The Weaver's House

Tag: volunteers

  • New (Olde!) Tea Shoppe!

    Our May Open Day saw the launch of our new (old) tea room. Over the past few years we have been serving our homemade cakes from a gazebo outside to use this room for storage but we have moved back into the tea room inside for this year and beyond. It was a lot of work so thank you to our volunteers!

    It also provided the chance to show off some of our newly acquired collection of traditional irons. These were kindly donated by the Vale of Evesham Historical Society who were dismantling their museum due to organisational changes. Thanks to Gerry Harte for facilitating.

    It was a lovely sunny day so plenty of people took the opportunity to sit in the garden to enjoy the refreshments.

    You can come and experience the cake for yourself on our next Open Day on Saturday June 6th. This is also the weekend of Motofest – in previous years people have enjoyed the opportunity to pop out from the city centre and along Spon Street to enjoy a contrast!

  • Celebrating Volunteers’ Week

    Celebrating Volunteers’ Week

    As Volunteers’ Week draws to a close alongside our June Open Day, it’s the perfect opportunity to thank all of our volunteers, past and present, established and brand new!

    Thank you for everything that you do – from being tour guides and experts in Weaver’s House history, to the bakers of the best cakes ever (this is a well established fact), to gardeners, to costume makers and wearers, to demonstrators of crafts, to our trustees and to those who help at the front of house and those who provide behind the scenes support – we really couldn’t do it without any of you!

    Two volunteers, one in costume, enjoy a cup of tea
    Cheers to Volunteers!

    Of course, The Weaver’s House started out with volunteers who restored Black Swan Terrace back in the 1990s. Without them, the house would have been lost forever. Today, on a sunny afternoon in our lovely garden, visitors enjoyed tea and cake and the opportunity to learn about this unique piece of local history.

    The Weaver’s House is a charity and is run by volunteers and we always welcome more! You can get involved in gardening, handiwork, showing people round, making tea or dressing up and demonstrating medieval life. Whether you want to be a regular or give occasional help, being a volunteer with us can offer an opportunity to share skills, meet new people and really make a difference!

  • A trustee of many talents

    A trustee of many talents

    Swapping kirtles for scrubs… It’s not just the house itself which has had its moment on screen. Now, one of the Trustees of the house has also recently been seen on television as Dr Jennifer Waters has featured in her work as emergency medic in A&E: Crash Scene Emergency.

    The documentary series tells the stories of patients brought to University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, one of the largest Major Trauma Centres in the country. A complete contrast to her role at The Weaver’s House where she has variously served as Chairperson, trustee, musician, baker of amazing cakes and costumed guide!

    Young woman playing music in the garden

    You can find out more about the Channel 5 series here, on the hospital website.

    Jennifer has also been nominated for Volunteer of the Year for her work with the NHS UCHW charity in the 2024 Ladies First Awards. Huge congratulations from all at The Weaver’s House!

  • 2024’s Open Days kick off well

    2024’s Open Days kick off well

    “Yet more history to absorb and appreciate. The UK’s valuing of their heritage is to be admired”
    “What a super little place – I’m a Coventrian and didn’t know this place was here”

    Two women using spinning wheels in the garden

    Just two of the reviews from the Visitors’ Book after our first Open Day of 2024 at The Weaver’s House. After all of the rain that has fallen in recent weeks we were relieved to have a mild and dry day! The day ran smoothly thanks to our volunteer guides, gardeners and bakers. Interested in getting involved? It’s not just about giving talks or welcoming guests, we have plenty of ‘back-of-house’ roles available too. Take a look at our volunteers page for more info.

    The garden with some signs of spring growth
  • Join us for our first gardening day of spring

    Join us for our first gardening day of spring

    Ahead of the first Open Day the volunteers will be getting stuck into the garden after the winter. The first Gardening Day of the year is Saturday 30 March.

    We are currently seeking more gardening volunteers to join in with looking after our Tudor-style garden.  If you are interested, please do make contact with Tina, who leads the volunteer team, via volunteers @ theweavershouse.org * ahead of the day itself (as we need to know how many people will be on site.)

    No experience and no references are required – just straightforward details and a chat beforehand. Gardening days run throughout the year but there is no expectation that volunteers will attend all of them.

    *(Please note, you will need to delete the spaces from the email address to get it to work, we insert the spaces to reduce spam emails).

  • Goodbye 2023 – a look back

    Goodbye 2023 – a look back

    Another year of Open Days has drawn to a close. 2023 has seen a successful season despite some wild weather on occasion – the visitor reviews are consistently glowing.

    Highlights during 2023 have included approval for the planned development works, the launch of our revised family history publication The Families of Black Swan Terrace, the excitement of seeing the 50s-style Terrace on TV in Three Little Birds, and some generous donations from various visiting groups.

    The Weavers’ Workshop continue to run drop-in sessions on Mondays and Thursdays. Recently they have worked with the Ikon Youth Programme and the artist Seungwon Jung to explore Coventry’s history of weaving through workshops on Slow Boat in Coventry Canal Basin, Ikon gallery in Birmingham and The Weaver’s House itself.

    The months of the year has seen a new business, skincare specialist SkinCo, take up residence in one of the shop rental units in Black Swan Terrace.

    The Weaver’s House is due to reopen for visitors in April, and we will add our confirmed dates soon. If you have been mulling over the thought of offering some of your time to maintaining this little gem in 2024, simply email volunteers@theweavershouse.org for a chat.

    The trustees and volunteers at The Weaver’s House are grateful for the support they have received this year and wish you a peaceful Christmas season – we look forward to welcoming you next year.

    A group of people sit in a small medieval house
  • Reopened for 2022!

    Reopened for 2022!

    At long last the first Open Day for 2022 arrived, and what a fantastic day it was. We were blessed with a sunny, clear day with which to appreciate the blossoming garden (but cool enough to enjoy the hot drinks and cake which we’ve welcomed back for 2022!).

    Enthusiastic visitors arrived a steady pace throughout the day and we were delighted that this included people who had been waiting for the opportunity to visit, were finally able to be welcomed. The story of our unique piece of medieval history has been spreading, as visitors came down from Manchester specifically to visit, and another visitor was from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Our knowledgeable guides were on hand to give free tours of the house including the full size replica loom. We were also pleased to be joined by new volunteers who signed up at our recent volunteer event. If you are interested, we’d love to hear from you.

    Thanks to our visitors for some lovely feedback including:

    “Brilliant speakers, great fun going upstairs!”
    “Thank you to the guides for a fascinating tour”
    “Superb. Excellent talk by Maureen and lovely welcome by Audrey”
    “Had a lovely visit, so interesting. Met some lovely people. Kev was so informative and very kind”

    The next free Open Day is Saturday 7 May from 10am until 4pm.

    slices of homemade cake
    Homemade cakes and other treats are back for 2022!
    herbs growing
    Plants in garden for natural dyes
    a sunlit garden, raised beds of soil, a medieval cottage
    The raised beds ready for growing
    a blue sky above visitors in the garden
    Visitors in the garden
    a mix of people in Tudor era clothing and modern clothes
    Visitors find out about gardening and natural dyes

  • Come and join us at our volunteer event

    Come and join us at our volunteer event

    The Weaver’s House team are preparing for the upcoming season of Open Days. As part of this, there is a special volunteers’ event on Saturday 26 March.

    This will be a casual get-together of existing volunteers who will be ‘waking up the house’ and is a great opportunity for anyone wondering what it’s all about to drop in and have a chat and some cake!

    There’s various opportunities varying from leading tours of the house and garden, greeting visitors, gardening and selling merchandise. At the moment we especially need volunteers for our tea-room, so that we can re-open for the coming season, serving hot drinks and cakes. No experience is required.

    The event runs from 10am until 2pm on Saturday 26th, and if you are interested you can drop our volunteers co-ordinator Tina a line on volunteers @ theweavershouse.org (please remove spaces to email).

  • That was Heritage Open Days 2021

    That was Heritage Open Days 2021

    “Lovely garden,
    knowledgeable volunteers,
    couldn’t ask for more”

    Thanks to David of Leamington Spa who left that particular comment for last weekend, and indeed, it sums up the weekend most aptly. We weren’t sure how the weekend would go, it was our first Heritage Open Days in two years. However we had a steady stream of visitors over the two days, rather quieter than in previous years but given the ongoing situation, just right. Thanks go to our volunteers who provided the same high quality experience as ever, and now, in costume!

    Volunteers greet our very first visitor of the weekend. The costumes were made by our Chair and Volunteers Co-ordinator, Tina.

    We were lucky with the weather, the garden looked lovely, and the spinners and weavers provided demonstrations throughout the weekend.

    Heritage Open Days at The Weaver’s House, September 2021

    We had some lovely comments, not only recorded in our Visitors’ Book but via social media:

    “Thank you for a lovely tour.  Your volunteers are wonderful and knowledgeable.”

    “Really interesting to visit this morning. Thank you.”

    “I can highly recommend it. A hidden gem just a short walk from the city centre.”

    “I loved to hear about the story of the houses there, and my weaver son could have a go on a loom. It was worth visiting.”

    That concluded our Open Days for this year. We hope to be open much more for 2022 – let’s raise a cup to that!

  • Bricks and blocks – garden improvements

    Bricks and blocks – garden improvements

    Whilst we have been closed, we have made some improvements in our garden area including a brick block paved area and installing some more woven fence panels.

    We reused old bricks to fit in with the rest of the garden, and we also needed quite a lot of sand and gravel!

    • many bright yellow bags of sand and gravel
    • Two men spreading building sand
    • a man laying bricks over sand layer

    The volunteer work was led by John Homer and we are grateful for him for donating his time and expertise to the project. Although weather wasn’t the greatest we did have a few moments of sun. Throughout, our volunteers worked really hard to get the area completed and we are hoping the weather will repay us with sunshine when we are ready for Open Days!

    • hands levelling off bricks
    • an area being paved, about half done
    • completed paved area, made of old weathered bricks

    We’re so pleased to have been able to give these old bricks a new lease of life and to have an additional area in the garden for displays.

    • A man gardening
    • a man digging over soil area
    • a smiling man digging the garden

    It wasn’t all just bricks and blocks, we also spent some time tending to the garden which needed a little post-winter care, as all gardens do. It’s a wonderful place to spend some time, and always hard to believe that it is so close to the city centre.

    We have regular gardening days for volunteers and welcome new recruits. It doesn’t need to be a regular commitment – if you would like to find out more about working in our garden, or you have other skills you would like to volunteer, please see our Volunteering page. Come and join the history of this amazing little house.