What is in the racking?

Over the last nine months I have done many things that makes the answer to the question ‘how was work today?’ sound very interesting. I have fork-lifted a mammoth tusk. I have frozen an Anglo Saxon manikin. I have cleaned a Bishop’s Throne and written a trail about dragons.

The weird and wonderful has become the everyday so perhaps I should spell out what I do here over in the Norfolk Collections Centre and why I think it is important. My job title is Collections Management trainee, and although you may think that it’s not hard to manage a load of inanimate objects, it is harder than it sounds.

The weird and wonderful normally appears at the beginning of the week when reaching up and lifting down some of the mystery pallets off the racking. In fact that is the most exciting time, when we are about to look at something new and are unsure of what we may find.

So far some of the delights have been our saint statues from various Norwich churches. We also have a Bishop’s Throne from Norwich Cathedral, we have beadle staffs from the processions of Norwich mayors, fire places, cookers, mangles, swords, various pieces of furniture, medieval chests and ‘Spike’ our funeral monument.

So we have our objects down from the racking, what is there to do next? Well we do a thorough check of each object, have a look at its unique number and see what sort of condition it is in. We then have a look at its record on our database. We will add detail to that record to make sure that it has a correct location and that we document any work we do on it such as cleaning. Perhaps most important though is taking a photo and adding that to the record, so if someone searches for it they know exactly what it looks like without having to forklift it down again.

Going through this process also means me and my colleague Sophie Towne get an in-depth knowledge of the objects we work on. What they are, where they have come from and what they might have been used for.

We then re-pack the objects so that they are nice and safe to go back up onto the racking. Now why do we do all of this? The reason is simple: access.

With every object we look at, clean, photograph and update on the database, our knowledge improves. This means we can then pass that knowledge onto the people who are interested, our visitors. The people who truly own the collection.

So far during this project we have been open on two event days at Gressenhall for tours of the store, which have been very popular. We have also run activities over October half-term, giving a new audience the chance to explore what we have behind the scenes. We are also currently planning to be open for February half-term.

Why do I like working here? Why do people want to come and look round the store? Both are easy questions to answer.

It’s ‘cause old stuff is interesting.

Josh Giles
Collections Management Trainee

Coming to an end at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse

Hi, my name’s Sonny and I am a Heritage Gardening Trainee at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, as some of you may know from my previous blog. I’ve been here since February 20th 2014 so now coming up to the last 3 months of my traineeship, which has gone by pretty quickly.

I spend two days a week at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse where me and Sam have been working really hard on the farmhouse garden, and the garden has been flowering and flowering and flowering which is great to see.

I’ve been at Holkham on placement for the second half of my traineeship, which I have really enjoyed. I have had lots of opportunities in the woodland, crosscutting wood and also got to fell some trees, which were all great fun. I also went on a tree marking and pruning course at Holkham where I learned about continuous cover forestry and why it’s so important to manage our woodland for the future prosperity of the Woodland. I’ve also been working in the walled garden where we got to work on the vegetable garden. I also got the opportunity to pick fresh vegetables from the garden, wash and prep them for Lord and Lady Coke and for hunting parties at the weekend.

I have done several more courses since my last blog from chipper and brush cutter training to hedge laying courses at Gressenhall, which were a great learning experience.

It’s been a good 9 months and I have gained many of the skills and qualifications I will need to get a job in the heritage garden setting when I finish my traineeship in February.

Sonny Brown
Heritage Gardening Trainee

Are weddings any different today, than those in Medieval times?

My job role in the last six months has changed significantly. I have gone from organising various events to researching the current wedding market. My focus in this blog is to look at the ‘traditional wedding’ through the ages, and explore the differences to the modern day wedding.

Medieval Weddings

During the middle ages, there was a rise in marriage laws. In 1076 The Council of Westminster enforced the law that meant a priest must bless a marriage therefore contracts and legal documents started to be drawn up, similar to today’s marriage contracts and licenses.

The finest silks with gold or silver embroidery would be worn, brightly colored fabrics were popular and men would wear their finest court attire. Jewelry, furs and elaborate belts adorned every noble body.

White is now the symbol of purity, and most wedding dresses made in this hue. In the middle ages this wasn’t so. Bride’s would wear blue most often, as blue was the symbol of purity. If her gown were not blue, she would wear something else blue, like a ribbon in her hair. This is where today’s tradition of “something blue” comes from.

