Committee
Members
Andrew Miller
Chair
We moved to Upper Grotto Road in Strawberry Hill in 2004, having previously lived in central Richmond. My career was spent in education, initially as a teacher of Economics and humanities in Ealing and Brent, before moving into a national curriculum development project. I spent several years at the University of Warwick promoting and researching links between education and industry. During the Major and Blair years I was an education adviser to the Department for Education on work experience and on enterprise education during Gordon Brown’s premiership. I ended my career as Professor of Mentoring at Middlesex University and running a consultancy business. After several years volunteering as a tour guide at Twickenham Stadium, I joined the SHRA Committee as Vice Chair with an interest in exploring local history. I try to keep a photo-record of Strawberry Hill, past and present, maintain our Facebook page and edit the e-bulletin. My interests include genealogy, grandparenting seven children and photography. I was elected Chair in 2022.
Pamela Crisp
Honorary Secretary
I was born and brought up in North Wales and moved to London when I was 18. As my career with Marks & Spencer progressed, I began working in Richmond in 1975 so my connection with the borough goes back a long time! I moved to Strawberry Hill 40 years ago and have been a committee member of SHRA since 2007 and secretary for 14 years. Having been responsible for, amongst other things, distribution of the bulletin, the adopt-a-site scheme for monitoring the recycling site, the Christmas tree and carol singing event, I now update the website and Twitter account. Strawberry Hill continued to be a convenient place to live, despite my career taking me to different town centres in the area, and then to central London and Stockley Park. My children both went to school locally and I was a school and college governor for 20 years. I think we are very lucky to live in such a lovely area and volunteer regularly at Strawberry Hill House and occasionally at Pope’s Grotto. I also enjoy the easy access we have for walking by the River Thames, the River Crane (a lockdown discovery} and Bushy Park.
June Collins
Honorary Treasurer
My husband Peter and I have lived in Strawberry Hill for 38 years and have two daughters. For the first 23 years of my working life, I was at the BBC working both in radio and TV. I worked on various science documentaries such as Horizon before moving to drama as an assistant producer working, for many years, on Doctor Who. I eventually took voluntary redundancy so my hugely enjoyable career at the BBC came to an end. I went on to become a School Bursar/Business Manager at a junior school in Kingston and then at Teddington School and Tiffin Boys School. After about ten years in this role, I moved to Kingston Council as Schools’ Financial Support Officer for the borough, until I retired.
I became a local Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator and joined the SHRA committee, becoming Treasurer in September 2020. For a period of three years, I volunteered at Spear (charity for the homeless) in Twickenham, working as administrator one day a week in their hub. I have recently taken up my love of art and enrolled in mixed media art classes at the adult college throughout 2020/2021. These were held on Zoom and it was great to meet with others during Covid times and share a common interest. I love living in Strawberry Hill and feel very lucky to live in such a beautiful area, near the river and so near to the city. What more could one want?
Louisa Carradine
Environment Coordinator
We moved to Strawberry Hill in 2019 having lived round the corner for 7 years. After meeting my husband at Warwick University, I initially worked in television at the BBC and several independent production companies. I production-managed on programmes ranging from science, current affairs, arts and documentaries. After having children, I wanted to balance a young family, whilst also exploring new interests.
In lockdown, I started a plastic-free, wholefood delivery service to help reduce plastic waste in our community. The support from local residents has been fantastic. There is a lot of support and good will for small businesses in our area. I am loving the experience of launching a start-up business, which encourages a plastic-free lifestyle and awareness of environmental issues. We are often in one of the local play parks and love the woods at Strawberry Hill House, we still consider it a hidden gem! We recently bought a paddleboard to make the most of living by the river and I look forward to being able to explore along the riverbanks. Joining SHRA has been a great way to meet more of our neighbours, as well as local organisations working to protect nature around us. I have become more observant of flowerbeds, planters and grass verges in Strawberry Hill and often spend time in our garden wondering how we can attract more biodiversity.
Mary Hughes
Roads & Transport Coordinator
I was born and brought up in Monmouthshire in South Wales and, after completing an English degree at the University of Wales, Cardiff, moved to Uxbridge where I started teaching in further education. As my career progressed, I moved to Twickenham in 1984 initially living in Radnor Gardens before moving, after the birth of my son, to my current house in Pope’s Avenue in 1990. Until my retirement five years ago, I was a senior manager at Brooklands College, Weybridge. A demanding career in education and family life left me with little time to get involved in community activities. However, since my retirement, I have been actively involved in the successful campaign to introduce a CPZ in Strawberry Hill and have also joined the governing body of a Surrey Further Education College. I joined the SHRA committee, as I saw an opportunity to work with others to preserve and enhance the unique qualities of Strawberry Hill which make it a great place to live in and for visitors to spend time in.
