Part Time (22.2hrs p/w), fixed term contract (until April 2028)
Our Digital Ancestors is a new four-year project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England, aimed at increasing volunteering opportunities which will safeguard burial ground heritage through the National Burial Grounds Survey (NBGS). The NBGS is being undertaken by The Church of England and Atlantic Geomatics, and will involve the surveying of every churchyard in England. This detailed recording will record every square inch of every churchyard in England, photograph all the visible memorials and scan and transcribe all the parish registers. As well as then knowing the extent of all the churchyards, exactly where they are and where the features within them are located, valuable historic records will be preserved. Photographs of all the memorials (excepting very recent or sensitive examples), some of which may deteriorate over the next few years, fall down or be laid flat, will provide a comprehensive catalogue.
Our Trainee will assist the Project Manager in providing the community link which will bring the NBGS project alive by training volunteers, interest groups and young people, throughout the whole of England, to contribute to and to use to this unique digital resource.
As well as a map, the NBGS is a database with analytical functions, useful for researching social history. Our trainee will assist the Project Manager investigate these and will help to arrange training sessions.
Churchyards contain a range of species and habitats, and Our Trainee will assist the Project Manager in encouraging those engaging with the project to observe and record wildlife too, creating biological records from sightings.
CfGA run an annual event – Love Your Burial Ground Week with Churches Count on Nature (a partnership initiative) forming part of it. Our Trainee will assist colleagues in delivering this week and increasing its reach. At the end of the project there will be a National Conference, the trainee will also assist with the planning and delivery of this event.
