About
WOODCHESTER MANSION is a unique and amazing Grade 1 listed Victorian Gothic house hidden in a beautiful Cotswold valley.
It is an unfinished masterpiece. Building started about 1857, but stopped in ...
Minibus drivers
Scan me or visit www.govolunteerglos.org/o/Woodchester-Mansion-Trust/opportunities/Minibus-drivers/60538 to join
Contact person
Summary
Friendly, flexible, fit and confident drivers between the age of 25-75.Detailed description
Full training to drive the minibus will be given, our volunteers are supported until they're confident to be independent. We open on Fridays to Sundays, Bank Holidays and some school holidays. We have a flexible online rota – so you can sign up for the days that suit you.Minibus drivers for our Open Days and events. The minibus driver is the first volunteer visitors meet when they arrive at Woodchester. As well as driving the bus up and down the wooded track from Mansion to car park (10mph max!), the bus driver assists visitors with their buggies, children and dogs, reverses skillfully and explains the tour options. On the way back you discover who the best tour guides are and help fill the donations box. As the Mansion is on private land there are no special requirements for your driving licence, but bus drivers must be age 25-75. Full training will be given, our volunteers are supported until they're confident to be independent. We open on Fridays to Sundays, Bank Holidays and some school holidays. We have a flexible online rota – so you can sign up for the days that suit you.
Over 25s only. Due to the remote nature of the Mansion, you will need your own transport to get here. Sadly no travel expenses are re-imbursed.
Getting there
About Woodchester Mansion Trust
It is an unfinished masterpiece. Building started about 1857, but stopped in the mid-1860s so floors and ceilings are missing, walls not plastered and windows unglazed. All the secrets of the construction of the Mansion are visible - something visitors will never see in another country house.
The Mansion was designed by a young local architect, Benjamin Bucknall from Rodborough. He produced a unique Gothic Revival house which blends the local traditional work in limestone with the ideas of the French architectural thinker Viollet-le-Duc.
If you are interested in the Mansion and its history we have a book.
The quality of the stone carvings in the Mansion is outstanding: some are inspired by the plants in the surrounding valley and others are life-like images of animals. There are also real mammals to be seen as the Mansion houses breeding colonies of Greater and Lesser Horseshoe bats.
Owned by Stroud District Council, the Mansion is managed by the Woodchester Mansion Trust (it is not a National Trust property). On Open Days visitors can see how the house was built, admire the fine carvings and look at the bats on CCTV. Refreshments are available, we have a gift shop and the surrounding Woodchester Park (National Trust) can be explored. It is also possible to arrange private tours and hire of the Mansion.