Preparing for the worst – Help! What if there is a fire in the archive?
Archive documents are one of a kind and irreplaceable. They are priceless. If you have a handwritten diary created by someone living through the First World War, full of their…
Explore your local stories
I’m here to help people find the stories that matter to them. The real stories. Stories of the lives lived, here in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It's…
History On My Doorstep, Part 2
This is the conclusion of the second piece from Di Murrell and the last of her guest blogs. If you missed the first part of History On My Doorstep, catch…
History On My Doorstep, Part 1
Welcome to the second of the guest pieces by Di Murrell in celebration of Know Your Place Festival 2021. In the first part of this piece, Di discovers some intriguing…
Custard Tarts – Their Chequered Past, part 2
This is the conclusion of Di Murrell's first guest essay for Know Your Place. If you missed Part 1, catch up here. Whatever the truth of the tarts’ earlier history,…
Custard Tarts – Their Chequered Past, part 1
The town of Richmond-upon-Thames has long been associated with pleasure, with prosperity, as a pleasure ground of the gentry, the rich and the famous. Plenty of signs of wealth up…
Know Your Place 2021: guest blogs by Di Murrell
September in Richmond is Know Your Place month, where we celebrate the rich history of our Borough through talks, workshops, quizzes - and blog pieces. This year, we're very lucky…
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) – [Local History Notes: 21]
One of the most popular and prolific novelists of her day and the virtual founder of a new school of ‘sensational’ fiction, Miss Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born at Frith…
Charles Dickens and Richmond – [Local History Notes: 20]
Estella in Great Expectations (1861) states: ‘Our lesson is that there are two Richmonds, one in Surrey and one in Yorkshire, and that mine is the Surrey Richmond.' As early…
Making History 2: Moments in time
Do you want to help record the COVID-19 pandemic for posterity? Documents collected now will form a key part of how future generations understand the pandemic. To this end, the…