Volunteers' Week 2024: Lynne

Meet Lynne

Lynne is a volunteer at the Visit Richmond Information Kiosk in Richmond Station. She has been volunteering there for about a year. She describes the volunteering team as lovely and dedicated – she loves feeling like shes making a difference to the tourists visiting and enriching their experiences as well as helping inform local members of the community. Her favourite place in the borough is the remains of Richmond Palace.

An extract taken from her interview:

“If you didn't know it was here, you probably would just walk straight past. It's like history hidden in plain sight. It's an amazing place and I just love it because when you walk around here, it's that hairs on the back of your neck, spine tingling experience for all the shadows of the footsteps that have come here and how all the tragic events that have been happening here. So it goes right back from the Doomsday Book, a mention, all the way through being destroyed by Richard the Second because of his heartbreak over the death of his wife, to falling into neglect because of Henry V and the wars, through to Henry VII building a massive stone palace, but then it being burnt down twice. And then when Henry VIII was a boy nearly getting killed because masonry was falling upon him. Then also both Henry VII and Elizabeth I died here. Finally all the way through to its almost total destruction after Oliver Cromwell took over and the death of Charles I. And this is all that's left... now we've got the gateway and the wardrobe there. It’s a fantastic place, do come and visit.”

For further information or to book an exploratory session, please contact: Angela Ivey angela.ivey@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk