12. A Year in the Life of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Posted
5th January 2025
in blog, blogsNnews
31 December 2024 – 5 January 2025
A short but eventful first blog of 2025!
On New Year’s Eve, we got the news that our former Chair and long-time volunteer, Frank Galvin, had been awarded an MBE in the King’s New Year’s honours. We were all absolutely thrilled and I shared the news across our social media, website and with our volunteers. (click here to read more).
Staff and volunteers were back in the House on 2 January. Thanks to volunteers Frank and Adam several DIY jobs had been done whilst the House had been closed, including the dismantling of the Christmas tree and repainting the white strips on the edge of the steps into the basement, which will help those who are visually impaired. It wasn’t a very busy day, but we served a fair few hot chocolates and crumpets in the Tea Room and it was a good opportunity to do some refresher training with volunteers and to discuss the spring retail offer.
Like most of the staff team, I spent the majority of my first two days back answering emails and scheduling meetings for the month ahead. I was pleased to hear about the progress on the planning for the 10-year anniversary party for our volunteers and enjoyed reading the volunteer overview that Katy had put together, which celebrated all the amazing things our volunteers have supported us with or achieved during 2024. The inbox was also busy with wedding and group booking enquiries, and online shop orders which kept the team busy.
Sunday 5 January brought the snow!, and as I was driving in (very slowly) along the motorway, I did wonder if we would get any visitors or volunteers venturing out. But, after putting on the heating and the kettle, I was able to confirm that enough volunteers were able to get in. Hurrah!
Simon, our cleaner, cleared and gritted the main walkways to the House (thank you Simon). I emailed all the visitors who had pre-booked to confirm we were opening, shared a few snowy photos on social media (which might also make good Christmas card images for next year??) and exchanged tickets for those visitors who couldn’t travel. It ended up being quite a busy Sunday and we all managed to stay warm as the snow outside turned to slush!
Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd
