Development

PROPOSED DEVELOPMENTS 2009 onwards

REFURBISHED RECTORY

The Trustees are developing a plan to restore the Old Rectory to its form in about 1716, when the Wesleys lived there. Through period rooms, with authentic floors, wall finishes, fireplaces and furnishings, visitors will be transported back 300 years to breathe the atmosphere as it would have been then. This is an ambitious project involving much research. Rooms will be furnished as they might have been, allowing visitors to see the house as the Wesleys used it. In addition we are hoping for more interactive displays, including real fires burning in the revealed inglenook fireplaces.

In order to do this work, many of the visitor facilities will be removed from the house to refurbished existing outbuildings initially, and eventually to a new visitor centre.

Children and school parties will be able to ‘become’ part of the family and see what it was like to be educated in the home, through drama and interactive displays. We will work closely with local schools to tailor their visits to areas of learning on the national curriculum.

We hope that this will become even more a place of inspiration and challenge.  New exhibition spaces will be opened up so that many more pictures and artifacts will be on display to help tell the story of the lives and influence of the Wesley family. Exhibitions will be changed frequently so there will always be more to experience at Epworth Old Rectory.

The main features of the refurbishment will be to :

  • Install a lift
  • Remove all twentieth century furnishings, including the mantelpieces and floor coverings
  • Remove modern walls and restore early eighteenth century features
  • Source period furniture and present some rooms as period rooms (as the Wesleys used them) and some as exhibition rooms.

Epworth Old Rectory is a grade 1 listed building. Applications have been made for listed building consent and planning permission. Alongside these developments, we have been working on audience development, holding many special events (such as candlelit tours, guided walks in Epworth, concerts and a craft fair), and building our profile. Epworth Old Rectory was awarded accredited museum status in November 2009.

Would you like to be involved now and/or in the future?

We would be delighted if you choose one or more of the following options:

  • Visit the Old Rectory and encourage your friends and family to come.
  • Support the special events at the Old Rectory
  • Become a Friend of the Old Rectory – receiving regular newsletters, free admission and information about forthcoming events.
  • Become a volunteer at the Old Rectory – to guide visitors, to staff the shop and the new cafe, to help with caring for the collection, or to work in the garden.
  • Give a donation to help the vision to become a reality.

Please get in touch if you would like further information :
Telephone : 01427 872268
Email us with your views