October 2008 Archives

Youngsters in Cranford donned colourful masks and costumes as they performed traditional songs and dances to celebrate Diwali.

Scores of pupils at Cranford Community College combined to put on a spectacular show marking the Hindu festival last Tuesday (21).

Cranford's historic Lock-Up, where many a 19th-century ne'erdowell spent the night recovering from an evening's boozing, is one of just two surviving examples in the whole of London.

The brick building, which lies on a grass verge beside Cranford High Street, overlooked by a block of council flats, has been left to decay for so long it now has a tree growing out of its roof.

As part of our StoryStar writing competition judge and award-winning author Tabitha Suzuma gives you her top 10 tips on how to write a great short story.

StoryStar is a writing competition for young people in west London aged 4 - 18. All entries are published on www.hounslowchronicle.co.uk and the winners will receive books for themselves and their school from Random House Children's Books and see their stories printed in the paper.

The historic bells at St Dunstan's Church should soon be heard peeling around Cranford again after an eerily quiet summer.

Builders are set to complete restoration work on the stone tower early next month, after which bell-ringers will be able to get back to work.

Hounslow Friends of Faith welcomed the Imam of Hounslow Jamia Mosque and Islamic Centre, Sheik Nisar Ahmad Hussain Suleimani, to address their annual meeting this week, during which he stressed the need to maintain strong family values and to live a balanced life.

In a talk entitled: "Islam in Britain: its contribution to the UK and to Hounslow", the Imam said that Islam can encourage people to be spiritual. People of faith need to study scriptures for guidelines on how to live.

Bookworms at Cranford Infant & Nursery School brought their favourite fictional characters to life as schools across Hounslow celebrated Book Week.

Pupils at the school in Berkeley Avenue dressed as everyone from Peter Pan to Robin Hood last Thursday.

Thrifty residents can save pounds at a 'Food for Free' event in Cranford Park this weekend.

Rangers will spend four hours showing visitors round the orchard and teaching them about the history of apple growing.

Councillors have voted unanimously to allow a new single-storey extension to be built at the empty Meadowbank Community Centre in Cranford.

The extension, which was approved at a meeting of the sustainable develoopment committee on Monday, is part of a scheme to transform the derelict building into a combined commuinty and adult education centre, offering classrooms, a creche and a large community room.

More than half of Cranford's children are living in or on the brink of poverty, according to a shocking report.

A huge 51 per cent of children in the area live with out of work families or families with low incomes, according to the Campaign to End Child Poverty.

Simrit Mann, co-ordinator of the Hounslow Lone Parent Network, thinks the difficulties that single parents face while looking for work is to blame.

An award-winning Indian author visited pupils yesterday to celebrate Black History Month.

Jamila Gavin spoke to children at Cranford Infant & Nursery School about growing up in Mussoorie and how it still influences her fiction.