Today’s tiered wedding cakes actually stemmed from the middle Ages. Guests would bring little cakes and stack them on top of one another. The bride and groom would then try to kiss over the top of the cakes without knocking them to the ground.

Guests included inhabitants of the residence, other nobles and distant relatives and unlike today, Invitations were not sent out.

The noble wedding was rarely one filled with love – It was an arranged marriage. Peasants were a little different however, as they would often marry for love.

Elizabethan Weddings

A lot of the customs from the middle ages were still upheld during Elizabethan times. Religion still played a major role in weddings, and a priest would normally conduct ceremonies in a church. The cost of the wedding fell to the bride’s father, however in small villages; neighbours may prepare food for the feast, sort of like a potluck dinner.

Flowers played a bigger part. The bridesmaids would be in charge of making bouquets for guests, and to make the wedding garland, which was rosemary and roses. The bride would carry her garland until after the ceremony, where she would then place it on her head.

Victorian Weddings

Queen Victoria is often given credit for making the white wedding gown popular since she herself wore white to her wedding; however there have been many royal and non-royal brides after her that did not wear white.

Flowers became more and more important in a wedding; the church or chapel would be decorated with them. Men would wear a flower in the lapel of their frock coat or morning coat. In the country, a bride would walk to the chapel on a carpet of flower blossoms.

Wartime weddings

Romance continued to flourish even during wartime. The possibility of separation and the dangers of war caused many young lovers to ‘throw caution to the wind’.
It was often a hurried affair and not done in the style and manner that was previously possible. Before 1939, most couples would have opted for a traditional style wedding with a chapel or church ceremony, accompanying bridesmaids and guests, and a reception to follow. However, with the outbreak of war, there was no time for elaborate plans, so weddings were organised with less formality.

Instead of the traditional wedding dress most bridal outfits were made up of utility clothes. They were of simple design and made with the least amount of material possible and, since they could be worn again, made effective use of the clothing coupons.

Although many weddings that took place during the war could not follow all traditions, they were however, a source of pride and celebration as friends and family united to provide all the essentials. Help was given with the outfits and other aspects of the organisation. Enthusiastic amateurs took the photos, and neighbours and relatives contributed precious food rations to the wedding breakfast and ingredients for the cake.

I think it is clear to see that not much has really changed from even has far back at medieval times. Trends may come and go but the principal that weddings are a chance for families and friends to celebrate a couple’s love seems to never alter.

 

Miriam Burroughs

Skills For The Future Public Events Trainee

Hello from the education department at Gressenhall!

We’re now well into the new school year and we have begun delivering a major new school event about the Neolithic period. The team has spent a lot of the summer holidays developing sessions for the event: a ‘special things’ session, a farming session, a hunting session and a shelter session. We will have a turn at delivering each of the sessions- so far I have delivered Special Things (which includes an object-finding and handling session in our First Farmers Gallery, plus making a clay pot) and Shelter (where children find out about Neolithic homes, and have a go at making their own shelter). It has been a really useful experience to see how a session is developed and then to run and evaluate it. It’s also interesting to be in the same position as the rest of the team- usually everyone else has delivered a session lots of times whilst I’m new to everything. This time it was new to all of us!

Another new school event will be starting shortly- the new primary curriculum requires children to learn about life within living memory, and in response to this we will be offering a 1950s event for Key Stage 1 children. I have been researching life in the 1950s, getting toys and television footage (including a truly terrifying Gerry Anderson show called Torchy the Battery Boy- look it up if you’ve never seen it!), and most importantly sourcing items for the 1950s-themed doll’s house which we’ll be using to illustrate what a home would have looked like during this period. I never had a doll’s house as a child, so a fascinating (and slightly bizarre) new miniature world has been opened up to me!

Some of the growing collection of doll’s house furniture, complete with cat and mouse

In addition to preparing for our new events, I have once again been helping to run our Early Years group, Muddy Museum Café. Our most recent session was about tractors, so we set up a tractor training run (with the children role-playing as tractors) in our farmhouse garden. They then painted and decorated cardboard tractors, which had been lovingly made by me and our Live Interpretation Officer, Rachel. (Who knew it could take almost a whole day to glue together cereal boxes and loo rolls!?)

