The work of volunteers has enabled the Beaminster Museum Trust to operate and provide a much-loved museum for 30 years.

The volunteers - which is around 70 - carry out a great amount of work, so much so that they were awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service at a special ceremony earlier this month. This is the highest accolade in the country for groups of people who give freely of their time and talents for their local community.

We’re taking a look back at the role of the volunteer at the museum and how it has changed.

Beaminster Museum has always been run entirely by volunteers. It was officially opened in 1998, but the acquisition and conversion of the redundant Congregational Chapel in Whitcombe Road had been masterminded over several years already by a group of unpaid administrators and craftsmen whose example has inspired dozens of others ever since. The basic ethos has never changed: today's volunteers remain as determined as ever to enjoy working together to generate high quality without high expenditure.

The volunteers have come in all different shapes and sizes, and from all walks of life. Because the Museum is open during what might loosely be described as 'normal business hours', it follows that almost all of the willing helpers step forward from the ranks of the retired. The Museum has been richly blessed over the years by the know-how of former company directors, accountants, schoolteachers, shopkeepers, electricians, and many other worthy trades and professions. At the same time, many volunteers go to the Museum with the specific intention of indulging in a well-loved hobby, or even of doing something they've never tried before.

The museum world has changed hugely since Beaminster's new attraction first opened its green doors to the public.

Perhaps the most significant changes now affecting volunteers relate to legislation and administration. In order for Beaminster Museum to remain fully accredited with Arts Council England, it has to maintain dozens of documents covering almost every aspect of museum life: state-of-the-art accounts; risk assessments; rolling plans; volunteer agreements; data protection statements; and policies on topics ranging from collection development to equal opportunities.

It's also the case that fundraising is now tougher than ever for voluntary organisations, be it organising appealing events or trawling through the multiple pages of an online grant bid. Beaminster Museum receives no regular funding from local authorities. In addition, keeping up with information technology and marketing trends presented far fewer worries in the 1990s.

Highlights for volunteers over the years, and maybe things early pioneers would have found hard to predict, have included an exhibition called ‘Rubbish!’ which was subsequently featured on BBC, an open day at Horn Park Quarry, which attracted more than 300 visitors and visitors being welcomed to the museum by a volunteer in costume carrying her head under her arm.

As well as the museum’s permanent exhibitions, which are showcased across two floors, others have included ’Forty Years of Twinning’, ‘Three Hundred Years of Freemasonry’, ‘Life Below Stairs’, ‘Hatch, Match and Despatch’ and ‘Wood You Know’.

The volunteers at Beaminster Museum put in many hours to ensure visitors enjoy visiting and are worthy recipients of the award, which was received by chairman of the trust, Murray Rose, from Angus Campbell, Lord Lieutenant of Dorset.

Murray Rose, one of the original volunteers, has enjoyed watching the Museum and its volunteers develop. He added: 'Right from the start, the museum has had to be very reliant on volunteer effort because of lack of funds. To see so many people together, all volunteers, is a sight to behold. It really must be an achievement that so many have volunteered for so long and are going on as strongly as ever'.

Looking towards the future, Beaminster Museum has plans to extend the building and is fundraising to help make this happen.

For more information, visit beaminstermuseum.co.uk