Heritage in your lunchtime  - a stonemason’s story

Our spring series of talks and lectures has concluded with a fabulous turnout for our talk with the stonemasons, Mattius Garn and Partner who have been restoring our monuments. Over 300 children and 120 adults have visited their workshop to learn about heritage restoration, careers in stonemasonry and about the monuments themselves.

The summer talk series begins on Friday 12th May with a talk by one of our volunteers, Mike Rymer about David Dunster. Here’s a link to the talks timetable. 

Our volunteers have created digital stories about the monuments which you can find out about here.

Interpretation and display

Our digital touchscreens have been installed to tell visitors about our collection and feature stories. Located throughout the Trinity Rooms, these portals enable visitors to look at video restoration, 3D imaging, digital close ups and give information about the collections catalogue. 

Dr Louise Hampson has selected the artefacts for display and interpretation which can now be seen in the café area. We’ve chosen large pottery pieces which came from the Castle Street Burial Ground as they make a bold display.

Outreach 

Jane Owen and Michael Free have visited other organisations where they have given talks about the project, the restoration and the archaeology. These include primary schools, civic societies and local history groups. They take with them some archaeology for handling and some replicas from our collection. If you would like a visit from them please contact jane@hullminster.org or call 01482 224460. 

Schools and Home Educated Family groups have visited the Minster to enjoy handling our artefacts and learning about monuments and stained glass. They have made their own coats of arms, stained glass windows and replica objects. 

Thank you to our volunteers 

Volunteering continues to grow with the guiding hand of Shirley Kay, our volunteering manager. We like to thank out volunteers regularly with interesting activities and trips. These also help to This spring they have been to Trinity House, St Mary’s in Beverley – another lottery funded project – and on a bus trip to York Minster. They’ve also done a Maritime walk and had a tour of the Guildhall.

Volunteers continue to undertake training in Safeguarding, welcoming and hosting, disability and sight awareness. They’ve been busy hosting hundreds of families who have been doing themed treasure hunts in the building. 

Intern and apprenticeship 

We are delighted that our apprentice, Bailey, passed his maths GCSE this spring. He has been doing practice papers with one of our volunteers and this has really made a difference to his skills – thank you Sam! 

This summer we are to be joined by Thomas Willaims, a medical student, who will be undertaking a project under his Laidlaw Scholarship. He will be organising an interactive experience around source material and artefacts from our collection along with a borrowed collection form the Thackray Museum in Leeds. Focussing on our monument to John Alderson, the founder of the Hull medical school, which was restored this spring we will look at graverobbing and why it too place.