The fleet of tractors ready to be decorated

The farmhouse garden converted into a tractor training run

 

 

 

 

 

I recently shadowed our Visitor Services Trainee, Lydia, to get an idea of the multitude of different tasks carried out by our Front of House team. I realised just how hard the team works to keep the museum looking lovely and clean, and making sure that all of our visitors are having a good time.

I’ve also had the opportunity to attend training sessions which will be very valuable for my professional development. As Tabitha, another Learning Trainee, mentioned in her blog, we and the other SftF trainees attended an Understanding Museums course; one of the convenors being Gressenhall’s first curator. In two short days Bridget and her colleague Nicola were able to give us a great insight into the heritage sector, including the history of museums, how to use objects and stories in museums, governance, ethics and much more. Coming from a different sector I found this course really helpful and it was something I probably wouldn’t have been able to do without my traineeship.

For the remainder of my time here I’ll be doing lots more training, including Forest Schools Level 1, Paediatric First Aid, becoming an Arts Award adviser and several sessions by SHARE Museums East, who put on free training for museum staff and volunteers in the East of England. However the main bulk of my training over the next three months will be a foundation course run by the Group for Education in Museums, giving me specialised training in museum learning. I believe there are still a couple of places left on the course if anyone is interested.

One of the great things about doing a traineeship at Gressenhall is the opportunity to work with different departments, to get as broad an experience as possible. Over the summer holidays I was able to work with the Events team to deliver informal learning sessions such as Art Attack!, a themed art session which took place every day of the holidays. I also helped with one of our biggest public events, Village at War, which took place at the end of August and saw thousands of visitors coming to commemorate both the First and Second World Wars. One of the highlights of the two-day event was a flypast by a Lancaster. I was in role at the event as a 1940s shopkeeper, handing out rations of sweets to the under-18s and selling Spitfire badges to raise money for the Battle of Britain Memorial Fund. Many thanks to everyone who bought a badge! I’ll be joining the Events team again soon for our Hallowe’en event on the 30th and 31st October. More details about the event are on the main page of Gressenhall’s website– do come along!

Selling Spitfire badges at Village at War

How many miles of wire netting does it take to control the wild rabbits of Australia?

This is one of many questions I never thought I’d have the answer to, but just so you know it turns out it’s 7,500 miles of netting.

I discovered this fact quite by chance whilst researching the Boulton and Paul P10 aircraft wing, which is housed at the Norfolk Collections Centre.

The P10 aircraft wing made by Boulton and Paul

As part of my traineeship I designed the pop-up banners (6 foot tall information posters which can be folded away when not in use) which we use at the Norfolk Collections Centre during tours. It was during my research of our ‘star objects’ that I stumbled upon this glorious tit-bit about the Norwich-based aircraft and general manufacturer Boulton and Paul Ltd, the constructors of the P10 aircraft.

Boulton and Paul did not just produce aircrafts during the 20^th century, they also made miles and miles of wire netting and were known internationally for the quality and efficiency of their Norwich workshops. At the time when the P10 aircraft was created in 1919, the galvanized wire netting department could produce up to 400 miles of netting per week. Thus, the company was chosen as the supplier of netting to Australia in order to ease their, apparently substantial, rabbit problem.

One of the Boulton and Paul Ltd wire netting workshops in Norwich c.1929

I am now almost 6 months into my traineeship at the Norfolk Collections Centre and I have discovered and experienced more than I ever thought possible, the rabbit netting anecdote being one of the more hilarious finds during my banner research. Creating the banners was a really rewarding experience. I produced and edited the text after considerable research on our ‘star objects’ and tracked down and chose the images to be included in the designs to complement the artefacts and put them into context. I worked closely with our designer and had the final say on layout.

Eventually, after much hard work and battles with high resolution images my vision was realised. We were able to showcase the banners on their maiden voyage for Heritage Open Day on 14^th September 2014 when we opened the Norfolk Collections Centre for our timed tours. It was a real thrill to see the banners in all their 6 foot magnificence with the text and images I worked on sitting proudly beside their respective objects for visitors to enjoy.

The final display! The Boulton and Paul P10 aircraft wing alongside its banner ready for Heritage Open Day

In the next 6 months I am certain I will be exploring many more aspects of collections management and discovering many more unusual facts along the way.

