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Category: General News

  • BCLM: Forging Ahead – Lea Road Infant Welfare Centre

    To coincide with the seventieth anniversary of the NHS, we’ll be launching our public call-out for memories of Lea Road Infant Welfare Centre tomorrow (18th July). Do you have any personal stories or family connection with the Centre? Were you taken as a child and dosed with cod liver oil? If you do have anything you would like to share to help in our re-creation of the shop, please pop in and see the Collections team in the Rolfe Street offices.

    A bit about Lea Road Infant Welfare Centre

    This centre was opened in 1928 to serve the Penn Fields area of Wolverhampton. It was designed as somewhere for new and expectant mothers to meet, learn about their and their babies’ health, and have their children fed, weighed and vaccinated. Twenty years later, the Centre became part of the new National Health Service. Visitors to Lea Road in the 1950s and 1960s would have found a busy environment, overseen by staff and volunteers. The main hall was a waiting room, but doubled up as a venue for ante-natal and “mothercraft” classes, baby clothes sales, and as a social gathering for new mothers – always with a fresh cup of tea in hand. Worried new mums could receive advice on anything from birthing anaesthetics to family planning – though this was strictly for married women only. Babies were weighed and checked regularly, and vaccinated against a range of diseases. Outbreaks of measles, smallpox and polio still occurred from time to time, and diphtheria was a particular Black Country problem: at points during the 1950s, for example, Coseley was responsible for a third of all cases nationally! Most memorably, the centres also distributed welfare foods: vitamins, bottles of thick, sticky orange juice, tins of National Dried Milk, and the hated cod liver oil.

    Why Lea Road?

    We are rebuilding this centre to tell the story of the birth of the NHS; the influx in junior doctors from countries such as India and Pakistan during the 50s & 60s; the lives of young women and children in this period; and also to help in our understanding of public health in the present day.

  • Planned Maintenance Programme – June Update

    Planned Maintenance Programme – June Update

    The latest update on 2018 planned maintenance is now available to view.  Please click below to see the latest progress and planned timings:

    Maintenance Programme Update Jun 18

    Should you have any questions, please get in touch with David Pitt.

  • Annual Report & Accounts year ending 2017

    Please note that the Annual Report & Accounts for year ending 2017 is now available to view in the museum documents.

  • Join in the fun & games – Staff Social (Tue 19 June)

    Following on from the success of January’s event, we will be holding another staff social on Tue 19 June.

    All staff and volunteers are invited to the event which will be held in Folkes Park from 5:30pm until approx. 8:00pm.

    You can join in the quiz (non-brewery related this time!) and games such as croquet, skittles and giant jenga. Or simply relax and enjoy an evening of music and light refreshments over a friendly chat with colleagues across the Museum. We hope to see you there!

    If you have any questions about the event, you can contact Lucy Bennett or Ben Careless in the HR Team.

    We hope that as many of you as possible are able to join us.

    Enjoy!

    In the case of inclement weather the event will take place in the W.I.  

  • BCLM: Forging Ahead – E. Minett

    We’ll be launching our public call-out for memories of Wednesbury-based E. Minett ladies’ clothes shop and haberdashery next week (commencing 18th June).

    Do you have any personal stories about the place to shop for Wednesbury’s most fashionable ladies in the 1950s? Did you, your family or friends go there to keep up with the latest trends in the 50s? Did you or anyone you know work there? If you do have anything you would like to share to help in our re-creation of the shop, please pop in and see the Collections team in the Rolfe Street offices.

    A bit about E. Minett

    Founded by Edith Dabbs Minett in the 1920s, E. Minett was known as the place to go for the best dressed ladies of Wednesbury.  Edith started the business in the 1920s in the front room of the family home in Pound Road before opening the shop at 83 Walsall Street.

    Minett’s was a family-run business. Edith’s husband, William, managed the shop’s accounts around the time of the birth of their daughter, Brenda. Brenda started working at the shop as a young girl, earning three pence a week by dusting boxes and assisting with other day-to-day tasks. She started working at Minett’s full-time when she left school and took over with her husband, John Greenhough, and ran the business until it ceased trading in 2006.

    Clothes for the shop were bought on mail order from trade catalogues or from trips to wholesalers in Birmingham.  Brenda prided herself on buying garments in advance for particular customers she had in mind and whom she knew would buy the item as soon as they saw what she had chosen for them.

    The shop operated a ‘20 Week Club’ which allowed customers to pay a 10% deposit for items, reserve them and pay the remainder over a twenty-week period.  The increasing use of this type of credit in the 1950s was popular with British customers, as it made expensive items accessible and contributed to the post-war boom.

