Helpdesk

Iplicit

FuseMetrix

Planday

My ePayWindow

Intranet

Category: Information Sharing

  • Black Country History Day – Ticket Offer

    Black Country History Day – Ticket Offer

    We are delighted to offer 15 tickets to BCLM staff to attend a ‘Black Country History Day’, taking place at the University of Birmingham on Saturday 9 November 2019.

    The event is led by one of the Museum’s trustees, Dr Malcolm Dick OBE (Director of the Centre for West Midlands History, University of Birmingham).

    This is a ticketed event and the Museum is offering 15 prepaid individual tickets for our staff. These will be issued on a first come, first served basis. Please contact any of the People & Culture team to register your interest: pop in to see us in Rolfe Street, or email: [email protected] grab any one of us as we wander around site or at morning briefings. 

    To find out more about the event and how to purchase tickets for friends or family visit: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/historycultures/departments/history/events/2019/black-country-day-2019.aspx

  • Thank you for making Peaky Blinders Nights a roaring success

    Thank you for making Peaky Blinders Nights a roaring success

    We love Peaky Blinders.  However, I am very conscious that the evenings put stresses and strains on us and the site.  I want to acknowledge that and say how appreciative I am of everyone’s efforts – whatever your role at the Museum – to make the evenings such a roaring success for our loyal visitors and fans of the show. 

    It seems that the phenomenon is set to endure for a few years to come, and we’ll hopefully, continue to be regarded as the home of Peaky Blinders.  Although I know it will be a welcome break until the next time.

    Thank you again.

    Andrew

  • Oldest Volunteer Celebrates 90th Birthday

    After a lifetime of working with cars from an early years apprenticeship through to volunteering with the Motor Vehicle Team at Black Country Living Museum, Keith Peckmore may have recently celebrated his 90th birthday but is as committed as ever to volunteering one day a week with the team.

    A previous regular at the Classic Car Motor Show at the NEC, due to take place this year on 8-10 November, Keith has enjoyed a long and distinguished career developing and building classic British sports cars for Kieft and Frisky.

    Keith recently celebrated his 90th Birthday and has been volunteering at Black Country Living Museum for eight years after a lifetime of working with in the motor industry. Born and bred in the Black Country, he started his career at the age of 15 when he began a five year apprenticeship in his father’s business, studying three nights a week at Dudley Technical College.

    Keith served in the Army during the war and joined Wolverhampton based Kieft Sports and Racing Car in 1952. He started as a specialist welder building a chassis for their Grand Prix car and also built complete sports cars.

    He moved to Frisky Cars in Wolverhampton in 1956 as a project development engineer for the Bug, the Gullwing, the Frisky Sport/Coupe, Family Three and the Frisky Sprint. Sadly Frisky cars declined in popularity with the arrival of the mini. Keith followed in his father’s entrepreneurial footsteps setting up and running a family garage undertaking Maserati and Aston Martin engine rebuilds.

    A long time visitor to the Museum Keith always came to the last Sunday of every July for the Festival of Black Country Vehicles. On one of his visits he saw an advert for volunteers and decided to apply. As a volunteer he re-assembled, resprayed and restored the Frisky Sport which was in a box in pieces. It now takes pride of place on display in Bradburn & Wedge.

    Keith loves volunteering at the museum and mixing with staff and visitors and says he wouldn’t miss it for the world.

  • A fantastic summer 2019

    A fantastic summer 2019

    We’ve had a tremendous summer. 

    The summer events and activities were very well received, including “Back in 10” written, directed and performed by our friends at Black Country Touring. The focus on Black Country heroes and heroines offered some lovely opportunities for story-telling.

    Attendance over the six-week holiday has been very strong as well; very nearly equalling the record-breaking summer of last year, despite some less than summery days, and significantly higher than the target we set ourselves.  It means 2019 continues to be another year of growth for the Museum, bringing value, relevance and enjoyment to tens of thousands of people. 

    The 5 late-night Fridays were particularly popular with 5,321 attending on the £5 ticket (2018: 3,635), equivalent to a 46% increase year-on-year.  The success of these evenings in reaching new audiences is making us wonder how we can make Summer Lates bigger and better for next year. What do you think?

