Revival - Back To Life Newsletter - May and June 2023

Back to Life Festival

We’ve been planning this festival day for some months and have borrowed exhibits from the Thackray Museum in Leeds to help us bring our 1800s characters Back to Life. Our intern, Tom, has devised activities to go along with the exhibits, so you’ll be able to construct a skeleton, make some beads, or dig up your own treasures. We’re pleased to be working with Shift Key Theatre Company, poet, Dave Osgerby, The Hull Regency Dance Group, and Whitefriargate HAZ team, to bring this event to Hull this summer.

You’ll be able to find out what Dr John Alderson did and what he used to do it, how he was linked to the burial ground, and who else was buried there. Spoiler alert - it’s Frank Appleyard! In the 1820’s restoration, a stone effigy of a lady was discovered inside a bricked up chapel - she too springs back to life during the festival to tell her tale.

Travel back in time as actors portray the people of our monuments, telling their amazing and quirky stories throughout the day. With stories for all ages, there will be something to learn for all the family! Say hello to John Alderson, Agnes Bedford, and Frank Appleyard through poetry, plays, stories, and song, all performed as you wander around!

We’re recreating the scene of a medieval chapel where you can experience what it would have been like in 1458 when Agnes Bedford was laid to rest. We’ll explore the story of her life, death and later discovery in the 1800’s and the search to find her identity in 2020.

You’ll be able to see some of the archaeology from Castle Street Burial Ground which link Appleyard and Alderson and find out what city life was like for them when they were alive in the 1800’s.

  • See some of our graveyard archaeology! 

  • Find out about historical medical implements.

  • Try your hand at some free crafts to take home – including sewing, stained glass window designing and pottery.

  • Enjoy medieval fayre in our Trinity Room Café. 

Tom unwraps some glass eyes from the Thackray Museum.

This event is put on with support from the Heritage Fund.

What’s it been like working on this project?

Our intern, Tom, is not the usual applicant for a heritage project. But as a medical student with a keen interest in history, music, and churches, he came forward to help devise an activity day for all ages. He’s learnt how to write scope documents, contracts, loan agreements, done some cataloguing, worked with suppliers, planned events, written advertising content, and designed print and digital marketing material. He’ll also be heling to evaluate the event. All of these, pretty vital skills in a professional career. Here’s what he had to say about working for a church.

Hello, my name is Thomas and I am a student intern working with Hull Minster. Over the past few months, I have been working with Jane to plan an event on the 29th July - out Back To Life Festival! I have really enjoyed my time on this project so far, and will be sharing with you some of the most exciting things I have been working on!

The most rewarding thing I have worked on in the last few months has had to be the recording project we created in partnership with the Hull Minster Choir. With guidance from the heritage team, the choir have been able to professionally record a set of musical works. In terms of the Heritage project, this music will be used to transport you back to the times of Agnes Bedford during our Immersive Chantry Chapel display on the 29th July!

It was wonderful to have been able to involve a whole new group of people who are involved with Hull Minster in the heritage of the building and music from different historical periods. On the day of the recording, we had people ranging from ages 8 all the way up to 70!

I have learnt so much from working on the heritage project - spanning everything from designing maps to writing contracts! The skills I have developed on this journey will have uses in all aspects of my life and I am thankful to Jane and the team for the opportunity. For any students who are interested in getting involved in Heritage, I could not recommend it more!

A YEAR OF PUBLIC TALKS - spring and summer talk series

audience at a talk about William Morris in hull Minster nave

Our speakers have been a mix of professionals and volunteers with a keen interest in local and regional history. We have an exciting and varied series planned for the autumn. You can catch up with talks that happened in the spring by clicking below. If you would like to give a talk or recommend someone to do so, please get in touch with jane@hullminster.org

Our talks are for EVERYONE, of any age and you really don’t have to be an expert to enjoy them!

