Join our Hartlebury Castle Volunteers

“It’s a great place to be able to volunteer in with so many varying roles for people to consider taking part in. You will receive a warm welcome and soon feel a valued member of a fantastic team of people supporting this beautiful building and its surrounding grounds.”

John, House Steward Volunteer

Join our friendly team of volunteers and play a part in Hartlebury Castle’s success as you help provide visitors with a fantastic experience.

Volunteering at Hartlebury Castle is a great chance to make new friends, learn new skills and support a wonderful heritage attraction survive for future generations. We’ve got a range of roles available, some interacting with visitors directly, others more behind the scenes, and you’re welcome to sign up to more than one! As a volunteer you’ll meet fascinating people from a range of backgrounds, with similar interests, and be welcomed to our friendly team.
Whether it’s regular weekly shifts, or a few hours now and then, the support that you provide is invaluable to the Hartlebury Castle Preservation Trust charity. Find out more about how you can get involved below.

Our Volunteer Roles

House Steward

House stewards are our ambassadors. As a House Steward, you’d play a vital role in welcoming visitors to Hartlebury Castle, inspiring them to discover more about our fascinating history and ensuring they have a truly enjoyable visit. Click here to find out more.

Gardening

Gardening volunteers play a key role in helping to keep our gardens beautiful, maintained, accessible and enjoyable for our visitors. As a Gardening volunteer, you’d be central to achieving our vision of restoring the Castle gardens to their former glory, with the Carriage Circle reinstated and secret corners uncovered. Click here to find out more.

Grounds Management

Grounds Management volunteers play a key role in helping to keep our gardens beautiful, maintained, accessible and enjoyable for our visitors. More physically involved than a gardening volunteer, as a Grounds Management volunteer, you’re central to achieving our vision of restoring the Castle gardens to their former glory, with the Carriage Circle reinstated and secret corners uncovered. Click here to find out more.

Children's Craft Activities

As a Children’s Arts & Crafts volunteer, you’ll be supervising fun and creative art & craft activities for children during school holidays. Activities may include mask making, painting, clay models, pumpkin carving, making Christmas decorations and many more! Click here to find out more.

Odd Jobs

Odd Jobs Volunteers help keep the building and site operational! As an Odd Jobs volunteer, you’d be performing general DIY jobs, light building maintenance and similar ‘odd jobs’ within the parameters of a Grade I listed building. Click here to find out more.

Events

Events Volunteers are vital to our successful events programme. As an Events volunteer, you’ll be creating a fun, engaging, and informative experience for every visitor to our special events and Bank Holidays by helping with set up, stall running and various tasks throughout the event. Click here to find out more.

Car Parking

Car Parking volunteers provide the first point of contact for visitors on busy days and at special events, directing them efficiently into a designated parking space. Click here to find out more.

Costumed Interpreter

Our Costumed Interpreter Volunteers dress up on special events days and chat to our visitors about the clothes they’re wearing, including the fabrics, how they were made, the time period they represent and how they clothes relate to the people from the period. Click here to find out more.

Click Here to Volunteer!

I love the grounds, especially the wilder parts, it’s a beautiful setting, I enjoy the peace, being able to hear and watch so many birds. I enjoy the physical work too. But most of all I enjoy being with the people I work with. I have made really great friends and we have a lot of fun and a laugh. And maybe in a small way I am making a difference

Hilary, Grounds Management Volunteer

I had recently lost my husband so needed to keep myself busy. I enjoy meeting people and feel as though I’m doing something worthwhile in beautiful surroundings. I would encourage anyone that feels lonely and would like to make new friendships to volunteer, as I have, it gives you a chance to stand up and be counted and really enjoy yourself. The volunteers and staff I have met are really happy and friendly and any doubts you have about yourself are soon overcome, so come and join us all, you’ll be pleased you did.

Angela, House Steward

After retiring I needed to share my knowledge, experience and avoid being a couch potato. I also wanted to meet and get out and about with people with the same interests. I enjoy meeting up and getting involved with different tasks each week.