 

Sophie Towne

Collections Management Trainee

Ancient House Museum, Thetford, and Fenland Lives & Land Project.

A very blustery hello to everyone – I feel like I’ve been travelling around all over the place these last few months being very excitedly busy!
Since my last blog I’ve spent most of my time delivering the informal learning programme of the Fen Museums Partnership Lives & Land Project out in the Fens, which covers parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Lincolnshire. However I’ve still found time to continue projects at Ancient House as well as some training workshops, so it’s been rather hectic but great fun.

First of all, the end of the school term before summer saw me in charge of the Ancient House History Club for a four week slot. I decided on the subject of King Henry II and the rebellion of his sons (which I enjoyed studying at University), and in which time Thetford Castle was destroyed – a great link! It was a challenge to be able to fit such a complex subject into four, hour and a quarter sessions, but it was really successful, with the kids enjoying a trip to the castle mound and re-enacting a possible argument between Henry II and Hugh Bigod – very amusing! The challenge really gave me a great sense of the work and consideration that needs to go into any museum club for it to be an accomplishment. As well as the great children that are so happily engaged in a range of subjects delivered by the staff at Ancient House, and keep coming back for more!

The beginning of the school holidays also saw the final preparations of Ancient House’s Thetford and the Great War part one exhibition, part of the Thetford Remembers HLF funded town partnership, which opened on the 1st August. Because of the popularity of our Toys and Games exhibition, it has been extended until November, when the Thetford and the Great War part two exhibition will take over. That means this initial exhibition offers a great introduction to how the war affected people and the town, and be continued later in the year. A main section of this exhibition is the Victorian kitchen, which has been updated to a 1914 Wartime kitchen. A key part of this was the transformation of our resident mannequin Mr Newton, into his son Leonard Newton, both of which were members of a family that lived in Ancient House. Leonard went to war in 1914 and unfortunately was killed in action, and it is his story that we wished to tell within the kitchen setting. As part of this Emily, the Teaching Museums Curatorial Trainee, and I began working on an interactive unit inside a suitcase, as if belonging to Leonard, which visitors could rummage though its contents. The whole process was a learning journey, from the design and objectives of the suitcase and sourcing the handling objects, to the creation and display of the information boards inside. It really gave me an insight into how much time and thought goes into each display case and interactive unit within the museum, with every detail needing to be taken into consideration before the final product. Before the exhibition opening it was all go in the museum with everyone ensuring that all was prepared and ready, and the event went smoothly with great success! I am really proud of our suitcase and what we have managed to create in such a short time, and I really hope that it will be a good accompaniment to a fantastic exhibition exploring the effect of the Great War on Thetford and its people.

Emily and I with our suitcase of handling objects associated to Leonard’s life.

Dressed for World War One House Alive event at Ancient House making seed bombs!

For the Fenland Project, the informal learning programme goes alongside the five exhibitions that have been touring some of the museums that are in partnership. Together with Ruth, the project support worker, we have traveled to a variety of museums during the school holidays to deliver the programme, as part of a larger event or as an addition to the museum’s event calendar. Activities range from creating your own Viking brooch, hearing about ice skating championships and making mini-skates, to a community art project decorating Fenland bygone animals that will be animated into a film in September. A vast range indeed!

Some examples of the brilliant pattern work done by children over the summer.

This August bank holiday Ruth and I were at Denny Abbey Farmland Museum, to be part of a medieval weekend creating stained glass windows, alongside a cider stand, other children’s activities, and talented re-enactors. Although rather wet and cold on the Monday it was a brilliant day enjoyed by everyone – even those in soaked cagoules and wellies! The windows that the visitors made were fantastic and looked really colourful inside the Abbey where our activity was based. I’m sure many will have been stuck straight onto bedroom windows as soon as arrived home! Travelling to the varied museums such as Denny Abbey, Prickwillow Pumping Engine Museum, Chatteris Museum, and Ely Museum, has been a great insight into how such diverse and individual museums operate, as well as how a partnership can really bring these museums together and benefit all within it.

One of the other activities this summer, Fenland food!

