Find out more about blue badge guide Harriet

June 17 2019 | Castle

Harriet Waldron has worked at Hever Castle for the past 13 years and has been a certified Blue Badge Guide for four years.

At 32 she is still one of the youngest blue badge guides in the industry. She explains about what working in the heritage industry is like.

Blue badge guide Harriet works within the Visitor Services team with 150 other members of staff at Hever Castle. She started off as a room steward in the Castle before moving into a Learning and Engagement Assistant role.

Part of her role involves working closely with school and educational groups and devising and running tours and activities.

One of the main questions Harriet is asked as a blue badge guide is are there any ghosts?

Harriet says: “People want the response to be ‘yes’ and luckily at Hever it is. After all, no self- respecting castle is complete without a few stories to chill the bones. At Hever, these include a man in a bowler hat seen heading into the cellars and a Tudor gentleman who inhabits a chair in one corner of the Henry bedroom. He has been seen by numerous children and also by one visitor who asked us why we had bought such an ‘unrealistic hologram’.”

Blue badge guide Harriet has also dressed as former owner Anne Boleyn and says working at Hever Castle is fun: “The most important thing to know about working in heritage is that it is a lot of fun. Weekends and bank holiday work come as standard, as do changeable hours and strange things you would never have dreamed of before (rescuing newborn ducklings, for example, dressing up as Anne Boleyn or creeping around on Halloween). But the people who work in heritage are wonderful. They are funny, hardworking, supportive and loyal. You definitely don’t have to be crazy to work here, but all I’ll say is it probably helps.”