Introducing Laurel Miller
I have enjoyed a long career in heritage working across archives, museums and heritage sites in Southwest England. I am delighted that following 6 years at the National Lottery Heritage Fund, I am now working as a consultant with a range of community, nature, heritage and culture organisations and helping them achieve their goals.
My love of history started early and was sparked by my mother’s interest in local history and living in a house with a story. A building that started as medieval, was extended in 18th century and again in the 20th. It was a house with secrets to uncover and history at every turn; from the slanted landing, glass so old that it was thicker at the bottom of the diamond panes and thinner at the top; a pantry with thick slate shelves and walls of chalk blocks, rattling sash windows, and blackened beams in the loft that suggested an open fire in its earliest days.
As a history teacher, I loved teaching local history. It offered something so different for the students, an opportunity for investigation and it made history relevant and showed that it was present all around them. I was delighted to take my teaching skills into museums and work with local history collections. Developing new programmes, working with a big age range of students and getting involved with temporary exhibition writing, duty management, fundraising and all the elements of a museum gave me a very full and fulfilling career.
Working at the Heritage Fund gave me a chance to work with and support nature organisations and indulge my interest in and love of all things nature. Again, my mother’s passion sparked mine as I grew up knowing the names of birds, butterflies and plants sharing her love for gardening with and for nature. I am now secretary of the Brentor Commons Association and have set up a nature and climate group in my home village. Climate change, nature restoration and landscape are so important to me, and I am determined to use my skills and enthusiasm to drive change at a local level.
I have a strong personal interest in diversity and inclusion with family members from the LGBT+ community and the autism community. I enjoyed working with diverse communities in my heritage career, giving local communities voice and agency in how their culture is presented, preserved and celebrated. At the National Lottery Heritage Fund, I championed inclusion within the London and South team, driving training and implementation of accessible documents, emails and events. I was privileged to work with and support applications from LGBT+, pan disability, gender and learning disability organisations at the Heritage Fund. I was happy to go above and beyond to support these organisations in securing funding and would do so as a consultant – so do contact me if you need any help.
