Drive-through NHS Covid-19 Test Centre opens at Wembley IKEA

An Ikea spokesman said:

Today, a drive-through NHS Covid-19 test centre has opened in the car park of our Wembley store.

We are incredibly proud that we are able to support the Government and the NHS in this small way, and are working with them to identify any additional sites that could also support the national effort.

I understand from other press sources that initially the centre will be for NHS staff by invitation only.

'Military Style' operation brings Personal Protection Equipment to Brent carers

From Brent Council

Brent Council’s critical carers will be hitting the front-line fully protected with personal protection equipment (PPE) to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

Around 1.6 million gloves and aprons were dropped off at the Council’s headquarters in what was a military-style operation over the weekend. A further two hundred and eighty thousand masks will be delivered this week.

This will help shield approximately 2,250 vulnerable over-70s across 180 nursing and residential homes, and those who receive care at home in Brent.

This critical supply will help ‘shield’ vulnerable residents for the next 3 to 6 months.

It will also protect around 23,000 care staff across the London Borough of Brent.

Note: I have asked Brent Press Office if this is also going to be distributed to agency carers and staff looking after the children of keyworkers (including NHS staff) and vulnerable children in schools and nurseries.

I have not had a response yet but Brent Council tweeted this last night:

Meanwhile the Council has posted this video from Brent's Director of Children's Services:

Dedicated borough-based Covid-19 clinics to be established by NW London CCGs

Responding to Saturday's tweet (above) by Cllr Ketan Sheth (Chair of Brent Council's Commnity and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee) a spokesperson for the MedianWL North West London Collaboration of Clinical Commissioning Groups, said:

The eight CCGs in North West London are establishing a joint primary care response to COVID-19. This will include patients being managed both remotely and face to face by GPs. Face to face management will require dedicated clinics and we are establishing these in each borough. Patients will access the clinic through referral by the NHS 111 service or their practice.’​

The Fryent Country Park Story – Part 1

The first of a series of guest posts by Wembley History Society member, Philip Grant.

Some of you may be thinking of our beautiful local country park as a peaceful place, where you can go for fresh air and exercise while still “social distancing”. Others are looking forward to spending some time there, once we are no longer asked to ‘stay at home’. But have you ever wondered how we came to have this special open space, or what it was like here 100 or 1,000 years ago? Over the next few weekends I hope to share its story with you.

1. Looking north across Little Hillcroft Field, towards Kingsbury.

When were people first living on what is now the country park? There is evidence that there was a farm in Roman times near Blackbird Hill. An ancient trackway, that crossed the River Brent (a Celtic name) by a ford at the bottom of the hill, continued northwards, just to the west of the modern Fryent Way. You can follow it as a footpath, branching off on the left about 100 metres north of the Salmon Street roundabout. The Saxons called this route “Eldestrete” (the old road), and in the 10^th century they used it to mark the boundary between Harrow parish (where the land was owned by the Archbishops of Canterbury) and “Kynggesbrig”, now Kingsbury (a place belonging to the King).

2. Harvesting in the 11th century. (From a manuscript, probably in the British Library)

There was already some farming here by AD1085, when King William I’s Domesday Book survey was conducted, but much of the land was still woodland. This was enough to feed 1,000 pigs in the larger Tunworth manor, given by the Conquerer to one of his knights, Ernulf de Hesdin, with enough woodland for 200 pigs (‘silva.cc.porc.’) in Chalkhill manor, owned by Westminster Abbey (‘abbé S.PETRI’) after a gift by King Edward the Confessor.

3. An extract from the Domesday Book, including the Westminster Abbey land in "Chingesberie".

On the Harrow side of Eldestrete, there were some common fields by this time. Here crops were grown on ploughed strips of land, each a furrow long (hence the old distance of a furlong, or 220 yards). Some freemen rented fields, where they could graze sheep or cattle. Hilly ground such as Barn Hill was still wooded, and villagers who kept pigs could pay “pannage” (one penny per pig) to the lord of the manor, to let them feed there.

4. Ploughing in the 11th century.  (From a manuscript, probably in the British Library)

Around 1244, about 300 acres of Chalkhill manor were gifted to a religious order, the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. To help provide food for their priory in Clerkenwell, they established a farm on Church Lane (where the Co-op now stands) which became known as Freren Farm, after the Norman French word for “the brothers” (monks and lay brothers) who farmed it. The modern name, Fryent, comes from that farm.

By 1300, parcels of land in Tunworth manor, had been let out to tenants who cleared small fields out of the woodland, a process known as “assarting”. Three of these landholdings to the west side of Salmon Street became farms that lasted until the mid-twentieth century; Hill Farm (at the top of the rise near the junction with Mallard Way) and two named after the original farmers, Edwin’s (later Little Bush Farm) and Richard’s (which became Bush Farm, opposite the junction with Slough Lane). There were thick hedgerows between the fields and some woodland remained.

This increase in farming activity suffered a set-back in the mid-14^th century, when a great plague, carried by rats and called the “Black Death”, spread across Britain killing over one million people, around 40% of the total population. The records of Kingsbury’s manor court for 1350 alone show 13 deaths ‘at the time of the pestilence’.

The country got through that pandemic, just as we will the present one, and the farming community on what is now our country park recovered. In 1439 much of Tunworth manor (together with land in Edgware and Willesden) was bought by Archbishop Chichele of Canterbury. He donated it to a new theological college he set up in 1442, All Souls in Oxford, which collected rents from the tenant farmers for the next five hundred years. The Archbishop also had an oak wood in Harrow cut down, to supply timber for the college roof, which meant some of his tenants lost their supply of firewood, and acorns for their pigs!

