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Category: General News

  • Useful Information – Updated Maintenance Plan

    As you’ll know, each year we set a Planned Maintenance Programme to seek to address issues before they have an impact on the visitor experience and the safe operation of the Museum.  This is just a quick update to let you know what we’ve achieved so far this year:

    Bottle & Glass – rotten floor joists replaced and floor tiles made good.

    Brass Foundry – complete forge rebuild and repairs to electrics and extraction complete.  After completion of the works, a Health and Safety Risk Assessment has allowed the Brass Foundry to return to operational status.

    Footbridge – total replacement of footbridge by the Newcomen Engine.

    The Village – painting of shop frontages and the Penfold Post Box complete.

    Drift Mine – all fire doors replaced in accordance with the Fire Risk Assessment.

    Tram 49 – electrics and roof works completed to allow Tram 49 to return to operational status.  [Tram 49 is currently having its bearings investigated to identify operational issues]

    WI – loose floor tiles fixed.

    Horse Paddock – half of the rotten paddock fencing replaced (with the assistance of students from Wolverhampton College).

  • Useful Information – AEOM Conference Update

    From 21 – 25 August we will be hosting 130 international delegates for the biennial Association of European Open Air Museums Conference.

    Open Air Museum professionals from Europe, Australia, Canada, the US and the UK (including some of our own staff) will be taking part in a variety of workshops, presentations, dinners and guided tours at BCLM and Ironbridge Gorge Museums as they explore the key theme of the Conference, ‘The Resilient, Entrepreneurial Museum and Master Planning.

    The conference sessions taking place here have been added to the Museum-wide calendar and you can find further information about the programme in the Useful Information section of the Documents tab above.

    We look forward to welcoming our international colleagues to BCLM in just a couple of weeks’ time!

  • 2018: A Year of Celebrations – call out for events ideas

    Now we’re in full swing of our Let’s Get Sporty* summer, we’re beginning to turn our attention to how we can make our 2018 Events Programme the best yet and we need your help!

    2018 marks our Museum’s 40th anniversary (since opening to the public for the first time in 1978) and so the events programme will be set within an overarching context for the year of ‘Celebrations’.

    If you would like to see us celebrate something specific as part of our 2018 Events Programme please take the time to complete the Events Proposal Form below. The deadline for submitting completed forms is Noon on Wednesday 23 August. All submitted events proposals will then go to the next meeting of the Events Programming Group on Tuesday 29 August for consideration.

    Thanks in advance for your help.

     

    *Thanks to Rhiannon Adams, Hire & Hospitality Sales Manager for submitting the Sporty-themed idea for 2017’s Events Programme.

     

    [ninja_form id=6]

  • Useful Information – Forging Ahead FAQs

    Useful Information – Forging Ahead FAQs

    In response to some excellent questions that staff and volunteers have been asking about BCLM: Forging Ahead, you’ll now find a Forging Ahead Frequently Asked Questions document in the ‘Useful Information’ section of the ‘Documents’ tab above.

    This will be updated as more questions come in but if you’d rather ask your own questions in person don’t forget that Lisa Cowley, Deputy Chief Executive (Visitor Engagement & Operations) is available on the last Wednesday of every month from 5.30pm – 6.30pm in the offices above Hartills. These sessions have now also been added to the Museum Calendar.

  • Museums Association Conference 2017

    Museums Association Conference – 16-18 November 2017

     

    The MA conference takes place in Manchester this year with a packed programme of events across the course of the three days.

     

    We are offering 2 staff the opportunity to attend this, with all travel and accommodation provided. All you need to do is complete an application and provide us with some information as to how you think this will be of benefit to you in your role here at BCLM.

     

    More information is available here.

     

    http://www.museumsassociation.org/news/27062017-manchester-2017-conference-guide-published?dm_i=2VBX,HMND,4AXWPV,1U20S,1

     

    If you are interested in attending, please complete the application form (the link is below)  and return to [email protected] by 5pm on Thursday 10 August 2017. Staff will be selected based on their application and informed w/c 14 August 2017.

     

    Museums Association Conference 2017    Application Form 

     

  • Deaf Cafe: Sat 29 July

    Emma Cartwright will be hosting our next Deaf café session  this Sat 29th July between 2.00-3.30pm.  She will be there taking us through our paces as we broaden our vocabulary in British Sign language.

    We will be exploring sport as a theme which informs our summer programme “Let’s get sporty” .