Barry, Grounds & Odd Jobs Volunteer

What do I enjoy about volunteering? The team are so welcoming and friendly; the Castle is a wonderful place to be involved in and my passion for telling its story. Lastly, of course, the public who come to visit this wonderful building and informative museum.

John, House Steward

Find out more about our roles

House Steward Volunteer

House stewards are our ambassadors. They play a vital role in welcoming visitors to Hartlebury Castle, inspiring them to discover more about our fascinating history and ensuring they have a truly enjoyable visit.

What you’ll do:
– Give visitors a warm and friendly welcome on arrival
– Help to bring the history of Hartlebury Castle to life
– Chat to our visitors about our building, Bishops, rooms and collections
– Direct people around the Castle, helping them to enjoy the new audio-visuals
– Help ensure the safety of visitors, the Castle and its contents
– Assist with the evacuation of visitors in case of an emergency

Where you’ll be:
– In the State Rooms and the first floor of the Castle

Time commitment:
– Hartlebury Castle is open Tuesdays to Sundays
– Minimum of one shift a fortnight but preferably one or more shifts a week
– Weekday shifts are 3½ hours, 10am-1.30pm or 1.30-5pm
– Weekend shifts are 3 hours, 11am-2pm or 2-5pm

Skills you need:
– Warm, friendly and welcoming
– Enjoy meeting new people and enthusiastic about chatting to visitors
– Interested to learn about the history of the Castle
– Keen to share your knowledge and experience and answer visitors’ questions
– Reliable
– Able to be part of a team but also be on your own at times

Training and support:
– A tour of the Castle and grounds
– Training sessions on customer care, health and safety and emergency procedures
– Detailed information packs about the Castle’s history, Bishops, rooms and furniture
– A trial period followed by an induction, to feedback on your experience
– A Volunteer Handbook and Discount Card
– Mentor/buddy to shadow, to help you learn your role

Practical consideration:
– You’ll be provided with a name badge to wear during shifts
– The dress code is smart casual
– The building has heating, but it can be chilly in some parts of the Castle
– You’ll be able to sign up to shifts and log your hours, both from home and on-site
– There may be quiet periods on some shifts, so you may wish to bring a book or similar.

Gardening Volunteer

Gardening volunteers play a key role in helping to keep our gardens beautiful, maintained, accessible and enjoyable for our visitors. They’re central to achieving our vision of restoring the Castle gardens to their former glory, with the Carriage Circle reinstated and secret corners uncovered.

What you’ll do:
– The main tasks include weeding, pruning, planting and watering
– Chat to our visitors about the work your’re doing and our plans for the gardens
– Share your green-fingered expertise or your beginner’s enthusiasm
– Coax our gardens – trees, shrubs and flowers – back to life
– Contribute ideas to how we can improve what we’re doing

Where you’ll be:
– In the gardens and grounds at Hartlebury Castle

Time commitment:
– The gardening team meet regularly on Thursdays from 1 to 4pm.
– Gardening tasks are also available on Mondays between 10 and 3pm when the grounds team meets.

Skills you need:
– Enthusiasm for being outdoors in all weather
– Friendly and cheerful
– Able to work as part of a team
– Reliable
– Keen to share your knowledge or lean more about gardening
– Willing to chat to visitors and explain about the work that’s being done
– A moderate level of physical fitness

Training and support:
– New volunteers will be a given a tour of the grounds and an explanation of the work taking places
– There may be opportunities to take part in training sessions during the year
– You’ll be offered a trial period followed by an induction, to feedback on your experience
– A Volunteer Handbook and Discount Card
– Mentor/buddy to shadow, to help you learn your role

Practical consideration:
– You’ll be provided with a name badge to wear during shifts
– The dress code is outdoor, weatherproof clothes
– You’ll be able to sign up to shifts and log your hours, both from home and on-site

Grounds Management Volunteer

What you’ll do:

Slashing and cutting activities such as clearing brambles
Chopping back shrubs, bushes and small trees
General grounds maintenance
Mending and maintenance of footpaths
Chipping

Skills you need

No specific gardening or grounds maintenance experience is required, volunteers just need enthusiasm and a willingness to take on a variety of tasks, sometimes on their own but mainly in small or larger groups.

