Hi! My name is Grace and I am the newly appointed Community Engagement Co-ordinator for Selby Abbey.
My main role at the Abbey is working on the 2 year Resilient Heritage project funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. Stay tuned to hear all about the project, and the amazing work being done by our staff, volunteers, and work placement students!
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Since fully training six tour guides throughout August and September, we’ve had a turbulent time with our programme to say the least! Despite national restrictive measures throughout November, meaning no tours or other heritage activities could take place, we have managed to deliver eight bookable tours with COVID-19 guidelines fully in place. Numbers were restricted to ten per tour with a maximum of six bookings. Social distancing was enforced throughout household groups throughout. Across all eight tours the COVID-19 safety was rated at 4.8 out of 5 with safety being ranked as excellent.
100% of our visitors ranked the tours very good or excellent, with our tour guides regularly receiving amazing feedback on Tripadvisor as well as on evaluation surveys.
“Interesting and comfortably paced presentation by knowledgeable and articulate guides”
Surveymonkey tour expereince survey
The tours aim to highlight the Abbey’s hidden gems focusing on its fall and rebirth over the past 950 years. Tours are available throughout December and tickets are bookable for free through Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/selby-abbey-31088340645 all donations are welcome, either through our website or our contactless and standard collection boxes.
Thank you to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and all the lottery players for supporting the Resilient Heritage Project to allow us to train our tour guides and deliver amazing experiences for our local community and further afield.
This month, at the Abbey, the Resilient Heritage team have been supporting the staged reopening and helping to develop opportunities in the post-lockdown world. These have involved working through our cafe reopening, exploring ways to develop our shop online, and beginning the process of socially distant tours.
Coffee shop
On August 1st our coffee shop reopened on a reduced basis (Mondays and Saturdays only) with a reduced menu. This has allowed us to test our COVID measures and work with out reduced volunteer basis. For the time being the days and menu offer of the shop will stay the same, however as measures change and guidance solidifies we will explore ways to increase our opening and offer.
Tours
Over August we have begun training our new tour guides who will help to deliver our socially distant tours. This has involved communications training, developing a tour plan and researching the necessary parts so the guides feel comfortable while delivering a first-class tour. We are currently finishing off the last stages of the training and will update everyone when dates become available to book tours.
Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice
This month we found out we had been awarded a 2020 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Award, meaning we ranked in the top 10% of attractions worldwide. After working so hard on our welcome over the last few months to ensure everyone feels safe, secure and enjoys their visit we feel very grateful to have been recognised for this.
Our Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice award
Resilience Heritage Audits
After the whirlwind of reopening, grant applications and restarting of many projects, many of the audits had been on pause while we tried to figure out ways to do them securely. The suspension of touch screen, leaflets and any other material that may increase a COVID surface contact, meant that we have to think of innovative ways to collect data in order for us to develop what we offer the local community. We have started by placing laminated QR codes on our coffee shop tables that link to an experience survey. While these limit our reach to smartphone users, they are a starting point for the recommencing of data collection to see how visitors enjoy exploring the sacred space.
We have also began auditing our Tripadvisor account, comparing the Abbey to other large churches in the area, as well as other attractions in the Selby area. This has allowed us to see the Abbey’s position in the wider heritage ecosystem, as well as the tourist economy. The images below show the amazing reviews the Abbey has recieved.
Graph coming star rating of large churches in the area on a monthly basis.Review count of the highest ranked attractions in Selby on a quarterly basis.
Finally, this month, we have began reviewing our interpretation, carrying out in depth audits. This involved individuals, namely our volunteers completing an audit form about their experience when reading our interpretive panels, as well as other information available before and after their ‘visit’. Over the coming months this audit will be expanded to include members of the community and other interested individuals to gain a range of responses from a range of individuals.
As the summer holidays draw to a close, the coming months will be spent developing and launching our tours, compiling and analysing data from our audits and beginning to work closely with our partners across Selby on a variety of exciting projects… which I’m sure will be mentioned in the coming blog posts.
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As some of you may know, the Abbey is now emerging into the new world after further COVID-19 measures were lifted. July, for us, has been about ensuring the Abbey is a safe place to both visit, work and volunteer. As of July 4th the Abbey was open for more than just private prayer, providing public worship services and allowing other visitors. Since then, we have seen increased visitor figures and people enjoying their time with us. The Resilient Heritage Project not only looks at auditing the Abbey, but supporting our volunteers, which has been the focus of the month. Throughout July, we have recommenced many projects, from the return of our volunteers and reopening of the coffee shop, to our project with Chrysalis Arts on the Abbey sculpture, which hopefully should be available to you during the October half term holidays…
The Return of our Volunteers
Throughout the month we have supported our volunteers to see who is able and comfortable with returning to the Abbey. This involved filling in personal risk assessments and having return to the Abbey telephone interviews and emails. Our volunteering opportunities are vast and allow individuals to adapt their roles as well as pausing their roles if they are unable to return or do not feel comfortable doing do.