    You will have a chance to go into the museum and practice your BSL skills in our buildings, shops and outdoor spaces.

    If you wish to attend, email: glenis.[email protected] to reserve your place.

    Emma will meet you in the Rolf street café at the 2.00pm for light refreshments at the start of the session.

    Beginners welcome!

  • Useful information – Traffic Management Bulletins

    Under the ‘Documents’ tab above you’ll find a new section entitled ‘Useful Information’ in which we’ll be placing documents that you may find helpful about the Museum and the local area.

    This week, we’ve added the most recent traffic management bulletin from Highways England detailing the effects of the Oldbury viaduct major renewal scheme on local road networks and other planned road closures in the area. These will continue to be added as and when received from Highways England.

    We will continue to add pieces of useful information into this folder but if there is anything else you would like to see added to the Useful Information section, please do feedback to your line manager.

  • 1940s Weekend – thanks to all

    Dear Colleagues

    The 1940s weekend was one of the busiest weekends the Museum has ever had, and I’m not surprised the feedback from visitors was so positive – if you haven’t seen it, do check out our Facebook page,  Twitter feed and Tripadvisor reviews.  I think the range, quality and energy of what the Museum offered our visitors was exceptional. You’ll appreciate by now, that increasing the scale and ambition of our events programme is an important part of our continued and future success.  However, I do realise that many staff – in hot and humid weather – worked incredibly hard to make the weekend a success, and I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and admiration for the commitment shown.

    We now have another six very busy weeks ahead of us, when we can expect to welcome over seventy-thousand visitors to the Museum, to keep an already good year for us on track.  July has got off to a very good start, and although it represents hard work, I have every confidence that we will see that level of attendance over the weeks of the summer holiday.  This day-to-day success of providing great visitor experiences is as equally important as the physical development of the site; the planning for which goes on apace, with c90% of the necessary funding now in place.

    My thanks again.

    Andrew

  • Notice anything new?

    There is a new Museum-wide Calendar now in operation. It can be accessed via the Museum Calendar tab above.

    The idea of this electronic calendar is to create a common point of reference for all teams/staff to:

    • Improve the Museum’s customer service and communication allowing staff across the Museum to answer simple questions, give directions and pass on useful, relevant information
    • Increase efficiency in the planning of events, filming, maintenance etc
    • Significantly reduce the risk of double booking and the associated disruption

    You’ll find the following sorts if information included within the calendar:

    • All events including invite only, members only and food & drink (along with standard event notes)
    • Major maintenance works
    • Corporate events that are either very large or take over public areas of the museum (standard corporate events sit in individual room calendars)
    • Filming and media events
    • Major changes to the standard visitor offer e.g. mine closure, tram not running
    • VIP visits

    The calendar has already been populated with some information for the rest of 2017. If there is anything that falls into the above categories that you think is missing or that you would like to add, please raise it with your line manager.

    Hopefully we will all find this a useful tool but we will continue to review its use via the weekly operational meetings, including developing a consistent approach to entering content.

    (Image courtesy of DafneCholet, Flickr)

  • BCLM: Forging Ahead – Visitor Welcome Architects announced

    BCLM: Forging Ahead – Visitor Welcome Architects announced

    After a highly competitive European-wide tender process which saw 24 architectural practices enter the design competition for our new Visitor Welcome facilities, we are now delighted to announce that Napier Clarke Architects Ltd have been selected.

    The Visitor Welcome is a key element of BCLM: Forging Ahead. It includes the relocation the Museum’s entrance to the higher southern end of the open-air site in order to create a physical link between BCLM, the other attractions at Castle Hill (including Dudley Zoo, Castle and Canal Trust) and the new access infrastructure that has recently been completed.  This will support the wider Dudley and Black Country strategies to create a tourism hub, capable of attracting 1m visitors per annum.

    The winning design proposed by Napier Clarke (see image above) will see the construction of a new contemporary Visitor Centre, which provides a fit-for-purpose admissions point for 5,000 visitors per day and an introductory exhibition, food & drink and retail facilities. This enables the current Rolfe Street entrance building to be repurposed as a dedicated Learning centre.

    Napier Clarke Architects Ltd, brought together a team of Donald McIntyre Design Ltd, BWB Consulting and Red Kite Network Ltd. Together they presented a robust and attractive design, and our selection panel felt that their approach and skills match the Museum’s requirements.

    We are looking forward to working with them on this essential aspect of the project and will keep you updated with progress on the design.

    Andrew Lovett

    Director and Chief Executive