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Brentford Sports FEST
BRENTFORD SportsFest
Get your trainers on and join in
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Local residents are encouraged to lace up their running shoes and take part in Brentford’s biggest running event – Brentford Sports FEST. Residents of all ages and abilities can take part in a 10k run, 5k run, 1k and a children’s fun run on Sunday 5th April 2020 in the grounds of Syon House. Organised by Brentford FC Community Sports Trust, in partnership with developers Brentford Lock West, the event offers runners the opportunity to run in the private grounds of the estate. For runners hoping to beat their personal best, all races have chip timing. Anna Rutowicz, who took part in the 10k last year, says: “Taking part in Brentford Sports FEST was such a fun experience that contributed to my motivation for running more”. The course is a mixture of trail, path, meadow and parkland, including the Duke of Northumberland’s private gardens.
Walking, paddleboarding and yoga
Apart from running, Brentford Sports FEST also offers a range of sporting activities for all the family. There’s a 5k Walk and Talk (in association with West London NHS Trust). For water lovers, there is the opportunity to take part in a paddleboarding lesson and kayaking at Brentford Lock. There’s also a free health and sports ‘village’ where you can try out hatha yoga or have a go at making pizza. You can test your batting technique with cricket simulator. Children can throw themselves into a variety of games with fun inflatables or have a go at rugby with the
activities provided by London Irish Foundation; while little ones can play in the soft play area. Brentford FC Community Sports Trust offers a portfolio of programmes in education, health, sports participation and community engagement all year round, in partnership with Brentford Football Club. It has been doing community work in Brentford and the surrounding area for thirty years, using the power of sport to educate, motivate and inspire people from all walks of life. The Trust has won the ‘Football League Community Club of the Year’ award four times and now employs more than 100 members of staff.
Festival of Business 2020
Breakfast 8:00am - 9:15am Exhibition 9:30am - 4:00pm Holiday Inn London, Brentford Lock, Commerce Road London TW8 8GA
Hounslow is the borough of Business – our economy is strong, made up of nearly a third of a million people, over 18,000 businesses. It is an economy of nearly £20bn, the second largest economy in the UK – the first is London.
The Hounslow Festival of Business is part of that celebration, showcasing and promoting our diverse business community.
The event is free to attend, you just need to book. Book your stand at a starting price of £195+VAT. The Stakeholder’s Breakfast is £20+VAT for members and £30+VAT for non-members. Keynote speaker: Justin Urquhart Stewart
For any further queries contact Sally on sallysmith@hounslowchamber.org.uk
5 Reasons to Join
• Regular networking events / conferences • Signposting & introductions • International trade missions & export documents • Lobbying • Annual Business Awards / Festival of Business
“Without the Chamber, we wouldn’t be Hounslow” Steve Curran, Leader of Hounslow Council, 2019
Misbehaviour
Bridget Osborne meets Rebecca Frayn, creator of the new Keira Knightley film Misbehaviour
Keira Knightley stars in a new film released in March, about the disruption of the 1970 Miss World contest by Women’s Lib protesters. I spoke to the film’s creator Rebecca Frayn, who lives in Chiswick. Rebecca has a track record of making films about women, (Annie Leibovitz, Lennie Riefenstahl, Norah Ephron, Aung San Suu Kyi and the BBC 2 documentary Tory Wives). She also knows a thing or two about campaigning, having set up the We CAN environmental movement, which lobbied the government to take action on climate change in the run up to the 2010 Copenhagen Conference. She vaguely remembers the protest – women throwing flour bombs, squirting water pistols and shouting ‘moo’ in protest at the ‘cattle market’ being hosted by American comedian Bob Hope at the Albert Hall – but she was still a child at the time. “Golliwog moment” “For me it was what I call a ‘golliwog moment’” she tells me, where something everyone was familiar with, which was completely normal and unremarkable, was suddenly seen in a different light. She had grown up watching Miss World, as did millions of people around the world, as family viewing
on primetime television. The women paraded in swimsuits as their breasts and hips were evaluated, and turned in a long line across the stage as the camera panned across their backsides. “As a young woman you had a sense that something was amiss and oppressive, and you didn’t know what it was” she says. There’s a great line in the film (penned by co-writer Gaby Chiappe) in which the main protagonist, Sally Alexander, is at home with her mother and takes exception to her encouraging her little sister to twirl around like a beauty queen. “You used to love playing Miss World when you were a little girl” says the mother. “Yes and we also liked eating our own snot” retorts Sally. It was when Rebecca was listening to The Reunion on BBC Radio 4 that she realised what a great feature film it would make. The radio programme had brought the five protesters who were arrested back together to reminisce.
