Time is a valuable commodity and our volunteers willingly donate a few hours to enable us to bring to you the displays and exhibitions you have enjoyed over the years and will continue to enjoy for years to come.

The museum service holds a wonderful collection of costume and accessories and we are fortunate to have a dedicated group of volunteers who come in once a month to the Beecroft Art Gallery where the collection is housed, to assist us with their care and preservation.
 
Working with historic costume requires skill and a delicate touch, which our ladies certainly have as they are all members of the South East Essex branch of the Embroiderer’s Guild. When a piece of costume is donated to the museum it goes through meticulous processes not only to preserve the piece, but to also preserve the details of its history.
 
Each individual item is given a unique number (an accession number) which we can then use to reference all the information we have about it. The number is written onto a cotton tape “label”, which our volunteers then carefully hand stitch into the garment.
 
Each item is also checked for any repairs that may need to be carried out, for example if a button or piece of lace decoration is hanging off, these are painstakingly stitched back into position, using the original stitch holes where possible.
 
The group have also prepared numerous padded hangers and costume and accessory covers for us over the years and this type of work is equally important as it means we can store the items safely and preserve them for future generations.
 
Look out for our regular programme of costume exhibitions at the Beecroft Art Gallery as the majority of our pieces, have, at some stage been worked on by our volunteers and many could not have been shown without their help.
  
If you are interested in volunteering opportunities within the Museums Service, please contact us by e-mail museums@southend.gov.uk or telephone 01702 434449