Amazingly, along with all the goings on at Ancient House and the Lives & Land project, I’ve managed to fit in some training too. Along with other Museum of East Anglian Life and Gressenhall Skills For The Future trainees, I attended a special two day course on Understanding Museums, lead by Nicola Johnson and Bridget Yates. The two days were crammed full of extremely valuable information, from the history of museums, to museum ethics, all of which were interesting and highly useful. As well as a chance for me to meet other SFTF trainees I hadn’t managed to before, it was fantastic to really understand the ins and outs of museums, and how and why they do what they do today. Nicola and Bridget really know their stuff – I thank them sincerely!
In addition to this, I was fortunate enough to attend a Kids in Museums Family Fortunes workshop at the Jewish Museum in London. The day was full of inspiring speakers as well as group discussions and sharing ideas on how to make your museum more family friendly. I particularly liked the principle of ‘grossology’ at Chiltern Open Air Museum, and poo dissecting – finding out what people of the past ate by poking around in fake poo, great fun and I’ve kept the recipe! Everyone who attended really got involved and the sharing around the room was unbelievable, with so many ideas of things that museums do or could do to bring in more families and engage with children and adults. I highly recommend the workshop to all in the museums sector, whether in learning specifically or not, as it really emphasises the reason why museums exist.

I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings, but they unfortunately will possibly be my last on this blog as my traineeship finishes in early November – I’m sure it will come around very quickly! I really am relishing all the experiences and possibilities that this traineeship has given me since March, as well as the people I’ve met along the way. It has also reassured me that my heart lies in museums and the brilliant work they do, so I must continue to pursue this with great vigour and excitement!

Bye for now!

Tabitha Runacres – Heritage Learning Trainee

A Gardening Double Bill

This week we have two connected blogs for you about our wonderful Gressenhall Gardens:

The Farmhouse Garden

A main focus of our work at Gressenhall as Heritage Gardening Trainees, so far, is the Farmhouse Garden. Following on from Scott’s hard work last year and a very mild winter, a new approach has been taken as we are limited by how much labour is available from our wonderful volunteers.  The volunteers at Gressenhall do an amazing job of looking after the gardens. Not only do they keep the weeds down but they bring armfuls of plants to enhance and develop the gardens.

Last year under Scott’s care the Farmhouse Garden had been mainly laid to annual vegetables and fruit.  We quickly realised that we would not be able to continue to do this on a part time basis. So work began to try and create the feel of a working Farmhouse Garden, but aiming to keep down the amount of labour that was needed to maintain it. With this in mind we have converted one of the vegetable patches with a mixture of soft fruit and perennial vegetables. 

 We have planted raspberry canes, gooseberries and currants alongside asparagus, cardoons, fennel, Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb, French sorrel and chives. Some nasturtium and marigold seedlings, self sown from last year have appeared along the edge of the bed to provide some colour. Plants found around the garden have been replanted in larger groups to provide a bigger impact of colour through the year and to cover more ground giving less space to weeds. A big challenge has been to keep the weeds down on the path, but hopefully doing the PA1 and PA6 spraying certificate will end their reign.  A decision has been made to return to grass some areas in the garden – the area under the apple trees and a large bed in the centre.

 

The garden has been improved immensely by the hard work of the landscape trainees who laid the hedges all the way round.  This has opened up the garden to more light but also made it quite a windy site.  This has meant that during a dry spring the plants have struggled with drying out after being moved. Luckily after a few downpours they have recovered and we have enjoyed seeing the garden in full flower during the summer.

Sam Kemp
Heritage Gardening Trainee

 

Guest Blog From Former Heritage Gardening Trainee, Kay Davis

When I was asked to help mentor the new Skills for the Future Trainees I leapt at the opportunity. I hoped I would be able to pass on some of the enthusiasm and knowledge I gained when I first started my training several years ago.

The two trainees Sam and Sonny were and still are keen to gain as much information as possible. We set up a few tasks and soon had a diary list for them. So far we have achieved a small survey and re-design of part of the farmhouse garden. This is on going and both Sam and Sonny have made great progress. Sonny created a bug/fernery in the wildlife garden and already more insects have been spotted. Sam has been busy propagating, dividing and splitting plants from different areas of the site and re-using them where needed. They have also identified and listed existing plants from the different gardens.

Sonny and Sam are also undertaking the RHS level 2 Certificate in Horticulture. It is challenging in different ways for both of them and is definitely keeping me on my toes; I’ve never done so much revision!

I hope everyone can see the changes and is enjoying having Sonny and Sam on site. I know I am enjoying being a mentor at Gressenhall.

