30 May 2025
From oxygen spectacles to an intriguing baby’s bottle – volunteers working within the Arts and Heritage Group of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) Charity are ready to provide patients of all ages with some interesting talking points.
Helen Steatham
They are playing their part in the forthcoming Volunteers’ Week focus, that runs 2-8 June 2025, by visiting patients at New Cross Hospital with a handling collection.
This collection boasts items from the former Royal Hospital which closed in 1997 and Wolverhampton-based chemist Reade Brothers and Company. As it can be moved around locations it gives people the opportunity to have a proper look at items and examine them more closely.
This activity is part of Care, Create, Conserve, a programme of arts and heritage, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Central to this project is RWT’s collection of medical artefacts, photographs, and memorabilia, housed within Wolverhampton City Archives, Molineux Hotel Building, Whitmore Hill, Wolverhampton, WV1 1SF.
Helen Steatham, one of the volunteers who will be engaging with patients next Wednesday 4 June, from 2pm, explained how conversations and stories flow freely through the handling collection.
She said: “If we take the banana bottle for example, older people might have seen one before, but younger people are unlikely to have come across anything like it.
“As with all the items in the handling collection, the bottle comes with its own story and once the story is told it unlocks memories and anecdotes or sparks questions and a broad range of topics are explored ranging from sustainability to social history. I love interacting with people in this way and know other volunteers get a lot out of this too.
“Volunteering within arts and heritage means different things to different people. For me, with my curatorial background, I have a passion for objects rather than artwork for example and I enjoy all the details that make up their story. Other volunteers have a different perspective if they have come from a healthcare background such as my colleague Helen Trainer who was a Nurse.
“Another volunteer, Charlotte Jones, is using the experience gained to help her find work in the arts and heritage field.
“We’re proud to be part of Volunteers’ Week next week and all share a sense of satisfaction and reward from bringing our important local history to life for all.”