    So, as we enter the autumn/winter months, including a packed events programme, starting this weekend with our Peaky Blinder evenings, the year-to-date attendance position is that we are currently 6% ahead of forecast, at 243,185, and 1% ahead of the same point last year.

    My very grateful thanks and appreciation for what is always an intense time for the Museum.

    Andrew

  • School’s out for Summer!

    BCLM Community Roadshow continues to travel far and wide and will be at the International Glass Festival on Saturday 24 August and Moseley Folk & Arts Festival from 30 August to 1 September.

    We’re still on the lookout for memories from local people about the Elephant and Castle Pub and Stanton’s Record and Music shop.

    Music and cultural festivals feature throughout our Community Roadshow programme reaching a broad spectrum of diverse communities. We look forward to having a presence at Moseley Folk & Arts Festival for the first time, where we will be sharing Black County skills in the heart of Moseley Village.

    If you wish to get involved, please contact Community Engagement Assistant [email protected] for more information.

  • Shop and Give for Free

    Raise extra funds for BCLM for free when shopping online on Amazon.

    We have recently enrolled in Amazon’s AmazonSmile programme, where they donate 0.5% of the net purchase price of your eligible purchases to your chosen charity. You can choose to donate to BCLM by visiting smile.amazon.co.uk and selecting the Museum from the list. Amazon will remember your selection, and every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.co.uk will result in a donation at no cost to you.

    So if you are an Amazon user please select to support BCLM, your everyday online purchases can benefit the Museum without costing you a penny when you shop with AmazonSmile.

  • Dudley Play Week

    Tuesday 6 – Thursday 8 August

    Dudley Play Service will be holding its 11th Dudley Play Week during the first week of August to celebrate National Play Day on Wednesday 7 August.

    The Community Roadshow will be at the following locations on the following dates:

    • Tuesday 6 August – Silver Jubilee Park, Coseley
    • Wednesday 7 August – Mary Steven’s Park, Stourbridge
    • Thursday 8 August – Priory Park, Dudley

    Last year, we engaged with over 200 children with Black Country heritage and crafts. This year, we plan to engage with more children, exploring Black Country history and stories linked to our new development project ‘Forging Ahead’.

    For more information contact: Community Engagement Assistant: [email protected]

  • Fuel Card Update

    Please note that the following vehicles now have their own fuel cards which are kept in the glove box (same as the pool car). This will enable staff to re-fuel as necessary while out and about at Tesco, Morrisons & Sainsbury’s forecourts. Details on how to do this will be found in the use log folder.

    The cards are specific to each vehicle with the registration number clearly shown.

    • Small Peugeot Van – KM06 CEY (Petrol)
    • Large Citroen Van – LB64 GXM (Diesel)
    • Land Rover – Y872 GAA (Diesel)

    Can I please ask that if you do take any of the modern vehicles off site don’t return them with less than a quarter of a tank of fuel, this goes for the pool car as well.

    David Pitt

  • Rolfe Street Meeting Room Changes

    Rolfe Street Meeting Room 2 (RS2) is no longer available for meetings, it is now an office.

    From Monday 22 July 2019, the library will become a bookable space for meetings. As the library holds some rare and valuable books, the following procedures are in place to protect the books in this room:

    • Reception will hold a key for the library. This will need to be signed out and returned at the end of the meeting. Please ensure you lock the library before returning the key to reception
    • No food or drink is to be taken into and consumed in the library
    • Please kindly refrain from using pens/ink in the library. Pencils are to be used instead.

    Meetings can be booked directly by everyone through the Library room calendar on Outlook.

    Rolfe Street Meeting Room 1 (RS1) is still available for bookings.

  • Collections Update – Research

    Research:  we are trialling a new process for research. As such, from Monday 22 July 2019 the following will be in place:

    • Appointments to carry out research will be limited to two periods every week. These will be Wednesday mornings between 9am and 1pm, and Thursday afternoons, from 1.30 to 5pm.
    • A notice period for research requests for both staff and external researchers will come into effect.  Therefore, should you wish to access an item from the archive and/or library to carry out research, we kindly ask that you give at least one week’s notice from the date you hope to access the information (in line with the above allotted times). This will allow the necessary time to prepare the requested information. 

    All requests to carry out research should be made to the Museum’s Archivist & Librarian Karen directly at [email protected]