art, culture & heritage

Volunteering Adventure in Killerton

by Exeter Volunteer Centre in 

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Art, Culture & Heritage

04 November 2011

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Volunteering Adventure at Killerton

Exciting new experiences for Anne and Robert from Germany .....

... and the Killerton Team

 Looking back at the six and a half weeks of our volunteering at Killerton House this summer still makes me wonder how everything we experienced topped our expectations and what a memorable time it was for us. I still can´t keep to a short version once one of our German friends asks us about our time at Killerton.

After years of visiting National Trust places during our holidays in England the wish to be part of the team at one of the wonderful houses grew. We always admired the way the Trust opens a Manor House, a mill or a cottage – not like a museum but like a lived in home where you can still get the feeling of the former owners and how they lived there.

The friendly open manner of the volunteers working there, identifying themselves so much with "their" houses gave me some hope that we might be accepted as guest volunteers for some time.

Our little project started in January 2011 with writing many emails to various Trust places all over England and I couldn´t believe the positive resonance and many friendly replies I received. In the end we chose Killerton House  where we had been twice before on vacations.

I remember the day I received the letter (!) from Christina LeFley, House Steward at Killerton. I ran into the garden to tell my husband that Killerton would love us to volunteer with them, offering to take part in room guiding, playing the instruments (Robert), dressing up and recreating the victorian laundry (me) and our 15 year old son  was welcome , too. I got so excited that Robert feared I would take off for Broadclyst right away.

For the next five months we wrote many emails back and forth to organize everything and Christina showed a lot of patience with my many questions. Even the difficult part of the accommodation question was solved as in the end we were able to stay  in the long term volunteers flat on the estate.

Then we had to convince our boss and colleagues at home that it was absolutely necessary to give us 7 weeks off and to give us educational leave for England.

Robert is head of the administration of culture and sports in our hometown Ettlingen and I work in the municipal museum which is in a 18th century palace. So our line of work is not too far away and working in England also improves our language skills.

    Our son Lukas was allowed to leave school two weeks early to improve his English staying with a family in Clevedon, our twin town and joining us later.

Having solved all problems, learned as much as possible about the house, organized housesitting and answered many astonished questions of our friends ( what, you are working in your holidays all summer?) we arrived at Killerton on 11th July.

After a warm welcome and settling in we were introduced to other volunteers and staff and whoever we met was very friendly and interested in our working holiday project. We felt welcome indeed!

Having had a day of reading through the different roomguide informations and listening to other room guides "in action" much of the history of Killerton and the Acland family we had learned got clearer.

On our first real working day, starting out with our name badges adjusted we felt very much members of the team already.  The room guiding part of our work kept being work in progress. Each volunteer we worked with had his or her special knowledge about the house an its family and a special way to talk to visitors. We learned much by listening to them. Soon we felt quite confident to speak to visitors, point out interesting things and persons, help the children with their quiz or with trying on the historic costumes. 

Robert´s speciality was the Music room where he played the grand piano and the organ for the visitors and loved to tell them about Lady Lydia Acland for whom the organ was built.

We also understood that for the volunteers it was a very important part of their work to meet each other over lunch or a cup of tea and talk to the others. It was wonderful to be accepted in that community and we had many interesting conversations.

During our six and a half weeks we had such a variety of tasks that time flew. Besides room-guiding – specialities: playing the instruments for Robert, recreating the Victorian laundry for me – we helped in the nursery sorting plants, sold raffle tickets, translated room sheets into German, guided German groups and were part of the various family events.

The wide-ranging educational program of Killerton House was another large part of our work. We started with accompanying school-children on their cycling tours on the new cycling track in the park. That was fun because we love cycling and brought our own bikes.

For the school holidays we were trained in mask and mobile-making and all sorts of creative activities to work in the Discovery centre. On Wicked Wednesdays it was setting out trails for the young kids, face-painting and even taking part in a "Dragon drama".

Each week we had a couple of days off and so had time to explore beautyful Devon and do things together with our son who stayed in Exeter with his friend.

In the evening when the house was closed we loved to walk in the park with all the glorious views around and felt quite like Lord and Lady Acland.

These weeks at Killerton House were so much more than just being on a holiday. We were proud  to be part of our much admired National Trust, to belong to the team, to help wherever we were needed, to make friends and to take back many new ideas for our own work. Killerton now feels like a second home to us and we´re sure we´ll be back soon.

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