#makehistory

The Abbey Marshal: Alex’s Story

I knew about the Abbey when I was in the Philippines, it’s been over ten years ago now since I first arrived in the UK. I actually started off in customer services, then I became an Audio Guide Assistant and now I’m a Marshal.

As an Abbey Marshal, my job is to provide a safe and welcoming environment for visitors and worshipers, and perhaps most importantly to help them enjoy their experience at the Abbey. I’ve been asked some strange questions before – someone once asked if this was St. Paul’s Cathedral!

Often, visitors are unaware that the Abbey is a Royal Peculiar, receiving no funding from the UK government or the Crown and therefore reliant on public donations. With the exception of worshippers, who we never charge, we always explain this to visitors.

Through my different roles here I have learnt so much about the Abbey; even now I’m still learning new things about its history.

I feel very privileged to work here. I take so much pride in working for a beautiful place like the Abbey, it’s really unique. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries are an exciting new development not only for the Abbey but also for the Abbey Marshals – around two or three of us will be positioned in there when it opens.

We went up there a few months ago whilst the building work was taking place. It really is extraordinary. The views of the Abbey and Parliament Square from the triforium are truly exceptional.

Next year, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries are opening in the Abbey’s medieval triforium. As part of this, we are building a hidden access tower which is the most significant addition to the Abbey since 1745.

For £100 you can sponsor a pane of glass and leave a comment in our online book that will be replicated into a physical book to be stored in the Abbey archives for evermore.

Will you donate and help us #makehistory?

The Minor Canon: Chris’s Story

We Minor Canons can do quirky rather well – it’s sort of a question as to where to begin. It’s fascinating to see the array of requests for special services that the Abbey receives, and a privilege to be able to make them happen, often with a fair amount of creativity.

I’ve been at the Abbey for about three years. I hail originally from the United States, and from the wide plains of Montana, and have lived and worked in the UK for over a decade. Previously, I was a chaplain at Trinity College Cambridge. The Minor Canons are priests, who organise the worshipping life here: from the daily services of prayer to the big services such as annual remembrances.

When I leave the Abbey, I will do so knowing the institutions and traditions of this nation far better than if I had been in just about any other job. I will also miss the pattern of the Abbey – the regular prayer, the people with whom I live and work, and the wider Abbey community.

An occasion which is particularly memorable for me is the service commemorating the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Tunisia. It was an incredibly moving service; we wanted someone who would legitimately be able to speak meaningfully in the context of such a commemoration. Frank Gardner, the BBC’s Security Correspondent, was just such a person, himself a badly wounded victim of terrorism. He is a most positive and wonderful person, and had no need of scripting his words. It was a hugely powerful moment of personal reflection.

Westminster Abbey is, in many ways, the nation’s church and has witnessed to some of the most pivotal moments in British (and indeed world) history.

Opening next year, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries will enable us to share the Abbey’s treasures and collections with the public like never before.

The Abbey receives no funding from the Church – nor the Crown or the Government. We’ve already raised over £18.5m towards the Galleries. Now we want to give everyone a chance to contribute to this historic project and help us raise £1 million. Donate now to help us #makehistory

The Keeper of the Muniments: Matthew’s Story

The biggest challenge we face is maintaining such a large physical collection of material within a historic building – believe it or not, there’s just not enough space for it all. But thankfully stone buildings offer a pretty good naturally regulated climate, which is why more than 800 years later, it’s all still here.

The Galleries will bring the opportunity to display such a rich collection of the Abbey’s history for the first time. Visitors get a hint of the riches here, and it’s hugely exciting to be able to open our doors and share our history with everyone.

From the muniments, we aim to display a number of important charters and manuscripts. A particular favourite of mine is a 5ft long mortuary roll, drawn up at the death of the abbot in 1532, which includes exquisite drawings that provide our only genuine view of the inside of the Abbey before the Dissolution.

With 1,000 years of history, Westminster Abbey has a rich and vibrant past and to celebrate this, the Abbey is embarking on an exciting new project.

Next year, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries are opening in the Abbey’s medieval triforium. As part of this, we are building a hidden access tower which is the most significant addition to the Abbey since 1745.

