The Tudors Dynasty podcast.

And now, Hands on History with Heather Darcy.

Hello and welcome to Hands on History.

I am Heather Darcy.

This, of course, is a segment of the Tudors Dynasty podcast where we look to speak with people who work in the field of history in non-traditional ways, or at least maybe not in most obvious ways.

And today I'm very excited to say that I am joined by Sarah Somerville of Shaw House, field of history in non-traditional ways, or at least maybe not the most obvious ways.

And today I'm very excited to say that I am joined by Sarah Somerville of Shaw House.

Welcome, Sarah. How are you?

Thank you. Yes, I'm very well. Thank you. How are you?

Doing well. So tell us about how you became involved with Shaw House.

Yeah, so I began working in heritage over 10 years ago now and that involved a lot of volunteering at the start alongside my studies, but firstly then I worked as a tour guide at

High Clare Castle, which many people will know as Downton Abbey.

I was then there for about seven and a half years.

I worked in the public opening department for quite some time after I graduated.

And then I moved to Shaw House in 2019, so I've worked here ever since, and I'm the Visitor

Services Officer here. Did your education line up with what you're doing at Shaw House?

Yes, so I studied museum and gallery studies at university.

So that was a big combination of art history, history, conservation, all of that sort of thing.

So it was good preparation for working at Shaw.

So what is a typical day like for you at Shaw House? Well, that's why I like it, because it's very varied. So my role,

although the term visitor services officer is quite broad, so it covers a lot of different

things. But my main responsibilities are the events management here.

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