Hi, my name is Tanel and I am a work experience student, here to talk to you about my amazing experience at the Charterhouse. I have been on site for two weeks, and sadly today is my last day. I wanted to give you an overview of what I have spent my time on site doing, so see below for a journal of my time here…

I started on a Tuesday and met with Holly who is the Volunteer Coordinator, and oversees all the volunteering on site. She gave me an overview of the Charterhouse and showed me around. The site itself is much bigger than I thought, and complicated (it is like a maze!) but I managed to have my routes memorized by the end of the first day. I also met Marylyn (Visitor Host) who is based in the Museum, but she also runs the Instagram accounts. Then I had a Brothers lunch, which was fantastic, but even better than the delicious food was the Brothers themselves- they were hilarious!

It wasn’t until the next day that everything settled in my brain, and I realized that the Charterhouse is not just a Museum but also an Almshouse and Garden. I met many different volunteers on site, but in my opinion the sweetest were the Garden volunteers! I spent some time with them on site and my role was to cut flowers and help in making jam-jar arrangements full of fresh produce from the Garden which we then put in the Infirmary for them to enjoy.

The next day I also got to design my own Instagram post, which will, by now, be visible on the main Charterhouse Instagram page.

I spent one day with Gabriella (Museum, Collections and Learning Manager) and that was maybe the weirdest day of them all! I learned about her role in the museum, and got shown the collections rooms. She explained how pests could damage the artefacts that were being stored…to think that you have to count pests and then log them on an excel programme is mind boggling!

Over the second week I was on site I was feeling more confident in understanding how the museum worked, and thought I had met most of the team, but realised that wasn’t the case! I was soon to meet Gemma (Learning Co-Ordinator) who organizes school groups, and also Nichola (Community Engagement Officer) who deals with groups who visit from outside the museum, for example Dementia groups.

Overall I learnt so much at my two week placement at the charterhouse and I would definitely recommend coming to the site because it has over 650 years of history. I would also like to thank all of the amazing staff and the fantastic brothers who made me feel welcome.

Tanel took lots of photos of Easter eggs around the Charterhouse for our planned Easter campaign