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Friends of Kent Life
The ‘Association of Friends of the Museum of Kent Life' is registered as a charity and has an active membership. It exists to promote, support, project and safeguard the interests, aims and objectives of Kent Life but as volunteers we get great enjoyment from being part of this living heritage site.
‘Friends’ are seen at Kent Life events, helping with activities designed to bring the history back to life, whether it be working in the Hop Garden and Oast House for the Hopping Weekend or crushing & pressing apples at the Apple Festival - all in the old fashioned way. ‘Friends’ are also seen at events helping children with Victorian games and toys - produced by the ‘Friends’ - organising and staffing of other sideshows, Rag Rug making and many more.
‘Friends’ act as tour guides for some of the groups that come to visit Kent Life during the Summer, and frequently dress in period costume to roam around the site.
‘Friends’ work to bring Kent Life to a wider audience by assisting with staffing the Kent Life stand at the County Show and lending atmosphere to media events as they happen. In 2005 we met the Countess of Wessex when she visited Kent LIfe and we appeared on Meridian television when they presented their local news programmes from the Kent Life
Behind the scenes the ‘Friends’ have regular working parties, with ‘Friends’ using their own expertise and learning new skills. Typical activities include:
- Restoring larger items of historic farm machinery
- Assisting with the care, conservation and cataloguing of the many artefacts in store
- Historical research
- Building work on projects or maintenance
- Deep cleaning of the houses
- Planting and caring for the Medieval Herb Garden
- Growing and planting of wild flowers and the Ornamental Gardens
- Stringing and twiddling in the Hop Garden
- Arranging flowers in the Chapel
Providing this care for Kent LIfe's exhibits and artefacts enables ‘Friends’ to get close to and learn so much about this fascinating collection of Kent’s recent history. New members are always welcome, for more information please contact the the Friends Membership Secretary at Kent Life.
Voluntary Work
Kent Life is always looking to improve and develop our site and we appreciate all the work our volunteers do. The duties are varied depending on the skills you have to offer. We have volunteers helping with gardening, office and administration work, site maintenance, cleaning and upkeep of our many houses, help with production work for special events and much more. We also offer a limited number of work placements for schools.
For information about voluntary work please contact the Operations Manager Tony Read |
