Graham Burn, Director of Studio MUTT © Studio MUTT

As preparations for our Christmas experience, Harewood’s Great Time Travelling Christmas, get underway we spoke to Graham Burn, Director of Studio MUTT, about this unique collaboration with Harewood House. 

How would you describe Harewood’s Great Time Travelling Christmas? 

It’s a familiar yet peculiar installation, playing on our collective imagination at Christmas. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about those memorable and nostalgic things that sum up our Christmases past, and it’s not what you’d initially expect. It’s the little things, like your Gran’s decorations, the 90s Christmas disco, or sneaking in a drink while your parents weren’t looking. We’ve also looked forward and imagined the Christmases of our near future, where lab grown turkeys and hydroponic sprouts are on our table at dinner time.

We’ve taken the historic uses of the spaces in the house as inspiration for the installations ; Christmas music in the music room, a futuristic Christmas banquet in the dining hall and sum up what Christmas feels like in each decade since the 1950s.  We’re really hoping that it will bring a smile to people’s faces and to bring back memories for people

What have been the biggest challenges of working at Harewood House? 

These incredible rooms inside this historic building are simply unique and whilst they create an incredible backdrop to our experience, they also make the exhibition more challenging to build.  

This is a listed building and we’re really restricted in what we can do in the space – no drilling into walls or painting the floor. We need to respect and protect the incredible interiors whilst transforming the space into something new.  

It’s been a really creative process.  We’ve used lighting to create a sense of theatre and change the ‘feeling’ in each room.    We’ve also used lots of ‘found’ objects that we can place in rooms to evoke a lived in, domestic environment. This really adds that sense of nostalgia.  Almost like creating dream-like representations of Christmas’s that might have taken place in your home and mine.  And we’ve added lots of flat, graphic, free standing elements to give the experience an almost surreal quality and some festive sparkle. 

What do you hope visitors will take away once they’ve experienced Harewood’s Great Time Travelling Christmas? 

I hope they leave having been reminded of a happy Christmas from the past.  I hope they’ll feel inspired to share their memories with their family and friends and to start new traditions, or dig out some of the old ones. 

It really is an interactive experience that is designed to be shared and for me that’s what Christmas is about.  So whether people are visiting to get in the Christmas spirit or to get out of the house between Christmas and new year, we hope it will add some fun and humour to your celebrations this year.  We hope people have as much fun experiencing it as we had creating it – we guarantee you won’t have seen anything like this before.  

Find out more about Christmas at Harewood and pre-book online at harewood.org/

Ella – Student and Garden Volunteer

1–7 Jun is National Volunteer Week! Volunteers are an essential part of Harewood, and this week we would like to show our gratitude and give thanks to all of our 200 volunteers for their outstanding volunteer service.

With over 100 acres of Grounds and Gardens, without the hard work of our garden volunteers and the support they provide to the Gardens team, we would be unable to keep our grounds looking so great all year round for our Members and visitors. We would like to introduce you to one of our garden volunteers Ella who has kindly shared with us her experience of volunteering at Harewood and how this has impacted her mental health.

“My. Happy. Place.”

My name is Ella. As part of my University studies, I took part in a three-week volunteer placement with the gardeners at Harewood House Trust, to answer the question; what benefits does volunteering here in the gardens have on my mental health?

Mindfulness.

I am a fan of worms now. As a child, I thrived in a world of mud and bugs. So perhaps I am predisposed to be intrigued by them. My favourite thing about digging through the soil was the creatures I would come across. I came across earthworms, beetles, millipedes.

Probably more than I know the name of. Volunteering at Harewood made me feel like a child again. I experienced childlike joy at finding these creepy crawlies. Calling to my comrades, “I’ve found a millipede!”. And on one occasion, I found myself watching as a worm attempted to burrow its way back into the soil. A solid 10 minutes I found myself watching. Which, in the grand scheme of time does not sound particularly long… However, that was 10 minutes of spontaneous mindfulness. The first benefit I experienced; how involuntarily mindful working in gardens makes you become. My first day, I experienced some anxiety about meeting a group of new people. Other days, there was the lingering awareness of my deadlines looming that would dampen my mood. After 30 minutes in the gardens, all of that faded away.

Teamwork.

We worked in all kinds of weather conditions, rain, snow, sunshine. It was the consensus between us that teamwork plays a role in keeping us motivated. On one day, me and two others were creating a bug motel. At some point temperatures must have dropped as within 20 minutes it had started snowing. My fingers and toes had gone numb, and I was uncomfortable. A part of me wanted to stop what I was doing and go home, frankly. But the ladies I was working with were powering through. And that was all the encouragement I needed to carry on. We distracted ourselves with conversation. Eventually that mindful muscle kicked back in, and I was happy to be outside, and in the snow. I love snow! I marvelled to a colleague that I liked how everyone just gets on with the work, no matter the conditions. She shared the sentiment that working within a team is an excellent motivator. I went home after lunch, with the promise of returning the next day in more layers.

This is the second benefit I found. Working together within a team with a common goal. It is a really nice way to connect with people. As someone who can experience social anxiety, there was none here, for me. Because there is no pressure to spark up a conversation. I relate to my teammates nonverbally, through this shared goal. Within that, it is nice to look up from the mud every now and then and share some words, or anecdotes, or laughs. There is a definite sense of belonging here which I appreciated.