Practical considerations:

A moderate level of physical fitness is required
A willingness to work outdoors in all weather!

Children's Arts & Crafts Activities

Volunteers are needed to supervise fun and creative art and craft activities for children during school holidays. Activities may include mask making, painting, clay models, pumpkin carving, making Christmas decorations and many more!

Volunteers will be given full instructions and materials by our Education and Events Team and shown what to do and how, before being let loose to help our younger visitors!

Children (aged 5-10) will be accompanied by parents, all volunteers need to do is explain the activity and help the children whilst they are doing it. If volunteers are willing, there are also opportunities to help plan activities and to set up the materials in advance.

If you’re friendly, welcoming and enjoy being part of a team then you’re just what we’re looking for!

Volunteers need to be:
– happy to work alone and as part of a team
– confident, friendly and polite
– Good with children (essential!)
– Creative (desirable but not essential)
– reliable

Children’s Activities run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays of all school holiday weeks and occasionally on Bank Holiday Mondays and weekends too. Ideally, we like our volunteers to do one day within each school holiday. We would prefer volunteers to do a full day, 10.30am-4pm, but also welcome volunteers to join us for half-day sessions – either 10.30am-1pm or 1-4pm. Tea/coffee and biscuits will be available to volunteers during their session and volunteers staying for a full day will have an opportunity to take a lunch break.

Events Volunteer

Purpose of the Role – To assist Hartlebury Castle with creating a fun, engaging, and informative experience for every visitor who comes to the Castle by helping with our daytime and evening public events.

Tasks include – The main tasks will include providing a warm welcome to visitors at events, helping to set-up and take down small gazebos, tables and chairs, tear tickets, check wristbands, sell light refreshments, man stalls, collect donations and other general stewarding duties to ensure people looked after and know what to do and where to go.

Qualities and skills required –

Friendly
Reliable
Good communicator

Time commitment – 2-3 hours per event

Car Parking Volunteer

Car Parking volunteers provide the first point of contact for visitors on busy days and at special events, directing them efficiently into a designated parking space.

What you’ll do:
– Ensure the efficient and effective operation of the car park by directing vehicles into an allotted parking space by way of a smile and a hand signal
– Follow all instructions given on health & safety and use of equipment including wearing a hi-vis vest
– To verbally greet visitors and direct them towards the event

Time commitment:
– This role is only needed on our very busy event days, which tend to be most Bank Holiday Mondays and occasional Saturdays and Sundays
– Times are usually a 2 hour shift between 10.30am-2.30pm
– Very occasionally assistance may be needed in an evening between 4.30-9.30pm

Skills you need:
– Enjoy being outside
– Friendly and welcoming
– Calm and patient
– Relatively fit and happy to stand up for most of the 2 hour shift
– Reliable
– Able to be part of a team but also be on your own at times

Training and support:
– It will be clearly explained to you at the start of your shift exactly what you need to do and how
– You’ll be provided with any health and safety and emergency procedures information that you may need for the role

Practical consideration:
– You’ll be provided with a hi-vis vest to wear during shifts- The dress code is smart casual
– You may be given a radio to use to keep in touch with other volunteers and if you are, you’ll be shown how to use it
– You’ll be able to sign up for car parking shifts and log your hours, using our cloud-based online volunteer management software, both from home and on-site

Odd Jobs Volunteer

What you’ll do:
– Perform low-key maintenance and DIY tasks around the site.
– Follow all instructions given on health & safety and use of equipment
– Assist with the implementation of larger building and development projects

Time commitment:
– The team usually meets on a Monday morning
– There may be occasions where a job requires coming in on a different day, pre-approved with the staff team.