Six talks took place in May and June with topics ranging from Jewish migration to witches and widows. We were delighted to find out more about the archaeology beneath the Minster and the work of William Morris in Yorkshire. Thanks to the Heritage Fund, all our talks are free to attend and some of them can be viewed online afterwards.

We finish this summer with an evening talk by Professor Harold Mytum, of the University of Liverpool, who has been a consultant to the archaeologists working at the Trinity Burial Ground, Castle Street, Hull. For his talk, entitled The 1800's graveyard, what it tells us about Hull and why it changed. Hull as a trendsetter! he will be joined by local poet, Dave Osgerby. Dave has been commissioned to write poetry using our burial records and Sextons’ books as inspiration.

Education, education, education!

Education is a lifelong process, so this project is attempting reach people of all ages and abilities to offer quality experiences which offer knowledge, insight and skills to those participating. Whether you are a volunteer learning about customer service, a visitor learning about monuments and restoration, or a young person learning about historic Hull for the first time, there is plenty to engage with at Hull Minster.

This autumn we will launch a range of skilled craft workshops led by professional artists. We will also have workshops for young people and schools. You can find out about opportunities on our web calendar. We’re excited to be working with Stephen Lee Hodgkins again to supply art and doodling workshops to school age groups.

Our replica handling collection is on regular display and can be borrowed by schools too. The archaeology team recently took the the replicas to a STEM day at the Craven Park stadium, where over 500 young students had a chance to handle them. Lauren writes

I really enjoyed engaging with the pupils, first getting an idea of what they already knew about the subject and then, through games and finds handling, helping them to understand aspects of what Archaeologists do and, more specifically, what we have been doing in their own city at Trinity Burial Ground. It was really encouraging when, after the games, they engaged with the subject and wanted to learn more. There were definitely a couple of budding scientists in the group, if not a couple of future archaeologists. Fingers-crossed!"

Emma, Assistant Supervisor 

As well as having some fun with the PPE dig box game, we discussed what types of materials survive over time and the scientific processes archaeologists use to learn more about them, such as x-rays. We also explored how DNA is helping archaeologists working on Trinity Burial Ground to identify family groups. A special mention and thank you to the Hull Minster who loaned us replicas of finds discovered during our excavations to share with the students. You can find out more about the work Hull Minster are doing to share the archaeology here: Homepage | Hull Minster Heritage

Thank you to everyone who came and visited us. It really brought home how there is an aspect of archaeology for every budding scientist!  

Revival - Back To Life Newsletter – March/April 2023 

Heritage in your lunchtime  - a stonemason’s story

Our spring series of talks and lectures has concluded with a fabulous turnout for our talk with the stonemasons, Mattius Garn and Partner who have been restoring our monuments. Over 300 children and 120 adults have visited their workshop to learn about heritage restoration, careers in stonemasonry and about the monuments themselves.

The summer talk series begins on Friday 12th May with a talk by one of our volunteers, Mike Rymer about David Dunster. Here’s a link to the talks timetable. 

Our volunteers have created digital stories about the monuments which you can find out about here.

Interpretation and display

Our digital touchscreens have been installed to tell visitors about our collection and feature stories. Located throughout the Trinity Rooms, these portals enable visitors to look at video restoration, 3D imaging, digital close ups and give information about the collections catalogue. 

Louise Hampson selects and places the archaeology

Dr Louise Hampson has selected the artefacts for display and interpretation which can now be seen in the café area. We’ve chosen large pottery pieces which came from the Castle Street Burial Ground as they make a bold display.

Outreach 

Jane Owen and Michael Free have visited other organisations where they have given talks about the project, the restoration and the archaeology. These include primary schools, civic societies and local history groups. They take with them some archaeology for handling and some replicas from our collection. If you would like a visit from them please contact jane@hullminster.org or call 01482 224460. 

Schools and Home Educated Family groups have visited the Minster to enjoy handling our artefacts and learning about monuments and stained glass. They have made their own coats of arms, stained glass windows and replica objects. 

