Brentford Chamber’s Summer Picnic at Boston Manor
It was a wet and miserable day for Brentford Chamber’s “Summer” picnic but nevertheless people gathered at Boston Manor House with picnic in one hand and umbrellas in the other.
Sanda Connelly of Laing welcomed us to Boston Manor House and briefly reminded us of all that Laing do in terms of looking after parks, buildings and libraries as part of their contract with London Borough of Hounslow with a strong message to “use or lose your libraries“.
We sat comfortably in the drawing room while Janet McNamara gave us a potted history of Boston Manor House and its inhabitants since construction. She peppered her talk with little stories that brought to life the art of historical research. We toured upstairs where Janet told us about the magnificent ceiling as well as the portraits that hang there. We glanced at the fabulous wall paper at the top of the stairs (and if you don’t know what it is, please go and find out).
Meanwhile Glynn Davis and Lucy Sawyer of the Museum of London had prepared a display to engage our interest. There was a jigsaw of clay pipes, with a drawing of all the different shaped pipes over the years so you could try and match a pipe against a shape and thus date it. There was a selection of pottery that was 2-300 years old which wouldn’t look amiss in Portobello market with one yellow and black striped dish looking very 60s. Some of these pieces had been made whole again with fabricated parts, others left in pieces.
This was a great opportunity to talk to professional archaeologists about the work they do and the invaluable finds found in Brentford. They have been cataloguing acquisitions in the Docking Station and have an open day at Gunnersbury Park coming up on 22nd July (as well as the Archaeological Open Day at Syon Park on the same day)(see details on BrentfordTW8).
We then sat down outside and enjoyed our picnic in the damp, with occasional use of umbrellas, as only the British do. Naturally we would have hoped to have larger participation but the weather was (and still is) fairly disastrous.
There is a Local History Day to be held this Saturday at Boston Manor House this Saturday (see details on BrentfordTW8)