New Twickenham MP Tania Mathias treated the new minister for tourism to an afternoon of time travel at Hampton Court Palace on Tuesday.

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Time travel: Hampton Court Palace was a wonderful venue

Tracey Crouch, MP for Chatham and Aylesford, was carrying out her first public visit since being appointed minister for sport and tourism in the new Conservative Government.

TimeQuake, the brainchild of award-winning author Damien Dibben, is an innovative chance for children and families to explore the palace's 500 year history.

Having been shown around Hampton Court Palace by Historic Royal Palaces chief executive Michael Day, Ms Crouch highlighted the importance of children in tourism.

She said: "Children are incredibly important in making sure we open up tourism and heritage education because getting children interested in heritage is massively important.

"It gives them a real learning of our history."

Having been re-elected earlier this month, she also offered some words of advice for new Twickenham MP Dr Mathias, who defeated Business Secretary Vince Cable.

She added: "Tania should enjoy every minute of it, being an MP is hugely challenging but it is a very rewarding job.

"My advice to her is to hit the ground running."

Speaking of the merits of the visit, Dr Mathias said: "I took the opportunity of the minister's visit to discuss the benefits of the royal palace for Twickenham residents with Michael Day.

"We discussed job opportunities, education programmes for local schools and the need for better local rail services for Hampton Court Palace.

"I have visited Hampton Court Palace as a visitor before but I was blown away by the high energy TimeQuake activity for children during half-term.

"It's a fantastic resource for us on our doorstep."

TimeQuake sees a group of young actors taking charge as time explorers, armed with insider knowledge of the palace's history, to run the nine-day event.

Time explorer Lottie Westgarth, 17, added: "It is great because we get to see parts of the palace which the public don't normally get to see."

To find out more about TimeQuake, visit hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/WhatsOn/TimeQuake.