Interview with Brentford Heritage Guide
My interview with Janet McNamara, Brentford gal and Hounslow Heritage guide - from this week's BCI Times. Enjoy! CAESAR's Roman army, the American Indian Pocahontis and politician and member of the notorious Hell Fire Club John Wilkes have all added to the illustrious history of Brentford.The streets and buildings of the area are awash with references to Brentford's historic past and Janet McNamara, a Hounslow Heritage Guide, loves nothing more than digging up a good tale from the years gone by.Janet was born in East Yorkshire and transferred to the London Inland Revenue offices in 1958, at the tender age of 21. It was not just the bright lights of the city that caught her eye but also the chance of al fresco dining, as Janet, now 67, explained: "We went to the Chiswick tax office on Heathfield Terrace."We could picture ourselves having lovely picnics on Turnham Green, but it didn't work out like that as by the time we moved down the office had been relocated to Brentford."This was 1958, "When there was still the old High Street and County Parade had just been built," and so began a love affair with the town that has endured 46 years.Janet left the area briefly before returning and living in Northfields. She now lives in the shadow of Griffin Park, Brentford FC's ground.After joining a local women's group Janet listened to a talk by a local historian, kindling a new interest.She went back to college to undergo her teacher training and completed a historical geography assignment focusing on urban renewal relating to Brentford.Janet herself has witnessed many of the town's physical changes over the years.Returning to the area in 1968, Janet noticed: "Brentford seemed to have disappeared, it was either very run down or in the process of being demolished. Change is the character of the town."It's always been a working class town but with the new developments even that is starting to change."The whole of Brentford's old High Street was little shops facing onto the street, this was the main road in and out of London for almost 2,000 years."Now where there are shops everything turns away from the High Street and everywhere is building upwards as there is a greater need for accommodation."One of Janet's specialist local subjects is Boston Manor, where her children used to play in the park.She used the Manor as a subject for another teacher training thesis, and was asked to expand it into a guide book, paid for by Brentford regeneration money.While working on the book she found a connection with her old home town: "Some papers came down to me from the Clitheroe family in east Yorkshire, which is close to where I grew up."The Yorkshire Clitheroes were linked to the London Clitherows. The Clitherows are loosely linked to Jane Austen and Sir William Blackstone through romantic trysts but, Janet explained: "You don't know about these links until someone gets in touch. I've met a lot of interesting people with a lot of stories to tell"Janet also takes a keen interest in items of local curios.After buying a pewter beer tanker with the words Red Lion, Old Brentford' stamped on the bottom and WH' inscribed on the side she took up the detective trail.The pub had formerly stood on the west corner of Ealing Road, had been demolished and moved to the site of the current McDonald's.In local documents Janet found that Walter Hamblen was the landlord of the pub between 1907 and 1933.Janet added: "In 1881 he was 12 and living in High Street at the Prince of Wales with his mother who was the publican, so the business was clearly in his blood."I enjoy finding out little snippets about people's lives."Janet has also rescued a set of maps being thrown out by a solicitor detailing the layout of the land surrounding her house in 1872. They showed that Brentford's football ground used to be an orchard close to the former Brook House and that a strange little bend on Brook Road South, still present today, was created by the boundaries of houses that once stood there.Thankful that the papers were rescued, she said: "We are so grateful to people who have left such things behind as they help give us vital clues about what went on in the past."Using her finely tuned research techniques Janet has also been returning to her roots in Yorkshire and looking up her family history.Her great grandfather lived quite an adventurous life and was ship wrecked off the coast of Iceland.She found the story, and an interview with her grandfather, in an old copy of the Hull Daily Mail.Her great uncle signed up underage to fight in World War I and then vanished, so her great grandfather went to search for him, not knowing he had died when his ship went down.Shortly after returning from a fruitless search he took ill and died from tuberculosis.Janet was able to find his letters from the Mediterranean that alluded to his illness, as he asked for cough sweets to be sent to him.As a member of the Hounslow Heritage Group Janet is also actively involved in giving talks and guided walks relating to local history around Brentford, Chiswick, Isleworth and Heston.The walks have proved successful and can be an interesting trip into the past: "People always wonder where they are allowed to walk along the riverside, but if you are with someone who knows where you can and can't go you learn a lot more."We had a couple who grew up in Brentford and were never allowed to come down to the dock as it was mostly industrial at that time so they were able to explore areas by the river that they never could as children."
Sally Henfield ● 7585d3 Comments