The Gainsborough Heritage Centre is searching for new volunteers to help run and maintain the Centre. Do you enjoy talking to people and learning about our local heritage? If you said yes then please get in touch!

The Gainsborough Heritage Centre has a fantastic team of dedicated volunteers who work hard to keep the Centre open every weekend. However, as the Centre’s popularity has increased we are calling out for more volunteers to assist our team to maintain our service. We have many roles available with a specific need for tea room and visitor experience assistants.

Since the Grand Re-Opening of the Heritage Centre in 2016, there has been a rise in visitor levels including to the Centre’s tea room, exhibitions and research library. We provide an excellent service and would love this work to continue with additional helpers.

The Centre’s team encourages the development of our volunteers by working to enhance volunteer’s customer communication skills and this therefore increases confidence skills removing barriers for people.

Gemma Clarke reflected on her volunteering experience at the Centre.

“I started volunteering at the Centre when I was in the Sixform and I had very little confidence. However, as I got involved with more and more opportunities, the team of volunteers encouraged me in all the work that I have done and continue to do so. Volunteering at the Heritage Centre has changed my life as it gave me opportunities, to promote the Heritage Centre in a number of different ways, from organising radio interviews to writing countless articles… to running the Centre’s oral history project, to gaining experience in the archives.

Not to mention gaining confidence with talking to visitors and sharing historical knowledge and really enjoying volunteering in the tea room! So if you enjoy talking to people, learning about local heritage or would like to gain more skills the Heritage Centre is the place to be so please get in touch. This experience has definitely helped to remove barriers for me and increase my confidence.”

Picture below shows a team of volunteers with Rod Whiting from BBC Radio Lincolnshire, after the three hour radio show broadcast from the Centre organised by Gemma, as part of the Grand Re-Opening in 2016.

We support volunteers by mentoring them at the beginning of their volunteer journey. The Centre ensures that each volunteer learns and gains a wide range of historical knowledge to share with our visitors.

Volunteer Coordinator Linda Clarke explains how she made her decision to become a volunteer at the Heritage Centre. Linda works hard to welcome all new volunteers and helps them to become involved.

“Until I spoke to the team I was unsure whether I had the appropriate skills to be of any use, but soon discovered that there are a wide variety of things to be done and volunteers are encouraged to find their preferred area.

Some people help with building restoration, computer skills, research, showing visitors around, exhibitions, extending the newspaper archive, cataloguing donations and Marshall drawings and running the tea room as well as housekeeping and maintenance.

Picture below shows Linda Clarke involved in the Grand Re-Opening of the Centre in 2016.

I have never looked back since making the decision to join the volunteers, not only have I had the opportunity to be involved in preserving the towns heritage, but I have also met many interesting people and made some lovely new friends. If you have an interest in local history and have some time to spare, I heartily recommend that you come along and ask about joining the team.”

The Centre is open every Tuesday 10am until 4pm, Saturday 10am until 4pm and Sunday 11am until 4pm. Last Admission is at 3.30pm. Admission charges are £3.00 for non-members of the Association and free entry for members. The ‘Exchange Tea Room’ offers a delicious selection of cakes and biscuits and is open to everyone, so you don’t have to visit the Centre to enjoy the tea room!

There is plenty to gain from volunteering at the Heritage Centre so if you are interested in getting involved and lending a helping hand then please get in touch either by emailing [email protected] or call 01427 610526. Visit our volunteering page for more information.

News Update:

The Gainsborough and District Heritage Association was created in 1994 and is a registered charity (no.1077538) and celebrated its twenty first anniversary in 2015. The Gainsborough Heritage Centre situated on the corner of North Street and Spital Terrace works to preserve the history of Gainsborough as well as the surrounding villages. (The Old Post Office, North Street, Gainsborough, DN21 2HS). The Centre is volunteer led and encourages people to research and gain a further understanding of the history of Gainsborough. Fundraising is essential for the Centre in order to maintain the up-keep of the building and the facilities available to the public such as the archives, exhibition spaces and research library. A £25,000 grant from WREN was awarded to the Centre in 2016 to create the ground and first floor into permanent exhibition rooms. The Archive Officers and team of volunteers continue to work on a number of projects organising the storage of archival materials that have been donated to the Centre by the general public. These include cataloguing and digitising, as well as collecting oral histories and continuing to update the permanent exhibition spaces with museum cases. The volunteers at the Gainsborough Heritage Centre work very hard to preserve, maintain and fundraise to keep a heritage museum in Gainsborough open.

The Heritage Centre outcomes are:

• To preserve the history of Gainsborough.
• To get more local people engaged in their community.
• To maintain the building and organise archival storage and accessibility.

The Heritage Centre outputs are:

• An events programme of temporary exhibitions
• Permanent exhibitions
• Research facilities
• Photographic archive
• Local events and talks
• Local history books, DVDs and CDs created for purchase
• Newsletter for Members
• Oral history project and archive
• Exchange Tea Room