Meet Shirley our new Volunteering Manager

We’re pleased to announce the appointment of our new Volunteering Manager. Shirley joins us from the Salvation Army where she has had many managerial roles. She has over 30 years experience in volunteer management.

She’ll be getting to know our current team members and developing new roles to meet our needs as we get back on our feet after the pandemic. Her aim is to recruit new volunteers and train them to welcome visitors to the Minster in many different roles, including hosting, events, taking tours and serving on our shop or cafe. Core to her role is providing support and a friendly face, so there will be social activities and reward events to look forward to, as well.

Contact Shirley to get involved in volunteering at Hull Minster

volunteer@hullminster.org

York Archaeological Trust begins conservation work

Last month, we dropped our precious archaeological finds off with Ian Panter at the York Archaeological Trust. His team will be conserving and stabilising the items for display. We’ll then be getting 3D prints and 360 scans done of each of our treasures at the University of York, so that the public can take a closer look - and even handle the objects when they visit.

Take a look at our Death Mask to see how this works. We don’t know who this man is, but guess that he died in the 1800’s and someone - either a builder or mason at the instruction of the churchwardens - had the death mask inserted into the label stops at the bottom of the clerestory windows. The mask was directly above the pulpit.

You can find out more about the label stops by visiting our features pages below. https://bit.ly/3lhPGn7

Hull’s RE ambassadors become heritage explorers

What a great day our heritage volunteers had with Hull’s RE ambassadors, exploring heraldry and finding out about what makes them strong. The pupils from Francis Askew School were joined by Sue Holmes and Marilyn Cowling from the Hull and East Riding SACRE team. The students made unique designs which reflected their personalities using symbols, shields and crests on our heritage monuments to inspire them.

They also saw shields in our stained glass windows, explored the monuments in church and thought about the words we use to celebrate and memorialise people.

They enjoyed a lovely pizza up the tower brought to them by our fiends in the market! What a treat. Here’s what some of them said about their visit ……

Blake - I liked learning about heraldry and how it has developed over time and being an historian.

Hollie I really enjoyed being able to see a lot of different shields and learning the meaning behind them.

Kurdo - I found out that the stone (on the floor) was 600 years old and from Sweden and it had fossils in it.

Students from the University of Hull PGCE course joined the RE ambassadors and our volunteers to develop their E-book learning ideas and source materials for their end of term assignment. These learning resources will be available on our web platform after the students graduate in July. Focussed on Hull minster, each E-book showcases how teachers can use a church to support learning across different curriculum areas.

Dr Paul Hopkins has also taught the Hull Minster Project Manager how to develop E books to facilitate remote learning as part of the wider heritage project.