Marble Hill Revived

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Marble Hill House and grounds re-opened on Friday 20 May and Rotary was represented, by David. £5 million of Lottery Funds have been spent refurbishing the house and gardens, and the effect is well worth seeing.

The house has extensive historical and literary associations from the first half of the eighteeenth century, an age that is not very well known these days, when many of the political and social systems we now enjoy first started to develop. Pope and Swift were regular visitors, and Henrietta Howard, who designed and built the house, managing to overcome poverty and an abusive marriage to do so, has become something of a feminist heroine. This is well worth going to see, even without the free champagne David enjoyed on Friday.

22 May 2022

Petanque in the Park

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We visited the Petanque piste in Palewell Park, for a closely fought series of games followed by a picnic lunch. Tony only revealed half way through that he spent 13 years in a french-language school, where he acquired devastating skills in throwing boules. John Lee ran him a close second.

15 May 2022

Visit to Eel Pie Island Museum

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A small group of us visited the Eel Pie Island museum, folllowed by a walk along the riverside. (You can see more of the island from the river bank than from the paths actually on the island.) Celia Holman, from the museum, gave us a fascinating tour. Once Henry VIII's regular snack stop on boat rides between his palaces at Sheen and Hampton Court,  in the 1960s it was home to a hotel with a reputation for naughtiness of all sorts. The residents still talk about Twickenham as 'the mainland'. The Museum is densely packed with memorabilia of the Rolling Stones and others.

10 May 2022

Richmond Rotary action against gender-based violence

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Another successful White Ribbon Event on 25 February 2022, organised by Cllr Ben Khosa (Rotary Richmond member and Borough White Ribbon

Champion) on behalf of LBRUT Council, and involving members of Twickenham Rotary, to stand up against violence against women and girls.

Ben is pictured here with Eva Peters of Twickenham Rotary Club.

06 Mar 2022

Richmond Mayor visits symbols of hope

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On Saturday 19 February, The Deputy Mayor of Richmond, Cllr Suzette Nicholson, visited the Richmond Rotary Gardens to see the crocuses in bloom there.

Rotary Gardens is the small pocket garden by the river opposite Richmond Landing Stage, Buccleuch Passage. Richmond Rotary raised substantial funds in 1974 to change it from derelict land to a garden for the benefit of the community, in particular to raise funds for medical research. Welcoming the Deputy Mayor, Dr Tony Sayer, Past President of the Richmond Rotary Club and a local GP, said “we have not only found and approved a number of effective coronavirus vaccines and treatments but over 44 million people have been vaccinated in the UK. It is now time to celebrate the end of restrictions and the return to some form of normality. Rotary are proud to have planted these purple symbols of hope.”

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Please see video of the event https://youtu.be/NYeMOF4Oz4Y

Location of the Rotary Gardens https://goo.gl/maps/sxAsmpgroVEuLtxX9

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21 Feb 2022

Richmond Rotary action against gender-based violence

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President Elect of Richmond Rotary, Ben Khosa, as lead White Ribbon Champion for London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, organised and led a Torch Walk from Richmond Town Centre to York House in Twickenham on 10/12/2021. Current President of Richmond Rotary, Pindi Tamana, organised a “pit stop” in East Twickenham, to highlight the issue  of gender-based violence to local shoppers and onlookers.