Museum Support Volunteers – Helmshore Mills Textile Museum

Museum Support Volunteers – Helmshore Mills Textile Museum

Helmshore Mills Textile Museum is looking for Museum Support Volunteers, helping to provide knowledge and guidance to visitors when the museum reopens in March 2024.

Nestled in a stunning rural location, the museum consists of two historic working mills, Higher Mill a wool-fulling mill and Whitaker Mill a cotton mill. The museum is widely accessible with ramps and lifts, the old flag floors are however uneven as are the outdoor areas.

The museum is open on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 – 16:00. This is a seasonal role and its every week from Saturday 30th March 2024 to 3rd November 2024, there will be occasional additional events you may wish to get involved with.

Please speak to a member of staff before applying – 01706 226 459 or email us at helmshoremuseum@lancashire.gov.uk

Helmshore Mills Textile Museum 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