Self-esteem.

And finally, Volunteering at Harewood has boosted my self-esteem. I have learnt about no-dig soil. This operates on the knowledge that soil is its own, self-sustaining, organism. I own a Rhubarb plant now, whom I love and hope to keep with me for the next 10 years. From the other volunteers, I heard about the trials and errors of growing your own fruits and vegetables. I also felt the pride they expressed after cooking a meal with produce, they grew! I feel inspired to try too. I have gained a new appreciation for nature. And I have learnt tips on how to protect it. Most importantly, I feel encouraged for my future, excited by possibility. The foundation of these experiences? The intention behind it all. Harewood House has very clear intentions to stay relevant with the present day. Much like soil, it is a living organism, that continues to evolve and adapt. And for me, this is vital. Spontaneous mindfulness, working within a team, and learning new things. Ultimately, I do not believe I would have experienced these benefits in abundance if the Trust were not intentionally about creating this safe space.

Rhubarb plant that was gifted to Ella

Thank you so much Ella for sharing your story!

Feeling inspired , find out more and get involved at https://harewood.org/about/join-us/volunteering/ or by contacting volunteer@harewood.org.

Harewood House Trust welcomes the creation of the Heirs of Slavery group, which includes David Lascelles, the Earl of Harewood, and other people whose ancestors profited from transatlantic slavery.

Harewood House Trust is an independent educational charitable trust established in 1986.  The Trust works to maintain and develop Harewood House, Gardens and Grounds, the historic home of the Lascelles family, for the public’s benefit. The charity, which is also an accredited museum, uses all the funds raised from visitor admission to keep the site open, to engage with Harewood’s local communities and to run a diverse programme of exhibitions and events, which are enjoyed by over 250,000 people every year. Given that Harewood House was built using profits from the Transatlantic trade in enslaved people, this programme has for a long time strived to open up conversations about this history and its ongoing impact around the world. Harewood House Trust welcomes the Heirs of Slavery’s statement and hopes that the group’s creation will continue to progress these conversations.

Since the charity’s creation, Harewood House Trust has maintained links with the Lascelles family. This has included generous donations from the family and working collaboratively with them on several projects. Harewood House Trust is grateful for their support of the charity’s projects and looks forward to further collaborations in future. The Trust will continue its work to be open about Harewood’s history; to make Harewood a welcoming, inclusive place for all; and to raise awareness of the local, national and global movements that seek restorative justice for enslaved people and their descendants.

These projects include:

• The Trust’s Open History series highlights the site’s past with the exhibition Bertie Robinson: The Footman from St Vincent and Black History walks with Leeds-based Heritage Corner.
• In the Missing Portraits series, the Trust is creating exhibitions to accompany portraits of Black sitters, commissioned by the Earl and Countess of Harewood to diversify the House’s historic art collection. The first portrait is of Leeds community activist and founder of Leeds Carnival Arthur France and the second will be of the actor and writer David Harewood, whose ancestors were enslaved on Lascelles plantations.
• In 2007 Harewood hosted a wide range of events to commemorate the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The highlight was performances of Carnival Messiah in a big top near Harewood House. Carnival Messiah is inspired by the music of Handel’s Messiah, performed Caribbean Carnival style and featuring Carnival performers from Britain and from Trinidad.

A full list of Harewood House Trust’s projects that engage with the site’s history can be found here.

Princess Mary, 1914. This portrait of Princess Mary was included in every Christmas Gift Box sent to troops fighting for Britain in 1914.

We are happy to share that Harewood is introducing a brand-new tour exclusively for groups!

This tour will delve into Harewood’s royal connection through the story of HRH Princess Mary.  Learn about the fascinating life of the Princess, while you explore our magnificent State Floor.

Who was Princess Mary?

Princess Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary of York was born on the 25th of April 1897 at York Cottage located on the Royal Estate of Sandringham.

Princess Mary was the only daughter of six children born to the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary.

As part of her royal duties, Princess Mary was affiliated with many organisations throughout her life, including the Girl Guides and Great Ormond Street. She also held several honorary military positions, including Commandant-in-Chief of the Royal Scots and British Red Cross Detachments. During the Second World War, Princess Mary served with the British Army from 1941 as Controller- Commandant of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (later the Women’s Royal Army Corps).

Princess Mary and Harewood

Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Princess Mary and Henry, Viscount Lascelles, eldest son of the 5th Earl of Harewood in November 1921, with The Royal wedding taking place on the 28th of February 1922.

Princess Mary and the 6th Earl moved into Harewood in 1930 and made a number of modernisations and improvements to both the House and Estate. Princess Mary lived at Harewood for more than 30 years.

Mary is still known today as ‘The Yorkshire Princess’.

Group visits to Harewood

Groups of 12 or more benefit from our reduced group rates. Groups also benefit from one free admission for the group organiser and coach driver.

Explore the marital home of ‘The Yorkshire Princess’ with one of our expert guides.

Find out more about our Guided Tours and Group Visits

Our friendly group bookings team can be reached at 0113 218 1000 or via email groups@harewood.org