    Why E. Minett?

    We will be recreating the shop from 83 Walsall Street, which will be set in the late 1950s, to tell  the story of the post-war revolution in female fashion as well as the changing role of women in society and the 50s economic boom when people ‘never had it so good’.

     

  • Available Desks and Hot Desks

    Desk space is at a premium and with volunteers, consultants and work experience students getting more involved in supporting our activities we have created a calendar to highlight available desk space and allow people to book it. You can access the calendar via the room list.

    You add your desk as available, if you are on holiday or out of the office, by booking an appointment in the calendar with no event title, but your name and the location as the location.

    You can book a desk by accessing the calendar and adding your name as the event title to any desks that are showing. If you only require for part of the day edit the availability by adding a new appointment for the time you require and adding you name and altering the original appointment to exclude that time.

  • Directors’ Bi-Monthly Report

    Directors’ Bi-Monthly Report

    Please note, the director’s bi-monthly report is now in the documents section of the intranet.

  • Launch of New BCLM Visitor Promise

    Last year a group of staff and volunteers from across the Museum came together to discuss how we all – no matter what our role – can make a difference to the experience of our visitors and ensure they are truly at the heart of everything we do.

    Together, the group devised a Visitor Promise which is being launched to all staff & volunteers today, Monday 11 June.

     

    What is it?

    The definition of a promise is ‘a declaration or assurance that one will do something or that a particular thing will happen’. That’s exactly what this is – a promise to our visitors that we will provide an outstanding visitor offer and that we will train and support our staff and volunteers so we can….

    1. Create the right impression
    2. Engage our visitors
    3. Get the basics right
    4. Build relationships
    5. Celebrate our collections and stories

    You can find the full version of our Visitor Promise within the Museum Documents tab above.

     

    What do you need to do?

    Adopt the Visitor Promise and bring it to life in everything you do.

     

    We know that many of you are already excelling in all the areas and we want to share and celebrate that success, so anyone can nominate a fellow staff member of volunteer as a Visitor Promise Champion. You can do this by putting a nomination form in the boxes in the Guide Hut, Doos or Rolfe Street Offices or by emailing [email protected].

     

  • The new staff pool car has arrived!

    The new staff pool car has arrived!

    We now have a brand new Seat Ibiza that can be used as a staff pool car  by any member of staff with a current driving licence going off site on museum business.

    Bookings will be managed by Ray Disney through a dedicated shared calendar (details on how to do this are listed below). You will be responsible for the vehicle whilst it is in your possession, in the same way as when taking the vans.  But, for the pool car, you are also required to complete the paper ‘Use Log’ which is to be kept inside the vehicle. This information will help us to understand how often the car is being used, by whom, for what purpose and by which department.

    A fuel top-up card has been ordered, which will be kept in the glove box to enable staff to re-fuel as necessary at Tesco, Morrison’s & Sainsbury’s forecourts. Details on how to do this will be found in the Use Log folder.

    The car will also be receiving corporate graphics to match the two vans in the coming weeks.

    How to open and use the Pool Car Calendar

    • Open Outlook and click the ‘calendar’ tab.
    • On the ‘home’ tab click ‘open calendar’ and then ‘open shared calendar’ from the list.
    • Type ‘pool’ and click ‘OK’ (the pool car calendar should now open and appear on your list of shared calendars).

    How to book the car

    • Open the calendar and find the day you wish to book (you will see if it is available).
    • Click the time you want to start and pick ‘new meeting’ from the home tab and click ‘new meeting with all’ from the drop down list.
    • Complete the appointment request with your name as the subject. NOTE: make sure ‘Pool Car – Seat Ibiza’ is the only entry in the ‘to’ box (otherwise it will send invites to all of the calendars you have open at the time) and then send.
    • The request will appear as Tentative until Ray approves your request.

    Or

    • Open the calendar and find the day you wish to book (you will see if it is available).
    • select the time on your own calendar, right click and select ‘new appointment’
    • Complete the appointment request with your name as the subject, click ‘invite attendees’ from the appointment tab and enter ‘Pool Car – Seat Ibiza’ in the ‘to’ box and then send.
    • The request will appear as Tentative until Ray approves your request.

    If you have any questions please get in touch with David Pitt.

  • New expenses policy

    The new BCLM expenses policy will go live on Monday 4 June 2018.  It is available on the intranet within the Museum Policies folder here.

    From 4 June all expenses claims need to be made using the new BCLM expense claim form which can also be found within the Museum Documents folder here.

    Once completed and authorised by the appropriate line manager, the form should be passed to the Finance team. Payments will now be paid directly into the claimant’s bank account rather than being paid through payroll.