Project Beginnings

Starting a project during the Christmas period, in a church, was both exciting and challenging. The first month of the project consisted of meeting the team, creating a partnership with Selby District Council, settling in and beginning to create working relationships with the amazing volunteers who help the Abbey to run. During this period there was also a lot of prep surrounding how the project would run, timescales and the best way to approach different elements.

In the new year, active work began collecting data and fulfilling project aims. This included the installation of beam counters, a survey pad in the Abbey and paper survey collectors to gather information on the numbers and experience of visitors. I also attended Abbey events to collect event data, became a member of the local cultural consortium, attended Selby Big Local’s health and well being event, created partnerships with Hull Minster and St. Mary’s in Beverley and met with several community groups and volunteer networks.

In February, data to inform the project audits was being collected at a steady pace. Translation of surveys into Mandarin allowed our Asian visitors to collect their experiences. Alongside this data collection, I was involved in a project with Selby College Tourism course where the students prepared a marketing plan for the Abbey. Many of the students focused on social media and gave us some great ideas including new platforms, event ideas, hashtags and ways to reach younger audiences. During the month I also ran a coffee afternoon for our volunteers to gain their insights towards heritage development and elements they would like to work on. Furthering this, I also ran a volunteer recruitment event, supported by several volunteers from our shop, cafe, welcoming team and our churchwardens. Held on a stormy, cold day expectations were low, however we had 12 applications, all of which were successful after references and safeguarding assessments were completed and returned. Newly recruited volunteers included those from York University, the local community, members of the congregation, Selby Abbey Primary and the surrounding area and spanned age ranges from 24-77. Bringing amazing skills and talents including archaeological skills, heritage management, teaching experience, academic research experience along with incredible personalities, the new volunteer recruits will be an asset to our operations.

“The closure of they Abbey on 23rd March 2020 rocked both the project and the Church”

At the beginning of March, we never expected what was to come at the end of the month. The closure of the Abbey on 23rd March 2020 rocked both the project and the Church as a whole. While the lockdown placed a strain on the project, it provided an opportunity to reevaluate how we were following the plans and ways we could adapt the project to fulfil its aims through the closure. The project began to work digitally…..