Richmond Council issued a statement yesterday expressing ‘serious concerns’ following the announcement that the Royal Parks Police will be disbanded with other cuts to the Met Police.
“We are deeply disappointed at the Metropolitan Police’s decision to disband the Royal Parks Police and other vital policing roles, raising serious concerns about the future safety of Richmond Park, Bushy Park, other green spaces, and the wider borough.
We are actively seeking assurances on the extent of the impact these cuts may have on community safety, including high streets, residential areas, and emergency response times.”
This mausoleum was built to commemorate Guilaume Henri, Comte de Vezlo (1894-1901), who died aged seven. Beside his plaque is another referring to his mother the Comtesse de Vezlo (d.1938).
Very little is known about the family but Sheen and Mortlake did have French families living locally. Guilaume is said in one source to be the Pretender to the French Throne.
The splendid building does suggest that there was wealth available.
No birth certificate has been traced in England, so it can reasonably be assumed that Guilaume was born in France. During the 1890s there was an influx to London of French subjects.
After Guilaume’s death his mother spent long days in the Mausoleum. The Custodian Fr Adrian speaks of letters among the historical church documents, written by the Comtesse to the then parish priest, requesting that he celebrate Mass in the Mausoleum. She was not best pleased that he declined!
We were extremely fortunate to be granted access by the Custodian Fr Adrian. Nowhere on internet search engines will you find – until now – the photo of Guilaume below or his belongings lovingly maintained in the Mausoleum. The coffins remain in place.
The beautiful altar depicts the flight of Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus to Egypt. The then King Herod thought that the child would threaten his throne and sought to kill him. He initiated the Massacre of the Innocents in hopes of killing the child. Tradition has it that an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him to take Jesus and his mother into Egypt.
The structure needs full restoration. Another one for Habitats and Heritage?
Note the residence of Annette De Vezlo, a French Subject aged 24, living on her own means at the Grand Hotel in Brighton at the time of the Census on 31 March 1901.
For over thirty years in the latter half of the nineteenth century, London was home to hundreds, and at times thousands, of French revolutionary, republican and socialist exiles. These refugees were drawn from across two generations and were associated with periods of intense political instability in France. During their time in London, they had a significant impact on the life of the city, transforming several of its neighbourhoods into essentially French enclaves, infused themselves into certain sectors of London’s economy, blended into particular social milieux, and greatly affected the shape and trajectory of political radicalism in the capital.
During the 1880s, little groups of exiled French ‘companions’ (the nickname adopted by the French anarchists) were formed in London. They became larger and far more active and influential in the first half of the 1890s, when the theory of ‘propaganda by the deed’ gained ground among anarchists. The concept of propaganda by the deed, developed from 1876–7 among the anarchists of the First International, justified acts of violence as a way of publicising anarchism and initiating the revolution. The main consequence of its propagation was a series of anarchist-inspired terrorist attacks which swept over the Western world throughout the 1890s and early 1900s, peaking in France between 1892 and 1894. The authorities of the Third Republic retaliated with a fierce repression, resulting in the arrest or silencing of most comrades. Hundreds of them were forced into exile,
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed its decision to disband the Richmond Park Police Unit in conjunction with the other royal parks.
The complete defiance of the vast majority of local opinion demonstrates how little they really value public safety or public support in the Richmond area. It is unaccountable autocracy of the highest order.
A visit to St. Mary Magdalen Church in Mortlake today produced a few surprises. It has been known for a while that the Lotteries Fund had given a grant to Habitats and Heritage to renovate the Burton Mausoleum in the graveyard. The project is known as Burton: Exploring Without Boundaries. The grant is for £250,000 to cover the works estimated at £150,000 with the balance going to educational purposes about the life of the renowned explorer Sir Richard Burton and his wife Lady Isobel.
The first surprise was to find Dr Helen Brown, H & H Conservation and Interpretation Officer, in the graveyard for the start of onsite work. Helen has an academic specialism in the social and cultural history of English landscape gardens. She is pictured with Fr. Adrian McKenna, the Parish Priest.
The second surprise was to see the scaffolding in place with a contractor unscrewing the glass window to the mausoleum. The third surprise was to hear that tomorrow, Thursday, an assessment of the work necessary for the renovation will be undertaken. The project should be finished during the summer.
Inside the Church you can find the stained-glass Burton Memorial Window. This was given by his widow Lady Isobel nee Arundell. She was a staunch Catholic and several members of her family are buried in the cemetery. She had previously visited Portobello House, whose owner helped to found the church in 1852. Richard Burton was not a Catholic but in order to save his soul his wife ensured that the last rites were administered to him when he was on his death bed.
Note the inscription at the foot of the glass: In Suffragium Animarum Familiae Burton For the salvation of the souls of the Burton Family
A visit to St Mary Magdalen to discuss parish records with the Parish Priest Fr Adrian McKenna provided a wealth of interesting local historical information.
And included some gardening: planting some saplings.
Planters : Fr Adrian McKenna, Kevin Connolly and Tish Deacon
Above is the gravestone of John Francis Bentley (30 January 1839 – 2 March 1902), though the inscription is now longer legible. But note the motif on the near end of the stone bears a remarkable resemblance to the Bentley Motor’s motif, the company not founded until 1919.
Bentley was an English ecclesiastical architect, whose most famous work is Westminster Cathedral. In 1894 he was commissioned to design the Byzantine Revival design and travelled to Italy to study some of the great early Byzantine-influenced cathedrals, including St. Mark’s in Venice.
In 1874 he married Margaret Annie Fleuss; they had 4 sons and 7 daughters. and lived in Clapham.
It is thought that his grave was placed on top of an ‘unknown pauper’.
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The main item on the agenda is consideration of the Air Quality Action Plan 2025-2030. The Committee is being recommended to adjust the draft plan to include a new pilot programme on non-exhaust vehicle emissions, to investigate options to reduce impacts on nurseries and to target idling.
The Air Quality Action Plan is a statutory requirement of the local authority and contains actions the council proposes to reduce air pollution and comply with health objectives. Committee will be asked to review and agree the Plan following full public and stakeholder consultation.
The agenda also includes seeking approval of the resurfacing of the following roads in East Sheen and Mortlake:
Sheen Gate Gardens Entire Road Vernon Road Church Avenue to outside No. 65 Howgate Road Entire Road Portman Avenue Upper Richmond Road to Vernon Road Paynesfield Avenue Entire Road Sheen Lane Mortlake Station to Mortlake High Street
The deadline to register to speak is 12 noon on the working day prior to the meeting. The deadline to submit a written question is 12 noon, two working days ahead of the meeting.
