Generations of help

Margaret Starkey enjoys being a volunteer at George Stephenson’s birthplace so much that she has enlisted the help of her mother and granddaughter!

Margaret from Fenham was out on a walk when she first came across the cottage in Wylam and it was love at first sight. 'When I visited the tiny tenement room, I thought to myself how much I would love to work here,' explains Margaret. She was delighted when she found out help was needed in the tea-room.

Two years later and Margaret is now a guide who talks to visitors about the history of what must be one of the National Trust’s smallest properties. Her enthusiasm for the place is so infectious that her 86-year-old mother, Nellie, is now also a volunteer, helping out in the tea-room. Even 11-year-old Lauren, her granddaughter, likes to dress up in her Victorian outfit and come along to lend a hand.

One day when Nellie was washing up at the cottage she glimpsed a ghostly female figure dressed in black and wearing a white apron. Initially she thought it was her daughter and turned round, only for the apparition to disappear into thin air. This has further fuelled Margaret’s fascination for the place:

'I am currently trying to find out more about the people who have lived here over the centuries, so perhaps we might be able to find out whose ghost it was. We’ve decided in the meantime to call her Mabel - the name of George Stephenson’s mother. Visitors love to hear about our resident ghost at the end of my talks!'

Without our volunteers, the Trust’s vital work could not be done. Whether as an individual or part of a group, you can get involved in volunteering at our gardens, historic buildings, ancient monuments, industrial sites, countryside, and coastline, and on programmes such as Working Holidays, Employee Volunteering and Work Placements.