We hope that everyone is keeping safe and well during these difficult times.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday evening to increase social distancing and stay at home measures, only essential staff have been on-site in order make the Museum safe and secure during the period; this includes our Duty Managers and horse handlers in daily and Maintenance and IT teams supporting from home but ready to be onsite in case of an emergency.
The Museum Board will be meeting, via video conference, tomorrow (Thursday 26 March) and the sole agenda item is how we are responding to this once in a generation event.
You’ll have also seen the measures that the Government has announced to support employers and employees; including the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme. This very important, and welcomed, policy offers a lifeline to heritage organisations like ourselves and we will continue to communicate with you via separate notices about how we will be moving forward with this.
Following the announcement of the Museum’s temporary closure, we’ve been heartened by the messages of support we’ve seen from our visitors and local community, particularly on social media. In response, we’ve launched a donation (https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/supportBCLM) and ‘buy a ticket for when we re-open’ campaign that has been received very positively. This will help us to raise funds and keep the Museum top-of-mind for visitors when we re-open and we can welcome people back. Some of the fantastic comments we’ve received are below:
‘I have many happy memories of this place and hope to make many more in years to come. It’s a wonderful place and I am happy to show my support. Stay safe everyone and I look forward to seeing you.’
‘Keep up the fantastic work you do, you have built up a wonderful facility for all to see what it was really like to live and work in the Black Country. It would be a crying shame to see it disappear.’
‘Visited many times with my Brother who has now passed away! In his memory I am donating to your Museum!’
‘Glad to help this fabulous museum.’
‘Great place to visit with the young and old alike. We can’t wait to come back and enjoy another visit soon.’
‘Love BCLM, had some great memories there, hope this helps.’
We want to thank everyone for their patience, understanding and perseverance during what is an unprecedented time in history.
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