Guest post by Philip Grant, local historian
Thirteen months ago I
posed the question ‘Where was “The
Beggars Roost”?’ in a local history guest blog LINK.
I was writing about a photograph I had been sent by a lady in Nashville,
Tennessee, of a hand-painted coat of arms she had bought in a charity shop
there. It appeared to have been created for Wembley’s A.R.P. (Air Raid
Precaution) Warden Post 12 during the Second World War.
I still don’t know
exactly where Post 12 was located, or why it was named “The Beggars Roost”, but
further research has suggested that it was probably somewhere in the Roe Green
area of Kingsbury (though not in Roe Green Village itself, whose wardens had
Post 11). However, last summer an amazing piece of generosity happened –
Cheryl, who had bought the plaque for her own home, decided that its proper
place was back in Wembley, so that people here could see and enjoy the coat of
arms in its historical context.
Cheryl donated the
plaque to Brent Museum, and it now forms the centrepiece of a small exhibition
which has just opened at Kingsbury Library:
A.R.P. –
Wembley’s Air Raid Wardens in the Second World War.
For the past few
months I have been working with Alison, a Brent Museum volunteer, and Museum
staff, to put this exhibition together. It includes objects and pictures from
the Brent collections, and some loaned by fellow Wembley History Society
members, and tells the story of Wembley’s A.R.P. Service (wardens, first aid
and rescue teams) from 1938 to 1945.
It is a story of
thousands of local men and women who gave their time, and in some cases their
lives, to help protect their neighbours from German bombing raids.
This was a very
difficult period in our history, and one that those of us born after 1945,
including young people to whom it is just something that happened long ago,
could benefit from understanding better. Residents whose families have come to
our area in recent decades, sometimes from countries which themselves have
suffered war, could also see that people here have had that experience too. One
of the air raids that the A.R.P. Service had to deal with, and which is
pictured in the exhibition, happened within sight of Kingsbury Library.
The exhibition will
be on display every day, during library opening hours, until around the end of
May 2018. I will be giving a “coffee morning” talk, linked with the exhibition,
at Kingsbury Library (522-524 Kingsbury Road, London NW9) on Tuesday 24 April,
11am to 12noon.
I hope that you will
take the opportunity to visit Kingsbury Library, to enjoy one or both events.
This is the official Brent poster for them:
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For anyone who would like to know more about this subject, but won't be able to attend Philip's talk on 24 April, there is an online local history article available on the Brent Archives website LINK
