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Hello to you,
You have arrived at the website created by me, Eleanor Schelpe, to promote all things, old, elegant, unique and heritage related, throughout my journey to completing a MA in Heritage Management before hopefully breaking into the heritage industry itself.
Arriving by design or simply by having stumbled across this page by complete accident - either way you have clicked onto this page and I hope to impress and intrigue you enough to get you to stay for a little while.
Firstly, I will tell you a little about me and why I went about creating this site, as well as what I hope to achieve from here and beyond!
I first dipped my toes into the pool of heritage during my first ever work experience back in 2014, based in the Education Department at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery. Although my placement only lasted a mere two weeks, within minutes of my first day I was hooked. I don't entirely know if it was the fact I was constantly surrounded by impressive objects, the panels of detailed information or watching numerous children leaving after a school trip absolutely gobsmacked by what they had learnt, but there was definitely something which made me think - now this is something special!
The work experience period soon finished - I however was not.
I have continued to volunteer for the Vivacity charity organisation which runs the museum, and along the way have expanded to volunteer at the other heritage sites they are linked with, which includes: Longthorpe Tower, Flag Fen and Peterborough Cathedral.
Not only has the experience helped me meet some amazing people, and develop skills such as public speaking and teamwork, it has also helped me figure out that I could not imagine having a successfully satisfying career anywhere except the heritage sector.
I knew however, that volunteering was not going to be enough to secure me a career. As a result I set my eyes on achieving the goal of attending University to obtain a degree which would make me officially qualified within the sector.
Albeit 2020 has been a bizarre and stressful year, for me it was even more so as I was thankfully able to achieve a 2:1 Major Archaeology and Heritage Studies with a Minor in History undergraduate degree from the University of Worcester.
I am very aware that the crises of 2020 have meant that many people have been affected in a variety of ways, ranging from small issues to huge life altering events.
For me personally, it has meant that I have been unable to begin a MA programme in Heritage Management, as was originally planned, and I have had to take a year out to prepare instead.
Not one to waste such an opportunity to prepare before I begin my dream course, I planned to use this year to read, write and absorb as much information regarding the topics I will be learning as I can. Either in the form of books, journal articles or even online short courses, I wanted to be as prepared as I possibly could and not waste a year and digress from my original aims.
Despite these efforts, I recently began to wonder what more I could do to show that my passion and determination to succeed in this field is purely dependent on a course or qualification created and led by others.
Which is why I decided to create this site!
To write blog posts about interesting facts I find out, or to review a site I may visit, or perhaps to discuss highly debatable topics within the field of heritage and put my point of view out there - the possibilities are endless.
So, having given you what could be considered by some to be too much context - I invite you to keep an eye out for my future posts and hopefully you might find something you engage with and enjoy.
Thank you!