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  • New food & drink discount in WI Cafe

    The Enterprise Team have launched a new Spring/Summer menu in the Worker’s Institute and would like to invite you to try it!

    From Mon 24 May, we are inviting all Museum staff to visit the WI to make use of our new trial discount of 50% off many food and drink items in the Worker’s Institute. Please note that there are only 6 tables available in the café to comply with social distancing. Therefore, please make use of our takeaway option so that we can accommodate visitors at tables where possible.

    Feedback from Museum colleagues, alongside input from our visitors, means we have introduced a more inclusive offer to try and cater for everyone. We now offer and range of milk alternatives so that everyone can enjoy a hot drink, vegan options and gluten free options. Therefore, we’d encourage you to try the range of food and drink now avaiable from the Worker’s Institute with your discount. Please note: if you have a food allergy, please speak to the team who have allergen manuals on hand to help you order.

    Ts&Cs: 

    50% off Food and Drink will apply to all hot food, cold food and hot drinks (i.e. sandwiches, paninis, salads, sausage rolls, coffee etc). Some exclusions apply, please speak to the team. Items such as cold drinks, crisps and sweets unfortunately will not be included. Discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

    25% will still be available at Hobbs Fish Shop and all other units as it was before. 

    This discount trial will run from the 24th May until July 18th but may be removed or extended at any time. 

    Any feedback would be much appreciated in helping the team deliver a more inclusive offer that works for both our teams, and our visitors. Please email any feedback to [email protected]. All feedback will be treated as confidential.  

  • Reopening Week Update

    Although the weather has been less than favourable this week, reopening week has been a success.

    The Museum has received some great press coverage (examples below) and visitors have shown how eager they’ve been to come back to the Museum with some of the wonderful comments we’ve received from them.

    Reopening Day (Mon 17 May)

    On Monday, we hosted a journalist from Heart Radio who filmed the video report below. We think it’s a great testament to the work that staff have done to make the Museum a welcoming and safe place for visitors:

    West Midlands Mayor Andy Street also visit on Monday to celebrate our first day of opening and to advocate for the sector. The visit gained coverage on ITV Central News as well as online:

    #MuseumMoment

    On Tuesday we participated in TikTok’s global #MuseumMoment marathon, which saw 23 museums from across 12 countries – including London’s V&A and New York’s Metropolitan Museum – host a live broadcast from the platform. BCLM participated with a live tour of Old Birmingham Road which saw more 150,000 people tune in to meet our characters and hear about Black Country life from the 1930s. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible and for doing the Museum proud by taking the Black Country story global!

    Visitors Glad To Be Back

    The Museum also featured in Tuesday’s Express & Star with some great testimonials from visitors:

    Visitor Profile & Advance Bookings

    We’ve also been fortunate to welcome back some small education groups this week who’ve chosen to come to the Museum as their first trip since lockdown; and, our outreach talks are continuiung to be popular with schools who cannot yet make a visit. The number of enquiries coming through to the Sales & Ticketing team bodes well for the next academic year as we seek to re-engage schools.

    The weather has literally had a dampening effect on mid-week visitor attendance during our first week of opening. However, bookings for the coming weekend (22/23 May) are very positive with 99% of our target bookings achieved in advance at the time of writing. June half-term ‘Loff Out Loud’ is also selling well in advance with bookings increasing sharply (up by 33%) this week upon news of our reopening.

    Upcoming News

    We will launch our first on-sale of ticketed evening events soon with 1940s Evening as part of 1940s Weekend. We’re planning to go on sale to Members on 2 June and the general public on 9 June. An allocation of staff tickets will be available and we will update colleagues on details of this in a subsequent intranet post. However, most importantly and ahead of on-sale, we’ll share a programme preview with colleagues to let people know about plans for this year’s 1940s Weekend (17/18 Jul) and share some exciting news from the D-Day Darlings.

    Thank you again to everyone for their hard work and commitment in enabling reopening to be such a success. It’s been wonderful to see the Museum come alive again with colleagues and visitors as it fulfils its purpose to engage all generations with living history.

  • BCLM on BBC Radio WM

    BCLM on BBC Radio WM

    The Museum will feature on Friday’s Breakfast Show on BBC Radio WM between 6am-10am. If you’re an early riser, listen out for the item that features a variety of Museum colleagues talking about preparations they and their teams have been making to open the Museum on Mon 17 May. The item should be broadcast at 07.05am and 08.20am.

