I’m Victoria Barlow and I’m the County Conservation and Museums Manager. Before moving to Wiltshire three months ago, I worked as Collections Manager for a maritime museum in Kent and have worked in museums for 15 years. During my first few weeks in post I visited all of the 18 museums that we work with and I was struck not only by the welcome I received but by the professionalism and enthusiasm of everyone working in Wiltshire’s museums.

Volunteer Mike Asbury of Pewsey Museum and Photographer Simon Harris collect an award at the recent Voluntary and Community Sector Awards. Copyright Wiltshire Council.

Many of our museums are run by volunteers and even those which do have excellent professional staff, rely on volunteers to some extent to run their services. You will have heard the government talking a lot about volunteers recently and the concept of The Big Society. Here in Wiltshire we have been doing that since the 1970s! Wiltshire Council doesn’t run a museum but instead we have a Museums Advisory Service and a team of Conservators who work with museums small and large across the county, supporting and helping them to look after their collections and meet professional standards. 

Volunteers gave 42,000 hours of their time to museums in Wiltshire last year. That’s the equivalent of 24 people working full time. Volunteers do a huge range of jobs including staffing the museum and talking to visitors, putting on exhibitions, carrying out research, looking after collections, fundraising, providing education and family activities, publicising the museum, recruiting members and, on occasion, making the tea!

Each volunteer has their own story and their own reasons for volunteering but just a few of the reasons people get involved are:

• An interest in local history and museums
• The chance to meet interesting people and be part of a community
• Learning something new
• The opportunity to keep skills up to date and the brain active
• A sense of achievement

There are over 30 museums in Wiltshire, so if you fancy getting involved, why not have a word with your local museum. This page has a list of the ones we work with http://www.wshc.eu/about-wshc/museums-advisory-service/201.html but don’t forget that there are more out there who may well need your help.