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Mersea Museum Heritage Resource Centre
In June 2010 Mersea Museum opened its new Resource Centre.
It is an 80 square metre extension to the
side of the existing Museum to enable it to provide local historical archives
and storage. This includes photographs, maps, genealogical data for
local family researchers, original documents and books (including the
John Leather Memorial Collection), digital images - and databases to support
all of this.
The building also provides a venue for learning and presentations to
small audiences, including schools, when the main museum is holding its
Summer Exhibition or is closed during the winter months.
Work on the building started in January 2010, a few days late because of
some challenging weather. It was finished in May and we were then able to build
the 2010 Summer Exhibition, equip the Resource Centre, stock the
shop, and get the Museum open quietly on 12 June 2010. The number of visitors
soon built up and we had an official opening by Andrew Phillips with many guests
on 24th July 2010.
We now have had 3 months of operation with the 'new' museum and we are watching
with interest the way it develops. It is really nice to have the extra space -
somewhere that visitors can sit and browse or just gossip about Mersea,
people they knew, life the way it was.
The online facilities are popular, particularly
the large collection of images we have available. The shop benefits from the
extra space and the whole area has a vibrant atmosphere.
Since the Museum opened this year, there
have been a number of events where the Resource Centre
with its large table with plenty of seating has shown itself to be really good.
- Open mornings for groups of local residents
- School groups who now have a more comfortable area to work on their projects.
- An escape-from-London group who we hosted at the start of their day
on the island being entertained by a local organisation.
- An exhibition by Mersea Island Photographic Society
over the Bank Holiday weekend - an added attraction
on top of the Museum's normal exhibition.
There is plenty more to do - the significant new storage areas need fitting out
properly. We have the shelving, it just needs installing.
We are still adding resources to the Resource Centre,
and we have a host of other jobs.
If you can help, we would love to hear from you!
The funding of the Resource Centre has gone well, thanks to the generosity
of many people.
We had a significant local legacy that was roughly matched by the grant we
were awarded from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
See more details of this award in the
HLF Press Release.
There remained roughly one third of the cost, that came from the Hervey Benham
Charitable Trust, Cory Environmental, Essex Heritage Trust and the Strood
Charity. There were also several private donations and the buy-a-brick scheme
played its part - as well as giving us an interesting feature in the new entrance
porch.
A pictorial trip through the building...
January 2010 - building started
The icy blast at the beginning of the month slowed things down,
but the builders have been active since, and the base is in place.
6th February 2010
The weather is being kinder in the balmy south east and the
walls are rising.
26th February 2010
10th April 2010
22nd April 2010
Refurbishing the main hall - new insulation, light tubes and lighting.
14th May 2010
Almost finished - and the plan is to open for the season on
12th June 2010.
2nd June 2010
Builders are finished...
4th June 2010
12th June 2010
We are open !
24th July 2010
Official Opening by Andrew Phillips
The opening ceremony for the Resource Centre was performed by well-known
Colchester author and historian Andrew Phillips. He registered his delight at the
extensive facilities of the new resource centre and praised the enthusiasm of the
volunteers who had made the event such a success.
"This is a great triumph for Mersea", he said, adding that it was a community
which "punches above its weight".
Some 300 people came through the doors over the weekend, when the museum was
free to everyone for both days. As there had been a Saturday lunch and a
Sunday morning coffee-and-cake party for invited guests, afternoon visitors were
offered the rare luxury of food to accompany their visit. Many expressed their
thanks with a donation.
[From The Courier, 13 Aug 2010]
The Resource Centre in use:
November 3rd 2009
HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND AWARD HELPS TO ESTABLISH HERITAGE RESOURCE
CENTRE FOR MERSEA ISLAND MUSEUM
The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a grant of £45,000 towards the building
of a Heritage Resource
Centre at Mersea Island Museum to provide a venue for
heritage-learning and presentations as well as
a repository and storage space for important local archives.
The Heritage Resource Centre will provide an area for learning and
enable children to do creative work during
school visits or as individual visitors, as well as
providing the Museum with room to store its archive
material in the proper conditions and to display its digitized
images on computer screens. The Centre will be available to
the community to hire as a smaller meeting area with a digital
projection system.
The Museum will be creating a new Maritime display, in the old shop area of the main Museum Hall, which will
show the design, build and sail making aspects of boats, together with a history of the local oystering and
fishing industry.
Also the Museum will create a user-friendly computer interface to its index records for 7000 references relating
to Mersea and its environs and of approximately 12,000 images, 158 hours of audio tape and 17 hours of
video. The Museum will continue to digitize local records of organization, businesses, Parish minutes and
anything that requires to be archived as a permanent record at the Museum. A programme to record
reminiscences of the older generation as well as memories of Mersea Island and its industries will be
continued.
David Cooper President of the Museum said "We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled us
to fulfill our long planned extension. This will allow us to continue and extend our work of preserving Mersea's
memories and records, as well as providing access for people to these records. It will also give us room to
organize our archive material and store it properly."
Explaining the importance of the award Robyn Llewellyn, Head of Region for Heritage Lottery Fund East of
England said "Our local heritage is so important, from archives of days gone by to the stories we pass down
from older generations - this project will help to capture all of this and give visitors to the museum and
residents of Mersea even more opportunity to learn about and celebrate their heritage.
"2009 is the 15th anniversary of Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), our funding
has enabled communities to learn about,
celebrate and look after our diverse heritage. From museums
large and small, to historic buildings and countryside; or
recording and sharing customs, traditions and history, HLF
grants open our nation's heritage for everyone to enjoy.
Since 1994 we have spent over £280 million in the East of England
across more than 2,800 projects.
For more information about HLF, see
www.hlf.org.uk."
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