For £100 you can sponsor a pane of glass in the new tower and help us #makehistory. To find out more, visit www.westminster-abbey-galleries.com

Keeper of the Muniments: Matthew’s Story

Keeper of the Muniments is one of the more unusual job titles at the Abbey; essentially it means that I look after the Abbey’s extensive archive. Like so many Londoners, I actually came to the Abbey fairly infrequently before I started working here five years ago.

I guess you could say I grew up in the world of archives. My mother worked at the British Library and I used to go with her and sit and read about medieval history.

I catalogue, store and conserve the historic and archival material of the Abbey, making it available to researchers, academics and those interested in the history of the Abbey – or the historic events that have happened here, as well as publishing and presenting academic papers on the Abbey’s history, and providing information to the Abbey’s own staff.

I’ve loved every minute of working here. We are in the process of inputting more than 100,000 catalogue slips and eventually making them available online. This is really a transformative process and a huge shift in transparency and accessibility – but it is a dauntingly large task.

Working with such a remarkable collection of historic material in the setting where it happened is an incredible honour.

The content of the collections is largely medieval. I remember rifling through a drawer in my first week here and coming across one of the earliest documents, a charter of King Offa; although in fact it is a later forgery. In the twelfth century the Abbey monks were quite adept at producing ‘older’ charters. If they knew they owned the land, or had a right to it, they sometimes composed a document to ‘prove’ the point.

Opening next year, The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries will showcase the rich history, treasures and collections of the Abbey.

Matthew is one of many who has been working behind the scenes on the Galleries for a number of years already. Now we want to give everyone the chance to be a part of this landmark event in the Abbey’s history.

Everyone who donates to the #makehistory campaign, the Abbey’s first fundraising campaign in 30 years, will have the chance to leave a message in the online book, which will be transformed and stored in the Abbey archives for evermore.

Join us on our journey and help us #makehistory.

Head of Conservation: Vanessa’s Story

This is truly my dream job. I can’t think of anything else that I would rather be doing. I have been at the Abbey for 17 years now.

Just walking into the Abbey every morning and being surrounded by the most amazing pieces of art; I love being around them and caring for them.

We are a team of four and each of us specialise in a different field – paintings, stone and metal. We also have an extensive network of conservators from other specialisms that we work with as and when the needs arise.

The majority of our work is preventive conservation. That means trying to reduce the risk of damage and decay. Our biggest and most interesting challenge is that the Abbey is a ‘working church’ and major tourist attraction so each day to some degree visitors cause wear. This cannot be helped and since the Royal wedding there has been a noticeable increase in tourism, – so we as conservators try to find ways of slowing down or reducing this type of impact.

Our Heritage Cleaners, a role unique to the Abbey, are part of the evolving conservation journey as appropriate housekeeping is at the core of any conservation approach.

As conservators working in an historic building, one of our aims is to help people better understand the role of conservation within the Abbey.

The job requires great attention to detail. Noticing damage and deterioration and being able to quantify rates of change is key to understanding how best to preserve materials. Therefore we undertake a lot of monitoring and photography in order to better understand the conservation requirements of historic objects and areas.

It’s a slow process and the work we do is long term. Longer than our lives, but I love looking after the Abbey and its treasures.

Our #makehistory campaign takes you behind the scenes to meet the people who make the Abbey a living and working church. We are sharing our love for the Abbey and our pride in making history as we embark on the next steps in the Abbey’s history: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries.

The Abbey has always paid its own way and receives no funding from the Church, Crown or Government.

Why is the Abbey special to you? Are you able to donate to the #makehistory campaign and contribute to its next chapter?

The Stonemason: Joe’s story

“One day we opened up a flagstone to the Northumberland vault for an interment of ashes - there was the most extraordinary sight. When you looked down, you could see a dried bunch of flowers still on one of the coffins, all untouched by time.”

The Stonemason: Joe’s Story

We use Portland and Purbeck stone from the same quarries that were used 700 years ago – technically the stones are the same age but just quarried at a later date.

We don’t use modern machinery either, instead everything has to be done by hammer and chisel and we use old-fashioned saws as they did centuries ago. We have a responsibility to maintain the authenticity of the building – you can tell when a stone has been hand-worked with traditional methods.

