Lady Emma Barnard tours Amberley Museum and presents the King’s Award for Voluntary Service
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00:00 I think it's so brilliant, the walking was alive, that's what set it, and the children are fascinated, aren't they?
00:07 I mean they can't believe it, because in the day when you know you just tap on some electronic screen and like magic everything comes up.
00:14 The fact that you've got to set, I mean that's absolutely incredible.
00:19 Hello! Hello!
00:21 Wow, this is live? Yes it is. I didn't know you did this. Fantastic.
00:33 The plumbers got together and we cast them and made them here. They're about three quarters of a tonne each.
00:40 It's six foot long by two foot square, and they're up there now. It's almost there. It's about as much as we can bring down here.
00:56 Did you make the mould? Yes, all the planks and moulds are here. We cast them in bits and then welded it together to create the panels.
01:06 Oh, it's really beautiful. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
01:10 So it's absolutely stunning.
01:12 It's really shiny.
01:14 It's really beautiful.
01:20 No, no, that's too fast. Look at that.
01:24 That's amazing. Wow.
01:26 That is magic.
01:28 It's fantastic.
01:32 It's wonderful.
01:42 Yes.
01:44 This is proper stuff.
01:46 We'll show you a basic stick. We use a brush-based tip, and then we can see where the grain is.
01:58 Cut to there, or cut to that.
02:02 Mark, keep rubbing.
02:06 Right, yes.
02:08 And then you start to cut.
02:12 That is amazing.
02:16 What is that?
02:18 It's a mistake.
02:20 It's a mistake.
02:22 Yes.
02:24 Oh, here, for my coaxing.
02:28 So it's choked, and the wood is thrown over.
02:32 It's obviously that good.
02:34 It's on there.
02:36 It's a bit of a gauge.
02:38 Very lovely.
02:40 I love it.
02:42 It's got one of those beautiful, sometimes it's like strong.
02:46 Did you know when you first started, the shape of it, it was beautiful.
02:52 It's beautiful.
02:54 It's even chapped.
02:56 All the windows never been original.
03:02 They're all little broken.
03:06 It's not very warm in here.
03:10 It is a bit cold.
03:12 When the building was originally as a woodwork shop back in the 1800s, they wouldn't have had big plates obviously, so they had to use as much glass as they could because of the lighting.
03:26 Most of the old houses were like that.
03:30 That's right.
03:36 Yeah, but you put the display on the wall there.
03:42 That's all in front of you as well.
03:46 Well, I came to see you.
03:52 Hi, nice to meet you.
03:54 Thank you for allowing the interruption.
03:58 So you do vintage bikes of any description?
04:02 Yeah, we do.
04:04 We have about 700 of them in the store.
04:08 How fantastic.
04:10 So do people donate you?
04:12 I mean, do they give them?
04:14 I have one very like that, a girl's version.
04:18 It's the same colour, red and blue.
04:20 I love it.
04:22 We've got three and four in here.
04:24 That's just, that's what is proper.
04:28 That's what you should have.
04:30 This one from here.
04:32 Yeah.
04:34 1939 dentist's cabinet.
04:40 Yeah, but what?
04:42 I should have been here.
04:44 You really isn't.
04:46 I thought you told me it would be running in two weeks.
04:50 Wow.
04:52 Next stop, next stop, next stop.
04:54 I'm not happy to be here.
04:56 I'm going to be flying with these down to work on a certain thing.
05:00 I'm going to be flying with these down to work on a certain thing.
05:02 We've got a record down there.
05:04 Hello.
05:06 Nice to meet you.
05:08 Welcome to Communications Hall.
05:10 Fantastic.
05:12 Covers the history of this.
05:14 Yeah.
05:16 They're all different.
05:20 That's the quietest one.
05:26 That's like a sort of old fashioned fire engine.
05:28 Yes, very much so.
05:30 That kind of like.
05:32 [Indiscernible]
05:54 [Indiscernible]
06:14 [Indiscernible]
06:30 [Applause]
06:54 It's been the most wonderful afternoon.
06:56 I haven't been here for about, I think, to say probably 15 years, maybe slightly more.
07:02 It's given me such joy.
07:04 I've met lots and become a complete child again, enjoying everything you've got here.
07:10 I'm definitely coming back.
07:12 I'm going to be serious.
07:14 This is such an achievement what you have done here.
07:18 Getting a King's Award for Voluntary Service is very difficult.
07:22 It's very, very rigorously assessed.
