Volunteer Opportunities

Online survey - your help needed!

Please tell us what you like best about Fulham Palace - Your help is needed to inform our Heritage Lottery Fund project. Online survey

As you will all be aware, we have secured a Round One pass from the Heritage Lottery Fund in support of a £3.8m restoration and renewal project  'Discovering the Bishops of London's Palace at Fulham'. This project, for which we are asking £2m from HLF, will enable us to continue the restoration of Fulham Palace, specifically the Tudor Courtyard; create a new orientation gallery and exhibition space telling the story of the history of the Palace; provide new interpretation in the house and gardens and expand our public programmes and activities. 

In order to detail our plans we need to know more about the people who visit including what they value most about the site. We are therefore conducting visitor surveys over the next few months to find out how often people visit; where they come from; what they value most about Fulham Palace; which areas they like best and what they might like to see improved. To start this off, some people from our development team will be on site on Wednesday 28 October for the afternoon surveying visitors - so do look out for them. We will also be sending out the survey to our mailing lists, Friends and Patrons. 

We are keen to have your views on Fulham Palace and would be grateful if you could also fill in the survey on line here.

Hard copies of the survey will also be available at the Palace Reception and Bothies if you prefer to fill it in directly when you are next on site. 

We are also looking for  volunteers to help collect surveys from visitors, ideally we would like to get a sample of visitors survey on different days and at different times thought out November. We are looking for people who would be happy to do this for around 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

If you are interested please contact  Fran Riando, our Volunteer Development Officer francesca.riando@fulhampalace.org.

Many thanks in advance for your help and support. The more we know about what you like and value about Fulham Palace, the better the future plans for improvement will be - so please have your say.

,

What's On

,

We are looking for volunteer help with the distribution of our Autumn/Winter What’s On guide.  The guide arrived on site on Friday 25 September and has already been put through lots of letterboxes in Fulham and Putney.  We would love to get them into more letterboxes and/or into local cafes, shops, hairdressers, doctors surgeries, pubs, libraries, community centres or anywhere else that would reach the local community.  We have a distribution list that we are constantly reviewing and adding to.  Does your local café have Fulham Palace information in it?  Is there a shop or gym that you go into regularly where other customers would like to hear about the events happening at Fulham Palace?

We need your help both adding to the list and delivering leaflets to Fulham and Putney areas - and further afield if you can!  Please email communications@fulhampalace.org.uk with any suggested venues or if you would be able to take some leaflets to deliver.  Leaflets and the list will be also available from reception if you prefer to pop in                                                                                                           there.

Thank you for your help spreading the word.

Arlene Fraser

General Manager

Learn and Take Part in Woody Plant Survey

Would you like to learn how to undertake a plant survey? We are currently updating the 2009 ground and tree survey and are looking for volunteers to help. 

 This work is being co-ordinated by Lear Associates.  We would also like to add in the shrubs to ensure that when we are looking at new planting and looking at sightlines we take them into account.  Bev Lear from Lear Associates will provide training and supervision and then set you up to complete the survey.

We will have two training sessions on 7th October, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We need 3 volunteers for each session (6 volunteers in total). You only need to attend one of the sessions. Then on 8th October both teams of volunteers will begin the survey with Bev's help.

After that we hope that you will be able to complete any outstanding areas under your own steam and Bev will come back at the end of October if needed to deal with any outstanding issues, idents etc.   

If you would like to volunteer for this opportunity please contact me.  

 

Sian Harrington

Chief Executive

 

,

Back to School

,

It's 7 am, you wake excited, wondering who will be your new teacher? what your friends have been doing over the summer? If the school has finally built the longest slide ever in the playground?? Uniform, snack and new bright shoes. Everything is ready to go back to school!

Good old days for most of us! That is why we have decided to make 'Back to School' our monthly theme for September. Feel free to comment below this post or e-mail us a new post related to the theme: new courses, your thoughts around current issues in heritage/museum/arts education, historical facts about education and schools in history... From now on, school groups will come back to visit the Palace and have fun learning about history.

We will also be introducing some discussions on the online forum that we would love for you to get involved in. It is very easy to comment, you just need to sign up using your e-mail address or your Facebook or Google+ account. You can find more information in this useful guide here.

