Meet the woman behind the scenes at Kiplin Hall

PROGRAMMING curator Sarah Mayhew has worked at Kiplin since October 2018 following the retirement of Dawn Webster, who worked as the curator for 18 years and managed the venue from dereliction to a visitor attraction and museum.

Sarah Mayhew Craddock, programme curator at Kiplin Hall and Gardens works on creating the events programme, exhibitions and displays

Sarah grew up in North Yorkshire. She graduated from the University of Southampton’s Winchester School of Art with a BA in Fine Art, moved to Annecy in France, and later studied at Birmingham School of Art.

Since graduating in 2004 Sarah has worked in the arts and heritage sector programming events and curating in museums and for arts festivals. This work has taken her to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Oxford, back up to North Yorkshire, and to various festival fields, parks and city streets.

Combining her passion for the arts with writing, Sarah has also written for newspapers as an arts, and on occasion, travel correspondent.

We asked Sarah what she most enjoys about her role at Kiplin, and it seems variety is indeed the spice of life. “I enjoy the variety of my role. From the historic research required for creating an exhibition, to days spent in Kiplin’s woodland in Autumn as I assemble Halloween installations.”

Scrap books, letters, drawings and other personal items from the archive have been put on display at Kiplin Hall

Sarah also describes the challenges of her role and said: “Feeling eternally frustrated by the perfectionist within me that is constantly reviewing work and can never put to bed that sense of, ‘if I did that again, this is what I’d do differently...’ as well as juggling work and home life.”

Sarah’s favourite place to spend time in Kiplin is a popular spot with visitors too, both the two legged and four-legged variety. “I have a springer spaniel who accompanies me to Kiplin on occasion and loves the opportunity to run around the grounds. It’s always such a pleasure walking through the ever-changing walled garden and seeing living history in action as the team there recreate historic planting.”

Sarah’s four-legged pet Pippa the Springer Spaniel who occasional accompanies her to Kiplin is equally fond of the rolling lawns

If Sarah could travel back in time she knows exactly who she’d like to bump into from Kiplin’s past. “He’s well-travelled, by all accounts charming, with a visible twinkle in his eye and seemingly quite the bon viveur. What fun it would be to go back in time and party with Admiral Walter Carpenter at Kiplin.

"‘The Admiral’ inherited Kiplin in 1868 and owned it until his death in 1904 during which time the Carpenter family enjoyed the typical country house lifestyle of the period with diaries and visitor books bursting at the seams with details of house parties, boating, tennis, country pursuits, theatricals and musicals.”

Admiral Carpenter, head of the house hold at a time when Kiplin, and fine country living, was at its peak.

One of Sarah’s recent projects has been to help visitors and explore some of the personal moments in Kiplin’s past. Many items like the scrap books tend to be kept tucked away in the archives, available for research. But through Sarah’s management many of these intimate treasures are now on public display. Perspex stands allow paper material to be viewed safely by visitors as they explore the rooms.

New Perspex displays make it possible to keep a homely feel in the hall whilst displaying these delicate items

Being able to view the hand writing of the people who lived there (or visited for parties and celebrations) alongside their possessions, and the moments they choose to document brings a sense of life and reality to the rooms.

Visit www.kiplinhall.co.uk or call 01748-818178 to find out Kiplin’s current opening times and events. Kiplin will close at the end of its 2020 season on November 1, reopening in February 2021.