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  • VisitEngland Attraction Quality Scheme 2017 – Results

    The Museum has maintained its high score of 85% in the most recent Visit England quality assessment (VAQAS).

    This is great news and follows a visit by a Visit England assessor on 12 October – a term-time day to allow comparison with previous assessments carried out during the summer holidays.

    The assessment scores the Museum against a number of set criteria, a full set of which – including scores – can be found in the ‘Market Research’ folder of the Museum documents tab above.

    Here are some highlights from the assessors feedback:

    The pre-arrival section is scoring an impressive 100%, as the website, social media activity and leaflet are all examples of great practice.

     

    The 1.30pm Tour of the Boat Dock, the 2.00pm Cinema showing and the 3.25pm Mine Tour were all sampled and provided excellent interpretation of the exhibits.

     

    It was fabulous to see the groups of school children thoroughly enjoying their visit to the Museum, especially playing with the authentic games in the street outside the Station Road Cottages.

    The VAQAS assessor was delighted to hear of our plans for a new Visitor Welcome as part of BCLM: Forging Ahead as the current facilities at Rolfe Street are currently holding back our scores.

    Feedback will be used to continue to improve our offer for all visitors.

     

  • Free Entry for National Lottery Players

    On Saturday 18 November, we’re offering free entry to National Lottery Players as a thank you for the funding we’ve received from The Heritage Lottery Fund towards BCLM: Forging Ahead.

    All people will need to do is show their lottery ticket for draws between 13 & 26 November when they arrive at the Museum for free entry (Terms & conditions apply – see below).

    We hope that lots of people will visit – some of whom may never have visited before – so please give everyone on that day the same warm welcome as ever and let’s get them excited about Forging Ahead.

     

    Ts & Cs

    Valid for entry to the Museum on Saturday 18 November between 10am and 4pm only. Lottery ticket shown must be for a National Lottery game (including Lotto, Euromillions, Thunderball, Hotpicks and National Lottery scratchcards) between 13 & 26 November (proof of online National Lottery play valid). Each valid proof of play shown admits one person free of charge. Maximum of 5 proofs of play per party. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer. Free entry does not qualify for an UnChained Annual Pass.

     

  • Hut 14 – A New Addition to the Museum

    On Monday 6 November, work to reconstruct former ‘RAF Hut 14’ at the Museum will begin.

    Formerly of Elmfield School in Stourbridge, Hut 14 was acquired by the Museum earlier this year to provide an additional space for school lunch facilities and school holiday & event activities. It will be temporarily reconstructed in the cleared area opposite the Workers’ Institute until a permanent location is sought as part of BCLM: Forging Ahead.

    Martin Evans Construction will be undertaking the reconstruction works, aiming to complete their scope of works by Christmas.  Our in-house Historic Buildings Team will then undertake additional works so that Hut 14 is ready for use by schools in the Spring Term of 2018.

     

    A bit about Hut 14

    Barrack Huts are numbered. The number 14 was chosen for this particular hut as it was collected from 14 Love Lane, Stourbridge. Further research is required to establish the exact dating of the Hut but it is thought it may be a World War One design.

  • October Half-Term Performance

    Last week was another exceptional performance from all corners of the Museum.

    Between Monday 21 and Sunday 29 October, including our four Halloween Nights, we welcomed over 18,600 visitors. That’s 6% higher than we’d budgeted and a significant increase on the same week last year.

    As we move towards our winter opening hours, we are now 2% ahead of our budgeted visitor attendance figure year-to-date and 5% ahead of the same point last year; a great position for us to be in as we progress our development plans.

    This success is down to you and I want to thank everyone who worked so hard over the past 10 days to achieve such impressive results and more importantly, to make sure our visitors had a great experience.

    Andrew

  • Stour Off For Repair

    Stour Off For Repair

    On 29 October, Museum narrowboat, Stour will be towed to Caggy’s Boatyard for repair works to her hull. These works will reduce the level of pumping required for Stour to stay afloat.

    She will return to the Museum on Sunday 5 November, following which there will be an assessment of her long-term restoration strategy.

     

     

     A bit about Stour

    Stour, built in 1937 by Fellows, Morton & Clayton, was one of a large fleet of all wooden boats used by Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd for liquid cargo carrying, the main hold area being fully decked over.  When new she would have carried more refined fuels such as gas oil for powering machinery and when older she was used for carrying heavier lubricating oil from the fuel distribution plants on the Manchester Ship Canal. Her last job was collecting gas water (a by-product of coke manufacture) and transporting it to Albright & Wilson at Oldbury.  Stour was owned throughout her working life by the Beechey family until 1966.

