BAFM MEMBERS NEWS - 1
FRIENDS OF CHELMSFORD MUSEUM
EXTENSION OPENS
Age-old proposals to extend the museum at Chelmsford, County Town of Essex finally came to fruition at the end of January 2010 when a new £5 million wing was opened to the public. An early casualty of the winter was the Museum’s Manager Nick Wickenden, who attended the opening on 22nd January by locally-born former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, with connections to the Essex Yeomanry, in plaster after breaking a leg and ankle on the ice.
The official opening was performed on 25th February by HRH The Duke of Gloucester, KG, GCVO, Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Anglian Regiment formed by the amalgamation of, amongst others, The Essex Regiment whose story is depicted in a brand new gallery. For the first time too there is a display of Essex Yeomanry material. Alongside this gallery on the first floor is a dual-purpose education room with interactive equipment underwritten by the Friends of the Museum.
On the ground floor, a new entrance to the Museum, linked to the Grade II listed Italianate Victorian Mansion built for a local brewer which has housed the museum since 1930, gives on to a display of material related among others to electrical motor pioneer Colonel R. E. B. Crompton and to Guglielmo Marconi who established the first radio factory in the world in the town in 1899.
The Friends, with some success, mounted a new display to attract members over the first two weekends after opening when the museum was visited by several thousand people.
FRIENDS OF THORNBURY MUSEUM
SMALL MUSEUM GETS ACCREDITATION
Yes, small museums can do it! Thornbury Museum in the South Gloucestershire market town of Thornbury is in a small house - once used as a butcher’s shop. There are two display rooms downstairs, with a back room (once the kitchen and bathroom) which is now used for storage and for making tea for the volunteers. Upstairs there is another display room and an office. Thornbury Museum has been operating now for twenty years and it is run entirely by volunteers. The local council subsidises the rent of the property, but we have to rely on donations and grants and, most importantly, the generosity of volunteers and the committed band of Friends who support the Museum.
This year we decided that we should try and get accredited. This involved a great deal of work by a number of dedicated volunteers who were determined to succeed - and we did it! We want to urge other small museums to try and achieve this accolade. If you are a similar small museum and want to get accreditation - or, indeed, have achieved that lofty height - we would be really interested to hear from you.
To find out more about us, go onto our website at:
www.thornburymuseum.org.uk
Or send us an e-mail:
enquiries@thornburymuseum.org.uk
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