Over the last 2 years we have been working hard to deliver our National Lottery Funded Project ‘Out of the Box’ – which has created a new state-of-the-art collections store as well helping us deliver lots of new and exciting events and activities. Here’s some of the highlights:
A New School’s Offer
The National Lottery Heritage Fund project has completely transformed learning at the Old Rectory.
In 2024, with additional support from Westminster College Oxford Trust, we appointed our new Outreach, Learning and Engagement Manager, Lois Albans, whose museum learning background helped us rethink what the Old Rectory could offer schools and we began exploring the wider history and landscape in the Isle of Axholme— from Prehistory and Romans to Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, science, nature and art. The discovery of prehistoric flints during our archaeology digs helped confirm just how rich that story could be.
We created a completely new schools programme with nine curriculum-linked workshops covering subjects including local history, The Wesley Family, nature, science, and art. Hands-on learning became central to everything we offered, with children handling objects, exploring the gardens, investigating habitats, creating artwork and even actively learning how people lived in the past.
We also introduced themed learning weeks, including Wesley Week, Christmas and Easter programmes, where children could meet costumed historical characters, sing carols around the piano, hear stories from “Susanna Wesley” and take part in practical activities throughout the house and gardens.
The response from schools has been incredible. By 2025 we had welcomed 776 children through school visits and outreach sessions — far exceeding our original target of 420 participants. Teachers described the workshops as “fantastic”, “very hands-on” and “better than expected.”
One of the most exciting unexpected outcomes has been the growth of our home education programme. Sessions for home-educated children, including young people with SEND, quickly filled our waiting lists. As a result, we are now developing regular monthly sessions, and have a dedicated home education webpage and opportunities for young people to curate their own exhibition at the Old Rectory in our Museum Takeover Week.
Most importantly, the project has helped establish the Old Rectory as a lively and welcoming place for learning — reaching new schools, new families and new audiences who may never previously have visited us.
Chatty Cafés
One of the most rewarding parts of the project has been the development of our Chatty Collections Café — a monthly reminiscence and social support group using museum objects and everyday items to spark conversation and memories.
Since launching in 2024, the café has grown steadily from a small group of around eight people to regular attendance of around fifteen participants. Sessions are designed for people living with dementia and their carers, using our specially created Discovery Boxes to encourage storytelling, laughter and shared memories in a relaxed and welcoming environment.
The feedback has been incredibly moving, with participants describing the sessions as “interesting, fun and informative” and saying that “the sessions bring much joy.” Others spoke about how important it was simply to have “somewhere to go” where there is “always a cup of tea and a smile.”
The success of the café also led to the creation of a new Memory Garden, supported by funding from Epworth Town Council. Working together, participants explored poetry, music and personal memories which inspired the planting of flowers and sensory planting areas within newly created raised beds at the Old Rectory.
Building on this success, further funding has now been secured for a larger Creative Connections project, which will develop a new sensory garden with soundscapes, planting and quiet spaces for reflection and wellbeing. This next phase will bring together different generations and communities, including home-educated children and women from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
The project has also helped the Old Rectory become more dementia-friendly, with staff and volunteers receiving specialist training in dementia awareness and nature-based wellbeing activities.
What began as a small monthly café has grown into one of the most valued and meaningful parts of the project — helping reduce isolation, support wellbeing and ensure the Old Rectory is a welcoming place for everyone.
Creating Discovery Boxes
Across the project we created twelve new Discovery Boxes, which have become an important part of both our schools programme and our Chatty Collections Café sessions.
For schools, we developed a series of Loan Boxes packed with replica objects, books, activities and handling materials linked to themes including Prehistory, Romans, Anglo-Saxons & Vikings and Wesley memorabilia. Schools can hire the boxes for a half term, helping bring hands-on history into the classroom at a time when many schools are finding trips increasingly difficult because of rising transport costs.
