17. A Year in the Life of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Posted
10th February 2025
in 10 year Anniversary, blog, Blogs & News, Gaskell House Blogs
3-7 February 2025
Ticked some long-standing things off my to do list this week including a small grant application for a project, an expression of interest (EOI) for a bigger grant to cover some maintenance costs, and an application for an industry award for our online events programme (fingers crossed).
The start of the month is my chance to review our visitor surveys, web stats and social media for the month and to jot down a few ideas and tweaks we need to make. Like many people I was glued to the TV on Sunday evening to watch the new TV series Miss Austen and it was great to share and see the response to Elle’s blog about the series.
On Tuesday Katy ran a collection labelling training session with a group of volunteers (photos below) so we can continue to label the larger objects in our collection. Agreement on the new volunteer badges and lanyards was also made at the start of the week and we will be introducing them from Sunday 9 February.
Wednesday and Thursday were busier, visitor wise, this week with two different U3A groups coming on each day.
Ellie and Jane made a start on the Friends letter and I pulled together the final words and photographs for our 2025 Book Sponsorship programme, which will be offered to Friends of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House from next week.
On the wedding front we’ve had a great start to the month with a show round and four bookings for 2025 and 2026. This celebratory mood was well matched to Lucy’s latest blog on wedding guests and music which you can read here.
Which leads me nicely on to Friday and the much anticipated 10-year Anniversary Volunteer Party. What an evening it was!
The evening included entertainment from the RNCM Songsters (performed in the Drawing Room), fabulous food & drink (grazing table in the Tea Room), cupcakes made by an ex-volunteer (Natalie) and a fun treasure hunt with prizes which had been devised by the volunteer working group. Plus there were fairy lights, flickering (fake) candles in all the rooms, bunting, gorgeous table decoctions, flowers (left over from a wedding) and a load of lovely little details. Massive thanks to Katy, Lucy, Jane B, Tracy, Duncan, Kaia, Janice, Diana and Lizzie who planned, organised and delivered it all!
We also asked everyone to record memories and messages for future volunteers that we will add to the archive!
BUT the best bit for me was seeing everyone (including the House itself) dressed up and looking fabulous! The atmosphere was incredible. What an evening!
Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd
