BLENHEIM PALACE:
GETTING THROUGH THE TOUGH TIMES Blenheim Palace has been closed for nearly a month as I write this, except for free entry to the Park for our local community. Our construction sites remain closed and the Mineral Water plant is mostly closed. So, just as it has for many of you, we have seen revenue fall to zero in many of our businesses. Written by: Dominic Hare Photography by: Blenheim Palace
The Park and Palace are being maintained by mixed continuity teams, one for inside the Palace and one for out in the Park. The focus is on caring for livestock and keeping the Park in good condition. We also have a well-resourced security team in place! Remote working, while intrinsically frustrating for some of us, is working very well (we practiced this hard over the last few months) and we have a new in-house mail management system which serves up our paper post onto our computers – great use of Power Automate in Office 365! Our systems are well-tested and many elements of this will be carried into our working lives when normality returns. Several Blenheim staff have lost near relatives and we will of course remember the legendary Paul Duffie (former Administrator of the Palace) in an appropriate way when permitted. The world feels smaller and less colourful without him. We have been grateful for the chance to support a wide number of community volunteer initiatives in the area, both financially and practically. I feel that the memory of the extraordinary way friends and neighbours have rallied to support each other should last every bit as long as the memory of this vicious
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virus. We share this place with extraordinary people. We now find ourselves planning and delivering the following initiatives:
has been astonishing, and we support while being simultaneously in awe of our staff and our partners. These include:
SUPPORTING OUR STAFF
• Building the thehelphub.co.uk site for the remarkable Ruth Chalenor and funding operations (the latter with our great friends at Owen Mumford), this site has been a significant part of Woodstock and Bladon community support for vulnerable and isolated people and also links a significant number of trained counsellors giving free support sessions to those who need it – this is now national with over 200 counsellors online.
The response of our teams has been humbling. Nearly 80% of our people are furloughed, with the balance taking pay cuts – and I continue to be overwhelmed by offers of help and encouragement by Blenheim people. For our part, we have added an extra Hardship Fund to our package of support and have just launched a scheme to pay for online training courses for those who wish to use the time positively – courses on Udemy and LinkedIn Learning ranging from beer making to coding! All voluntary and I am now choosing mine. It will involve cake… The number of virtual pubs springing up is testament to the sense of community shared here. The biggest gifts we can give our people is to be there to bring them back and encourage them to upgrade all personal skills which excite them.
• Supporting with a vehicle loan the Long Hanborough COVID-19 Mutual Aid Group, who provide food and other support to vulnerable/isolated people. We have just added to this the supply of seeds and pots for distribution through Long Hanborough for an online growing competition.
SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITY NOW
• We are working on a voluntary delivery infrastructure for Woodstock shops to deliver pre-ordered goods to the area and are now email marketing all local online businesses to our database.
We have engaged in several initiatives, although it must be said that the voluntary community response
• Our chefs are working with food banks to cook meals for a group of vulnerable people.
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