Forum Topic

Battle of Turnham Green

Friday the 13th is the 378th anniversary of the Battle of Turnham Green (1642) fought during the Civil War.Now, nearly four hundred years later battle lines are being redrawn but this time it's not pikes and muskets but bicycle pumps and steering wheels.Surely this is a good opportunity to show Fortress Hounslow that up with it we will not put!A peaceful and socially distanced protest on The Green perhaps?

Adrian Irving ● 2187d7 Comments

Would they hear us though? I have a bicycle pump and a steering wheel, more importantly I have a Chiswick residents passport and think this could have been handled much better -  so a peaceful protest - yes

Alex McDevitt ● 2187d

Hounslow Cpuncil are too far away to care if we disrupt C.Hi Rd - it will need to bugger them up big time.  How about on their bloody "Golden Mile" and below stopping all traffic on the N and S circulars - not for a day but for a week!

Jennifer Selig ● 2187d

I would have to straddle both armies as I am both a cyclist and a motorist. Hmmm ...

Chris Blackwell ● 2187d

Nice idea Adrian....So yes, I've been quietly watching a variety of forum threads on this classic local war....In which one of ye-olde medieval-forum weaponry tactics employed is to pick on something the 'enemy' has done, give it a slight twist, pop it in the trebuchet then continually throw it back in his face.A sort of forum-style Plantagenet bitch-fight... Several recently have been taking ancient swings at Tom Pike and currently several are having a similar go at Paul Campbell's twitter response to the One Chiswick poster campaign in TGT shops.Slippery poisoned-arrow lines like:- “ I am beginning to get worried about Paul”....  “one-man boycott”... etc etc..There have been a few conducting this sort of bitch-war.  And to me, none read well when they sink into that depth of soggy mud... (SIGH)  Do at least try and be original...Incidentally and not entirely separately – the title “OneChiswick” as applied in comparison to Hounslow Council philistines and traffic gridlock, isn't exactly fair either.  Or original.I mean, put it that way and whose side is anyone going to be on?  It's a no-brainer that many a TGT shopkeeper is gonna agree with an irate local campaigner wielding such a poster.  And rather than Hounslow (such an ugly word) isn't this all about a scheme that's come straight down the line from central government?Besides which, I remember years ago tossing into the ring another “One Chiswick” cunning plan:-  to declare UDI, re-open Chiswick Town Hall and kick out all three interloping councils.  Fat chance..Anyway, there's still plenty of water flowing under this particular W4 drawbridge... And many whose mind is yet to be made up.Let's just hope the tactics improve...

Stuart Kerr ● 2187d

Battle orders.The Bicycle Pump Fanatics  will form behind three rows of sharpen wands under the rail bridge to defend the continued closure of the Queens Highway.Steering wheel troops will form a pincer movement with the Bedford Park Chums executing a full frontal attack whilst The North Chiswick Irregulars will proceed (via an enforced two mile diversion) in close order down Turnham Green Terrace to attack from the rear.May your God go with you!Tea and biscuits served post engagement in the Vicarage  of St Michael's and all Angels.

Adrian Irving ● 2187d

Bringing re-enactors to Chiswick for the Battle of Turnham Green was one of the suggestions I included in the Chiswick Shops Task Force report "Ensuring a Thriving Retail Economy in Chiswick", noting, of course, that it had been suggested before. With the expertise of re-enactors leading it, but bringing in those of us who want to take part, it could make an amazing community event and, because it was fought across what was Chiswick then, it could include the whole of the Chiswick we know now, not just the centre - and help retailers in all our retail areas.  I am talking about this with others but thinking about it for next year when I hope - as I expect we all do - we will be free of COVID-19 and very much needing something that brings us together, after the schisms created by the road closures, etc.

Joanna Biddolph ● 2187d

Bring on the battle. Masks and jousting poles at the ready. 

Sean Wales ● 2186d