Thank you to all the staff who submitted items for inclusion on the Planned Maintenance Schedule. The 2018 Planned Maintenance Programme has now been set to address issues that impact on the visitor experience and the safe operation of the Museum.
This year BCLM will begin British Sign Language and Audio Descriptive tours for the first time. Once a month, we will be hosting themed tours in different parts of the museum. Those on the tour will discover the inspiring stories of real people, their homes, work and daily lives.
British Sign Language tours will take place between 2.00-2.30pm at the Main Visitor reception followed by a themed tour on site between 3.00-3.30pm. The tours will be conducted completely in British Sign Language, for deaf and hard of hearing visitors.
We’ll be launching our public call-out for memories and objects relating to Stanton’s music shop (pre 1960) on Monday 5 February.
But before that, we want to know if you have any personal stories about the shop which stood on Dudley’s Castle Street until the late 1950s when it was knocked down and replaced with a modern flagship store (incorporating the shop that is now Greggs).
Likewise, do you have any objects that were purchased from there pre 1960 – records, sheet music or musical instruments?
If you do have anything you would like to share to help in our recreation of Stanton’s, please pop in and see the Collections team in the Rolfe Street offices.
A bit about Stanton’s
James Stanton founded his piano tuning business in Tipton in 1870, and shortly after set up a “pianoforte and harmonium warehouse” on Owen Street. In 1895, he opened a shop at 10 Castle Street, in Dudley. By the 1950s, the shop was in the hands of his daughter-in-law Florence, her daughter Audrey Howarth, and a managing director, Frederick Nash. In the late 1950s, much of Castle Street was demolished for Dudley’s town centre redevelopment, including replacing the old, Georgian building with a brand new block. It is the older building that will be recreated in the Museum’s new 1940s-60s town centre.
The shop sold a range of musical instruments, including their traditional pianos but also electric organs and electric guitars. They moved on from gramophones to sell radiograms, radios, televisions and record players, as well as records to play on them which could be tested at listening booths first.
Why Stanton’s?
Stanton’s enables us to talk about the music and culture of the Black Country in the 1950s, including the rise of rock’n’roll and changing fashions.
At 332,778, visitor attendance in 2017 was considerably higher than the Museum has ever seen before. As I mentioned in my staff briefings last week, such strong levels of attendance can be attributed to many things, not least a hugely popular events programme, an increased awareness and use of the Museum’s UnChained Annual Pass, and our unique ability to give people a truly enjoyable experience.
We will soon be publishing these excellent visitor figures and so, as we open our doors for 2018, I want to thank you once again for all your work in 2017 and wish you all the best for the year ahead for which we’ve set ourselves a challenging but very achievable target visitor attendance of 325,000.
Andrew
Don’t forget that you can access minutes from the weekly Operations meeting here on the intranet.
To view the minutes, please navigate to Documents – Museum Documents – Operations – Meeting Minutes and then select the document you wish you view.
If you have any queries on how to access the minutes, please speak to your line manager.
