1. Become a Friend of Richmond Park.

Download our membership form (available at the bottom of this page), fill it in and send to:
Mrs S M Hamilton, Friends of Richmond Park, 16 Wayside, East Sheen, London SW14 7LN

The benefits of becoming a Friend are:

• Participation in our programme of Walks and Courses (free to members)
• Three Friends' Newsletters each year
• Monthly e-mail with news, Richmond Park and Isabella Diaries
• Park information, maps etc as they appear
• Opportunity to volunteer - at the Visitor Centre or on conservation projects

Also, your subscription supports the Friends' work in:

• Conservation (funding projects, pressing for improvements]
• Education of young people, directly and via schools
• Public information (manning the Visitor Centre, booklets etc)
• Preserving the Park from developments through lobbying

Current subscription rates are: individual £6; household £10; societies £10.

If you are a taxpayer, it would help the Friends if you could complete a gift aid mandate form (click on download at the bottom of this page).

2. Work with us.

If you would like to work more actively with the Friends, there are always opportunities to lend a hand; for example, you can help us with: 

• The events for our 50th anniversary in 2011, including the visit to the Ballet School in May and the Members' Summer Tea Party in June
• The publication, sales and distribution of our Guide to Richmond Park and Family Trails booklet, both due to appear in March-May time
• Our Walks and Courses programme; help marshall the walks, learn to be a walk leader, or help organise and take bookings for the courses
• Membership applications; help handle our applications and membership list 

We currently also have four special interest groups:

• Education - making young people aware of the Park's wildlife and special character
• Conservation and ecology - tackling questions relating to the Park's ecology and biodiversity, and identifying and working on conservation projects
• Campaigning - working on campaigns about specific issues and increasing public appreciation of the Park
• Traffic - monitoring current developments; developing and pursuing Friends' policies on traffic; and campaigning for public transport improvements

For more details please contact our Chairman, Ron Crompton, at ron.crompton@frp.org.uk, or on 020 8876 1123.

3. Volunteer to help the Park

Volunteering to help in Park-related activities is a wonderful way to contribute to the Park. We currently have four volunteer activities:

• Staffing the Visitor Centre next to Pembroke Lodge. Volunteers help the public with information, directions and advice. The Centre also stocks a range of publications and other material, some free and some for sale. All surpluses from the Visitor Centre go to fund projects in the Park. The Centre is open most days in the week, and you can volunteer for a day or a half-day as frequently as you wish. If you are interested, please contact Brian Baker at brianbaker@greenbee.net or on 020 8546 3109.
• Doing physical conservation work in the Park. Volunteers plant trees, clear rhododendron and do similar work. It is physical work and volunteers should have a reasonable level of fitness. This is a relatively new, but expanding, activity for the Friends. If you're interested, please contact Peter Burrow-Smith at peterburrows-smith1@virginmedia.com
• Working on the History Project. Friends' volunteers are cataloguing a private collection about the history of the Park, and investigating other sources of information, with the aim of providing public access to it online, and extracting material for publication and display eg at the Visitor Centre. If you're interested please contact Rachel Hirschler at hirschlers@blueyonder.co.uk

Please note that for insurance reasons you have to be a member of the Friends to work as a volunteer.

Downloads:

• Giftaid Mandate (pdf - 0.05 MB)
• Membership Application Form (pdf - 0.05 MB)