Mike Allsop
Planning Monitor
After living for many years in various flats in North London I moved to Strawberry Hill with my wife and a very young son in 1985. We initially lived in a house in Radnor Gardens, and moved two years later to our current house in Southfield Gardens. I was brought up in Felixstowe in Suffolk, then a rather sleepy seaside resort, now transformed into one of the UK’s major ports. After studying economics in Canterbury I moved to London, joining the London office of Touche Ross (now Deloitte’s), one of the large accountancy firms, working primarily on banking and financial services businesses. For 20 years from the mid 1980s, I worked for the HSBC Group, initially based in the London Office of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank working with various of the Group’s UK and International subsidiaries. After the HSBC Group moved its Head Office to London, I worked out of the Head Office in the City and then from its new Canary Wharf tower. I joined the SHRA Committee not long after I retired, and have now been a committee member for 13 years. Currently, and for most of that time, I have monitored planning applications across Strawberry Hill for SHRA, and for the first 10 years I also chaired the joint SHRA/St Mary’s University Liaison Committee. My main interests are history, gardening, walking, and nature, particularly bird watching.
Peter Lamb
Local Historian & St Mary’s University Liaison
I have resided in the Borough of Richmond since 1977, but when my wife and I were looking to move out of town from our flat in Barnes, good friends who lived in Strawberry Hill said “Why leave London? Come to Strawberry Hill.” So, we did, and have lived here in the same house since 1984. An aeon ago I studied languages at King’s College London and history at the London School of Economics. I taught for 36 years and retirement in 2010 at last gave me time to devote to painting, a pastime that had been on the back burner for decades. I have exhibited locally and feel blessed to live in an area where the arts are so ardently supported. As a SHRA committee member for ten years, my main role is to liaise with SMUC and contribute to the history of Strawberry Hill. When we commemorated the centenary of the Great War, I wrote pieces for the bulletin about residents who had served in the armed forces.
Sam Kamleh
Bulletin Designer
Sam Kamleh returned to Twickenham in 1997 after leaving home to study architecture.
Following study at the Royal College of Art and the Architectural Association and qualifying as an architect, she worked in sole practice from her first home in Lion Road, Twickenham, incorporating the practice as a company in 2003. The small architectural practice is now based in Teddington in the former public conveniences, which she converted into offices and an art gallery. In 2004 she completed an MBA at Imperial College to enable better understanding of the commercial needs of clients and believes that learning is the best way to keep a young-ish mind, she qualified as a yoga instructor in 2019 and a Pilates instructor in 2021. Sam was a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Chartered Practice Committee, helping bring about updates required to the profession and a member of the Disciplinary Committee. More locally, Sam was, until recently, a Trustee of the Twickenham Riverside Trust. Sam has been on the SHRA Committee for several years and has designed the Bulletin since issue 174.
Fiona Maxwell
Bulletin Co-editor
My husband, Chris, and I moved to Strawberry Hill in 1995 with the idea of renovating our 1930’s house in Grange Avenue and then moving on. Somehow, we have never left settling into our quiet friendly cul-de-sac and making lifelong friends in the neighborhood. Born in Hull, Yorkshire, I emigrated to New Zealand with my family as a toddler in the sixties and returned to the UK in my twenties to pursue a career in film and television. Initially I joined the J Arthur Rank group of companies working in video duplication and distribution. This progressed to joining PolyGram Video International and then PolyGram Filmed Entertainment as Operations Manager responsible for global distribution of feature films such as, ‘ Four Weddings and a Funeral’, ‘Trainspotting’, ‘The Borrowers’ ,’Fargo’ and ‘Mr Bean’. I then joined Carlton International who had acquired the Rank Library of films heading up their film Archive expanding my distribution skills into film restoration and digital remastering. When we merged with Granada International I became Operations Director and acquired a technical team in Leeds. Our parent company was ITV Global and I spent seventeen years with the group. From 2012 until 2024 I worked at the British Film Institute delivering film restoration-and-digitisation programmes, also initiating their first ever all celluloid film festival last year. My career highlights include: accepting an award with Martin Scorsese for the restoration of the Powell-and-Pressburger classic film, ‘The Red Shoes’; working with the David Lean Foundation restoring seven films; and introducing ‘A Night To Remember’ at the Cannes Film Festival.
Dany Mooney
Events Coordinator
I worked as a civil servant in Westminster for some 34 years, mostly in what is now the Business Department, but also including secondments to the Cabinet Office and the European Commission in Brussels. I was lucky to have some realIy interesting postings, particularly in contingency and emergency planning, working closely with a number of ministers. Subsequently, I worked for 10 years in a primary school in Twickenham providing one-to-one support to children with special needs – a role that was sometimes challenging, but also really rewarding and I loved it!
I am now recently retired. I speak French and German and, as well as SHRA, I am also a keen supporter of the Borough’s twinning links with both Fontainebleau in France, and Konstanz in SW Germany. As a member of the Richmond in Europe Association, I work to foster these links and also to develop opportunities in both cities for young people from our area.
I have lived in Strawberry Hill since 1997 and feel very lucky to live in such a lovely area. I am, therefore, pleased to have joined the SHRA Committee and to try to help in its work to maintain the special character here that we all value. I’m also looking forward to arranging future events that we can, hopefully, all enjoy together as a community. I am also a member of the Friends of Radnor Gardens and provide the link with SHRA.
Jonathan Bayliss
Business Liaison
Jonathan has lived with his wife in Strawberry Hill since 1985 and has a son and daughter both of whom were educated locally. He has recently retired but worked in City law firms for almost forty years, specialising in corporate-and-financial-services law. Jonathan has a keen interest in local affairs and history, and is looking forward to participating in SHRA’s longstanding activities and initiatives. In his spare time Jonathan is a keen golfer and avid supporter of Arsenal.