Thank you to our volunteers 

Volunteering continues to grow with the guiding hand of Shirley Kay, our volunteering manager. We like to thank out volunteers regularly with interesting activities and trips. These also help to This spring they have been to Trinity House, St Mary’s in Beverley – another lottery funded project – and on a bus trip to York Minster. They’ve also done a Maritime walk and had a tour of the Guildhall.

Volunteers continue to undertake training in Safeguarding, welcoming and hosting, disability and sight awareness. They’ve been busy hosting hundreds of families who have been doing themed treasure hunts in the building. 

Intern and apprenticeship 

We are delighted that our apprentice, Bailey, passed his maths GCSE this spring. He has been doing practice papers with one of our volunteers and this has really made a difference to his skills – thank you Sam! 

This summer we are to be joined by Thomas Willaims, a medical student, who will be undertaking a project under his Laidlaw Scholarship. He will be organising an interactive experience around source material and artefacts from our collection along with a borrowed collection form the Thackray Museum in Leeds. Focussing on our monument to John Alderson, the founder of the Hull medical school, which was restored this spring we will look at graverobbing and why it too place.  

 

Revival Back to Life Newsletter - January and February

Heritage description and digital touchscreens 

The interpretation displays have begun to be installed in the Trinity rooms. Our stunning timeline shows 1000 years of Hull history, showing the religious positioning of Holy Trinity and the Minster alongside local and national civic events. The quirky illustrations by artist, Steven Lee Hodgkins, built on the sketches, photographs and research provided by our volunteers and staff. We sadly completed it the day our Queen died, so she features in our recent history. We hope you like it.

We have revived stories of some of our people whose lives have been memorialised in stone. Inspirational words and phrases chosen from there ledgers and memorials now adorn the toilet doors supplying inspiration in an unlikely place. 

The interactive digital touchscreens in the Trinity Rooms enable visitors, volunteers and researchers to explore items in our collection. This includes the archaeology from the graveyard and Castle Street Burial Ground, which will shortly be on display, the monuments throughout the Minster, and some items in our collection which are not on show such as books prints and letters. Volunteers have worked tirelessly to create interesting features which enable you to delve deeper into the lives of some of our people. They have collated all of the information that you see on the touch screens - and done a fabulous job. 

Memorial Restoration 

The Stonemasons workshop has proved very popular for visitors. Provided by Mattias Garn Studios until the end of March, you can peer over the chancel screen where you have a birds-eye view of the monuments laid out in pieces on the table. Stone Masons cut, glue, clean and shape new stone to prepare each monument for rehanging on new stainless steel cramps. The artistry and craftsmanship from the 16-1800s is awe-inspiring. Some of these monuments would have been very expensive indeed.  

In the first three weeks of January over 200 under 18 students visited the workshop. The team are happy to explain what they are doing to visitors and to show them examples of the beautiful carvings like the ram pictured below.  

Heritage Talks continue this Spring with a range of speakers which include our stonemasons.

The Apprentice Journeyman – stonemasonry on my travels - 3rd March at 12.30pm - Book tickets here

Dr Robb Robinson 'From Hull's Old Town to the Ends of the Earth’ - Friday 17th March at 12.30pm - Book tickets here

Lunchtime talk - What we have discovered about Hull Minster with Mattias Garn master stonemason - 31st March 12.30pm - Book tickets here

Diversity Inclusion and Growth 

Shirley is working hard to grow the volunteering team. She has been organising a range of activities to help us improve diversity among the volunteers. This has included Sight Sense training, disability awareness training, and planning assisted work placements for students with additional needs via Bishop Burton College. Members of the volunteering workforce have stepped up by taking responsibility for duty management, training, and organising events. Several volunteers to continue to contribute to the heritage interpretation project while others have committed to the education workshops. 

