Welcome to the Richmond Local History Society

The Richmond Local History Society, founded in 1985, explores the history of Richmond, Kew, Petersham and Ham and the people who have lived here.

We hold evening talks, usually on the second Monday of the month, organise walks and visits, and publish an award-winning annual journal (Richmond History) and books on topics of local interest.

Join us for free admission to our talks, an informative newsletter three times a year and discounts on most of our publications.

NEW Ho to the Wells

Richmond once had a spa and a pleasure garden – Richmond Wells. What was it and what happened to it? Find out more.

NEW Know Your Place

Richmond Local Studies Library and Archive’s annual heritage festival, Know Your Place, takes place throughout September, with a series of talks, walks, exhibitions, workshops, and activities for children and families. Find out more.

NEW Local history weekends at The National Archives

As part of the Know Your Place festival, The National Archives is running two local history weekends for local people in the Kew and Richmond area, in partnership with the Richmond Local History Society and the Kew Society. Our Society plans to have a bookstall on each of the four days. The events run from 11am to 4pm on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 September and on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 October.

We’re looking for more volunteers: can you help?

All of the Society’s work is undertaken by unpaid volunteers. We’re thin on the ground, and we’d particularly welcome help in these areas:

• IT  We don’t have sufficient technical expertise in-house to fix the website very easily when it occasionally goes wrong, and we’d like to explore developing further our new online membership system (which uses Stripe). If you have technical expertise in managing the technical side of websites, we’d like to hear from you.
• Publicity  We’d like to do far more on the publicity front – promoting the Society, publicising our talks and publications and raising our profile, both via traditional methods and also using social media. Is this a challenge you’d like to take on?

If you’re interested in exploring or taking on any of these roles, please email our Chairman, Robert Smith, at chair@richmondhistory.org.uk

 You can now join the Society online

You can now join the Society or renew your membership online. Our membership year runs from January to December. Membership subscriptions for 2022 are: £12 single; £20 for two people at one address.

If you are already a member and have a standing order in place, this will have renewed automatically in January – there is no need to contact us unless you wish to cancel or to amend your personal details.

If you prefer to join by post, please download our membership form; then print it and fill it in, and send to us with an accompanying cheque or cash. For further information, please email our Membership Secretary, Shirley Clark, or phone her on 020 8948 2671.

If you have not set up a standing order, but would like to do so, please email our Membership Secretary, Shirley Clark.

The current issue of Richmond History, our double award-winning journal

When Richmond resident Betty Nuthall won the women’s singles title at the US National Championships in 1930, The New Yorker described her as  “England’s most photographed female”. Rose Barling tells Betty’s story in Richmond History 42, our 2021/22 journal, which also features Richmond Park.

Ground-breaking research by new contributor Timothy M M Baker reveals the site of a World War II radio observatory in the park, which made pioneering discoveries about the Sun as a radio source.

And, using extracts from historic maps drawn up over the past 400 years, Dr Robert Wood looks at what they can tell us about the park’s history. The six maps are illustrated in colour.

The current issue of our journal has 94 pages, more than 30 in colour. Find out more about this issue.

Copies are available (£5 members, £7 non-members) from our online bookshop. You can also buy the journal and our other publications from The National Archives’ shop, Kew Bookshop, The Open Bookshop in Richmond, Parade’s End Books in Ham, Richmond Local Studies and the Museum of Richmond.

Buy the 2021/22 journal (postage-free in the UK), using your credit or debit card:

Richmond History 42 (2021/22)

MEMBERS in UK, post free £5.00 GBPNon-members in UK, post free £7.00 GBPEUROPE inc.p&p £9.35 GBPUSA inc.p&p £10.95 GBPAUS/NZ/SING inc.p&p £12.80 GBPELSEWHERE inc.p&p £10.80 GBP

Two ten-minute talks

The British Association for Local History (BALH)’s website has speaking notes and slides for two ten-minute talks by our Vice-Chair, Simon Fowler: Being old in Victorian Richmond and An Alternative Local History: the time traveller of Richmond.

Resources on Richmond’s history are at your fingertips

Our website’s Resources section includes:

•  two articles from our Richmond History journal on Richmond’s former Royal Star and Garter Home. Stephen Spencer writes about the disputes concerning the building of the new home in the 1920s. Simon Fowler reflects on the remarkable philanthropy of British and overseas people, especially women, who gave money to establish it. Find out more
• articles by our Society’s founder, the late John Cloake, and by present-day Richmond Park historian Dr Robert Wood, dispelling myths about Richmond Park. Did Henry VIII stand on what is now called King Henry’s Mound, to watch for a sign from St Paul’s  (which is visible from the mound) that Anne Boleyn had been executed at the Tower of London? Find out more. And why is the strip of land immediately outside the park’s wall called the “deer leap” or “freebord“? Find out more. And Ralph Thompson at The National Archives writes about the restrictions on public access to Richmond Park in the 18th century and the attempts to overturn them. Read Ralph’s blog.
• an article on Richmond’s almshouses. Find out more.
• an article, based on Charlotte Papendiek’s memoirs, about members of the Royal Family, living in Kew, being vaccinated against smallpox. Read the article.
• an article on the explorer Richard Burton, who went to school in Richmond and is buried in Mortlake
• a history of Walnut Tree Meadow Allotments in Ham by Dr Linna Bentley

• The history of Richmond’s Congregational Church in The Vineyard by Peter Flower
• Two articles on St Anne’s Church, Kew –  “Queen Anne’s Little Church” by David Blomfield and “The pew cushions in St Anne’s Church, Kew” by George Cassidy
• an article on The Selwyn family and the development of Richmond 
• Stephen Orr’s timeline on Vineyard Passage Burial Ground in Richmond
• Richmond’s Old Burial Ground by John Govett

• • • two articles on transport in Richmond
      
    • At the going down of the sun – Simon Fowler on local war memorials
    • an article on Ebenezer Robbins, Kew’s centenarian ironmonger and Secretary of Duke Street Church
    • an air-raid shelter in Manor Road allotments, Richmond
    • the”Battle of Kew”: altercations in Kew in 1945 between local men and Italian prisoners of war
    • a surprise visit by Winston Churchill during the Blitz to the Anti-Aircraft Battery near Sheen Gate in Richmond Park.

  You can read more about Richmond and the Second World War in Simon Fowler’s book Richmond at War 1939-1945, available from Richmond Park’s information centre just outside Pembroke Lodge, the Kew Bookshop, the Open Book at King Street in Richmond, Parade’s End Books in Ham, The National Archives’ shop and our own online bookshop.

  Industry in Richmond in the First World War 1914-1918

  In 1914 Richmond had little industry, but inevitably this changed during the First World War. As well as Sopwiths giant aircraft works in Ham, there were several smaller companies largely making aircraft and parts for Sopwith including the Whitehead Aircraft Company.

  Find out more