Conservation Volunteers are enthusiastic about the collection and house and want to make sure that everything we currently have is preserved here for future generations.

All collections need to be looked after and Basildon Park is no different. The conservation work we do at Basildon Park is a balance between presentation and care of our objects. Basildon Park has over 2000 objects; the house team therefore needs a bit of help to make sure that we can finish all our conservation jobs this year (and the next year, and the year after that!)

Conservation volunteers need to be passionate about caring for all elements of our collection and wanting to share Basildon Park’s stories with visitors.

What’s in it for you?

• Get closer to the collection then you have ever done before
• Learn new practical skills
• Share the knowledge you will gain about conservation with our supporters
• Feel a special part of the running of the house

What’s involved?

• Cleaning – Yes, much of what we do involves a lot of hoovering and dusting. This is both on a day to day basis and when we do our deeper monthly and annual cleaning. It is repetitive but it is to prevent our collection deteriorating.
• Conservation in Action – Carrying out conservation tasks in front of the public and discussing how, why and what you are doing.
• Inventory – Applying inventory marks to our unmarked collection and updating the old marking. Helping with the inventory check to make sure all our objects are accounted for.
• Storage – We try to rotate our objects so you will no doubt get a chance to create puffs and sausages with acid free tissue paper!
• Monitoring – Help the team fight the agents of deterioration. Light, pests and relative humidity are a few of these agents which can wreak havoc on our collections, monitoring them is therefore essential.
• All of these tasks help us maintain our collection and our position as an accredited museum.

Please be aware that this job is physically demanding. You may be required to (safely) manually handle objects of varying size and weight, frequently go up and down the many flights of stairs at Basildon and clean objects in uncomfortable positions.

This role will suit people who…

• Are patient – there is no quick fix when it comes to conservation and extra care is needed when handling objects of a delicate nature.
• Are flexible, you may not be working on the same job each week.
• Have good attention to detail.
• Are a good listener – you may be doing jobs you have done before, like hoovering, but everything is slightly different when it comes to conservation.
• Are enthusiastic – this really underpins all of the others and make the role so much easier and enjoyable!