Doing a little bit can make a big difference...

ONCE a month my wife and I volunteer in the cafe at Darfield Museum; I put my pinny on and I take the orders and write them down in a spidery hand that looks like the popular image of a doctor’s scrawl.

My wife then attempts to decipher the runes and then, with my help, we serve the tea and the coffee and the cakes and the toasted teacakes to the waiting hungry and thirsty.

There’s a bit of pre-pinny time too when we get the cafe ready and make sure the (homemade, always homemade) cake is sliced and the sugar sachets are in the bowls and the tables and chairs are out in the patio for those who want to sit and catch the late autumn sun.

Then there’s a bit of postpinny action as the museum winds down to closing time, putting things away and tidying up and getting everything in place for the next volunteers who’ll be coming in on the Wednesday.

We can be very busy, particularly in the mornings and sometimes the plates pile up in the sink and sometimes one has to wait a little while for their toasted fruit loaf but in the end all the pots get washed and all the fruit loaf gets eaten.

If you’ve never been to Darfield Museum then I’d urge you to come along because we (and I know I’m biased) really are a gem in the middle of the village, just by the Cross Keys and church.

As well as the cafe we’ve got a gallery and rooms that brim with history from Darfield and the wider area. We’re open Wednesday afternoons from 1pm until 4pm and Saturdays from 10am until 2pm.

The other reason to come along is that, if we don’t get more volunteers who are willing to put a few hours a month in, we may have to consider reducing our hours or, and we really don’t want to think about doing this, closing altogether.

All the volunteers we have do an absolutely brilliant job but, and I’m not being cheeky here, we’re all getting older and it sometimes feels that my wife and I, in our mid-60s, represent the youth wing of the volunteers.

A lot of our volunteers have put years of their lives into the museum and we need more people who are perhaps not of pensionable age to carry the museum on and take it to even more exciting places.

There’s such potential in this little building: it’s a community hub where people feel safe and valued, but it could be even more of a focal point for the village.

We had a theatre group putting on a show last summer and I think the museum could be a performing arts space for the village and beyond. It’s a place where we can learn about the past but it’s also a place where we can sit in the cafe and just have a minute and think about things or just have a chat.

I know I’m biased, but I reckon it’s a little palace.

I know what you’re thinking: everybody’s busy, and that’s very true. Austerity has meant that a lot more people are giving up that most precious of commodities, time, and me asking for museum volunteers is just one more request, one more repetition of that phrase ‘can you just…’

I know: time is our enemy and it should be our friend.

Look, here’s a thing: if you’ve not been before why not come and see for yourselves the kinds of things we do, the kinds of things we’ve got on offer?

And if you have been before, come and see us again. Have a look round. Have a cup of tea and some sponge cake.

Then maybe, just maybe, ask what you can do to help. Perhaps you could wash up one afternoon a month. You take orders in better handwriting than mine. You could serve in our lovely shop or you could, with some training from our experts, show people round the museum and see if anybody can guess (they rarely do) our mystery object.

Once a month is what my wife and I do and it honestly doesn’t feel like too much; but if once a month is too much then you could always give us a little bit of time here and there.

I’ve even thought of a strapline: let’s have a great future for the past at Darfield Museum!

If you want to get in touch, do have a look at our website: www.darfieldmuseum. co.uk.