabelle May annabellemay@lineone.net Secretary: Janis Cammell OBE janis.cammell@btinternet.co.uk ravenscourtparkfriends@hotmail.co.uk SPRING NEWSLETTER March 2013 A Thank You to our members and supporters Thanks to your support last year - and your subscriptions we were able to hold our September 2012 AGM in the welcoming surroundings of Holy Innocents Lower Hall in Paddenswick Road. We shall be back there again for our AGM later this year, when we will all be celebrating the 125 th anniversary of Ravenscourt Park opening to the public in 1888! It was good to see several new faces joining us there last September, and also to welcome new members of the Friends throughout the year. Some of these we met at the lively Parks Police Dog Show, where on a rare hot day we had a stall and marvelled to be surrounded by such an amazing variety of canines of all shapes and sizes. 2012 was a busy year for us all round, and one when the Friends developed valuable links with new groups across the Borough. We also participated in London-wide meetings of Park Friends held at City Hall and heard about what other groups are doing. Bat walks Soon after the AGM, we were very excited about the first ever Bat Walk in Ravenscourt Park. Organised by the Friends for our members and in partnership with the charity Groundwork, participants judged it a great success. And we are really grateful to Susan Doria, manager of the Bowls Club, for offering us the hospitality of her clubhouse. After weeks of rain we were lucky to have chosen a clear September night, and following an introductory talk by expert Netty Ribeaux, set off in the moonlight towards the Lake clutching our individual bat detectors. The familiar landscape took on a whole new aspect at night, enhanced by some intriguing nocturnal noises penetrating the otherwise unaccustomed silence. Switching our detectors to different frequencies enabled us to pick up the calls of three or four bat species, including the Daubentons, which fly down to the river to feed by hovering over the surface of the water. We are organising our second Bat Walk for Wednesday April 24 th. The evenings will be lighter then, allowing us to meet later than before: and we aim to meet at around 7pm. As places will be limited, please let us know whether you would like to come along and join in. Green Flag The Friends met the judge last year, and afterwards were pleased to hear that the park had passed muster again though only just, we understand. We learned a little while later that the judging had picked up on many of the points that have concerned us over the past two or three years, including long-standing drainage problems and the badly potholed state of the main avenue towards King Street. Various other paths also need attention.
Local residents sometimes get the feeling that Ravenscourt Park is taken for granted. In comparison with other green spaces in the Borough, we continually seem to miss out in terms of capital investment. But perhaps the Green Flag report will bear fruit. In any case, we do hope that the Council will at last be able to address some of these long-standing maintenance issues in this important anniversary year. Meanwhile, we are still worried about the increasingly intensive use of this popular Park, as pressure from local schools increases. The Friends were pleased to read that the Council is now developing a strategy for schools use of parks, and hope that this will provoke some creative thinking and identify some positive partnerships. Last September, at the AGM, we were all relieved to hear assurances from Cllr Phibbs that the West London Free School shortly moving 600 secondary pupils into Palingswick House - appreciated local feeling about these pressures and was arranging to use existing playing fields elsewhere. Unfortunately, however, this peace of mind proved short-lived as barely a couple of weeks later this statement was contradicted at the Planning Applications Committee, when the Free School s application for works to Paddenswick House slipped in a reference to using the Park for sports. Underneath the Arches At last the long-awaited opening up of the arches is starting to happen though not perhaps as quickly as we hoped. These railway arches are an important piece of industrial archaeology in terms of the history of the London and South Western Railway and, later, London Underground. Viewed close up, they contain some impressive Victorian brickwork. They also form a focal viewpoint across the Park. That is why the Friends opposed a recent Council proposal for a community artwork to be painted onto brickwork and metal panels as inappropriate for this historic location. We look forward to seeing the now unsightly metal panels rendered less obtrusive by being painted in plain dark green, and also hope to hear more about the promised refurbishing of brickwork by Transport for London. Farmers Market London Farmers Markets have come up with a proposal to hold a weekly Sunday market in the Park, making use of the arches in the process. The Friends are supporting this, as we believe this project would benefit the whole community. There are planning issues to be sorted out, of course, but it is encouraging to hear that discussions with the Council are continuing. Hopefully it will not be too long before we see this market flourishing. Digging up the past Perhaps most exciting of all, the Friends have entered into discussions with the Museum of London about the possibility of setting up a community archaeological dig on the site of the original fourteenth century moated manor house of Ravenscourt, where the later 18 th century house was bombed in 1941. Huge enthusiasm on all sides and more news when we have it! Diary dates Bat Walk Wednesday 24 April. Details to be announced. Choral Evensong at Holy Innocents, Paddenswick Road, 6pm, 19 May. Service to celebrate 125 years since the opening of Ravenscourt Park to the public in 1888. AGM Monday 23 September, Holy Innocents Lower Hall, 7pm. Contact the Friends of Ravenscourt Park at ravenscourtparkfriends@hotmail.co.uk