Life In Hanwell 1963 72

A Memory of Hanwell.

Hanwelll to me was always synonymous with the Community Centre's Flower Show. My Grandparents, Jessie and Richard Wakenell had lived most of their lives in Hanwell and would show their prized chrysanths every year. My sister, Cindy, and I would enter the miniature garden competition and would always come home with a second or a first prize. The community centre had great history and was a large building with rooms barely used. It used to be a Boys Home and Charlie Chaplin used to be one of its patrons. One year when I was about eight, I had my photo taken with my sister, Cindy, and our friend Katie Thompson, behind the biggest pumpkin. I don't know what they thought of me because I was dressed in a pair of homemade trousers, a striped Tee, wellies and my mum's cardigan that hung on me like a sack. Every year we would go to the Hanwell Carnival, the trucks carrying the floats would gather in Cuckoo Avenue as everyone got ready. In those days there would be almost 7 or 8 floats, three bands and clowns and dancers. Most of the schools had a float and everyone was excited. We would find a place to watch along the Greenford Avenue and follow it all along the roads until we reached the park. In later years we would be able to watch from the comfort of our front door as we moved to Greenford Avenue after my grandfather passed. We would do so until my Grandmother passed and now, on the rare occasions we get to go, will find a spot near Boston Manor Road and wait there. One year my school won the Walpole Country Dancing Festival and we were asked to dance the maypole. Now there isn't much to see and the local stalls have been over run by charity stalls and tombolas.