We have created a volunteer newsletter which is currently a digital only copy to reduce leaflet touch points in the Abbey. We are thinking of ways to get this to our volunteers who do not currently have access to the internet and email.
On July 25th we reopened our coffee shop for the first time since March. Trailing our new system and processes we made the decision to reopen the coffee shop from 1st August on reduced opening (Mondays and Saturdays only). Supporting the volunteers who run the coffee shop, I assisted with risk assessments, policies and procedures, return to work interviews, as well as getting my hands dirty with the deep clean and assisting at the reopening. It was great to see so many new and old faces in the shop!
Chrysalis Arts: Sculpture Project
Prior to lock down the Abbey was working on a project that would provide free art workshops to the local community over the Easter holidays. Working with Chrysalis Arts on a broader project we had an artist, Alun, assigned to us to help lead the project. As the current circumstances mean we are no longer able to provide the face to face workshops in a safe way, we have decided to take the project in a different direction. Like many organisations we are feeling our way through the digital world, and hope through the project we can create some video materials as well as some packs so the workshops can be done remotely at home. During July, Alun came to the Abbey to start filming and we’re all very excited to see the finished result! As this project takes shape and more details are released we will keep you updated!
Heritage Emergency Fund
This month we also had some incredible news… The Abbey has received just over £32,000 from the Heritage Lottery through their Heritage Emergency Fund scheme. With their help we will be able to sustain the Abbey and ensure we carry on our work in the future. Thank you to all the National Lottery players who have made this possible!
What to Expect in August
August is going to be all about getting the Resilient Heritage project back on track with auditing, as well as developing training for our existing and current volunteers. Stay tuned to hear about exciting plans regarding our guided tours….
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On the 23rd March 2020 Selby Abbey along with all other churches shut their doors to their congregations, visitors, clergy and support staff. Several questions were raised about what this meant for our services, youth groups, art classes, drama groups, choir, bell ringers, along with all our groups that use the Church, parish centre and support the local community. As well as our worship activities and recreational offers, questions were raised about what it meant for the heritage of the building, in particular the resilient heritage project.
The project was in full swing, with other smaller projects including a community art project on sculpture, development of our tours, archival audits, several work placements and projects with Selby College taking shape. Several of these projects were put on hold while myself and the teams behind them began thinking of ways these could work in the new world. Some of these projects were moved digitally. Every Wednesday heritage activities were released on our website and Facebook page and were promoted by Welcome to Yorkshire and Visit York. These were based on key historical events including the Civil War and the 1906 fire, along with celebrations including St. George’s Day and VE Day. For VE day we also created a giant virtual bunting line, along with publishing artefacts and oral histories to celebrate the day.
Alongside these sheets to make our collections and histories accessible during lock down, I had to think of ways to carry on audits while there was no access to the Abbey for visitors or staff or ways to engage in audits with the general public face to face. Like many businesses and attractions, the decision was taken to move these digitally. A survey was created and posted on our social media platforms. 10% of our following answered the survey, providing us with information on their previous visits, events, our operations, social media, and things they would like to see from us in the future. Results from the survey highlighted a desire for tours, summer evening openings alongside heritage talks, living history days and greater opportunities to volunteer with us. Acting on these survey results we have recruited new tour guides and commissioned a tour developer to help create a standardised tour that can be individually adapted and train the new guides to deliver them. COVID restrictions depending, we are also considering a change in opening hours, as well as opportunities to increase our heritage activities when it is safe to do so.
Acting on feedback we had received from all the surveys across the year, lock down was used to implement some of these. Creation of an accessibility guide in line with Visit England standards was made and reviewed by the Selby District Disability Forum. This guide is now available on our website and from our welcome desk and shop area for visitors who wish to read it. We also redesigned our tourist information leaflet for when tourism is ready to recommence and will be available from the York Tourist Information office and other appropriate outlets.
While lock down has been hard to manage, in terms of the project, after discussions with the NLHF a three month extension was granted, taking the project end date to March 2022. This is great news for the future of the project and the Abbey to ensure we can deliver the best possible results. Stay tuned to hear about our reopening, activities, and how we develop our projects in the new world….
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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.
Selby Abbey (C) Duncan Lomax @ravageproductions
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…..
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Resilient Heritage: Selby Abbey 