Ham is Where the Heart is: our talk on Monday 11 March

Jill Lamb, who lives in Ham and was Heritage Team Leader and Borough Archivist in Kingston until her retirement four years ago, will be speaking about an oral history project she has been leading on. Ham is Where the Heart is, telling the story of Ham and Petersham through the words and pictures of those who live there, was launched in 2016 following the award of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

An exhibition resulting from the project will be displayed at the Museum of Richmond from April to July 2019. The exhibition showcases a tiny sample of the stories and images which have been gathered so far, showing just how much has changed in the last 80 years but also how much has been remembered and cherished.

For more information about the project, visit the Ham is Where the Heart is website.

Introducing our new book on Richmond and Kew’s street names

Our new publication, a fully revised edition of The Streets of Richmond and Kew, is now available at £10 in local bookshops – The Open Book in King Street, Richmond, the Museum of Richmond, The National Archives’ bookshop, Kew Bookshop  and Lloyds of Kew Bookshop  It will also be available from our online bookshop soon.

We are delighted that we’ve been able to reintroduce the book to our publications list after a very long gap: the first edition was published in 1989 and the second in 1990. Many Society members, including the late David Blomfield, have contributed to this new, third edition, which has 140 pages and includes a full colour map. Comprehensive and up to date, it describes how each of Richmond and Kew’s streets was named and their wider significance for our local area’s history.

30 years, 30 people, 30 objects

Alyson Barr, one of the 30 people who have selected objects for the Museum’s 30th anniversary exhibition

The Museum’s 30th anniversary exhibition continues until 23 February. Taking the theme 30 years, 30 people, 30 objects and memories, it illustrates the Museum’s history through 30 people who have contributed to its development and who have selected objects from the Museum’s collection to help tell its story. Our society is well represented, with contributions from our President, Paul Velluet, and three committee members – Robert Smith, Simon Fowler and Alyson Barr.

West London History Conference: Entertainment in South & West London

The West London History Conference is an annual event that is organised jointly by the Richmond Local History Society and other local history societies in west London.

This year’s conference takes place on Saturday 30 March. The theme is Entertainment in South & West London. Two of the talks are being given by members of our own society: our President Paul Velluet will be talking about two Richmond theatres and their roles in the social life of the town, while Alan Sherriff, a Richmond Heritage Guide, will be speaking on the National Jazz
& Blues Festivals that were held in Richmond in the 1960s.

The venue is the University of West London in Brentford. Tickets for the day must be bought in advance. They are only £15 each and will be available at our January and February talks.
They are also available by post from Janet McNamara (31B Brook Road South, Brentford TW8 0NN; send a cheque payable to West London Local History Conference.

In 2019 we have three joint talks with other societies, including an event at Richmond Theatre

See our calendar of forthcoming events and our list of forthcoming talks

Our programme of talks in 2019 has a new twist. We are partnering with three other local organisations and one of our events will be at the Richmond Theatre. Coming up, we have:

Vincenzo Lunardi’s Ascent from Richmond in a Hot Air Balloon in 1785

The New Inn, Ham

 Reports of previous talks

Our website now includes reports of some of our previous talks. The most recent addition, by RLHS member Paul Bunnage, is on John and Eunice Drewry’s presentation in November 2018 on the Voluntary Aid Detachment.

The Victorian burial plot – from graveyard to garden

Coffin plaque

Holloway gravestone, rediscovered in August 2018

On our Resources pages, Peter Flower, archivist at the Vineyard Church in Richmond, tells us of recent discoveries in the Victorian burial plot, which is now a garden. One of the graves discovered is that of the Revd Henry Martin, the church’s remarkable first pastor, who died in 1844 aged only 36. Find out more

Our Resources pages also include a piece by John Govett on Richmond’s Old Burial Ground and Stephen Orr’s timeline on Vineyard Passage Burial Ground.

You can also read about the Selwyn family and the development of Richmond.

Our new-look journal, and an updated free index

Richmond History 39, the 2018 issue of our annual journal, has a new design and features a painting by Ron Berryman, a Society member, on the front cover. Copies are available from The Open Book in King Street, Richmond, the Museum of Richmond, The National Archives’ bookshop, Kew Bookshop,  Lloyds of Kew Bookshop and our online bookshop.

Richmond History 40, our 2019 issue, is in preparation and will be launched at the Richmond May Fair.

Our free index to our annual journal Richmond History includes all issues up to and including no. 39 (2018). You can view the index or download it as a PDF.

Oh deer, another Richmond Park myth…

It is sometimes suggested that the “deer leap” or “freebord“, the strip of land immediately outside Richmond Park’s wall, was designed so that if a deer managed to escape its hunters and get beyond the deer leap, it was then free from capture. That’s unlikely, says Richmond Park historian Robert Wood, in an article about the freebord’s history. Find out more and see a timeline on Richmond Park