Ironbridge Needs You – as a Volunteer With a Real Sporting Difference

Could you play the Victorian doctor who proved the unlikely inspiration behind the resurrection of the Modern Olympics - and the man who indirectly paved the way for London’s 2012 Games? If so, one of Britain's first World Heritage Sites, Ironbridge in Shropshire, is looking for you.

To celebrate Volunteers Week in June and mark the county’s historic connections to the birth of the modern Olympic Games, Ironbridge Gorge Museums is looking for volunteers to help breathe new life in to the remarkable story of the man who inspired the world's most famous sporting spectacles.

If you haven't heard of Dr William Penny Brookes, or his hometown of Much Wenlock, then take a look at the official Olympic mascot for the London 2012 Games – named Wenlock. As unlikely as it may sound Much Wenlock is internationally recognised as providing the origins of the modern international Olympic Games. And it was all down to local doctor Dr Penny Brookes, who founded the Wenlock Olympian Society and The Wenlock Olympian Games first held in 1850 "for the promotion of moral, physical and intellectual improvement" by providing an arena for competition in sport and the arts.

A visitor to the games of 1860 was Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the acknowledged founder of the modern Olympic Games, who later wrote "and of the Olympic Games, which modern Greece has not yet revived, it is not a Greek to whom one is indebted, but rather Dr W. P. Brookes".
To mark Volunteers Week (1-7 June) Ironbridge Gorge Museums, just a short distance away from the pretty market town of Much Wenlock, is hoping to add another exciting role for its vital band of volunteers - by looking for its own Dr Penny Brookes.

The volunteer, or volunteers, will dress in character to welcome visitors to Ironbridge’s new 2011 exhibition, Sporting Heroes, which celebrates the role of Much Wenlock as well as a host of Shropshire sporting legends.

It is just one element of Ironbridge’s Science Sport Life festival, a series of exhibitions and events focussing on the Science of Sport as well as Sporting Heroes, and part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, a four-year UK-wide cultural festival in the run-up to the London Games, and the national Stories of the World programme.

And the 21st century’s Dr William Penny Brookes will join fellow volunteers who bring history and heritage alive for the thousands of visitors who access all that Ironbridge can offer each year.
Volunteers are a crucial part in the success of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, which runs the award-winning 10 museums nestling in the picturesque Shropshire gorge, recognised as the birthplace of the industrial revolution and this year celebrating its 25th anniversary as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Hundreds of volunteers across its various sites are involved in a wide range of diverse roles from becoming part of the scenery in traditional dress to teaching and helping out behind the scenes.

Find out more about volunteering at Ironbridge at www.ironbridge.org.uk/supporting_us/volunteer_your_time
For more information about visiting the museums as well as the Science Sport Life festival, visit www.ironbridge.org.uk