The dramatic possibilities of the flour bombs and water pistols were a given, but she was also attracted by the women’s wit and anarchic exuberance. “They had a great sense of mischief and humour” she says. They defended themselves in court, calling Bob Hope and Miss World organiser Eric Morley as witnesses, and when they declined to appear, calling a policeman to take the stand to ask him questions like ‘who washes your socks?’ and ‘who irons your shirts?’ to ‘put Patriarchy in the dock’. Keira Knightley plays Sally Alexander, the intellectual leader of the group, and she is backed by a brilliant cast. Jessie Buckley plays the firebrand Jo Ann Robinson; Phyllis Logan is Sally’s mother; Keeley Hawes plays Miss World organiser Julia Morley, and Rhys Ifans her partner, the late Eric Morley. Greg Kinnear plays Bob Hope. The film has been made by an all-female team - written by Rebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe, produced by Suzanne Mackie and Sarah-Jane Wheale and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, the only female director to have won a Bafta.
Misbehaviour images courtesy of Pathé
Rebecca Frayn - photograph by James Willcocks
Planting Design and Maintenance
Telephone 07594 622547 katepeacock@hotmail.co.uk
kate: the gardener
Box Caterpillar and its effects on our box hedging
Andy Eddy, Head Gardener at Osterley Park writes:-
“Most of us who garden in London will probably have experienced the incredible damage that the Box caterpillar – Cydalima perspectalis - will have in our gardens if we have box hedges or clipped specimens.
This pest first arrived on our shores in 2007 and had become widespread in our gardens by 2011 causing significant damage across the London area by 2014. This native of east Asia spins webs across the foliage during the late summer months and soon causes unsightly defoliation across the whole plant, it has now become so established that it even has a second infestation in the autumn if the weather is warm. The caterpillars are greenish-yellow with black and white stripes and can be up to 1 ¼ inches in length.
They can, of course, be controlled using chemical pesticides however most of us will not want to resort to these methods as any of these chemicals, when they enter the natural food chain, can be extremely damaging to other wildlife.
There are some natural, biological ways to control them using nematodes which are their natural enemy however this will still be only a way of controlling them and not eradicating them completely.
They can be picked off by hand – very time consuming – and there is some anecdotal evidence of British birds such as Blue Tits feeding off them, with the Gardeners at Ham House noting that Jackdaws were eating them too.
Here at Osterley we have been ruthlessly brave this autumn and ripped out all of the box hedging in the garden and replaced it with other types of plants that are not affected. As all of the box hedging here has been planted as part of our restoration process none of the hedges were more than ten years old and not part of the historic landscape so could be replaced with something more suitable. In one part of the garden we have planted Berberis thunbergii a low growing deciduous shrub that forms a neat hedge and colours well in the autumn. In another area we have planted Lonicera nitida another neat, dwarfish evergreen that will look similar to box and thus give the same effect.
None of these plants will have the same stature as box and none will give the same old garden look that we plant it for, however as our gardens change – and the plants in them – we will have to take more of these difficult decisions in the future of we want to continue gardening without endangering the delicate balance of wildlife and nature around us.”
HarperCollins Children’s Books presents
A special exhibition celebrating Judith Kerr’s life and work
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
A National Trust exhibition at Osterley Park and House
Saturday 11 January - Sunday 1 March 2020
Normal admission applies
nationaltrust.org.uk/osterley