Education and Fun

This term we will host 6 education visits for home educated families. This enables us to include hard to reach groups in our activity programme provide tailor-made training for those students with additional needs. A good number of secondary school age students have taken part in these workshops, and we are planning more later in the spring. since January over 200 young people have visited our stonemasons workshop - here until the 5th April 2023.

Our programme of activities for clubs has also begun with a 6-weekevening session with 1st Hull Girls Brigade.

Revival Back to Life Project – November newsletter

A focus on volunteer training

Winter is coming, and with it the busyness of Christmas and New Year, but before that is the calm of autumn. And so far, a lovely and peaceful autumn for the Minster it has been. September and October has been a time of preparation and training for our volunteers, a chance for them to deepen their knowledge of our church and supplement their skills with new ones, oriented towards public engagement.

Our Volunteering Manager, Shirley, has been busy recruiting volunteers to work in all areas of the church. She has also had success bringing volunteers back to volunteering following periods of absence due to COVID. Volunteers have been trained by Zoe, the cafe manager, to help in the cafe, while others contribute to welcoming, maintainance, and heritage research and engagement.

Heritage Guide Training

Jane and Stephen organised a series of workshops for our volunteers focussed on tour guiding and communication skills. One of our volunteers, Michael, has kindly given us his thoughts on the training activities:

‘Our first session, which was led Hull Maritime Guides group, was about taking visitors round and how to keep them interested in what there is to see; an important factor being to make sure you are always looking at the people you are speaking to.  Next we had a session trying to identify the most interesting aspects of the church. As a group our list came to 22 items including the nave and chancel ceilings, the Font, J H Bromby, the ledger stones, the Mariners’ Chapel, Parmentier’s painting of the Last Supper, the pews, the pulpit, the Sanctuary, the de Selby effigy and Crane’s stained glass windows as our top choices, though everyone had their own favourites. For the next session members picked out a favourite item and researched it then delivered a short talk to the group. Everyone did a super job on their topic and delivered highly interesting talks about the Gelder window, the Milner memorial and other items.

Heritage Intern Stephen gives our volunteers tour and guide to Hull Minster’s Medieval architecture

Stephen led us an interesting and informative walk around the outside of the chancel to view some of the oldest stone and brickwork in the building. We learned a whole new vocabulary of canopied niches and embattled parapets along with quatrefoils, ogee arches, pierced tracery and cusped trefoils!

The following session we looked at some of the archaeological finds from the church graveyard and the Castle Steet burial ground, including several coffin plates, a small figure of a lamb, decorated clay floor tiles, dozens of clay pipes, a golden 1/3rd of a Guinea coin (of George III) in perfect condition, and a range of pottery items including the Whaler’s Tankard which was found in pieces and has been reconstructed.

Rev Louise explains the symbolism of the altar and surroundings during her tour of the religious symbolism and meaning of the Choir

In our final group session the Rev Louise talked to us about the altar table and its various aspects and the symbols portrayed round about. We learned about the Eucharist and the related symbolism, and about the many different forms of crosses in use and several around the chancel. We also learned about symbols of the apostles and the five wounds of Christ.

Altogether it was a very interesting and informative series of meetings which would be of use to all volunteers.’

As Michael demonstrates, these events proved very popular and enjoyable for volunteers, and the Minster will hope to run similar events in future, potentially in January- keep your eyes peeled!

Sighted Guide Training

Shirley introduces the team from Guide Dogs for our workshop on community sighted guide training

This October, volunteers also got the chance to train as guides for the partially sighted, thanks to Guide Dogs North East. They learned the proper ways to guide a person through the Minster, and were given a chance to practice by leading a blindfolded volunteer through the church. Volunteers were also told the facts and figures related to the partially sighted in the UK, and were even given glasses which simulated various eye conditions to gain a deeper understanding of blindness.

