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Category: Key update

  • Summer Holidays: Week 5 – Busiest Week For 9 Years!

    Last week was the busiest non-event week the Museum has seen since August Bank Holiday week 2008!

    We welcomed 13,466 visitors which was 17% ahead of the budgeted attendance figure and means we are now 3% (or 5,500 visitors) ahead of both the visitor attendance target year-to-date and the same point last year.

    But did having such a large number of people on site mean our visitors didn’t have such a good time? Not according to this Tripadvisor reviewer who visited over the weekend :

    We were there a good few hours strolling around and I have to say it felt really relaxing, I have read a couple of other reviews that said it was packed. We went in about 1130 and to us it felt great not too busy at all…….So overall an excellent place to visit whatever you are into, it was just nice to wander around and see the history in action. Well done BCLM we will be back.

    Well done everyone and fingers crossed for an equally excellent last week of Summer!

  • AEOM Conference Success

    Last week we hosted the 28th biennial conference of the Association European Open Air Museums.  We welcomed 130 delegates from 60 different open-air museums from 20 countries as far-flung and diverse as Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Canada and the USA.  It was an honour to be chosen to host the conference, on behalf of the UK, and a great example of our international links and the high regard people have for BCLM.

    You can probably imagine that 130 museum professionals, from some of the world’s best and biggest open-air museums are pretty tough judges, but we passed all measures with flying colours, especially when it came to the friendliness, enthusiasm and knowledge of our staff and volunteers.

    The conference was an enormous success, and represented the very best of team efforts; either those directly involved in conference organisation, or doing your day-job and showing the Museum off at its best.  So thank you to you all.  It was a world-class performance.

    I was also asked and I am delighted to, pass-on grateful thanks to everyone at the Museum, from retiring President, Katarina Frost Director of the Vallby Open Air Museum, Sweden, and the Association’s new President, Dr Henrik Zipsane, Director of the Jamtli Foundation, Sweden.

    Andrew

  • For Information – Newcomen Steam Engine Boiler To Be Replaced

    For Information – Newcomen Steam Engine Boiler To Be Replaced

    You’ve probably noticed that the Newcomen Steam Engine hasn’t been its usual self this year and as such, over recent weeks, has been in preparation for a detailed boiler inspection.

    Following that inspection on 11 August, and 31 years into its life at the Museum, it has been confirmed that the boiler now needs replacing.

    As you can imagine, this is a big job (and a bespoke one at that) and so, whilst we will be cracking on with sourcing a new boiler straight away, replacement works will not take place until next year. Until then, the Newcomen building will remain open and the brickwork exposed so that visitors can see the boiler prior to its replacement.

    To make sure the story of steam is not lost, we will be progressing the restoration works to the Racecourse Colliery (due for completion early 2018) including further work-in-progress tours.

    Please do keep a look out for further progress updates about the Newcomen, Colliery, and other ongoing projects on the intranet.

     

  • Summer Holidays: Week 4 Performance

     Last week was our best yet this Summer; we welcomed over 12,000 visitors which was 11% ahead of the budgeted attendance figure and saw trading income surpass its target by 15%.

    Year to date, we are now over 2% ahead of visitor attendance budget and have welcomed an additional 3,000 visitors compared with the same point last year.

    And the positive visitor feedback keeps on coming in:

    We decided as we were meeting up for the weekend we take the opportunity to revisit the BCLM. Once again it was a revelation. We all enjoyed the reminiscences that the tour around the museum gave us and watching the chain making demonstration was a definite bonus. The whole experience reminded me very much of my youth, in the 50s and 60s.

    Well done everyone!

  • Diary Dates – BCLM: Forging Ahead All Staff Meetings

    Diary Dates – BCLM: Forging Ahead All Staff Meetings

    At 9am on Monday 25 & Tuesday 26 September, there will be two opportunities for all staff & volunteers to attend a session about progress on BCLM: Forging Ahead to date.

    Andrew will give an update on the project since we were granted permission to start work on the Development Phase on 14 June this year and then offer the chance for staff & volunteers to ask questions.