    The broadcast will be available via BBC Sounds and we’ll source an audio clip as soon as it’s available in case you miss it.

    Thank you to everyone who gave Sam, BBC reporter, such a warm welcome on his visit to the Museum on Thu 13 May.

  • Black Country Studies Centre online talks: Festival of Britain

    The Black Country Studies Centre is working with the University of Wolverhampton’s ArtsFest Online to bring you a season of events celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Festival of Britain and its impact here in the Black Country.

    From 17th May, as part of our Discover the Black Country offer here at the Museum, Folkes Park is hosting the Festival of the Black Country – a mini celebration of the 1951 Festival of Britain.

    If you are interested in finding out more about the Festival of Britain and some of its links to the Black Country, the Black Country Studies Centre are hosting a series of online talks, the first two of which are available to book now. The events will be running May-September so do continue to look out for them on our website and social media channels.

    Thursday 13th May, 7pm-8pm

    Revisiting ‘A Tonic to the Nation’ – Dr Jane Webb

    BOOK NOW

    In this first lecture ‘Revisiting a Tonic to the Nation’ Dr Jane Webb will introduce the Festival and set the scene for our summer of celebrations!

    The Festival of Britain was opened to the public 70 years ago. Set in a landscape reverberating with post-war economic and social uncertainties, the event (scheduled from May to September of 1951) was intended to be a tonic to aid the nation’s recovery. This talk provides an introduction to the London site of the Festival of Britain and will explore the intentions of its organisers, a description of the South Bank exhibition and other venues in the capital, and the design language chosen for the Festival.

    Monday 17th May, 5:30pm-6:30pm

    Abram Games and the 1951 Festival of Britain – Naomi Games

    BOOK NOW

    On the 70th Anniversary of the Festival of Britain, Naomi Games will talk about the career of her father, renowned graphic designer Abram Games.

    Abram Games won the competitions to design an emblem for the Festival and the Festival stamp. Naomi will give a personal view of her father’s working process, you will see his progressive designs alongside other items he created for the Festival, as well as cartoons and curiosities.

    Post image courtesy of the Estate of Abram Games

  • BCLM Vaccination Centre: An Update & Thank You

    The Black Country and West Birmingham vaccination programme is now preparing to move into its second phase.

    As a result, some sites have stopped offering first doses and will move out of the vaccination programme after giving their final second dose jabs later this year. These will be replaced with new locations at community pharmacies and more capacity at existing sites.

    This second phase is part of the plan to enable the NHS to begin restoring services to pre-COVID levels while keeping vaccination capacity the same.

    BCLM – the area’s first large vaccination centre – will continue to offer second doses to all those who received their first dose at the site, but is no longer offering first doses. Anyone who has had their first dose at the Museum will still be able to get their second dose here.

    The Museum Vaccination Centre will run until late June.

    Some GP sites have taken the same decision so that they can reopen other key services. To balance this, more local pharmacies will begin offering the jab, and details of these will be available on the national NHS booking service so people can find their nearest location when booking their vaccination appointment.

    Sally Roberts, Chief Nursing Officer for Black Country and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group and senior responsible officer for the vaccination programme, said: “I want to say a huge thank you to all those working and volunteering at our vaccination sites for making it possible for us to protect so many people in our region in such an incredibly short space of time – with 90% of people aged 45 and over now having had their first dose.

    “Now that we are moving toward younger patient groups, it makes sense that GP practices should – where possible – return their focus to providing GP services while our large vaccination sites and local pharmacies retain the capacity to keep vaccinating.

    “The impact of the vaccination programme and the COVID-safe measures we have all been following means the Black Country Living Museum can look forward to opening its doors to the public again. The importance of the Museum’s role as our very first, accessible and highly visible large vaccination site, can’t be overstated. I want to thank them for their support and wish them the very best with their reopening.”

    Andrew Lovett has said of the Vaccination Centre: “We’re incredibly proud to have played our part in supporting the NHS to inoculate our local community against COVID by hosting the Vaccination Centre at BCLM. Like many others in the area, I received my first vaccination at the Museum and I’m delighted we’ve had the opportunity to support take-up of the vaccine.

    “As a museum, we commemorate and celebrate the stories of people who have made history. Therefore, I’d like to extend my thanks to all NHS staff, volunteers, and BCLM colleagues who’ve worked so hard to make the vaccination centre a success. Everyone involved has truly helped to make history in their efforts to protect the health of our community.”

