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Mersea Museum Heritage Resource Centre
The Museum Trust intends to build an approximately 80 square metre extension to the
side of the existing Museum to enable it to provide local historical archives
and storage. This will include 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 will also provide 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.
We have been granted Planning Permission for the extension and
are currently looking at the plans in more detail to ensure the best possible use,
before going out to tender to build.
The Trust is now fund raising and applying for Grants for the Resource Centre.
- We are seeking donations for named bricks to be placed in a new wall at
the entrance to the Museum - for a minimum donation of £25 you can buy a
single brick with your name.
- The 100 Club has been running for a number of years. For £12 annual
membership, you have the chance six times a year to win £40.
If you can help us, please
Contact Us for more information.
Heritage Lottery Fund award - November 2009
The Museum is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a grant
from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will be a significant step towards
the building of the Heritage Centre. It is hoped that the Centre will be
built in the first few months of 2010.
More details of this award in the
HLF Press Release.
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
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 !
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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