The Revd Ayoob Adwar has joined St Mary the Virgin Church, Mortlake High Street as Team Vicar. His Licensing Service will take place on Wednesday, 26 March 2025 at 7.30pm. It will be a Sung Eucharist. The president will be the Bishop of Southwark. Everyone is welcome.
Given its history the Church is a most suitable setting for an historic event. The present churchyard and church were given to the parish by King Henry VIII in 1543. From the original church only the distinctive tower remains. There is a 15th century font from a previous nearby church.
Sixty or so people walked the Time Trek Trail on Friday afternoon, listening to David Deaton and Helen Deaton talking about the history of Mortlake.
On Saturday over 200 local residents attended the event. There will be a full report from the organisers on discussions and solutions proposed in the next few weeks, but we report on some of the scenes and ideas. Obviously whatever development eventually goes ahead on the Stag Brewery site, it will not happen in the near future. Mortlake cannot wait for improvement, development of local civic pride and a heart for the area.
Damian Keogh (Co-Founder of the Story Collective, whose film studios are working on the site, speaking), Francine Bates (Chair Mortlake Community Association) and Charles Campion (JTP Community Planning Team) welcome participants to the Mash-Up.
Jonathan Perry, Nick Taylor and Nick Davies below presenting enterprising ideas about the heart of Mortlake, proposing it should be close to Mortlake Green.
Max Gold proposing a Cafe on Mortlake Green and how to recover from the pyroclastic flow which has enveloped Mortlake and its history.
Below Ann Hewitt discussing concerns and proposals about local traffic
Tim Lennon above on recycling the area
Timi Fabian (Mortlake Community Association), Cllr Tony Paterson, Sarah Olney MP, Cllr Jim Millard, Cllr Niki Crookdake, Cllr Clare Vollum, Mairead Murray (The Story Works) and Cllr Anton McNulty-Howard.
Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDs) are part of the solution to reducing and eliminating flood events. Worth magnifying the illustrations to see the detail of these proposals.
Cllr Julia Cambridge and Cllr Jim Millard promoting the PowerStation with Achieving for Children,
EastSheenMatters met with Barnes Community Gardeners at Chertsey Court this week, flats with 166 units and over 300 residents.
As can be seen from the photos, working under the auspices of Barnes Common Ltd and assisting Richmond Housing Partnership, they keep the substantial green space looking tidy and full of flowers.
The main objective is to bring people together through gardening and improve the gardens around their homes. Barnes Community Gardeners also visit two local primary schools weekly, growing veg with the children.
The group is always looking for volunteers and plants.
We are all concerned about the fate of Ukraine and a feeling of looking on helplessly, but they are urgently asking for TacMed supplies. These are first aids kits that each combatant carries including tourniquets and rapid gauze that stops severe arterial bleeding. Alastair Grant has a Just Giving page should you wish to help.
Calling all music lovers! Whether you’re a seasoned musician or just love to jam, join us for an evening of fantastic music and community vibes starting from 7PM. Bring your instrument, warm up your voice, or simply come along to listen, soak in the energy, and be part of the fun. This month is FOLK music.
You can email Patrick at pjboundy2@gmail.com for an open mic slot or just rock up for the jam with instrument in hand.
Join the Time Trek Walk round Mortlake on Friday 14 March 2025. Meet at Platform 1 Mortlake Station at 230pm. About an hour with David and Helen Deaton
Many will have attended a service at Mortlake Crematorium for a loved one. It may seem a surprising place for a visit otherwise, but it is an interesting spot, and perhaps one where we should take a more detailed look before we need to use it.
It was licensed in 1936 under the Mortlake Crematorium Act 1936, thereby becoming the first to be established under its own Act of Parliament. The building was designed by Douglas Barton, an employee of the Hammersmith Metropolitan Borough Council. It was constructed in three years at a cost of £27,000. It was equipped with a Garden of Remembrance for the scattering of ashes.
The facility was finally opened in January 1939 by Lord Horder, the then physician to the King. Mortlake Crematorium’s outward appearance changed little over the following years until 1982, when Colin Gilbert, an architect from Ealing, designed additional gardens on the area of land between the crematorium and the river Thames.
In 2011 English Heritage listed the Crematorium as Grade 2. The citation stated that it was cleverly designed, with a variety of spaces, pleasing elevations and arcaded cloisters. The chapel interior is impressive spatially. See the original design below to which pillars have now been added.
The building has a distinctive Art Deco design that is little altered today.
Natasha Bradshaw has been the Crematorium Manager for fifteen years. She is a mine of information and very happy to organise tours around the building, the chapel and a behind the scenes look at the ovens! There are on average 2200 services in a year and they can do thirteen in a day. Staff can engage in a Cremator Technician Training Scheme.
On a tour you can see the process from movement of the coffin from the catafalque to the use of the ovens. At the end of the service the coffin will be rolled to a room behind the chapel. Unless the family wish to see the coffin going into an oven, it may not be burnt immediately. The ovens need to be heated to temperatures up to 900 degrees C, so several ovens may be heated at a time. A body must be incinerated within 72 hours. From the oven the ashes will go to a cremulator for further disintegration. Bones may be managed separately and for some Asian cultures retained.
Metal parts which do not incinerate, like pacemakers, articificial joints or prosthetics are removed and also treated separately. They will be sent to a company in the Netherlands, which specialises in crushing them into metal which can be used for other purposes. The Crematorium receives funds in return which it then passes to charities.
The average time from death to service is fourteen to twenty one days but this is not because of delays at the crematorium, rather because of the preparation of plans for the service, printing orders of service and arranging the attendance of people from a distance. Time to say goodbye sung by Andrea Bocelli is the favourite tune!
Why is the cremation such an emotional event, given that the body will probably have been dead for fourteen to twenty one days? It is the last time you see the body, albeit in a coffin, plus a reminder of past memories.
Direct or Pure cremation is a new service, currently being heavily trailed on TV adverts, which offers to collect a body and return the ashes. Not quite the service you would get at Mortlake, it sounds a bit like a dumping ground for unwanted relatives!
Many famous people have been cremated at Mortlake, among them: Baroness Margaret and Sir Denis Thatcher, Sir Michael Redgrave and Dame Maggie Smith, Lord Longford, Sir Robin Day, John Profumo, Tommy Cooper, Kenny Everett and Charles Hawtrey.
Mortlake Crematorium supports and is supported by the Good Grief Trust www.thegoodgrieftrust.org , which has a website signposting immediate bereavement support.
