Would really like to know what the trust is up to with the the Billets Hart allotments site in Hanwell. "It was back in November 2007 that allotment holders received a letter from Stephen Cole stating that Ealing Council had received notice to quit, "which will automatically end each gardeners's tenancy"." ------------------------------------------------------------"In 1484 William Hobbayne surrendered his lands to 'godly uses'; the proceeds from this gift were used for many different and sometimes unusual purposes (such as the conveying away of witches in 1634) but in 1683 a decree of the Commissioners of Charitable Uses ordered that the residue was to be used for apprenticing and otherwise providing for poor children of the town. Thenceforth the charity became a means of providing schooling for such children, until at the beginning of the 20th century the last school aided by this charity was taken over by the Hanwell School Board. From: 'The Education of the Working Classes to 1870', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1: Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organization, The Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes to 1870, Private Education from Sixteenth Century (1969), pp. 213-240. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22123. Date accessed: 18 June 2008." What is the present day purpose of the trust in the 21st Century? Providing land for allotments for the people of Hanwell, I would have thought, would have pleased William Hobbayne immensely. Is it not a 'godly use' to till the soil?
Peter Wright ● 6676d