Alongside this, four themed Discovery Boxes were created for our Chatty Collections Café sessions:
- Kitchen Cupboard
- Bathroom Beauty
- Memories of Methodism
- Home Sweet Home
These boxes use familiar everyday objects to spark memories, conversations and storytelling for people living with dementia and their carers. They have become a key part of the café’s success, helping create relaxed and welcoming sessions full of shared memories and laughter. The Discovery Boxes are also available for local care homes to hire.
This exciting part of the project has helped us explore new ways of reaching people beyond the museum walls.
Working with our Communities
Our project has enabled us to work with our local communities and Volunteers to deliver a wide range of traditional craft and skills workshops inspired by the historic objects, crafts and domestic traditions of the Old Rectory.
Workshops included willow weaving, basket making and soap-ball making, while our Living History Volunteers also shared skills such as knitting, patchwork, lace making, drop spinning, loom weaving and needlepoint with visitors throughout the year.
These activities helped people connect with the everyday lives and practical skills of the past in a hands-on and enjoyable way, while also giving volunteers opportunities to share knowledge and learn from one another.
One particularly rewarding part of the programme was a series of craft sessions held in partnership with the North Lincolnshire Sanctuary in Scunthorpe. Women from migrant and refugee communities, including people from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan, visited the Old Rectory to take part in crafts and tours of the house. The sessions were extremely well received and helped introduce completely new audiences to the museum in a warm and welcoming environment.
The success of this partnership showed how heritage activities can help build confidence, reduce isolation and create new community connections far beyond traditional museum audiences.
New Interactive Displays
Throughout our ‘Out of the Box’ project we have been finding new ways to bring the Old Rectory to life for our visitors.
In January 2025 we introduced our Living Portraits — interactive paintings and busts of the Wesley family which visitors can activate using QR codes and their own smartphones. There are now seven Talking Portraits around the house, helping visitors connect with the Wesley’s, who once lived here. Feedback has been very positive, with visitors saying the portraits “bring history to life” and “helped bring the exhibits alive.”
The success of the project inspired further digital interpretation in The Physick Garden, where ten QR codes linked to our web site now explore historic plants, medicine and 18th-century healthcare. This work has been funded by The Royal Society.
Alongside this, we are in the process of introducing new hands-on and sensory activities throughout the house, including Discovery Bags for children, herbal displays, sensory “smelly boxes,” a “make your own cure bag” activity and interactive family history displays. These additions are helping us move beyond guided tours towards more flexible self-guided visits, while also attracting new family audiences to the Old Rectory.
Living History
A popular parts of the project has been the creation of our new Living History Team. Six volunteers — both new and existing — were recruited to bring the Old Rectory to life through costumed interpretation, traditional crafts and historic demonstrations during school holidays and special events.
Volunteers shared a wide range of traditional skills including spinning, knitting, weaving, lace making, soap making, historic cookery and parlour games. Many of the sessions were led by the volunteers themselves, creating a wonderful atmosphere of shared learning and enthusiasm.
Throughout the project, visitors were able to watch demonstrations, chat with costumed interpreters and experience the house in a much more lively and immersive way. “Willow Wednesdays” and historic craft sessions became especially popular during the summer months.
The impact on visitors was extremely positive, with many saying the Living History activities helped “bring the past to life.” In 2025 alone, the team delivered 23 Living History Days and engaged with more than 1,000 visitors.
The project also had a huge impact on the volunteers themselves. Several spoke about how taking part had helped build confidence, reduce loneliness and give them a renewed sense of purpose. One volunteer said: “I am living the dream.” Another reflected: “My husband wouldn’t recognise me. I have become a different person.”
The success of the Living History Team means this approach is now becoming a core part of the Old Rectory visitor experience and future plans for the site.
Creating Collections Space
One of the key parts of the of the project has been the creation of a brand-new collections store for the Old Rectory; an ambitious plan transforming a former outside storage room into a modern museum store. Working with Pinnacle Conservation and Knox McConnell Architects the building was completely refurbished with new insulation, windows, flooring, environmental controls, security systems and energy-efficient heating to create a much safer space for the collections.