    As a general reminder, vaccination is currently available to all those aged 40 and over, health and social care workers and carers, and anyone with a long-term health condition, all of whom have been directly invited to receive their vaccine by the NHS. Anyone who has previously declined but changed their mind will always be welcome to come forward when ready – simply speak to your GP or visit nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination.

  • Action for Happiness: Meaningful May

    Action for Happiness is a movement of people committed to building a happier and more caring society.

    Each month they release a “Monthly Action Calendar” which are packed with actions you can take to help create a happier and kinder world.

    This month’s theme is “Meaningful May”. This is all about reflecting on what gives our life meaning. Being a part of something bigger than ourselves and focusing on things that we value is key to our wellbeing. 

    Take daily actions, using their calendar below, to reflect on what you care about and what adds value to your life.

    (Click to open a larger version)

    Find out more about Action for Happiness and view their previous monthly action calendars.

  • Museum Update: Wed 5 May

    Museum Update: Wed 5 May

    It’s been wonderful to welcome colleagues to site and see people back in the Museum for training this week in anticipation of reopening on Mon 17 May.

    General admission bookings opened last Tuesday (27 Apr) and take-up thus far has been positive with approximately 30% of budgeted tickets already booked for the first weekend of opening.

    A key part of the training includes a Museum-wide briefing from Andrew, an update on the latest developments for Forging Ahead and information on the Spring and Whitsun daytime programme.  We look forward to sharing the above news with colleagues during this week and into the next.

    Following on from the news of both 1940s Weekend and Peaky Blinders Nights being back for 2021, we wanted to share further details about our events programme for the rest of the year.  Red by Night will make a welcome return in October and our new family daytime event ‘Enchanted Christmas’ that was due to launch in 2020 will now go ahead this year.

    A full timetable of pre-ticketed events is shown below:

    DateEvent
    Sat 17 July1940s Evening
    Fri 10 Sep
    Sat 11 Sep
    Fri 17 Sep
    Sat 18 Sep
    Fri 24 Sep
    Sat 25 Sep
    Fri 12 Nov
    Sat 13 Nov    		Peaky Blinders Nights
    Sat 9 OctRed by Night
    Fri 22 Oct
    Sat 23
    Fri 29
    Sat 30    		Halloween Nights
    Fri 3 Dec
    Sat 4 Dec    		Christmas Nights
    Sat 11 Dec  (daytime)
    Sun 12 Dec (daytime)
    Sat 18 Dec  (daytime)
    Sun 19 Dec (daytime)    		Enchanted Christmas

    We’ll communicate further information on the content of the events, ticket on-sale dates and provision of staff tickets in due course.  We’re excited to have the chance to host events again, should positive progress against the Government Roadmap continue.

    We anticipate that this update will be the last fortnightly comms, as we’re intending to be back open by the time the next update would be due on Wed 19 May.  However, we are looking at alternative formats for a regular comms update that we can share with colleagues moving forward.  Please watch this space!

    As a final piece of housekeeping, colleagues should ensure that they follow NHS parking processes for the next two weeks while they arrange for their staff parking to move off-site. Many thanks for your patience.

    Thank you again to everyone for your fortitude and perseverance during these most testing of times.  We know that visitors cannot wait to be back and experiencing living history at its best.  We’re delighted to have colleagues return to the Museum ready to welcome visitors back.

  • Face Covering Guidance Update (27/04/21)

    Please note that the UK Government has recently updated its guidance on face coverings.

    Following this update, BCLM staff and volunteers working in non-public indoor spaces are recommended to wear a face covering, particularly when they are in discussions with colleagues and in common areas.

    We have updated our BCLM Staff COVID-19 Safe Return to Work Guidelines to reflect the above. We would encourage all staff to read through this document and re-familiarise yourself with the expected COVID-19-safe behaviours whilst on site.

    In addition to the above, we are asking all staff to please note the following:

    – Unless you have an exemption, a face covering must be worn at all training sessions during the re-opening training programme taking place from Tuesday 4th to Thursday 13th May 2021.

