Heritage Volunteers Fifty years of Heritage Volunteers One of the first actions initiated by the founders of The Arts Society (Then called NADFAS) was to inaugurate Heritage Volunteers. Their principal aim is to help the conservation and preservation of our national artistic heritage for the benefit of the public. From the conservation of books to projects in historic parks and gardens, The Arts Society’s Heritage Volunteers are busy all over the UK helping to conserve and protect the nation’s heritage. They work in many different roles including book conservators, stewards and archivists in heritage sites. In the last half- century, tens of thousands of hours have been provided by Volunteers, amounting to millions of pounds-worth of time freely given. Until 2020 our own Society’s Heritage Volunteers were working in Oakham Museum on a Roman coin collection, and a local policeman's pocketbooks, which spanned the time between the two World Wars.They also conserved the same constable’s 1940s police uniform, which he had donated to the museum many years ago. In the course of the conservation, the medal ribbons on the uniform enabled the Volunteers to discover the constable’s military service during WWI. During the pandemic one of our HV team worked from home, engaged in the House of Lords "Book Trousers" project and actively made paper and card covers to record barcodes on 16,000 books. If heritage is your passion and you want to make a difference, this might be the role for you. Volunteers receive appropriate training, provided by curators, volunteering managers and specialist conservators, enabling you to spend time in these wonderful places as part of a team. There will soon be more interesting and valuable Heritage Volunteer opportunities in this area. If you are interested in more information on these please contact the Chair on oakham@theartssociety.org