As we have been unable to hold our AGM this year, we decided to do a virtual AGM via email. All Friends of Rushden Museum have received the relevant documents and below is the chairman’s report.
Rushden Museum – Chairman’ s Report.
Museum Year December 2018 -November 2019
The end of the 2018 season saw the end of our series of exhibitions about World War One and the dismantling of the famous trench reconstruction, although this was delayed for a while to enable Southend School to make some visits in November. Then as usual work began on the next exhibitions on Rushden in the 1960’s and the Scouting movement in Rushden. The Rushden in the 1960’s exhibition had “live” music to bring the decade alive by playing original records on a Bush record player, and the Scouting exhibition had a “virtual” camp fire! Two of our trustees Peter Head and John Harley had some fantastic memories to share. Both proved very popular with our visitors.
The museum was successful in obtaining a grant from East Northamptonshire District Council from Cllr Sarah Peacocks Empowerment Fund towards the purchase of a laptop which will enhance our documentation and research capabilities. We are now in the process of purchasing extra programs to aid with publicity and our media delivery.
In July 2019 Rushden Museum won the “Best Volunteer Project” at the Northamptonshire Heritage Awards at Holdenby House. This was for the project “Store Room Blitz” in which volunteers went through all the items in the collection. This meant emptying every box, checking their condition, and re-packaging every object to modern conservation standards. This project was been funded by Nenescape, a project run by the Heritage Lottery Fund to help small organization’s deliver projects along the Nene Valley.
The museum was approached by a firm who were re-launching the “Totectors” brand of safety footwear. Several related items were loaned to their offices in Amsterdam for display and a generous donation was given to the museum. The museum has also continued with preparing and updating documents for a possible application for Accreditation status in the future. Accreditation is a benchmark standard for museums administered by the Arts Council. It is not an easy thing to achieve. We have started the process, but it may take us a while to get there.
As part of “Celebrate Rushden” week we organized a Quiz with the Rushden Transport Museum with a prize being donated by Wetherspoons. Then during the Nene Valley Festival the museum put on tours of Rushden Hall complete with tea and cakes! These are always popular both for the tours and the refreshments.
Tour of Rushden Hall
To coincide with our exhibition the Scouts held a Camp Fire event in the walled garden on the 17th July. This enabled both new and older scouts to relive the camp fire songs wrapped in their camp blankets. We have worked closely with the Rushden Library for both information and as a publicity outlet. We set up two displays in the library to promote our 2019 exhibition.
We receive several donations to our collections each year, and they are all welcome, but we were very privileged to acquire a Distinguished Flying Cross from the family of Mr Clark who for many years owned the record and electric shop in the High St. Along with the medals came various other items associated with his flying career. It is an honour to have them in our collection. The information on the Hearts and Soles kiosk continues to grow and we thank the Rushden & District History Society for their support and hard work. Finally, I would like to thank all those who have helped during the past year in many ways: – The committee and volunteers for continuing to research and deliver such exciting exhibitions. To Dean Sygrove for supporting Gill and the museum with IT and our Webpage and Simon Peacock for the Facebook page. Thank you to all you who volunteer to man the museum or help with the maintenance and keep us in tip top condition.
Let’s hope next year will be Covid free and we can open our doors to your all and our exhibition titled “One Thing Leads to Another” and the Osbornes Toys 65th Exhibition.
Peter Field. Chairman.