I learned the trade thanks to the Abbey. I started as a labourer here and then went to college. When I trained they taught us about precision – we had to create a block from a crop, a rough cut piece of stone, and if you could slide a cigarette paper under the ruler you had to start again.

The history of the trade is evident everywhere here. We come across medieval stonemason’s marks – they are not decorative as often thought but were marked because the masons were paid by the stones they worked on that day. There is actually a book of masons’ marks from the Abbey.

The work I’m most proud of? Back in 2010 the Conversation team restored the Cosmati pavement – a two year project – and the stonemasons replaced some of the Purbeck banding and lattice rope work as part of this. The pavement was originally laid down in 1268 by order of Henry II and is considered one of the best Cosmati works that stills exists today.

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, opening next year, will run 70 feet above the floor of the Abbey in our medieval triforium. Displaying historic treasures and collections, the Galleries will also offer visitors magnificent views across the Abbey and Palace of Westminster.

Having raised over £18.5million from private donors and organisations, we now want to give everyone a chance to contribute to this new chapter in the Abbey’s history.

Make a donation from £10 and leave your mark on the history of the Abbey by including a message in our online book, which will be transformed into a physical book and stored in the Abbey archives for evermore.

Can you help us #makehistory?

The Web Developer: Prashant’s story

It’s a unique infrastructure here, unlike any other office or building I know. There is an expansive underground network of cables and infrastructure to keep the Abbey connected and functioning.

We have to be mindful of any new installations needed – we can’t stick our devices or cables anywhere. We work with the Works Team to get permission and find the best place, and the best method, to put in any new technology. The process can take weeks or even months but ensures we retain the aesthetics of this historic building.

I initially started working here as a contractor for a one-off project. I’d never been to the Abbey before and it was a surreal and magical experience.
Years later, the opportunity arose to work full time and I’ve been here for nearly two years now. Aside from the day-to-day tasks of ensuring the IT is working for everybody – phones, passwords, Microsoft Office (the usual!) – my main responsibility is ensuring the online ticketing system is working so all our visitors can enter without delays.

The message has to be spread that we are reliant on visitor’s receipts from the tickets, and donations, to maintain and upkeep this historical church. There’s no Church of England or Government funding so the public really do enable the Abbey to stay open as a working church. It’s so important that people want to be a part of it.

Now it’s your chance to contribute to the Abbey’s next chapter: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, opening in 2018. The Galleries will be in the Abbey’s medieval triforium, an area that has been hidden to the public for over 700 years.

The Abbey has always paid its own way with no financial help from the Church, the Crown or the Government and so far we’ve raised £18.5 million.
Can you help us raise £1 million and #makehistory with us?

The Rector’s Secretary: Pamela’s Story

I’ve been in love with the Abbey for a long time. One of the first things I ever saw on TV was the Queen’s coronation.

I’ve worked here for over thirty years and have seen many of the grand services including Princess Diana’s funeral, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding, and the 70^th anniversary VE Day memorial service. It’s strange to realise that you are in a small way part of history – especially for an American!

But the small and intimate services are just as important. As the Rector’s Secretary of St Margaret’s Church, I organise the special services – weddings, baptisms, funerals – we host here.

Last year there were 13 weddings at St Margaret’s, including those held in The Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Houses of Parliament and we already have 16 booked between now and July.

There’s certainly a lot going on but also a lot of laughter - sometimes we’re all so relentlessly busy we either want to cry or laugh, so we all laugh. It’s such a privilege to work here – we probably all feel that.

Because of its proximity to Parliament, St Margaret’s is often referred to as the parish church of Parliament.

To strengthen this link, the Rector runs a House of Lords’ group bible study session every Tuesday, and once a month MPs and Lords come to St Margaret’s for Holy Communion and then to Parliament for breakfast. There are rumours of tunnels connecting the two, but they’ve never been found.

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries is an exciting new chapter in the Abbey’s thousand-year history. As part of the project, we are building a hidden access tower, which is the most significant addition to the Abbey in nearly 300 years.

The Abbey receives no funding from the Church – nor the Crown or the Government – and we’ve already raised over £18.5 million from private donations. Now we want to give everyone a chance to contribute to this historic project and help us raise £1 million.

For £100 you can sponsor a pane of glass in the tower and help us #makehistory. Visit our online book to find out more.