Volunteer days at Richard Jefferies Museum

If you have a little time during the week to drop by and reap the well-being benefits of being outside in nature, we'd love to have you join our team!

The Richard Jefferies Museum is entirely volunteer-led and -run. There are regular volunteer days where anyone can join in: Mondays and Wednesdays for those interested in gardening and DIY, and Sundays in the summer for our Lazy Summer Sundays season, where you will be supporting the museum in helping out at the cafe or stewarding at the museum.

Duties could include:

1. DIY, as we are currently renovating our cottage garden into something beautiful and functional;
2. General tidying, i.e. weeding, pruning, hedge trimming, and so on;
3. Sowing and planting new seedlings;
4. Looking after our compost bays;
5. Greeting public visitors and helping them find their way. The museum is on three floors with steep stairs.
6. Working as part of a team in a small ‘tea shop’, preparing and selling cream teas (with ready-made scones), as well as instant hot drinks and cakes;
7. Collecting used mugs and plates from the garden is also an essential task, especially when we're busy; and
8. Anything else that looks like it needs doing.

You don't need any knowledge about Jefferies, and no experience is necessary, but you must have an appetite for lots of tea-drinking, making friends, and picking up new skills.

The museum receives no regular funding from the Council or any other body, with no regular income from anyone else. We all give our time freely because we love the museum and think it is an important and beautiful thing for Swindon, plus we enjoy ourselves when we are there.