recruitment
Strengthening the Future of Macclesfield’s Heritage
Development Director
Salary: £45000fte
Contract: 0.8, 30 hours per week
Term: permanent contract
Hours of work: Working pattern negotiable. Occasional weekend and evening working to cover special events as required
Leave: Statutory Leave allowance including Bank Holidays pro-rata
Location: The Silk Museum & Paradise Mill, Macclesfield; (some working from home will be considered)
Thanks to generous funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, The Headley Trust, Granada Foundation & Arts Council England, The Silk Heritage Trust is embarking on an ambitious 18-month development programme Strengthening The Future of Macclesfield's Heritage. The Trust is working to establish The Silk Museum and Paradise Mill as a national centre for silk heritage and heritage textile crafts. Strengthening The Future of Macclesfield’s Heritage moves the Trust towards this vision, strengthening fundraising capacity plus staff and board skills, to provide a solid foundation for the future.
The Silk Heritage Trust is looking for an ambitious and strategic Development Director to shape the future of our museum and mill and our income streams. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced individual to build a ground up strategy and lead the development of an ambitious organisation.
HOW TO APPLY
Please submit your updated CV with a covering letter (no more than 2-sides A4) outlining your interest in the role and setting out how your skills and experience meet the requirements of the post, to: director@silkmacclesfield.org.uk
In your application, please indicate the notice period for your current role.
We want our recruitment processes to be inclusive and accessible to all candidates, including those with disabilities. Please let us know if you have any access needs in making your application.
Deadline for applications: 12 noon Monday 28th July 2025
If you have any queries about this role in advance of the deadline, or if you have any access requirements please do not hesitate to email: director@silkmacclesfield.org.uk
Interviews
We expect to hold initial interviews – in person or online – during the week beginning 4th August
There will be in person second interviews for selected candidates during the week beginning 11th August
If you have not heard back from us by 1st August, unfortunately you will not have been shortlisted for this role
Chair of Trustees, Silk Heritage Trust Voluntary role
c. 0.5 day per week Meetings held in Macclesfield
The Silk Heritage Trust celebrates and shares the extraordinary story of Macclesfield; a story of creativity, industry, and enterprise. After a period of focused work, we are in healthy and optimistic position, with a clear strategic plan and the resources we need to achieve an ambitious step-change in the coming years. Support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund mean that we’re able to look forward to a transformed future at the heart not only of the North West’s industrial heritage, but also the wider international patrimony of textile design and manufacture.
With a new lease in place on Paradise Mill, and a significant opportunity to restore and commercialise the looms and pattern books we hold, we are preparing to make a once-in-a-generation investment in the future. Our goal is to create a unique, integrated visitor experience, with the breathtakingly atmospheric Paradise Mill complementing the wider story of Macclesfield’s heritage and people, as told in the neighbouring Silk Museum. The Old Sunday School building, one of our town’s landmark buildings, will be sensitively transformed so that it will continue to be a popular and much-loved community hub.
We are looking for an energetic individual who can act as a figurehead for the Trust, help strengthen and develop our networks, develop our landmark buildings and gain support for our vision. Our new Chair will bring skills and experience as a strategic leader, community and sustainability champion and entrepreneur. If you share our passion for the regenerative power of heritage and culture, and can help drive our vision, then we look forward to hearing from you.
To request further information or to arrange an informal conversation, please contact david.gooda@navigategroup.co.uk, who is supporting the Trust with this appointment. Expressions of interest should be received by 19 July 2025.
HOW TO APPLY
To apply for this role, please submit a full CV (ensuring you include a full chronological record, including all periods of both employment and unemployment) together with a letter of application which demonstrates your match to the role profile.
Please also ensure that you have summarised your motivation for applying.
Applications should be sent by email to david.gooda@navigategroup.co.uk by 19 July 2025.
Interviews are expected to be held in Macclesfield between 21 - 28 July 2025.
Trustees
Do you want to make a real difference by helping to save part of Macclesfield’s heritage as a Trustee of the Silk Heritage Trust?
Do you have digital and social media skills? - Could you bring those skills to help us develop and optimise our strategy to achieve our objectives to reach new audiences and generate income?
Do you have retail experience? - Can you help guide how can we enhance and improve our footfall and increase our income per visitor?
Do you have fundraising experience? - How can we best approach this to make the most of what we can raise from local philanthropists and individual supporters.
Do you have financial planning experience? - Could you bring fresh, brave thinking to managing how we strengthen our financial position and resilience?
Sounds like your cup of tea? Well, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!