What Is

Well hello to you Positively Packwood readers and thanks once again for joining me! I am back after my wonderful holiday (what do you mean you didn’t notice!?) and it was brilliant fun to be back in Packwood House this weekend.

It’s a funny thing volunteering. You don’t have to do it (obviously) and you don’t get paid for it (again, obviously) but I really miss it when I’m not there. I’m sure it’s the same for everyone this property has such a special place in my heart. Pulling up in the car park or that first view of the house as I cross the road never ceases to make me smile. Taking the time to notice the subtle changes to the flowers as the year rolls around week by week.

This place has an energy all of its own. As I make my way through the courtyard and the warm sun heats up the roses giving off an intoxicating scent, entering the cool darkness of the flower room I smell that ‘old building’ smell of aged wood and years of memories. It’s like coming home. Seeing the faces I do every Sunday, all of us with at least one common interest.

I’ll be honest, as with so many altruistic acts there is a certain amount of self gratification involved. Of course I volunteer because of my love of heritage, equally for my love of people and the opportunity to share such a special space with other like minded folk. But I also come here because I love this place. I want to inspire other people to love this place, so long after I’m gone there will be others who will value it and take care of it.

I met another volunteer (from another property) this week as a visitor who asked me ‘Don’t you find it frustrating?’ I got the impression he was struggling, maybe he’d come to Packwood to gain some perspective, it’s that kind of place. I don’t know if my answer was the 'party line', but it was from the heart.  I explained as I see it when you care about a place as deeply as we do it’s hard not to become attached to every decision made. It’s important to remember what we are there to do and why we do it. There are volunteers at Packwood who have been there for 20 or 30 years, they have seen change after change no doubt of their beloved property. Decision makers come and go and (believe it or not) we are in the enviable position of having a simpler role to play.

We are there to engage, to share and to protect. We do not have to monitor budgets, meet targets or navigate new processes. I’m not saying that we should go through this experience without offering positive or useful feedback if we see a way that something could be changed (we are people not droids!) but there is something to be said for enjoying the job that we are there to do and not focussing too heavily on the things we can’t control.

Quite often we may not always have all the information, it’s kind of like government…everyone thinks the decisions they make are wrong/useless/Barry in the pub could do better (delete as appropriate!) but however much we like to think we have freedom in the press, and we all know it all, we don’t. If we let the ‘blue sky thinking’ of others in an office cloud the experience we have, today, in our beautiful properties we are the ones who miss out. If we let frustration tarnish our enjoyment of these spaces, if we are resistant to change then we cannot do the job we are there to do as well as we are capable of doing it.

This isn’t the blog I intended to write; that happens sometimes! I’d intended to tell you all about being in the Great Hall (first time I’d done this room). I was going to tell you about learning about an artist ‘lay’; the mannequin that would be dressed in the same dress of whoever was being painted so the painter could do the detailed dress bits without a sitter getting fidgety! Or I could have told you about how the balcony balustrade for the minstrels gallery was made from the hay rack previously used for feeding cattle in the barn the great hall used to be!? In fact I’m almost positive I would have told you how the oriel window chosen by Baron Ash was inspired by the one he’d seen at Hampton Court Palace.  

But one has to be welcoming of change, so here is what is; as opposed to what I thought would be.

And for those who would have preferred a detailed account of the Great Hall, get yourself to Packwood and see it for yourself, here’s a few pictures to inspire you…