Museum’s longest-serving waitress who loves to work

THE LONGEST serving waitress at the River & Rowing Museum café is looking forward to a new chapter after she will lose her job due to the venue’s closure later this month.

Amelia Ash, 44, who has Down’s syndrome, has worked at the café for 19 years having joined in September 2006.

It followed a successful trial shift, having been granted work experience there with help from a Oxfordshire County Council scheme for people with a physical or mental health condition or a disability.

On Saturday, September 20, the day before the museum’s closure, Miss Ash will work her last shift at the venue of which she has been “part of the furniture”.

Miss Ash, of St Mark’s Road, works a four-hour shift at the museum every Thursday and Saturday while she works Fridays and Sundays at Phyllis Court’s private dining room.

For the last three years, she has also volunteered at the museum and was asked to assist with the Tiddlers group for pre-school aged children where she helped teach basic Makaton [British sign language] and assisted with cleaning and setting up and singing sessions.

Her parents Douglas and Rhona, of Kingwood Common, now feel uncertain about her future career prospects, after Miss Ash was able to generate her own income from the job.

Miss Ash, a lead ambassador for the Chiltern Centre, is now looking to secure a new job working in a café or hospitality venue which is within walking distance from home.

In July, the museum’s board of trustees announced its closure due to significant pressures after recording a £1m loss in the last financial year.

Last month, its founders Sir Martyn Arbib, who helped fund the construction of the facility in Mill Meadows, and the museum’s emeritus historian Chris Dodd said they hoped a solution could be found to establish a smaller museum in the future.

Miss Ash said: “I’m trying not to think about leaving too much. I’m trying not to feel sad because crying doesn’t help. It’s going to feel a bit strange but I’ll be okay.

”I’m going to miss the café and museum and office staff.”

Miss Ash, who lives independently, said she has enjoyed greeting customers, particularly meeting regular cyclists who visited when the café was taken over by the Velolife team, which has a café in Wargrave, in 2023.

She said: “It has been really good working here. I make lots of friends and I like it when children come in with their families.

“I like talking to them and sometimes the babies smile at me when I come in which makes me feel happy.”

Miss Ash joined the café aged 25 after she completed a catering course at The Henley College and Derwen College, a residential campus in Shropshire, before returning to the area to work in about 2006.

She is a former client of the Chiltern Centre for disabled children where she is a volunteer.

Mr Ash, 77, believes her daughter has worked for at least 10 different managers at the museum.

He said finding her a new job is “so important” because of the skills, confidence and purpose it has given her. “It’s so sad and it’s so important that we get something similar to replace it in her life,” he said.

“We are all [partly] defined by our jobs and we do them because we like them and Amelia is exactly the same.

“Amelia would love to get two days working in a different café somewhere, as long as she can walk there. We need to find somewhere in Henley so she can carry on what she loves doing.

“Amelia is reliable and she is always bright and happy and looks forward to coming to work which is what staff have said to us.

“She is so much more confident because of it and she’s positive all the time which is what her various employers have always liked about her. She just loves to work.

“Several of her bosses have said to me when I come and pick up a coffee that she’s eagle-eyed and she is constantly scouring the place and if someone is finished she is over there cleaning the table for them.

“She can’t help being a role model. People with Down’s syndrome can still add to society. Amelia has broken barriers by simply being there and being seen to be doing a good job.”

In 2018, Miss Ash was honoured for 12 years of service with a surprise greeting with gifts at the former Leafi café by its then manager Ursula Shiels, fellow staff, museum director Sarah Posey and her parents.

Miss Ash recalled: “When I walked in, my manager Ursula was in the middle and I saw my mum and dad and I came in and saw all of them and the boss gave me an award for long service.

“I didn’t know something would be happening. They kept it a secret until I came in.”