Welcome to Harewood House Trust
Harewood House Trust is an educational charity which attracts around 250,000 visitors every year.
It is one of England’s finest 18th century country houses, set in over 100 acres of beautiful grounds and gardens. An accredited museum it is also the family seat of the Earl and Countess of Harewood.
Harewood House was built using profits made from the Transatlantic trade in enslaved people and its associated industries. Today, Harewood is a safe place in which we can have open conversations about our past and bring communities together, using our history as a means of working together for a better society.
Alongside the care, conservation and interpretation of its core collections, Harewood curates innovative and everchanging exhibitions, celebrating and collaborating with a diverse range of individuals and groups.
Through its trading operation the Trust manages and delivers major outdoor events, conferences, corporate functions, fine dining, cafés and other retail and food outlets throughout the site.
The Trust has great ambitions for Harewood’s future, as well as celebrating its fascinating past. It has recently embarked on an exciting major project to reimagine its key historic landscape and gardens, build a new playground and create a new visitor welcome centre. All designed to grow our audiences, generate new income and provide an excellent visitor experience.
Thank you for taking a look at our volunteering opportunities.
The Ferry is an incredibly popular part of our visitor offer. The 10 minute journey across the lake provides magnificent views of the Capacity Brown landscape and increasing accessibility to the Bothy and Walled Garden. As a Volunteer Welcome Host, you will support a member of staff to ensure visitors are warmly welcomed aboard the Ferry and have an enjoyable voyage.
You’ll count on and off visitors in line with the Ferry’s capacity, monitor the queue during busy periods, and whilst in motion, ensure that visitors stay seated. Crucially, you will be the eyes and ears for the member of staff during docking, advising on when the Ferry will need to slow and stop, and support by lowering the ramps to allow visitors to disembark. Please note that raising the lowering the ramps is a repetitive and physical activity.
To find out more click on the link below which will open up an Information Pack.
Ferry Volunteer Welcome Host Information Pack
Garden Assistant
The Gardens at Harewood are set within 1,000 acres of ornamental parkland laid out during the 18th century. As a garden volunteer you would work alongside our friendly, skilled staff in one of three main horticultural areas, the formal Terrace, the Himalayan Garden and the Walled Garden. Each one different in style and content and containing a diverse range of plants throughout.
We welcome hard working volunteers with limited horticultural experience through to those seeking practical experience to sit alongside their horticultural studies. This is an all year round role that is based100% outdoors.
For more information download our Volunteer Garden Assistant Pack
At Harewood, our volunteering programme has been running for over twenty five years and we currently have around 200 volunteers. We give opportunities to as wide a range of people as possible and help volunteers in their aims as much as they support us in ours.
Our Aim
Our aim is to create a sector-leading, inclusive, and sustainable volunteering programme that meets the needs of the Trust and provides a positive volunteer experience for people of all ages, ethnicities, and abilities.
Volunteers are pivotal to our aims and aspirations. We love involving volunteers in the work we do be that:-
+ engaging with visitors inside Harewood House
+ caring for our gardens and collections
+ running our Secondhand Bookshop
+ driving our electric shuttles
+ helping operate our ferry and assisting with delivering our learning programme.
Our volunteers bring a wealth of experience and get involved for many varied reasons. At Harewood, we feel that we have created a safe welcoming space, where volunteers can flourish, contribute meaningfully and feel a sense of belonging.
What to expect if you volunteer at Harewood
+ A welcoming and inclusive volunteering environment
+ To be treated fairly and with respect
+ Recognition and appreciation for your contribution
+ General induction, role specific training with on-going support
+ Reimbursement of travel costs between home and Harewood House up to a maximum of £10 per day.
+ Regular newsletters and volunteer meetings to provide an insight into all that is happening at Harewood
+ Access to a web based volunteer system to manage your volunteering shifts and
receive updates.
If you have any questions or are interested to find out more please get in touch with our Volunteer Coordinator volunteer@harewood.org?
