TWINS from Chester have been awarded the 'BAFTA' of the museum world for their work transforming Lion Salt Works Museum's website.

Yesterday, Thursday, Museum + Heritage announced at its annual award ceremony that university students Julian and Harry Young were the winners of its ‘Volunteer of the Year’ Award.

The 20-year-olds were nominated by the multi-award winning Lion Salt Works Museum Trust in Northwich for their help in redesigning its website, its ‘Mundling Stick’ newsletter, as well as film-editing and on-site volunteering.

Julian Young, a second-year student at Lancaster University, studying MORSE (maths, operational research, statistic and economics) said: "We are delighted and astonished in equal measure at winning this award.

"We enjoyed our lockdown volunteering and are committed to helping the museum in the future.

"We prefer to see this award as recognising everyone’s hard work at the museum and trust – not just ours."

Harry Young, who studies physical geography and natural hazards at Coventry University said: "I won’t deny we were feeling a bit flat after we had to return home from university to go into lockdown.

Chester and District Standard:

"But we were spurred on our grandmother’s long-running advice: ‘if you are feeling bored and unhappy, it probably means you are not doing enough for other people.’

"This award is fantastic but is not the end of the story.

"We know we can continue to assist the museum remotely and plan to keep on helping."

Nick Hunt, trustee, Lion Salt Works Museum Trust, said: "This award is fantastic news and we are very proud of Julian and Harry.

"Updating the trust’s website had been on the ‘to do’ list for some time.

"What held the trustees back was finding the time and more importantly the technical ability to make the change.

"We knew the twins from earlier Duke of Edinburgh Award volunteering and were delighted when they agreed to help us.

"The project took some time.

"Julian revised the whole website site, putting in new pictures and pages as well as a Twitter account; Harry re-designed the Mundling Stick newsletter, creating three separate newsletters – two for online and one as a paper version.

"Thanks to their enthusiastic attitude, during 2020, three different films were produced and the results were impressive.

"These projects simply would not have been possible without their help."

Councillor Louise Gittins, leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council said: "We are delighted that Julian and Harry Young have won this prestigious volunteering award – the equivalent of the Baftas in the museum world.

"I very much hope their win will be an inspiration for younger volunteers to come forward and volunteer at the county’s museums, parks and wildlife areas."