Meet the team

Team meetings continued via Zoom during the 2020 and 2021 coronavirus lockdowns. Members also gave Zoom talks to Knole volunteers, sourced by our research and archived interviews.

Carol joined the team when it was set up in 2011. In addition to volunteering in the Business Support and Archaeology teams at Knole, she is also an experienced tour and showroom guide. Carol leads the oral history team, interviewing, transcribing and researching on top of managing the Knole archive.

As Knole's House & Collections Manager since April 2019, and as Property Curator in 2021, Sam Bailey looked after the Knole Oral History team of volunteers, and is now on maternity leave. 2022's Property Curator, Samantha Smith now gives us both motivation and fiscal support for our efforts.

Angela Prior-Wandesforde joined the Oral History team in 2016. A lover of all things historical and research projects in particular, she is enjoying delving into Knole's more recent history and working closely with Carol on the lives of Knole Estate staff from 1900 to the 1950s.

After retiring from Knole's Visitor Centre, providing a warm welcome, information and visitor services, Mary started volunteering in the Business Support Office in 2017. In 2018, she also joined the Knole Oral History team as a verbatim transcriber, combining her love of reading, history and continuing interest in all things Knole-related.

Over the last 15 years Carole has worked at Knole on the Visitor Services team. She is now looking forward to volunteering in a different capacity: verbatim transcribing with the Oral History team. She has always been interested in history, especially garden history and the early plant hunters, and researching her own family history is an ongoing project.

Retired journalist and lecturer, Veronica Walker-Smith joined the team from its start in 2011. She enjoys interviewing, archiving and editing this website, as well as learning more about the social history of hundreds of people linked to Knole.

Knole's House & Collections Manager up to April 2018, Helen Fawbert was the driving force behind starting the HLF-funded Oral History project in 2011. She led the setting up of the Estate Office 'Hidden Histories' exhibition, and her particular interest in the stories of everyday life of the house from the early to mid-20th century, motivated and inspired us all.

Since the Knole Oral History project started in 2011, many contributions have been made by a large group of people. Volunteers take on a variety of roles: research, interviewing, transcribing, website editing and archival submissions to the British Library’s National Sound Archive. Our work continues with a core group of six volunteers, with Joan Hodgson having started verbatim transcribing in 2020, and Carole Passey joining us in 2021.

We gratefully acknowledge these verbatim transcribing contributions in the past 10  years:

Sara Martin, Elaine Pordes, Will Johnson, Louise Carmichael, Mollie Barden, Louise Bishop.

And in conducting interviews up to 2015:

Marcia Barton, Knole volunteer for more than 30 years, has also researched for the Oral History team since 2011.Daphne Eatwell who used to work in market research put her interviewing talents to good use since the start of our oral history project in 2011, before retiring in mid-2015.  Christine Nevard, MBE, was an experienced Knole volunteer and guide. She joined the Oral History team when it started in 2011, interviewing and transcribing for 5 years. Nicky Stitchman interviewed and carried out research as well.

Our thanks also to the following:

 Lucy Atkinson, House & Collections Manager from mid-2018 to early 2019, then Senior House Steward until November 2021, also managed the Knole Oral History team. She gave us support and encouragement in the very busy years towards the end of the six-year Inspired by Knole project.

Jonathan Sargant oversaw most aspects of the project up to March 2015. As Community Engagement Officer at Knole for more than 7 years, he was instrumental in launching this Knolestories website, charming interviewees and volunteers alike and sharing his enthusiasm for social history and cake.

Geoff Dawber, Joy Wyman, Rosemary Milton-Thompson, Laurence Pordes.

Lucile Corby, Steven and Liz Dedman, Christine Dixon, Debbie Innes, Julia Kiggell, Clare Thake, Roger Wall, and Pamela Ward.