The regular newsletter for The Richmond Charities Almshouses March ONE 2021 Welcome to your Almshouse News SPOTLIGHT ON Turner’s House TWICKENHAM DURING LOCKDOWN 2021 News Resident Views Crossword Local Highlights Poetry TWICKENHAM Serge’s Walk Travel Quiz EDITION Eel Pie Island ALMSHOUSE NEWS - Contents Contents Letter from the Chief Executive Letter from the Chief Executive 2-3 by Juliet Ames- News 4-6 Lewis SPOTLIGHT ON TWICKENHAM Roadmap out of lockdown for our What I Love About Twickenham 7 community Helpful Twickenham Organisations 8 I’m sure you will all have read or heard History of Eel Pie 9 about the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, published on 22 February. What Does Twickenham Offer 10-11 Now that we have a clearer sense of the road ahead, we can start also to Community Life 12 tentatively plan our own community’s roadmap out of lockdown. Staff and I Serge’s Twickenham Walk 13-16 are working on this and we will hope to share with you soon information about Turner’s House 17 what sorts of events and activities we may be able to organise which fit with A Good Place to Call Home 18-19 the government’s 4 stages of easing lockdown. The government’s dates are, Twickenham Map Highlights 20-21 as they have said, the earliest dates on which these stages of easing lockdown Travel Quiz 22-23 will take place, and the government Crossword Competition 24-25 could push them back if their 4 tests (on vaccinations, reducing hospitalisations, Answer Page 26 infection rates and new variants of covid-19) are not met. Poem & Illustration 27 Credits Poetry Corner 28 Editor: Juliet Ames-Lewis Design & Photography: Chantal Richards 2 Letter from the Chief Executive - ALMSHOUSE NEWS From 8 March, it will be permitted by the The final stage of the government’s government for 2 people from different roadmap will happen no earlier than 21 households to meet together for eg a June and will potentially remove all social coffee in a park or in a private garden, contact restrictions and social distancing so with the Spring weather upon us, we measures. Indoor and outdoor activities hope that you will all start to emerge may become unrestricted in numbers out of your almshouses and spend time which means that we may, we hope, be in our lovely gardens with one other able to plan some summer parties! person – social distancing still has to be observed. Trustees and I are also considering implications of the roadmap for staff and in From 29 March, it will be allowed for particular when staff can return full time to groups of up to 6 people to meet outside our 3 offices. The government is planning (still socially distanced) and so we are a review on working from home and social starting to think about what sorts of small distancing which will report in June. For group events and activities we could now, the government’s rules are that we hold in our communal gardens (weather must continue to work from home where dependent). possible and staff will therefore remain on the shift patterns that we currently have in From 12 April, most of us will be place. rushing to the hairdressers, the shops and to pubs and restaurants which have I will also keep you all updated in due public gardens. course about when we can safely re-open guest rooms. For the time being, laundries From 17 May, gatherings of up to 30 will remain free for residents to use, but the people will be allowed outside and up charity will start charging for the laundries to 6 people will be permitted to gather again at some point. indoors (still socially distanced), which will, we hope, give us the chance to It finally feels as though we can start to re-start some of our previous events plan and have things to look forward to and activities in small numbers, and which is exciting. In the meantime, I hope to kick off some new groups and you are all staying safe and well. clubs. We have had many suggestions through the Residents’ Survey. Please let your Scheme Manager know if you have other ideas or if you would like to organise and run a one-off event or a regular group or club. 3 ALMSHOUSE NEWS - News Please Beware: “Scams jump 66% Scam Artists during lockdown as by Claire Sanecka fraudsters take It saddens me to share advantage of nations with you that scam uncertainty” artists continue to operate in Richmond (The Independent Aug 2020) borough. They have upped their tactics and are now using a handheld device in close proximity to clone bank cards. Age UK Richmond These thieves are able to use such devices to retrieve all the necessary Talk in collaboration account information from your bank card to make purchases with your with NatWest Bank: money. There is some good news though - this type of scam has been Keeping you safe