    Please feel free to attend either session – whichever suits you best. It’s likely they will both take place in the Workers’ Institute but this will be confirmed nearer the time.

    The sessions have been added to the Museum calendar.

     

  • Racecourse Colliery Hard Hat Tours – Staff & Volunteer places available

    Racecourse Colliery Hard Hat Tours – Staff & Volunteer places available

    On various dates between Wednesday 23 August and Sunday 3 September we’ll be running hard hat tours of the Racecourse Colliery restoration work for our visitors (exact dates and times listed below). The tours will explore the history of the Colliery, the reasons for its restoration and the work involved, what’s been done so far, and what’s still to complete.

    Not only does this keep our visitors involved in our current projects but it allows us to test this type of activity in advance of the new physical developments we will be creating as part of BCLM: Forging Ahead.

    We’d like you, our staff & volunteers to be the first to see the work that is taking place on the Colliery. So, if you fancy replacing a flat cap with a hard hat for half an hour at 9am on Tuesday 22 August, please register your interest via Museum Operations Manager, Jon White.

    Places will be limited to 20 but if we get significant interest then we’ll put on another tour for staff & volunteers at a later date.

    Please wear sensible footwear.

    The tours will take place from the Mine Manager’s Office.

    Visitor tours will be limited to 10 places and will take place at 11am, 1pm & 3pm on the following dates:

    • Wednesday 23 Aug
    • Thursday 24 Aug
    • Friday 25 Aug
    • Monday 28 Aug
    • Saturday 2 Sep
    • Sunday 3 Sep

    More tours are due to take place in the Autumn.

  • Summer 2017: Performance so far

    We’re half way through the Summer Holidays and although not as sunny as we would have liked, this all-important period to date has actually been quite a successful one.

    Visitor numbers for the first three weeks (Saturday 22 July to Sunday 13 August) are at 31,122, that’s bang on the budgeted attendance target and just a few hundred off the same period last year.

    But it’s not just our attendance figures that provide a good read; the number of 4 & 5 star reviews we’re seeing across Tripadvisor and Facebook, is also a testament to the excellent visitor experience that you, our staff & volunteers, provide – as one Tripadvisor reviewer puts it:

    “History is brought to life in a way no lesson or text book could.”

    Our all new Summer Evenings have also proved to be a welcome addition, especially to our Facebook followers (there’s over 87,000 of them now):

    “Enjoyed Friday evening. My little boy managed a full bag of fish & chips all to himself, and it was great to actually get into the bottle and glass pub for a few drinks! A fiver upon entry was a bargain. It’s something we would like to do every Friday evening!”

    We enter the last 3 weeks of the summer holiday period nearly 2% ahead of our visitor attendance budget year to date and ever so slightly ahead (0.2%) of the same point last year….and with fingers crossed for some dry weather!

  • Peaky Blinders- Volunteers Wanted!

    Peaky Blinders- Volunteers Wanted!

    Staff Volunteering – Peaky Blinders

    Our Peaky Blinders nights are upon us once again and this year we are hosting the event across four evenings, spanning two weekends. Like all of our highly anticipated events, Peaky Blinders is expected to be busy and bustling from start to finish so any help would be gratefully recieved. There are two opportunities available; in the week coming up to the first weekend we would like some help with transforming the site into a place worthy of the Peaky Blinders gang. During the evening events we will need support  across food and drink and  retail and admissions.

    If you are interested in lending a helping hand, please indicate where you would like to volunteer and what times you are available in the forms below. The deadline to sign up is 12 midday on Monday 28th August 2017. Whether for the whole evening or a couple of hours,  we would gladly accept any time you can offer to help make our event a success.

    There are two forms to register interest in volunteering. There is a Peaky Blinders Sign Up form to register interest in volunteering within food and drink or retail and admissions and there is a Peaky Blinders Prep Sign Up form, this is for those that are interested in assisting Jane Allcock during the day with the prep for the evening events and will involve set-dressing. Please ensure that the correct form is completed.

    The Volunteer Team

    Thank you.

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  • 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.

     

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