Shirley, our volunteer manager, said that ‘it was a very enjoyable, informative day and well received by all who attended. The sighted guiding training taught volunteers how to guide a person with sight loss, with confidence, skill, and empathy.  Much like learning how to perform basic first aid, sighted guiding is a useful life skill’. The sighted guiding training isn’t the only training Shirley has organized; on the 14th November the Minster will be welcoming our volunteers to the Welcome our Way event to help introduce and integrate volunteers into the team.

Our volunteers and our Heritatge Intern Stephen get to grips with their blindfolds during sighted guide training

If you would like to become a volunteer or would like to suggest some training that you think would be useful please get in touch with Shirley Kay or Jane Owen, the Project Manager, at the following email addresses

shirley@hullminster.org

jane@hullminster.org

Revival Back to Life Project - September newsletter

Summer days- finds, crafts and exhibitions

small children digging in a small box for treasure they find

Fran Oliver, Highways England, helps children explore what archaeologists do

As summer passes into autumn, and with it the hustle and bustle of the school holidays. The Minster has been an active and vibrant place where we have hosted our Archaeology Activity Days and arts events. Our new young faces, Bailey and Stephen, have settled in very well, and have added to the vibrancy of church life; their presence is much welcomed. Our volunteers and staff have put on a series of exhibits and activities, from a digging activity conducted by our friends at Highways England to various handling stalls, where treasures from our archaeology collection could be handled (with care), including coffin plates, a Georgian gold sovereign and an intact late medieval pottery bowl – it's over 500 years old!

We had nearly 1000 visitors over 4 days, with a large proportion from the local area. We welcomed lots of intergenerational groups where grandparents, parents and children enjoyed the activities together. We were visited by a nursery, a kids club, lots of international tourists, and of course, keen groups of Hull residents.  Watch our little video and see what we got up to!

Heritage Intern Stephen works on his Flower of Hull window embroidery

We also welcomed several artists for our Thursday Craft Days, in association with our exhibition Confluence, which focused on the culture, history and environment of the river Humber. Our artist friends brought with them their craft supplies, allowing anyone and everyone to have a go at creating art- Stephen, our Heritage Intern, produced a lovely version of our great east window in an embroidery, complete with the Flower of Hull motif right in the centre. He was really chuffed! All of the pieces produced were placed on a giant map of the estuary, which itself was covered in doodles and drawings of the local landmarks, naturally including our lovely Minster.

Autumn Activities

Our Lunchtime Heritage Talks series launches through October and November. For six weeks we will have a heritage speaker coming to the Minster to give a lecture, tour or workshop on a topic of their choice, lasting approximately an hour. Details are TBC, so keep an eye out for updates via our social media. If you know someone who would make an excellent guest speaker, please get in touch with their details. 

Also launching for the 2022/23 academic year are our FREE heritage workshops for schools, so if you want to give your pupils an exciting beginning to the new academic year we’re the place to visit!  

Trying calligraphy

Workshops include: 

My Strength and Shield- This is a workshop that explores heraldry, identity and belonging. Using stamps and shapes, learners design their own shield and explain their style choices to one another which they can take home at the end of the visit.

Stained Glass- This workshop introduces students to the Minster's rich collection of stained glass helps them to design their own stained glass window, using medieval designs to create images. 

Language and script- This workshop engages pupils with the language of memorials and celebrations of life. Learners collect words from monuments, coffin plates and church records through brass rubbing or photography, helping them to explore expressions of love, praise and memory.  

Handling Archaeology- We have a collection of archaeological finds for handling and discussion, including pottery, animal bones, metal finds, and many other things. Students can make replicas of objects, explore why some things decay and others don’t, and think about what objects tell us about the way people lived in the past.  

Objects and finds ready for handling!

A travel bursary is available from the Ann Watson Trust- schools must apply for this separately.  To book please contact Jane Owen at jane@hullminster.org; we look forward to hosting these workshops!  

Restorations this summer

We’ve had a lot of work done this summer on our artefacts to keep them in top condition. We are very excited to show you some footage from the restoration work; see below for footage of the restoration of our tower clock!