    – Staff are encouraged to take voluntary lateral flow tests at home prior to attending their first day of training. You can get a free test from most pharmacies or order online at https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

    – If your lateral flow test result is positive, you must not attend the Museum and immediately arrange a PCR test at your nearest testing centre. You must contact your line manager and email [email protected] with immediate effect to inform us of your positive result. Failure to immediately notify the Museum of a positive result may lead to disciplinary action.

    Watch this short video for a quick guide on lateral flow tests:

    As a Reminder

    By attending the Museum, you are confirming that neither you nor a member of your household has any of the main COVID-19 symptoms, as outlined by NHS England, i.e.:

    – A high temperature – this means that you feel hot to touch on your chest or back and you do not need to measure your temperature.

    – A new and continuous cough – this means coughing a lot more than an hour, or three more coughing episodes in 24 hours. If you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual.

    – A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.

    You must not attend the Museum, even if requested to do so, if you have any of the above symptoms.

    Thank you for support with ensuring BCLM remains a COVID-19 secure workplace.

  • Staff Consultative Forum

    Following the recent nomination process for Staff Consultative Forum representatives, we are pleased to announce that Matt Hunton, Cleaning Team, Dan Williams, Historic Characters Team and Pam Woodall, Enterprise (F&D) Team have been appointed as representatives.

    Please find below a full list of the Staff Consultative Forum representatives.

    ConstituencyStaff representative
    Administrative, Specialist & ManagerialTim Hamilton, vacancy x1
    Enterprise (F&D, Admissions, Retail)Pam Woodall, vacancy x1 (Retail, Admissions)
    Historic CharactersLee Adams, Dan Williams, vacancy x1
    MaintenanceMatt Hunton
    CasualsMegan Hartshorne, David Ball

    We still have vacancies in the Administrative, Specialist & Managerial, Enterprise (Admissions/Retail) and Historic Characters constituencies. The nomination process for these vacancies will open later this year. We will share information in regards to this closer to the time.

  • Museum Update: 21 April

    Museum Update: 21 April

    This is a brief update to let you know about training plans, a look ahead to the forthcoming visitor programme, and our plans for opening up online booking again.

    Training plans

    Work to prepare the Museum for opening continues, including the finalisation of training plans.  By now, all colleagues should have received the timetable for the pre-opening training sessions they are due to attend.  If anyone hasn’t yet received notification, please get in touch with [email protected] and a member of the team will be able to help you.

    Visitor programme

    From the previous Museum Update you will know that BCLM will reopen with ‘Discovering the Black Country’, which run as our main daytime programme until the summer holiday.  However, for the Whitsun holiday (Sat 29 May – Sun 6 Jun), ‘Loff Out Loud’ will run as the half-term programme.  Loff Out Loud will be a celebration of Black Country humour, its distinctive characteristics, and how seeing the funny side of life has enabled local people to survive through difficult times as well as good.  Brand new characters are being introduced as part of Loff Out Loud.  More details will be shared on this as part of training.

    Subject to the Government’s Roadmap making continued progress, we’re also planning on holding 1940s Weekend on Sat 17 and Sun 18 July.  1940s Weekend will also include a 1940s Evening on Sat 17 July.  Peaky Blinders Nights will also be back with a bang and a refreshed approach in September and November.  An update on our forthcoming events programme will be shared as part of training.

    Bookings reopening

    General admission tickets will go on sale next week. Members will be invited to book tickets from noon on Tue 27 April; UnChained Passholders/general public will be notified of ticketing being back online again from noon on Thu 29 April.  As in August 2020, entry to the Museum will be via a pre-booked entry time only and with a fixed daily attendance to aid social distancing.  We will issue public communications on bookings in the next few days, so please avoid sharing any public information about this on social media until we post from the Museum’s official accounts.

    National Lottery Open Week (NLOW)

    National Lottery Good Causes will run their ‘Thanks To You’ campaign between Sat 5 and Sun 13 June this year as National Lottery Open Week (NLOW).  This is an opportunity for Lottery-funded organisations to say thank you to Lottery players for their support.  As you will know, the National Lottery Heritage Fund is a major investor in Forging Ahead, therefore, the Museum will be participating in National Lottery Open Week in order to drive awareness of our project and other Lottery good causes.  We’re finalising our plans, but it’s likely that we’ll be able to offer two chances for Lottery players to visit the Museum during NLOW – one on a week day and another at a weekend.  Please keep a look out for further updates on this.

    We’re looking forward to seeing colleagues return to the Museum soon.  Thank you everyone for your continued support and perseverance.