5. The brass memorial to John Shepard and his wives in Old St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury.

For more than 100 years, the tenants at Hill Farm were members of the Shepard family. We know that they became quite wealthy, from the earliest surviving memorial in Old Saint Andrew’s Church. This is to John Shepard, who died in 1520, and shows him flanked by his two wives, Anne and Maude, with the eighteen children he had by them, all depicted wearing fashionable clothes. 

When All Souls College had a map of its lands in Kingsbury drawn in 1597, it showed Thomas Shepard as the tenant of Hill Farm and many of the nearby fields. Edmund, John, Richard and William Shepard were among other tenants in Kingsbury. The Hovenden Map, named after the Warden of the College, is a remarkable record of the area, giving the names and sizes of the fields, and who was the tenant of each. 

The map extract below shows the farm and the Hillcroft fields, and you can walk across this part of Fryent Country Park along a footpath. Treat the short section of Eldestrete, in the top left corner of the map, as if it were Fryent Way. At the brow of the hill you will find the footpath, which takes you along the ridge, with lovely views over the fields, to Salmon Street, near its junction with Mallard Way.

6. The Hillcroft fields on the Hovenden Map of 1597. (© The Warden and Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford)

Enjoy the walk, or at least looking forward to it, and I will take up the story again next week. If you want to ask any questions, or add some information, please leave a comment below.

Philip Grant

LINKS TO OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 1

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 2

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 3

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 4

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 5

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 6

History of Fryent Country Park – Bunker Special

Residents identified by NHS as 'highest risk' should expect a call from Brent Council

From Brent Council website today

We are currently making calls to residents who the NHS have identified as being at highest risk from coronavirus (COVID-19).

These individuals will have received a letter from the NHS instructing them to self-isolate for a period of 12 weeks, so we will be contacting them as we receive their details to ensure that they are aware of how to access support if they need it.

We want to make sure that we put necessary support in place as fast as possible, so we will be making these calls as we receive new data from the NHS.

Staying safe

This might mean you receive a call from us outside of normal office hours. It's important to stay safe at this challenging time. You can be reassured that calls are genuine as long as they begin with the 0208 937 prefix. We will never ask for your bank details and you should never share your PIN with anyone, or invite someone you don't know into your home.

If you are unsure, you can  call back on our helping on 0208 937 1234 from Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.

London CIV launches LCIV Sustainable Equity Exclusion Fund that 'faciltates disinvestment and addresses climate change'

When times return to normal something for Brent and other London councils to consider seriously:

The London Collective Investment Vehicle (London CIV) is pleased to announce the launch of the LCIV Sustainable Equity Exclusion Fund.

The Fund is being seeded with £200m from the London Borough of Lambeth Pension Fund; the initial investment in the Fund is to be managed by RBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited.

Kevin Corrigan, Interim CIO at LCIV said:

We are delighted to launch the LCIV Sustainable Equity Exclusion Fund. Being responsible investors is an imperative for the London CIV and our pool members. This Fund demonstrates our commitment to finding the right solutions for our investors in this important area. 

Cllr Iain Simpson, Pension Chair of the London Borough of Lambeth, said:

We are delighted that London CIV has launched the LCIV Sustainable Equity Exclusion Fund. It shows that local government pension funds can change the investment landscape by creating the demand for innovative products that facilitate disinvestment and address climate change. While Lambeth is the first borough to invest with this fund, we hope that many more will follow.

Habib Subjally, Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Global Equities at RBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited.

RBC Global Asset Management is proud to continue providing portfolio management solutions to a trusted institution such as the London CIV. The launch of the Sustainable Equity Exclusion Fund was driven by strong client demand for responsible investment solutions, and we are pleased the London CIV has entrusted us to help them demonstrate their commitment to being responsible investors.

The new fund sits alongside the existing LCIV Sustainable Equity Fund and offers pool members the opportunity to exclude investments in sectors such as fossil fuels, tobacco and weapons. The launch brings assets managed in LCIV Sustainable Equity strategies to over £580m.

Harlesden Foodbank pulls out the stops for limited opening this morning

Congratulations and thanks to all the volunteers involved

Statement from from Fresh Horizons Harlesden Foodbank

We will be running a limited foodbank this morning. Please be aware that we will only have a maximum of six volunteers working so please be patient as service will be slower than normal.

Again there will be several changes to the way we work to protect both ourselves and our clients.
The Café remains closed until further notice. 

Visitors to the Foodbank will not be allowed to enter the building. Clients must queue a minimum of 3m apart. Because of social distancing there will be no registration clients should come to the High Street entrance of Tavistock Hall at 11am where they will be given pre-prepared bags. 

All food will be distributed via the High Street entrance. Clients will receive one or two bags of pre-packed food including, if available and while stocks last dairy, chicken, beef, fish or pork. We will offer a vegetarian option if there is one available.

Please be patient with our volunteers they are giving freely of their time to help you. Please remember this is a difficult time for everyone. 

Any donations of food, sanitary, household or toiletry products may be brought to the Foodbank Friday morning from 9.30am and given to Miranda. Please help us to help the most vulnerable and needy in our neighbourhood.

All decisions about the foodbank have been made jointly by Rose McGowan and Michael Goss of Fresh Horizons along with Rev Mike Long of Harlesden Methodist Church.

Our thanks and appreciation.

Thank you to our partners The Felix Project City Harvest London FareShare who continue to provide us with food

Brent keeps allotments open for fresh air and exercise

Brent Council is keeping its allotments open for plot-holders' fresh air and exercise and has posted notices closely following the advice drawn up by the National Allotment Society. LINK

I applaud the Council's sensible decision.