The 400-year-old historic house and accredited museum, Kiplin Hall & Gardens, seeks a person with a passion for preserving the past and an attention to detail to help care for the hall and collections during the dark winter months.
After a busy summer season welcoming visitors the hall and gardens will close for the darkest winter months. During which time the team undertake a thorough annual clean and condition check. Ensuring all is well for the year ahead.
The current vacancy for a paid intern working in November, December, and January, offers a wonderful opportunity for an individual to gain experience and training from the Kiplin team. Warden, Cathrien Van Hak explains;
“The intern will receive training in all aspects of the role, and support and guidance from me, the Warden, and Alice the Programming Curator. They will have the chance to undertake the wide variety of collections care, conservation and cataloguing tasks that are needed in many museum roles. The successful candidate will also benefit from real, practical experience of tasks that can be hard to gain in the classroom. For example, use of scaffolding for cleaning the ceilings and chandeliers, or inputting live data into our museum database. First aid training and use of two-way radios for onsite communication are also very useful practical skills many workplaces will value. The intern will be working alongside our qualified museum staff and our team of dedicated volunteers. Giving them a chance to work with a huge range of people, learning from them about their varied roles at Kiplin.”
The role calls for a few skills you might not always see on a job specification. Good hand eye coordination; a necessity for anyone handling historic objects. And a willingness to work in ‘spooky’ conditions. During the dark winter months, while the hall is closed to the public, it can be a little ghostly at times. Although a daunting prospect to some, the chance to see the hall and collections in a way few people do is draw to the right candidate. As with all roles at Kiplin, a fondness for cake is also expected!
Kiplin Hall & Gardens is an award-winning museum and visitor attraction based in North Yorkshire, half way between the marketing towns of Northallerton and Richmond on the B6271. This role’s working hours are around 15-20 hours per week, which can be spread over 3 or 4 days, at £9.50 per hour.
Applications for the paid role are now open, the closing date is 10am on Monday 26th September 2022. Full details of the role can be found at kiplinhall.co.uk/jobs. Candidates can have an informal discussion before applying by contacting Cathrien Van Hak on warden@kiplinhall.co.uk to arrange a phone conversation or zoom call.
Visitors still have time to enjoy Kiplin before the winter closure. Kiplin will be open 6 days a week (closed on Thursdays) until Wednesday 2nd November, featuring the spook-tacular Crowes Wood Halloween Trail. (Kiplin Hall & Gardens will be closed on the day of The Queens funeral.) From the 2nd to the 18th December visitors can explore Christmas traditions from around the world and throughout history, during ‘A Time Traveller’s Christmas’. Public opening hours will then pause until the arrival of the snowdrops in early February.