New museum-standard shelving and storage systems were successfully installed by Brunzeel in January 2026, and the entire collection has now been repackaged and digitally catalogued by our enthusiastic team of Collections Volunteers, ready for a carefully managed move into the new store once environmental conditions are fully stable.
Although the journey has been complex, the project has laid the foundations for much better long-term care of the Old Rectory collections and a stronger future for the museum.
Training our Team
We’ve also transformed how we care for and manage the Old Rectory collections.
When the project began in 2024, just one volunteer was responsible for managing the catalogue and packing the collections, with limited storage space creating ongoing challenges. Over the course of the project, we recruited ten new collections volunteers and provided specialist training in collections care, museum standards, packing, marking and digitisation. Volunteers gained practical experience through real museum work, including outgoing loans and processing new donations, helping build both skills and confidence.
One volunteer said the training was:
“Really useful and interesting… I now feel confident in attempting collections work.”
Altogether, this amounted to more than 800 hours of collections and interpretation training — a huge investment in the future of the Old Rectory and the people who help bring it to life. If you want to get involved as a Volunteer just CLICK HERE!
Cleaning & Repackaging our Collections
Following training sessions for our expanded Collections Volunteer Team, volunteers began the huge task of cleaning, repackaging and digitising the Old Rectory collections. Roles were divided between the team, with objects carefully removed from the old store, repacked in improved archival materials and recorded digitally ready for transfer into the new museum store.
Over the course of the project, Collections Volunteers contributed an impressive 1,398 hours of time towards training, collections care and cataloguing work and all objects have now been prepared and repackaged ready for transfer. A carefully phased moving programme has been agreed with the National Conservation Advisor and will begin once environmental conditions within the new store are fully stable and secure by October 2026.
Games in the Garden
To help families make the most of the Old Rectory gardens, we introduced a programme of traditional outdoor games including skittles, quoits, hopscotch and cup-and-ball games. These proved especially popular during the summer holidays and gave children a chance to play in the gardens in a simple, hands-on way.
In 2025 we delivered 24 garden game sessions, with more already taking place in 2026. Indoor activity packs were also introduced for rainy days, helping families continue exploring whatever the weather.
We also launched children’s craft activity packs in the gift shop during the May half-term holiday. One of the most popular activities was making a John Wesley peg doll, with plans to introduce more members of the Wesley family during future school holidays until a full set is complete. Our Games in the Garden are available during the school summer holidays to enjoy some more fun in the sun.
Archaeology at the Old Rectory
Community archaeology became one of the biggest success stories of the project, bringing hundreds of people into direct contact with the hidden history beneath the Old Rectory grounds.
Before excavations even began, metal detecting had already uncovered exciting finds including a 17th-century crotal bell, an 18th-century coin and a saddle brass engraved with the initials “J.W.”
In summer 2024, local archaeologist Andrew Steers and volunteers from the Lincoln Archaeology Group led the first major community dig at the Old Rectory. Members of the public could book onto excavation sessions, and demand was so high that extra dates had to be added after the original sessions sold out.
Over four days, 205 people took part or attended. Excavations uncovered evidence of earlier buildings, demolition debris, an ancient trackway and even prehistoric flint finds. Visitors loved the hands-on experience, with one participant describing it as “brilliant” and saying that finding a bone was “the very best bit.”
The success of the dig led to an archaeology exhibition in the Granary launched in early 2025, alongside talks and finds workshops which attracted large audiences.
A second season of excavations followed in August 2025, again led by Andrew Steers, with families and new audiences travelling from across the region to take part. The project has helped the Old Rectory connect with younger visitors and families who can come along to join in the excavations
Most importantly, the archaeology programme has changed how people think about the site — moving beyond the house and collections to uncover the much deeper history hidden beneath the ground. A third community dig is now planned for 2026.
