Lyme Park Heritage Open Day on Saturday 21st Sept 2019

A fabulously sunny day at Lyme Hall

MNTV were invited by Alex, the Volunteering & Community Officer at Lyme, to help on their 2019 Heritage Open Day which was held on Saturday 21st Sept.
For those not aware, "Heritage Open Days (also known as HODs) are an annual celebration of England's architecture and culture that allows visitors free access to historical landmarks that are either not usually open to the public, would normally charge an entrance fee, or that are always free to visitors and always open to the public".
Four of us volunteered to help today, Georgi, Chris, Sue and David, and we met at 9.30am, in time to have a briefing in the NT estate office within part of Lyme Hall, along with some other volunteers there specifically to help on the Heritage Open Day.
After finding out where extra help would be required during the day, and giving our preferences for where we would like to help, we started off in the reception marquee by the main car park, giving information about the various attractions and events available during the day.
As it became busier, Sue went to help on car park duties to assist the other volunteers ensuring everyone could find a parking space in the various overflow car parks.
Sue had to leave helping with the car parking at 12.30pm so she could get to her next task which was in Lyme Hall, to take over from one of the helpers in the dressing up area. This is a fabulous room, where costumes and accessories 'of the time', made or acquired by the volunteer seamstresses at Lyme, were available for free, for children and adults to wear and dress up as Edwardian's, to then walk around the hall and grounds. So many people wanted to do this that we had to ask people to wait outside the room at times as it was getting so busy and hot. I heard so many fabulous comments about how people had enjoyed the experience, many from men who hadn't wanted to take part but, by the time they had walked around the hall and gardens in the sunshine with their families, wearing their suits and top hats, found it an amazingly positive experience and would do it again.

Sue on her way into Lyme Hall to find the dressing up room 

After helping on the main marquee, Chris and David offered to run the printing demonstration within Lyme Hall, showing how printing was done back in the Edwardian period, while Georgi helped on the soft archery which was part of the  'Leave No Trace' activities,  part of the recycling, and celebrating sporting activities that leave no trace.
We all agreed that we had a fabulous day and really enjoyed helping at Lyme Park.