Skills you need:
– Enthusiasm for DIY
– Cheery and friendly
– Reliable
– Able to be part of a team but also be on your own at times
– Keen to share your knowledge or learn about DIY
– Flexible and happy to work on a variety of types of job

Training and support:
– All jobs will be organised and explained by a member of staff/trustee
– You’ll be provided with any health and safety and emergency procedures information that you may need for the role

Practical consideration:
– Some tasks may require a level of physical fitness
– You may be given a radio to use to keep in touch with other volunteers/staff and if you are, you’ll be shown how to use it
– You’ll be able to log your hours, using our cloud-based online volunteer management software, both from home and on-site

Costumed Interpreters

Our costumed interpreter volunteers dress up on special events days and chat to our visitors about the clothes they’re wearing, the time period they represent and how it relates to Hartlebury Castle.

Our costumed interpreter volunteers dress up on special events days and chat to our visitors about the clothes they’re wearing, including the fabrics, how they were made, the time period they represent and how they clothes relate to Hartlebury Castle.

What you’ll do:
– Chat to visitors at events, ensuring they are having a great day
– Explaining the clothes you’re wearing including the fabrics and how they were made
– Sharing the history of the period the costume relates to and sharing stories from that time at Hartlebury Castle
– Some of our volunteers will create a character while wearing their costume, you are welcome to do this, but it is not essential to the role!

Time commitment:
– This role is primarily required on event days, which tend to be Bank Holiday Mondays and occasional Saturdays and Sundays
– Times are usually a 3 hour shifts, morning and afternoon.
– Occasionally you may be needed in an evening.

Skills you need:
– Warm, friendly and welcoming
– Enjoy meeting new people and enthusiastic about chatting to visitors
– Interested to learn about the history of the Castle
– Keen to share your knowledge and experience and answer visitors’ questions
– Able to be part of a team but also be on your own at times

Training and support:
– Costumes will be clearly explained to you and history of the periods will be provided in advance of your first shift
– You will be provided with any health and safety and emergency procedures information that you may need for the role

Conservation Care

This volunteering role is currently on hold.

Purpose of the Role – To assist Hartlebury Castle with caring for the State Rooms, Bishop’s Palace, Chapel, and other historic rooms in the Castle as part of the Conservation Cleaning Team, conserving the beautiful furniture and paintings to preserve them for the enjoyment of future generations.

Tasks include – The main tasks will involve using specialist conservation cleaning equipment, such as conservation vacuum cleaners, hogs-hair brushes, and microfibre cloths, to keep the Castle free of the dust and dirt which is so harmful to historic objects and materials. This will include working as a team on each section of the Castle on a rotation basis, getting up close and personal with the collections on display.

Qualities and skills required –

Enthusiasm for working as a team
Reliable
A moderate level of physical fitness

Time commitment – Average of one day per month

Admin Volunteer

This volunteering role is currently on hold.

Purpose of the Role – To be our office angel and assist us with the smooth running of our office!

Tasks include – The main tasks will include filing, answering the phone and sending out information to people requesting details of venue hire. There’s scope to be involved with more in-depth tasks too, such as sourcing quotes and creating new filing systems.

Qualities and skills required
• Friendly
• Reliable
• Good communicator

Time commitment – 3-4 hours per week but could be more depending on the time commitment you would like to make.

Click Here to Volunteer!

Get in touch!

If you’d like to volunteer for Hartlebury Castle, we’d love to hear from you! To register your interest as a volunteer, please click here (opens our volunteering website MyImpact) and fill out a Volunteer Application Form. Once completed, one of our team will be in touch to arrange a friendly chat about the roles you’re interested in.

If you’d like to know more about a specific role before completing a form, please email events@hartleburycastle.com or call 01299 250797.

Hartlebury Castle Volunteer Benefits

As a volunteer at Hartlebury Castle, you’ll receive the following benefits:

– Welcoming and enjoyable volunteer experience
– Chance to become part of our friendly and dedicated team
– Opportunity to meet people from all walks of life and make new friends
– Chance to enjoy new experiences and learn new skills
– Opportunity to learn about the Castle’s history, inhabitants and contents
– Invitations to volunteer events and social activities
– Free entry to Hartlebury Castle and a 10% discount in the cafe & shop
– Opportunity to do something different and have a bit of fun!