Revival Back to Life Project - July newsletter

A focus on young people

It has been a busy couple of months with an intern, an apprentice and a work experience student joining the project. Following the pandemic, where opportunities for young people were limited, we felt it important to make sure that young people could be part of our project. They bring an insight and fresh perspective we might not have thought of, as well as adding talent and skills which we lack.

Bailey joins us an administrative apprentice helping out with lots of activities.

Bailey joins us as an apprentice for a year. He is learning about digital content and marketing as well as doing general administration and office work. Grace joined us from high school where she will sit her GCSE’s next year. She helped with creating some digital content for our web and Twitter feeds. Both Bailey and Grace helped out with volunteer training which all the volunteers enjoyed.

Grace showing a group our Civil War cannonball from 1642.

This month we will be joined by two Phd students. Josh is from the White Rose College for the Arts and Humanities - a formal academic collaboration between York, Sheffield and Leeds universities. He’ll be with us at the end of July for the archeology days where he’ll be bringing his knowledge of early devotional spaces to light through workshops centred on our 15th century Rhineland bowl.

Stephen, studying for a Phd at the university of York in archaeology, will join is part-time throughout the summer to assist with engagement activities and interpretation. We’re looking forward to seeing him on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. He’ll be sharing some of his knowledge of Hull and East Riding archeology and helping our volunteers develop visitor guides around our special objects.

We’ve got our first large school group coming in this month to celebrate the glory of stained glass. 65 of Adelaide Primary School’s year 5’s will join us for the day to explore, design and create stained glass in variety of media.

This month, we say CONGRATULATIONS to the PGCE students of the University of Hull as their graduate this month and start their teaching careers. Their wonderful E-books, created as part of their study time with us are available on the website by clicking here. 70 students learnt how churches can be used as an education resource so we hope they feel brave to keep exploring them in their new schools.

Shirley, our new Volunteering Manager, has visited schools and Hull College to recruit some 16-21 year old volunteers to help at Hull Minster. Volunteering hours can be counted towards Duke of Edinburgh ‘service’ and provide a great way to improve interpersonal skills, heritage knowledge and employability.

Click here to find out about the events we have on this summer, or to contact Shirley to volunteer.

 
 

Revival - Back to Life - our project begins……….

Fragment of pottery from Trinity Square

Great news! The Heritage Fund is supporting us with our Revival - Back to Life Project and we have have planned the first couple of months. Our heritage volunteer team have been working hard over the last year to put the project together and are delighted to receive £248k to fund the project for the next two years.

As we launch, we are looking forward to welcoming Hull’s RE ambassadors from Francis Askew Primary School as they try out some of the workshops that we will be offering during the project. Look out for their digital report in a future post.

They’ll be here with the PGCE students from the University of Hull who will be visiting on the 23rd March to “collect” resources for their digital learning project. They’ll be using the heritage of the Minster to inspire lessons for the primary curriculum and learning how they can use their local church to stimulate learning when they become teachers.

Dr Louise Hampson reviews our collection

We have begun to restore some of the items in our collection so that we can share them with the public in our new visitor centre. Fragile items in our collection are going from Humberfield Archaeology, where Lisa has catalogued and labelled them, to a conservation team for stabilisation and preparation for display.

We will be working with our partners at the University of York, Centre for Christianity and Culture, who are experts in designing and delivering interpretive materials for visitors. This will include high quality audio-visual and digital resources. Dr Louise Hampson has been advising us in the design of the project and we are planning the visitor experience together. We’ll be using a 3d printer to recreate some or our most delicate finds so that visitors can touch the replicas.

Late 1700’s bear mug

We're now recruiting for a Volunteering Manager who will help us recruit, train and manage all our volunteers. The new potholder will help us and the church of St Mary’s, Lowgate, to provide a high quality welcome to visitors.

If you’d like to find out more about the project or get involved contact jane@hullminster.org