Volunteer blog: Doing Masters placement at Fulham Palace - Eleanor
Photo of me opposite the walled wisteria, near the chapel. Purple is my favourite colour.
Hello, my name is Eleanor, and I am completing a heritage engagement placement here at Fulham Palace as part of my MA in Museum Studies at UCL. I started on 7 April and am nearly halfway through my seven weeks at the Palace.
I have worked in museums and places of historical significance for much of my working life. I have previously worked at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (my home city), and Shakespeare’s New Place in Stratford Upon Avon. The most memorable moment from working at New Place was meeting renowned actor James Norton.
When I saw via the UCL Museum Studies placement module that there was an opportunity to do a work placement at Fulham Palace, I jumped at the chance to put forward an application. I was excited by the chance to work at such a renowned heritage institution as Fulham Palace. I felt a placement at the Palace could give me opportunities to upskill myself. Before, I did not have experience of working in volunteer development and/or education. I am very glad that Kate, upon examining my CV and application, felt I was a right fit to join the team.
Photo taken inside the Porteus library.
Upskilling myself has been very important to me, and I am very happy to have been learning new skills with the support of the volunteer and education teams. I have been learning how to manage databases and mailing lists on the systems used by the Palace, as well as how to edit websites. Before then, my only encounter with the website provider used by the Palace was seeing adverts for the software on YouTube. Doing this admin work has felt very satisfying. I have also learnt how to do reports and to create tables and pie charts on Microsoft Excel for education. It has also been wonderful to be a small part of school visits and to see the joy and wonder on participants’ faces.
I have developed two favourite areas during my time at Fulham Palace so far. First, the library. I have loved seeing the different book titles on the shelves and seeing how important literature and learning was to Bishop Porteus. I have also found it very interesting to learn about his complex views on the abolition of the slave trade through the museum interpretation and in the context of the ‘Resistance’ exhibition. I am planning to write about addressing abolition and legacies in my upcoming Masters dissertation.
The lovely wisteria in the walled garden.
Second, the walled garden. I have had my lunch in the walled garden on many occasions and have loved being amongst the beautiful plants and flowers that are being grown, especially the wisteria. It is wonderful to see how important nature and horticulture is to the Palace and to see the gardeners put so much care into maintaining the space.
I look forward to seeing what else I get up to over the course of the coming weeks of my placement at the Palace.