    Stour came to the Museum in 1991 and the front end of the boat was rebuilt.  In 2003-04, she had a major overhaul including replacement of most of the wooden bottom and re-painting to her original Clayton’s livery.

     

  • BCLM Staff in the Paper

    On Monday 23 October the Express & Star ran a ‘day in the life of’ spread of some of our staff.

    12 team members from across the Museum were interviewed about why they love working at BCLM.

    To read what they said, visit the Express & Star website – https://www.expressandstar.com/entertainment/2017/10/23/labour-of-love-at-black-country-living-museum/#gfUGwwvDx6yCxWIU.01

    Thanks to everyone involved in creating such a great piece.

     

    Image courtesy of Express & Star 

  • BCLM: Forging Ahead – Gas Showroom begins its journey

    BCLM: Forging Ahead – Gas Showroom begins its journey

     The demolition schedule of the first of Forging Ahead’s translocated buildings, the West Bromwich Gas Showroom, is being set on Tuesday, 24 October.

    As such, the following day we’ll be launching our public call-out for memories of the building in the hope that lots of people will come forward with interesting stories surrounding the building from the 40s-60s.

    If you hear of anyone – member of the public or visitor – who would like to share a memory or story of the showroom with us, please put them in touch with our Collections team either via email – [email protected], phone – 0121 557 9643 or in person (via reception).

    Please do not take any personal details yourself.

    Likewise, if you have any personal stories you would like to share, please pop in and see the Collections team in the Rolfe Street offices.

     

     

    A bit about the showroom:

    The Gas Showroom gives us the opportunity to tell a range of stories from the 40s to the 60s – from the bombing of the Black Country in World War Two to Cannon’s innovation in gas cookers – and allows us to recreate 1950s cookery demonstrations.

    Whilst the condition of the building means we can’t take it ‘brick-by-brick’, we are specifically hoping to save the central stone staircase – perhaps the most memorable feature of the showroom – as well as the Gas Service signage, bricks, windows and lintels to allow us to rebuild the frontage exactly as it would have been in the 1950s.

  • Easier Intranet Access

    Easier Intranet Access

    You can now access the Museum intranet via your mobile phone or tablet!

    As long as you’re on the Museum site, you can access the intranet from any mobile device when you log into the staff wi-fi.

    To remind you, here are the wi-fi log in details:

    Network – Staff

    Password – Coal&Steam&WiFi

    Once you’re logged in, just visit intranet.bclm.int to stay up to date with news and opportunities from across the Museum and to get access to policies and documents.

    Don’t forget, you can also access the intranet using the computers located in the following areas:

    • Guide Hut
    • Mine office
    • Staff Room above Emile Doo’s
    • Rolfe Street Kitchen (screen only)

     

    Other Intranet developments coming soon….

    • Improved news streams on the screens in the above areas
    • A new custom form within the Museum’s online helpdesk facility allowing you to submit news items for inclusion on the intranet

     

  • An Evening of Light & Sound – Sat 18 November

    An Evening of Light & Sound – Sat 18 November

    Some of you have already taken part in filming and recording for the installations of our Arts Council funded Arts project – thanks again to those of you who have!  The time is now coming to publicly reveal the launch event, ‘An Evening of Light & Sound’ which is a free entry event taking place on Saturday 18 November.

    The project will see projections of light and sound across the Museum including a SlipGrid wall in Admissions, massive projections on the Limekilns, immersive work under the Rolling mill, touch instigated light and sound at Lenches, plus a number of other exciting pieces including possibly the smallest cinema in the world! All of the installations will be made up of sights and sounds filmed and recorded here at the museum, either by the artist himself, groups who have taken part in workshops, or the images you and the public are currently loading to Instagram.

    Everyone is welcome at the event so long as they pre-book their free tickets. Booking will go live publicly on Monday 23 October but tickets will be available to book for staff and volunteers at www.bclm.com/lightandsound from this Friday 20 October.

    We would also  love staff & volunteers to take part in the full ‘dress rehearsal’ on the evening of Friday 17 November where we invite you to take photos and film for use by the artist, Andy Mckeown during the launch the following night. More info about the dress rehearsal to follow.

     

    Image above – a sneak peak of the scale of imaging being used. This is a photograph from our archive, projected on the Limekilns during a test run last week…I hope it gives a flavour of the show to come

  • Round Pound Countdown…

    The legal tender status of the round £1 coin will be withdrawn from 23.59 on Sunday 15 October 2017.  From this date, we will no longer be accepting these coins anywhere in the Museum.

    If a visitor tries to pay for anything with a round £1 coin after this date, please tell them politely that it is no longer legal tender. They will still be able to bank their round coins…..or, until the end of the year, they can drop them into one of our collection boxes and help support our work as an educational charity!