A Note from Timeline

Dear All,
I am writing on behalf of TimeLine and Revd. Niall Weir, Rector of St. Paul’s West Hackney, because we are so pleased to be able to tell you about All Our Stories - a national project we have been chosen to help take part in. It is a chance for all of us to put the history and heritage of the a part of Hackney on the national map.

We are collecting up stories and memories of the West Hackney area, to create an online book that will be full of fun and facts about our own history and heritage – as individuals and as a community. Some of the stories, collected from archives will be from a very long time ago – even before the time of Queen Victoria - and others are much more recent, from people who enjoy sharing their memories and showing younger generations how things used to be in the place they live in now. Some of your stories are telling us about some of the journeys that led you or your family to Hackney – plenty more of those very welcome!

We thought that you might like to take part as you or your group probably have some fabulous stories of times gone by – whether it is the 1930s or the 1990s, things will be different nowadays! So we are sending this round robin email to let you know about it the project - we have attached some links which tell you more:

1. All Our Stories – an outline of the project (and an invitation to a Memory Catcher day in September) ;
2. A map of the West Hackney area –so you know where we are talking about;
3. How to send in your West Hackney stories;
4. Safer Streets and Celebrations – some pages for the book with very old stories about the early days of the West Hackney Church, quizzes and pictures;
5. Three Memory Joggers – these ones are about schools, weddings and journeys – just to get you thinking. We can send these to you as Word documents so you can use them to put stories on – just let us know if you would like them.

It would be great if you wanted to join in: why not send us your memories, or maybe you would like to do some research in the archives and tell us what you find. If you would like to help collect up people’s stories, that would be very useful too. And do pass this on to other people and we’ll see what we come up with.

The national project needs us to move fast, and we hope to collect a lot of the stories by mid-October – so we are hoping people can put their thinking caps on in September!

With very best wishes,
Camilla Camilla Loewe Editor/Co-ordinator TimeLine
PO Box 44684 London N16 0XY
Telephone 07947 667652
www.timeline.org.uk

West Hackney Recreation Ground - Good News!

Dear Friends,

Greetings from West Hackney.

I'm writing to tell you some good news about West Hackney Recreation Ground.

As you know, we recently submitted a 'Stage One' application to The Heritage Lottery Fund for funding to regenerate the Recreation Ground and the adjacent churchyard.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has considered our application and has awarded the project £45,700 development funding which will enable the partnership of St Paul's Church, West Hackney Parochial Charity, Groundwork, London, London Borough of Hackney and residents of West Hackney to develop a 2nd stage application to the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund's joint Parks for People Programme for £639,200 to complete the work.

This 2nd stage application will be submitted in February 2012 and we will hear HLF's final decision in June 2012.There is a huge amount of work to do in preparation for this, but it's really heartening that the HLF has such confidence in what they have seen of the project so far.

This is incredible news for the people of West Hackney. For four years now we’ve been dreaming of how, one day, this site might once again be an open green space here in the heart of West Hackney, which will provide an historical and recreational focus right in the heart of our local community. We're one step closer now and we will do all we can to bring this to fruition, not only for the community of today but for that of tomorrow.

Sue Bowers, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in London, said on behalf of HLF and The Big Lottery:

“West Hackney Recreation Ground is a valuable pocket of green space in urban Hackney and is an important part of London’s natural heritage. We are pleased to be giving our initial support for this redevelopment project and are looking forward to seeing these exciting plans progress over the coming months.”

Thank you for all your interest and support so far - I'll keep you updated as to how things progress.
With kind regards,

Niall

St Paul’s West Hackney
St Paul’s West Hackney & The Hackney Society
present
WEST HACKNEY – PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE
an evening talk to mark the 50th anniversary
of the Consecration of St Paul’s Church, West Hackney
MONDAY 17th JANUARY 2011 at 7:00pm
ST PAUL’S CHURCH, WEST HACKNEY
on the corner of Stoke Newington Rd & Amhurst Rd, London N16 7UY

THE LOST PARISH CHURCH OF WEST HACKNEY

Dr Ann Robey
Ann Robey – architectural historian and heritage consultant – will talk about the creation of the parish of West Hackney in 1824, what the area was like at the time
and about the architect Robert Smirke and his design for the original West Hackney Church and how that church was destroyed in the Blitz

GOD'S ACRE? CITY CHURCHYARDS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.

Professor Ken Worpole
The city churchyard was once a place central to the popular and literary imagination.
Their closure in the mid-19th century for health & sanitation reasons left many as historical archives.
Some have since been re-landscaped as pocket gardens or turned into wildlife conservation areas
as part of the 'Living Churchyard' project. In this talk local writer and academic, Ken Worpole,
will discuss the place of these remaining churchyards in the contemporary townscape.

CACHEMAILLE DAY AND THE CHALLENGE OF RECONSTRUCTION

Suzanne Waters
Suzanne Waters- architectural historian and Hackney resident for over 20 years – will talk about the architect Nugent Cachemaille Day, architect of St Paul’s Church, in the context of his church architecture in Hackney.
Her talk will include a tour of the church looking at its architecture and design
Entrance is free to all
The talk will last for approximately one hour and will be followed by refreshments

Trolley Buses

It seems that Leswin Road used to be part of a trolley bus network. If anyone has any pictures/information on this please let us know. Thanks so much.

Flickr Find

A link to some great photos of stoke newington during the 1970's. http://bit.ly/6uK8FF

I was trying to think of some famous people who'd lived round here. The Kray Brothers used to own my old house 28 Tyssen Road, when it was a garage and there's a rumour that Barbara Windsor lived at the end of Leswin Road when she was a hair dresser. Does anyone know of any others?