Life as an inmate at Ripon Workhouse

I was a volunteer here from December 2014 to August 2016, and started off as a young volunteer. A group designed to help young people still at school to get into the workplace and learn a number of key skills such as customer service, research and communication.

Whilst I was there I was involved in a number of holiday activities that ran during the half term, Easter, Summer and Christmas holidays. These activities included organizing and helping to manage arts and crafts activities for families, such as rag-rugging and puppet making, as well as being in dress at all times as a Workhouse inmate. We were taught how to come up with our own characters using the museum's resources so that we could convincingly play the part! This also involved learning how to do laundry the Victorian way, which meant that you smelt of carbolic soap at the end of the day.

Sweeping the floor in traditional Victorian costume

I particularly liked being involved in the main events, like 'The Mad Hatter's Tea Party' or 'Christmas at the Workhouse'. Here we got to help run a number of stalls like the coconut shy, or even make up a poultice for whooping coughs. I also enjoyed getting to learn a bit volunteering in the Ripon Museum Trust's other museums, the Police and Prison Museum, and the Courthouse. Here we got to reenact a court trial that would have been typical of the Victorian age, sentencing a child steeling some bread, and learn about the hard penalties given which included being sent to Australia to work in plantations.

This experience was amazing for me as it helped me get a general idea of what working behind the scenes in a museum was like. I learnt invaluable skills, like how to carry out customer feedback and how to answer questions about museum content. I would thoroughly recommend this experience for anyone wanting to start off working in the heritage sector.