At Fulham Palace we have our own way to go back to school through adult-learning workshops, events and talks. Have a look at the upcoming learning opportunities and book your place:

You can find more information in the 'What's on' brochure. All of the courses are offered at a discount for Fulham Palace volunteers. Let's learn!

 

Marlen Armendariz

Volunteer Communication Assistant

, , ,

Historical Tours

, , ,

Do you know which plant Bishop Compton imported from Virginia and where it was grown for the first time in Europe? Have you heard how the Victorian chapel was bombed during  World War II? And what about the Neolithic, Iron Age and Roman settlers that archaeologists have found evidence of at Fulham Palace?

These are just some of the amazing insights you will receive as part of the Historical Tours at Fulham Palace, delivered by excellent volunteer guides. History tours generally start at 2pm in the Museum and (lucky for you) are free for volunteers, isn't that great?

In under an hour and a half you will learn loads about the cultural and historical importance of the Palace and find out all its secrets. What better way to enrich your experience as part of the volunteer team? Enthusiastic and well-prepared guides will share all the information with you in an enjoyable and relaxing way.

Each tour is individual to your guide, but the tour I attended began with us examining the model of the Palace displayed in the Museum, then discovering the Tudor brick pattern on the walls in the West Courtyard. Walking around the building we were able to travel through five centuries of history and architecture, while inside the oldest part of the building, the Great Hall, we were shown some pictures of the timber roof from about 1495. I was able to lose myself in the different rooms and corridors and enjoy the interiors imagining how bishops, their families and guests would have lived in this hidden palace. The last stop, before going back to the Museum, we visited the Victorian chapel restored in 1950 after being bombing during World War II.

I highly recommend these historical tours to familiarise yourself with the Palace and its history to support your volunteer experience. You can find upcoming dates in the "What's on" booklet.

By the way, magnolia was one of the species Bishop Compton imported from the other side of the Atlantic, grown here at the Palace.

 

Marlen Armendariz

Volunteer Communication Assistant

Help spread the word!

Our new What's on guides have arrived!  This edition is packed full of events taking place at the Palace from April to October, including talks, tours, workshops, drop-ins, cinema, theatre, concerts and much, much more!  All of the events are also listed on our website, which you can view by clicking here.

Thank you to all of the volunteers who have offered to help distribute the guides to local cafés, business, libraries, visitor information centres, hotels, and anywhere else you think it would have an impact.  

If you too would like to help spread the word about Fulham Palace and the fabulous events we have planned, that would be great!  

What's on guides are available for pick up from Reception any day of the week between 10am and 4pm.  All we ask is that you let us know how many guides you are taking and where you are planning to delivery them to.  This will help us keep track of where the guides are going and avoid overlaps!

If you would like to help, but can't think of where to deliver them, that is not a problem! A list of suggested locations is also available with Reception.

Calling All Learning Assistants

With so many layers of history and human occupation on the Fulham Palace site, we are a rich brew of learning opportunity for all.

As you know, FP runs a formal education service facilitating regular visits from schools, and also lively and informal family programmes throughout term time, half term and holidays.   There are workshops and programmes for people of all ages such as free family drop-ins where children and adults alike can dress up like a Viking, a Tudor Lord or a Victorian house maid – I've seen it myself on Sundays – people really get a window into past times and it's a lot of fun.

Volunteer Learning Assistants help run these workshops and activities for schools, families, young people and other educational groups, and make a really valuable contribution towards promoting learning in the community. 

At the moment we are looking for more Volunteer Learning Assistants, particularly to work with children and school programmes.  No experience is necessary but previous work with children is an advantage.  There are two main areas of volunteering: those prepared to help the freelance teachers who provide the actual learning sessions, and those prepared to supervise pre-organised activities by themselves.  An interest in history and the arts is an advantage, though not essential.  Enjoyment of the company of children and families is important, and support and training is provided. 

School sessions take place during the week, and volunteers are needed to cover either morning or afternoon sessions.  Family activities tend to run during school holidays or weekends.  Other workshops will vary as to timing but volunteers are given notice ahead of time. 

Anyone who is interested or who knows someone who would be good for this role should contact our Learning Officer Lettie McKie:  lettie.mckie@fulhampalace.org

 

 

Looking to book onto a volunteer slot? Please click the blue button below.

Volunteer rotas