*** The new 2020 issue of our journal, Richmond History, is now available direct from us postage free, if you pay with a credit card or debit card – please scroll down to the link below.

Our talks programme has been suspended

See our calendar of forthcoming events and list of forthcoming talks

Unfortunately we are unable to continue with our talks programme for the immediate future. We very much hope to be able to resume talks in September, and will reschedule our AGM for a date later in the year. The Richmond May Fair has been postponed and our summer coach trip to Knowle has been cancelled. We very much hope that all our members will stay healthy and keep safe in the challenging months ahead.

Our new journal – in colour

The 2020 issue of Richmond History, our annual journal, has now been published, two months earlier than previously.

For the first time, the journal has colour illustrations: 20 of its 98 pages are in colour. It’s priced at £7 and is available from our own online bookshop, postage free (if you live in the UK). There’s a discount of £2 for members: please see the link below.

What’s in this issue:

early street names in Richmond
anti-alien agitation in Richmond in 1918
two prominent families in Ham and Petersham who were linked by marriage and had royal connections
the architecture of St Anne’s Church, Kew
a momentous conversation in Richmond Palace between Elizabeth I and Francis Drake; and
Isador Caplan’s Richmond Hill Committee.

Following on from his talk last month, Martin Stilwell describes Kew and North Richmond’s industrialisation in the First World War, and Robert Wood has written up his very well received talk last year about Richmond’s first balloon flight. Although Stephen Bartlett’s talk on Lawn Crescent, Kew, has been postponed, he has a piece in this issue about the street’s history and its early residents.

Old Palace Lane: a new edition

We also now have a new, second edition of Old Palace Lane by Derek Robinson and Simon Fowler. Old Palace Lane is arguably Richmond’s most historic street. Many of the changes and developments that have made the town what it is today are reflected in this quiet little lane, the former tradesman’s entrance to Richmond Palace .

Originally published jointly by the Society and by the Museum of Richmond as a booklet to accompany the Museum’s 2017 exhibition on the lane’s history, this new edition incorporates some corrections and amendments and has been reformatted in a larger size with a thicker cover and a spine. It has 48 pages, four of them with historic maps of Richmond, and colour throughout.

The book is is priced at £7, and is available from us using the link below:

Jo at the Richmond May Fair in 2016

It is with great sadness that we have to share with you the news of the sudden death of our Membership Secretary, Jo Coombes, on Tuesday 10 March. Jo was at our Society’s talk on the Monday evening, as usual doing her front-of -house role of checking attendees against her membership records and dealing with renewals, and most important of all welcoming members and visitors in her friendly and warm manner. Jo was particularly interested in that evening’s talk on the social history of Queen’s Road, Richmond and contributed to the Q & A after the talk, recalling the time she had shared a flat in the road.

After our meeting Jo drove home to Hampton and collapsed from a stroke, dying later in Charing Cross Hospital. This was a dreadful shock for us and her family.

In September 2000 Jo took on the duties of Membership Secretary which she carried out with efficiency. She always made a contribution to our activities with enthusiasm, whether it was volunteering to help at the Society’s stall at the Richmond May Fair, envelope stuffing for the newsletter or making invaluable contributions to our Committee meetings.

Jo trained as a Richmond upon Thames Heritage Guide in 1998, became Treasurer on the death of John Plant and took over as Chairperson when Norman Radley retired. She specialised in wartime and Tudor walks. Her last research was for the talk on artists and paintings in Richmond, Twickenham and Kew which she gave in the 2019 Know Your Place festival, a talk she was due to give again to the Society following our AGM in June.

We extend our sympathies to Jo’s daughters, family and friends. A memorial service will be held later in the year.

Catch up on our previous talks

Merlin’s Cave, a building that once stood in Kew Gardens

More than 100 people attended Susanne Groom’s talk to our Society in December 2019 on Kew Gardens’ lost buildings. You can now read reports of this and some of our other previous talks.

Resources on Richmond’s history are at your fingertips

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 Dr Robert Wood, in an article on this website’s Resources pages about the freebord’s history. Find out more.