07:24 It goes up and down through various sharp-eyed people.
07:30 I know because I sat as an observer on one of the, what are they called?
07:36 Assessment.
07:38 Everything is gone through with a tooth comb.
07:40 Of course, as you can appreciate, there are lots of contenders for relatively few King's Awards that are given out every year.
07:48 This is no mean feat and you deserve every single little tiny piece of that beautiful crystal thing.
07:58 [Laughter]
08:04 Quite seriously, this museum warms everybody's heart who comes here because it is, without a doubt, held together by your love and your care
08:16 and your attention to detail.
08:18 It's quirky and it's wonderful and it's individual.
08:22 It's held together by all of you who have such passion, such clear passion for what you do.
08:29 I could not be more thrilled that you have won this award.
08:32 You really deserve it.
08:34 Anyway, all I will say is it just makes me very, very happy.
08:39 This is one of the best parts of my role, to be absolutely honest with you.
08:43 I just want to say my heartiest congratulations and wear the badges with great pride.
08:50 Charles III, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
08:58 and of our other realms and territories, King, Defender of the Faith II, Amberley Museum,
09:06 exhibits the transport industry, communication and craft heritage of Southern England.
09:13 Greeting, we being cognizant of the said group's outstanding voluntary work in the community
09:22 and being desirous of showing our royal favour, do hereby confer upon it the King's Award for Voluntary Service.
09:32 Voluntary Service by Groups in the Community 2023.
09:37 For such period as the group continues to provide its current service and do hereby give permission
09:44 for the authorised emblem of the said award to be displayed on the group's left head and other public material.
09:53 Given at our Court of St James's under our Royal Sign Manual this 14th day of November 2023, in the first year of our reign.
10:17 Charles III, I have enormous joy in presenting you with the King's Award for Voluntary Service.
10:25 Congratulations.
10:27 Thank you Lord Leften for your kind words.
10:34 I'm very pleased and honoured to accept this King's Award fee
10:41 and the Warrant of Award certificate on behalf of you, the volunteers of Amberley Museum.
10:47 I'm sure there would have been very many special occasions in the life of Amberley Museum
10:54 since it opened 45 years ago in 1979.
10:59 But I very much doubt that there has been such an important and memorable day as this.
11:06 The King's Award for Voluntary Service is a national recognition of the importance of our volunteers.
11:13 We are immensely grateful for everything that they give to the museum.
11:17 Time, expertise, commitment, ideas and engagement with visitors to name but a few.
11:26 Without them Amberley Museum would simply not function.
11:31 And I think it's fair to say that they, we, the trustees are volunteers as well,
11:39 get much back from being involved in Amberley.
11:43 I doubt that many of you know much about the award process so I thought I would give you a very quick summary.
11:51 This started at his suggestion when I emailed Neil Hart in June 2021 when he was High Sheriff of West Sussex.
12:04 He gave us excellent advice and the actual application was sponsored by Dr Tim Fooks,
12:12 also an earlier Shire Sheriff. Sadly he's on holiday at the moment and can't be with us.
12:17 The application took the form of a very long questionnaire filled in largely by Valerie Mills,
12:25 who is somewhere there, and Hannah Miller, who I haven't seen but I know she's here,
12:31 but there she is, Hannah Miller, our previous Director and Volunteer Manager.
12:38 We needed two letters of support and these were provided by our local MP,
12:44 Andrew Griffith, and the leader of West Sussex County Council, our landlord, Paul Marshall, who's also over there.
12:53 Then the next stage was a rigorous assessment that was undertaken by two Deputy Lieutenants,
13:01 Neil Hart and Simon Knight.
13:05 They spent nearly a full day on site in December 22,
13:10 in fact Simon was reminded what a freezing cold day it was,
13:15 interviewing trustees, staff and of course many volunteers.
13:20 Then the long wait.
13:24 I was informed we were successful in early October 2023,
13:29 but was bound to secrecy until it was formally announced by Buckingham Palace on the 14th of November last year.
13:38 The consequences of leaving this in advance were not spelt out specifically,
13:44 but the threat of the Tower of London was definitely there.
13:49 And I'm very pleased to welcome almost all those named people who supported us in this process
13:55 and I hope that you will engage with them when the formal part of these proceedings are over.
14:00 So thank you again Lady Emma for coming here today and presenting us with the award.
14:06 We really do appreciate you making the time available to us.
14:10 My final task is to ask you to assemble outside for some time.