Kay

History of the Binder

In this addition of my blog I will be talking about the binder and knotting mechanism. The binder is a later improved version of the reaper. The reaper was an implement that just cut the crop, rather than combining it with the processes of cutting and tying it into sheaves.

The binder was invented in 1872 by Charles Withington. The binder cuts the cereal crop a couple of inches of the floor and ties the cut crop into sheaves. These sheaves are then ‘stooked’ in the field, resembling tipis, by the farm labourers who are following behind the machine. The stooks were then left to ripen out in the field before they were carted in.

The original binders used wire to tie the sheaves, but this gave various problems during operation and also when it came to harvest, so, William Deering then invented a binder that used a twine knotter that was invented by John Appleby.

The knotter is a bit like the sowing machine: the machine pushes a needle in and pulls loops in nanoseconds as it passes by. In the same way, the knotter on the binder loops the twine around the cut crop onto the knotter beak, which then opens and grabs the twine as a knife cuts it to length. The beak then turns to tie the knot and releases once it has done its rotation. This all happens in the space of a second. Below is a picture of the knot the knotter mechanism produces.

The knotter mechanism revolutionised agriculture and the same mechanism is still used today. There have been variations on the knotter, for example, August Claas adapted the knotter with a limited floating beak. It was then patented in 1921 and is still used in their bailers to this present day. Below is a picture of the CLAAS logo on one of their combines. You can see the knotter needle and beak is used as part of the company branding.

Ben Preston – Heritage Farming Apprentice

Hello From Shine a Light

Hello we are Sophie Towne and Josh Giles the Skills for the Future Collections Management Trainees at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse.

We are working on the Shine a Light project which is focussing on behind the scenes developing our stored collections. Over the next year we will be working hard to reorganise our stores to make them more accessible to staff, researchers and the public.

So a bit more about us…

I am Josh! I studied history and have always wanted a job working with museum collections. History has always been fascinating to me.  Objects from the most mundane to the most weird and wonderful excite me. So being here in the Norfolk Collections Centre seems like the perfect job…..

Fresh out of university I volunteered at Swaffham Museum and managed to work hands on with their collections. I then went on to work as part of the Visitor Services team here at Gressenhall which was a great experience. This role as part of the Skills for the Future project is my first paid job with collections and so far it has been very enjoyable if quite challenging.

I’m Sophie! The first few weeks at Gressenhall were a flurry of introductions, inductions and computer e-learning. I’ve already learnt loads in just a short space of time, like how to manoeuvre a gigantic silk press into a freezer and the best way to photograph a guillotine.

I have some experience of working with museums, however, I have never attempted anything quite on the scale of the Norfolk Collections Centre.

Our story so far…

The first week, we were confronted with this… row upon row of racking full of objects

Some of our favourite objects that we have found:

These are seven statues of Saints from the first row of racking.

We have lots of support and training from other members of staff:

Dave Harvey from conservation teaching us about Pest Management

Fraser driving the forklift and Dave Savage in the cage helping with heavy objects

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we like to have a bit of fun:

This is Josh (above)  posing with the saints and our resident manikin for social media and Sophie having far too much fun with the strapping machine:

Most importantly we have been making the collections more accessible.

Here is our Mammoth tusk having its new case unveiled:

And I am sure you will be hearing more from us in the future.

Josh Giles and Sophie Towne

Engineering an Opportunity

My name is Robert and I am the Heritage Engineering Trainee. At the beginning of my traineeship I was long term unemployed since college, and I was in the same position as many young people and wondering what I wanted to do as a career. When I found out about this traineeship I jumped at the chance. When I got down to the final seven I was absolutely psyched as not only was I in the running for the job but a childhood dream of working with trains. So far in my traineeship I’ve worked on live steam locomotives, static steam pumps/boilers, pumping/line shafting equipment as well as metal working and use of cutting gear and hand tools.

Admiring an engine on a site visit

I knew I was quite good before but I realised I was limited and the skills I’m acquiring and making something like repairing my mother’s electric lawnmower or 1000w drill no longer seem beyond me. So thanks to the Skills for the Future programme, not only am I training in my favourite field but I am also achieving more than I thought possible before.

Examining an engineering diagram

I hope to one day have a full time job in engineering, which for me is something I really want to spend the rest of my life doing. This now is quite possible with the head start I’ve got with my traineeship.