Museum Support Volunteers – Queen Street Mill

Museum Support Volunteers – Queen Street Mill

Queen Street Mill Museum is looking for Museum Support Volunteers, helping to provide knowledge and guidance to visitors when the museum reopens in Spring 2025.

Queen Street Mill is the last surviving 19th century steam powered weaving mill from the days when cotton was king. It was built in 1894 for the Queen Street Manufacturing Company. It closed on 12 March 1982 and was mothballed, but was subsequently taken over by Burnley Council and maintained as a museum. In the 1990s ownership passed to Lancashire Museums. Queen Street Mill is a grade 1 listed building and has provided background scenery for a number of historical films and television programmes.

Please speak to a member of staff before applying – 01282 412555 or email us at QueenStreetMillBurnley@lancashire.gov.uk

Queen Street Mill is an industrial museum site and volunteers will need to be comfortable in an industrial environment.

Overview of Service:

Lancashire County Council Museums Service provides public access to, and engagement with 6 historic buildings including Lancaster Castle, Judges Lodgings, Clitheroe Castle, Gawthorpe Hall, Helmshore Mills Textile Museum and Queen Street Mill. Our goal is to provide high quality experiences for all, based on our key values which are: Supportive, Innovative, Respectful and Collaborative.

Overview of the Role:

Museum Support Volunteers support the operation of the museum.

This role offers you an opportunity to assist with activities across the site, and you will get to meet new people, learn a range of new skills, and help us bring our sites to life for a wide range of audiences.

The role of the volunteer will be to create a warm, friendly and welcoming environment to our visitors and provide them with the knowledge and information about this historic site during their visit.

Tasks:

All tasks are carried out to assist, and are under the supervision of a member of staff: 

In this role you could be:

• Welcoming, Meet & Greet, Wayfinding, Signposting
• Events support
• Room stewarding
• Engagement/Outreach
• Collecting feedback and evaluation
• Offering general visitor assistance
• Conducting guided tours
• Conducting research
• Content creation for events/activities and social media
• Assisting with refreshments
• Help to brighten up a visitor’s day

Required Qualities:

You don’t need any previous experience or qualifications to volunteer, just enthusiasm and a willingness to learn!

We also ask that you:

• Can commit to regular attendance at agreed times
• Are a good communicator
• Have patience and understanding
• Are friendly and approachable
• Are reliable and committed
• Comfortable talking to people from many backgrounds and walks of life
• Must have lived in the UK for 3+ years