When 78-year-old Robin Davies jumps into his car to make his weekly journey to Ripon he knows he is in for a day full of surprises.

The retired policeman is a volunteer at Fountains Abbey and says every day is different – with new people from around the world to meet, all with their own tales to tell.

“Being a volunteer is one of the most fulfilling jobs I have ever done,” said Robin.  “You never know who you are going to meet that day – they could be from the other side of the world or the other side of Ripon, but everyone is there to see the wonders that Fountains Abbey offers.”

He joined the 300-strong volunteer team at the National Trust property ten years ago.  After retiring from North Yorkshire Police, he spent some time as a taxi driver before joining the Harrogate Community Safety Partnership, but when he left there for a local charity he realised how much many areas of the workplace rely on volunteers.

Robin said: “Working for Paperworks opened my eyes to the importance of volunteers. I knew I had to help in some small way. Ten years on I am still at Fountains Abbey – if you love history and the natural world, this is the place to be.”

Some days he can be found greeting visitors in reception, others he will be driving people with mobility issues around the abbey.

“I love meeting people from all walks of life and helping wherever I can. I would recommend volunteering to everyone, whatever their age. It gives me a buzz every time I am at Fountains Abbey,” he added.

Andrew Moss, senior volunteering and community officer at Fountains Abbey, said: “Put simply, we wouldn’t be able to look after our World Heritage Site if it wasn’t for our amazing volunteers.”

When he retired, Tim Phillips decided that was the time to scratch the itch that had been with him since his earliest years.

The 79-year-old was put in touch with the Yorkshire Arboretum, a 120-acre garden at the Castle Howard Estate, near Pickering, by a neighbour in 2020 and became one of their Wednesday Tree Care team.

Tim said: “I had an interest in trees all my life, but I am a child of the ’50s and ’60s and back then there was no money in environmentalism, as we would call it today. So, I got a job with an oil company and spent my working life in air-conditioned offices around the world.

“Tree care is about planting trees, tending them, keeping them safe and helping them grow. It is what you might call large scale gardening. Also when big trees die, we have to fell them.”

With big trees comes big equipment.

“I did not imagine I would be using so many power tools,” he added.

A highlight has been constructing a red squirrel enclosure, re-introducing the species to that part of North Yorkshire.

He said: “That was extremely satisfying and was done by the volunteers under the guidance of the head arborist.

“Three reds were introduced last autumn, one male and two females, and they have had three babies and we are now hearing that one of the females is pregnant again.”

Tim would recommend volunteering.

He said: “If you are doing something that interests you and that activity has a social benefit as well, then that is a win-win.”

If all the world’s a stage, then Gerry Broadbent’s roles on it as a volunteer are many and varied.

Gerry, 79, retired to Richmond from the Hull area nine years ago with wife Janet after the couple fell in love with the town – and its Georgian Theatre Royal – after regular visits over many years.

The couple are lifelong theatre lovers and almost immediately Gerry offered his services to the Georgian theatre.

“Within a week of moving here I had gone to the theatre to say can I volunteer, filled in a form and started out,” he said. “I started ushering, but before long the front of house manager said to me ‘I’ve noticed you can stand up and smile at the same time, so I’d like you to be front of house’. So I became front of house, too, then moved into the box office as well, then guided tours, then some of the technical stuff backstage and in the control booth, then running the Friends of the Theatre, so things escalate fast when you’re enjoying yourself. Every time I go into the Georgian Theatre Royal, I get a real buzz.”

Gerry, a former secondary school headteacher in Hull and Beverley, is one of about 100 volunteers – including Janet – who support the theatre.

The theatre is the oldest working in the country still in its original form. It boasts King Charles III and Queen Camilla as patrons and Dame Judi Dench as president.

“It is a very important part of the cultural heritage of the country,” said Gerry. “To lose that would be criminal, but it will only be kept going by volunteers.”