The Arts Society Heritage Volunteers are teams of committed non-specialist volunteers who work under the guidance of curators and other professionals to help conserve our heritage in, for example, museums, National Trust properties, historic houses, libraries and gardens. They give their time to care for collections, record documents and act as guides and stewards.
Heritage Volunteering is a rewarding activity - not only is there the satisfaction of helping in a conservation project, but there are opportunities for working with a team and learning new skills.
Latest news
ARCHIVING PROJECT
AT CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
A team of Arts Society Chichester Lavant Valley spent one day a week for a year to April 2023 organising a large collection of documents relating to the structure of the Cathedral and the adjacent buildings that it owns. These are not legal documents, but working plans, drawings, minutes, letters, notes, photos and pictures relating to the last 100 years. This Stage 1 involved sorting about 100 cardboard boxes and plastic sacks of documents into subjects, weeding out items of no long-term use and then cataloguing them on to a database.
The Cathedral asked us to return to undertake Stage 2 in September 2024, which is to re-organise the documents on the shelves, bringing together items that relate to the same location or subject. This was not possible in Stage 1.
We work in the Muniment Room, which is high up above the South Transept in the Cathedral. Access is by a short medieval narrow winding staircase. Since Stage 1, improved lighting and handrails have been installed, whilst yellow edging is now in place on step edges.
The end result will be documents shelved in boxes and labelled for easy access with a separate catalogue with details and exact location.
Our Team of 6 ASCLV volunteers work on Mondays as 2 teams of 3 Society members each week – one from 10.00am to 1.00pm and one from 1.00pm to 4.00pm.
At the moment, we have sufficient volunteers to progress the project, given the limited space. However, if you are particularly interested in the project, please contact me on please email me on iansmilton@hotmail.com or phone on 01243 371788.
Ian Milton
Heritage Officer
The Arts Society Chichester Lavant Valley