from around for some time and there are some tips on how to keep your purse, Frauds and Scams. wallet and money safe. Age UK Richmond are providing a Preventing debit and credit card FREE Zoom talk for over 50s which will scanning: cover current internet, telephone and -Buy a card shield or RFID wallet* that text scams, particularly those which blocks RFID transmissions. have sprung up during the pandemic. -Stack your cards together to mitigate some of the scanner’s ability to read The event is free but advance information. registration is essential. -Leave your cards at home and only use cash in public places Date: 17th March 2021 Time: 2pm via Zoom Contactless card shields are available To book your place use this link: to purchase from M&S, Argos, Robert https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/age- Dyas and online from Amazon UK uk-richmond-scams-awareness-talk- tickets-138741005081 *RFID – Radio frequency identification 4 News - ALMSHOUSE NEWS New Member of Staff by Juliet Ames-Lewis I am delighted to announce that Roxanne Roxanne Gent will be joining The Gent, Richmond Charities staff Health, team on 15 March 2021 as our new Safety & Health, Safety & Security Officer. Security Officer Roxanne has worked for the last 7 which supports women who want to years as a painter and decorator work in the construction field. as part of the maintenance team at Wandle Housing Association in South Roxanne is very much looking forward London. She has also recently been a to joining the team and we are looking builder’s assistant, installing kitchens forward to welcoming her. and doing plastering, painting and tiling. Roxanne attended college and Winner of the undertook a City & Guilds Basic Construction skills course, an NVQ Crossword Diploma in Building Maintenance, Multi- trade Repair and Refurbishments and Competition an Intermediate Level Apprenticeship in Maintenance Operations. Thank you to everyone that submitted their completed crosswords for a We were looking for someone who has chance to win the Fortnum & Mason excellent maintenance skills and some goodies. Picked at random, the winner experience in the health and safety this week is: field who wants to further develop their MARY BRONKS - Congratulations! knowledge. Roxanne will be trained by Mick and she will also attend external Answers from last weeks crossword health and safety courses in order. are on page 26. Roxanne has also been involved with This week’s crossword competition a charity called Women in Construction is on pages 24-25. 5 ALMSHOUSE NEWS - News Gardening help & advice available in Richmond by Gennie Thompson SPADE is a service run by Richmond Recently, Juliet met with AID. Scheme Managers to ‘Richmond SPADE discuss the feedback and is our award-winning action points from the residents’ survey gardening service in November 2020. which provides basic gardening Gardening help for those residents with maintenance to older people in the their own individual patch of garden was borough. A team of talented volunteer a theme raised many times, so I have gardeners carry out tasks. The team included some information on different are dedicated to conserving the local organisations that can be employed to environment. Volunteers carry out tasks carry out various garden services. such as weeding, mowing the lawn, pruning and raking leaves’. SPADE suggest £25 for 3 hours of The Richmond Charities offers all gardening work. residents an annual garden tidy but for For more inforamtion: more regular requirements the below call: 0208 831 6070 services should be useful. email: [email protected] website: http://www.richmondaid.org.uk AGE UK Richmond AGE UK Richmond Alternatively, if you are interested in now include volunteering at SPADE they have a range gardening services in of different roles at present and more are the remit of their handyperson’s scheme. available at the volunteer section of their website: https://www.richmondaid.org.uk/ They charge a subsidised rate of £18 an volunteering-opportunities/ hour for over 65s and the friendly team can help with all aspects of gardening. There are also many highly rated For more information: private gardening services available in call: 0208 876 0620 Richmond, although these may be more email: handyperson@ageukrichmond. expensive. More information is available org.uk in check-a-trade leaflets which are delivered quarterly or via the internet. 6 Spotlight on Twickenham - ALMSHOUSE NEWS What I Love About Twickenham by Carmela Hinckley And then there is the river with its ever- changing mood, the trees of Marble Hill Whatever we like about including the ancient black walnut; the the place where we live, wild garden of Orleans gallery with a it’s always a personal view.