Greenfield Valley museum volunteers recognised for their contribution with British Museum award

A group of museum volunteers from Greenfield Valley Museum & Heritage Park have won a national award for their contribution to volunteering.

The Marsh Volunteers for Museum Learning Awards are run in partnership with the British Museum.

They recognise the best and most innovative ways in which volunteers work within local and national museums and galleries to engage the public with collections and exhibitions.

The Perceiving the Past Project on Basingwerk Abbey was awarded Regional Winner for Wales at a celebration event in London this week.

The main aim of this project was to create a bilingual cross-curricular, engaging and fun resource for schools on Basingwerk Abbey.

Around 20 volunteers worked over a five month period developing an education pack and an education resource box.

The group was made up of volunteers from a variety of different backgrounds, ages, skills and interests with the youngest being 18 and the oldest 80.  The group also acted and directed their own short film for pupils to watch before a visit to the site.

All the material will be available via the national Hwb school website and the Greenfield Valley website.

The project was funded by Cadw and managed by the museum team from Aura Leisure & Libraries in partnership with Greenfield Valley staff

Carolyn Thomas, Flintshire County Council Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Countryside said

“Basingwerk Abbey is an important open access historic site sitting alongside Greenfield Valley Museum and Heritage Park.  Perceiving the Past has been a brilliant partnership project which has developed fantastic resources for schools.

I would like to congratulate the volunteers on receiving this award and thank them for the many hours which they have spent on the project.”

While Mike Welch, Managing Director for Aura Leisure & Libraries commented

“This month Aura celebrates its first birthday and it is wonderful that one of our partnership museum projects has won this award.  We look forward to working with the volunteers again on further education resources in the Greenfield Valley and beyond.”

The Volunteers for Museum Learning award forms part of a programme of awards presented by the Marsh Christian Trust in the fields of science, ecology, conservation, heritage, literature and volunteering.

Each one of these awards recognises individuals and organisations who devote their lives to improving the world today and the world in the future.

The Marsh Awards programme is managed in association with key partners including the Zoological Society of London, the Council for British Archaeology, Barnardo’s, the Refugee Council and the British Museum.

Photograph: Lorna Kernahan Moore, Volunteer Co-ordinator Greenfield Valley, Adele Thackray, Lifelong Learning Manager Cadw, Sarah Pevely Assistant Curator Aura and some of the volunteers. 

Photograph credit Benedict Johnson Photography.