Volunteering

Sue Richardson is a volunteer. She has kindly allowed us to use two accounts of her experiences – and thoughts on – the role. She’s been helping at the Museum and Archive Store for over 10 years……

July 2013

I have been a Volunteer Museum Steward at the Museum for the last 2 years, 2 hours every other Wednesday morning. At least, that’s what I very gingerly volunteered for, some 5 years or so after I had retired from a job in a busy London hospital.

Little did I know that just 2 years on, I would have made new friends (and this after having lived in Windsor for 40 years, our 3 children all attended local schools – I thought I knew everyone!); met such a variety of visitors, from home and abroad; gained knowledge and skills; and most importantly, had lots of fun. What else do you need in your retirement?

So what do we do? Well, even if I were to stick to just my 2 hours every other week, I would have got to know the Museum very well. There is such a wealth of enormously interesting things to look at, learn about, and talk about to say to local people who pop in (no charge if you have an advantage card ) and then in turn you listen to what they have to say and learn more. And then gradually I would get to know about the Guildhall itself, maybe going up to the Council Chamber with a more experienced Steward and hearing how they interact with the visitors as they guide them around the building. Then you try it yourself and realize that each tour you give is really just a chat about what you are all looking at.

I have had a couple of lovely American ladies who knew everything about the Royal family, so to be in the Ascot Room where Charles and Camilla got married…., and a family whose children stood in the Dock, looking very sorry for themselves, and then sat in the Mayoral Chair up on the dais, looking very important… and the people, often from New World countries, who absolutely gaze in amazement at the Display Board in the Vestibule listing the Bailiffs and Mayors from 1321 to the present day. And then there are the portraits of former mayors, in the Mayor’s Parlour, all wearing the same Chain of Office as Mayor George Davis in 1820. He didn’t want a knighthood; he asked George IV for something he could pass on to future Mayors.

But of course, you can do more than that, and I have chosen to help out with the really fun activities that the Museum run for children during school holidays and for youth groups such as the Brownies, things like medieval tile-making, making a crown, and an archaeology event. And then there are the one-off events such as the very recent 1940s Day, where we all had fun ‘making do and mending’, sampling vinegar cake and spam (not at the same time), and making a Hurricane aircraft out of old cereal packets, among other entertaining activities. These activities involve research, as little or as much as you want to do; I find that stimulating and challenging.

And while you are doing all of these things, you do realize how important Volunteers are to the running of the Museum, and we are all made to feel very valued, and that is nice.

Spring 2022

Since then, a colleague, Chrissie and myself found ourselves being more and more involved with the children’s activities, for a further 5 years, building up a loyal ‘clientele’ who would join us every Tuesday and Thursday during the school holidays, including half-terms, for some sort of activity – often chaotic, often noisy, often intense, often messy – always creative, always informative, always challenging and GREAT FUN. 

From demonstrating the circumference of the largest tree in the Great Park using a piece of string and lots of children, on the Corn Market thereby impeding the progress of people passing though en route to the bus stop, to using real feathers from a feather pillow (seemed like a good idea at the time) for a craft activity – they flew everywhere, to getting the children to compile their own version of  ‘The Museum Chronicle‘ – including Dexter’s-Diary Windsor’s Roving Reporter entitled ‘My Story Today‘. Do you all know of Dexter, the Windsor cat? He often visited the Museum. Well, what he got up to, according to our young visitors, beggars belief. 

I think there was one encounter with Royalty and one encounter with the Law as a witness to a dastardly deed. Making a model aircraft, the Hurricane, was very successful. The secret is to stick the smallest coin you can find – a farthing is best! – on the nose, and this ensures that it maintains its height and flies for longer and farther. We tested this out, again on the Corn Exchange, and the competitive side of the children and the adults with them came out! 

The Morse code activity, sending a message across the Atlantic via the first transatlantic telegraph cable, was great fun too. Sometimes we would find that the visitors to the Museum (it was always open on activity days) would be interested, perhaps bemused, and often contributed a snippet of information, as I believe happened on the Dot, Dot, Dash, Dash day. We were grateful to Malcolm Lock, and to the local branch of the TA for the making (in Malcolm’s case ) and loaning (the TA ) of the Morse Code units.

The other branch of my Museum involvement is as a curatorial volunteer at West Windsor, where over 13,000 items (the Collection) are housed. Such an interesting area to volunteer in, and I look forward to returning there as soon as it reopens to us and to members of the public. I was there one day when a fellow resident of Clewer Village came in with a watercolour or maybe an engraving of the original house in Clewer Park, the home of Daniel Gooch, and he was interested in seeing some old maps so he could work out the exact location and orientation of the house in relation to his own.

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