During our closed season between the end of October and mid-March, lots of things happen at Crich – our staff and volunteers don’t go into hibernation! There are many jobs that are ongoing and never stop.
In the workshop, maintenance of our tramcar fleet and major restoration projects continue.
Important work on the track and overhead line is carried out and our Facilities team carry out a wide variety of maintenance tasks on buildings and the wider site.
In the Curatorial Department, work continues to catalogue the collections, carry out conservation tasks and plan future displays.
Marketing, Events and Education session planning is always in progress, organising activities, taking bookings, and preparing for the season ahead. Retail and catering staff are also busy with admin tasks and sorting out stock for the next season.
Whilst our traffic crew volunteers obviously don’t drive trams to carry visitors while we’re closed, some choose to help in other areas including tasks in the workshop, library, events team, and all around the Museum.
A valuable contribution is made by the ‘Crich Care Team’ – volunteers who come together over a number of ‘winter working weekends’. They carry out a huge range of tasks around the whole site including cleaning public areas, clearing obstructions from between the rails, repairs and maintenance jobs, carrying out paperwork for traffic crew training and driving licences, stock taking the uniform available for crew, and removing vegetation which has been identified as endangering the overhead line and/or suffering from ash die back. Volunteers also assist the curatorial department to clean the trams in the Exhibition Hall and depots.
All of these jobs are essential to the running of the Museum and help us to prepare for reopening to visitors – this year that’s on 9th March 2024. We look forward to seeing you then!
We are always on the look-out for volunteers – if you are interested in finding out more, please see our website page: https://www.tramway.co.uk/volunteering/
