The Charles Burrell Museum is pleased to announce that we have appointed a new manager, Helen Whitton-Rogers. I’ll let her introduce herself…
I first came to the Charles Burrell Museum in September 2018.
I had lost my husband earlier in the year & I was struggling to find a way to start living without him.
My older brother, knowing my lifelong love of all things steam related & also knowing the Museum to be short of volunteers, arranged for me to pop along for a chat with the then Manager Janet. I ended up staying all day & started as a Volunteer in the Steamers Café shortly after. I fell in love with the Museum on that first visit & I have been ever since.
I wasn’t just captivated by the engines that we have in the Museum (Queen Mary the Showman’s Engine, Aggie the Agricultural Engine & recently named Mac the Roller) although they are fascinating in themselves. My interest was also grabbed by history of the Burrell family, the Burrell Works & its impact on the town of Thetford & the various uses of the area since the works closed. Added to all of that was the friendly, welcoming atmosphere within the Museum, created by the dedicated group of Volunteers that offer their time on a weekly basis to enable the Museum to open. The mix of all these things is, to me, pure magic.
Although I have volunteered in the Steamers Café during the Season I am not afraid to get my hands dirty when we are closed to the public. Recent times have seen me wielding a paintbrush as well as scrubbing floors & moving furniture & bags of charcoaled wood. We are all a team within the Museum & we are not only friends but very much a family too so although we work in different areas, we all work together & help each other out where needed.
On the 8th of July 2020 I was delighted to be appointed as Manager & it’s a role I feel very privileged to take on. I am very much looking forward to taking the Museum into the future & becoming myself a small part in its history.
Helen Whitton-Rogers
