Name: Olivia Flowers
Age: 14

Context:
I am a 14 year old who volunteers on Sundays and Tuesdays during the school holidays as a room guide at Charlecote Park, Warwickshire. Along with hundreds of volunteer room guides around the UK I help visitors to enjoy their trips to National Trust properties by offering them fascinating facts about the historical rooms.

What I did:
On a typical day at Charlecote the duty manager and day leader brief us all before assigning the rooms. We are given our alarms and files on the rooms for reference, in case we are asked a question and want to check the answer or perhaps provide more detailed information. Following this we get ready to let the public in at 12:00. In summer we also had a small group of actors at the house, dressed in period costume, who re-enacted typical household scenes.   

As we open the doors, lots of people come in and usually spread out through the Great Hall. If I am downstairs at this point, it can show me what some of that day’s visitors are likely to be most interested in. There are people who look at paintings and wish to know more information about the artist, the person in the paintings, and the dates surrounding the paintings. Then, there are visitors who are intrigued by the stained glass windows, displaying the important Lucy family marriages, who will ask you about the windows as they follow them around the house.

More often than not, we get people interested in everything! These visitors are also very keen to engage with you as a volunteer.  

What I’ve learnt:
I always enjoy interaction with the public because I also learn interesting and sometimes highly relevant information from them. On one occasion when I was on duty in the Tack Room, a visitor managed to identify some rather unusual items of tack that had been given to the Trust but their exact use had, until then, not been entirely clear.

During the day we swap rooms. This gives us the chance to become knowledgeable about the various rooms, but it can be quite confusing for some visitors who clearly think they have just seen my identical twin in another room a few minutes before!  

I find it a joy working for the National Trust as everyone is so helpful and friendly. I first started volunteering two years ago, on Sundays during term time. Now I am away full time at boarding school, so I am sadly unable to do very much during term time. However, when I do come back to Charlecote during school holidays, I am so warmly welcomed back by the team here, that I feel as if I haven’t been away at all.

Ever since I can remember, my parents have always taken my sister and I with them to National Trust properties throughout England and Wales. It is nice to now feel that I am giving something back and enjoying myself at the same time. I can thoroughly recommend being a volunteer.