Visit Date: 15 March 2008
Admission Price: At time of visit, the charges were as follow:
Adult - £6.50
Ages 5-16 - £4.00
Concessions - £5.50
Please check to see whether these charges have since been revised.
Ownership: City of York Council (Ownership), York Museums Trust (Management)
Tel. Number: 01904 687687
Website: http://www.yorkcastlemuseum.org.uk/Page/Index.aspx
Walkthrough: The entrance area connects the two buildings that make up the museum, with the set route first taking visitors through the North Building on the left. The initial stairway leads up to the ‘Period Rooms’ exhibition, which showcases the interiors of a middle class Victorian parlour, an 1850s Moorland cottage, a Jacobean dining room and a Georgian drawing room. Each room is fully furnished with information panels on the outside whilst certain rooms also play in certain sound effects, such as wind blowing outside the Moorland cottage and tabor music playing into the Jacobean room. Between the rooms are standing cabinets acting as display cases for statuettes and decorative artefacts, as well as there being a window which overlooks Kirkgate Street, which visitors come to later on through the route. Past the rooms, there is a final display case beneath a staircase containing a moorland cross before the route continues on up the stairs.
The next exhibition, ‘Spotless’, looks at cleaning and domestic hygiene throughout the ages. Utilising a number of hands-on activities, there are mystery boxes for visitors to feel inside, a vacuum interactive which sucks up various forms of waste and a button-operated quiz by the exhibition exit to recap the themes of the gallery. The museum’s collections are shown through thematic groupings of different household fittings and appliances – such as vacuum cleaners, baths, toilets, toiletries and washboards – and with a further period room as a 1950s living room, with looping sound effects coming from around the radio. The panels are designed to be appealing to children, with some containing hinged flaps to reveal further information, as are the old fashioned water pump and the Ash Midden privy, which displays fake faeces and rat models at the base beneath the transparent cover. The steps at the exit point lead down to the ‘From Cradle to Grave’ gallery, which focused upon the rites of passage during the Victorian era. Dominated by the centrepiece of a Victorian funeral procession, with mannequins depicting a bereaved father and daughter following on behind the carriage, the room has large display cases lining the walls for artefacts and clothing relating to birth, marriage and death. The atmosphere is helped by sound effects of church bells and nursery rhymes being played in. The adjacent gallery features ‘Chinese Reflections’ which looks at Chinese culture and how immigrants from China have contributed to the local community within York. On display are cases containing artefacts such as ceramics and fans, whilst the walls are used to show projected films on the subject, a timeline of Chinese immigration and culture within York, and information panels in both the English and Mandarin languages.
Due to construction work going on to the main route, an alternative route takes visitors down another set of stairs which leads into ‘Kirkgate’, the museum’s famed Victorian street recreation. Before this however, the connecting corridor holds ‘Kirkgate Reflections’, in which residents of York from different professions have a full photograph of themselves on the wall with their own accounts of their life in York written alongside. Kirkgate itself is predominantly L-shaped with a number of shop fronts displaying different areas of the Kirk collection. Certain buildings can be entered into, such as the candlemakers and the adjacent firehouse(!) whilst other shops are sometimes manned by volunteers in Victorian costume. Adding to the atmosphere are the lighting and sound effects which run on a 30 minute loop, with half of the time being swathed in daylight with pre-recorded crowd bustle, and the other half darkening to a night-time scenario which includes a thunderstorm with lightning effects. Moving past the horse and cart in the centre of the street before the Period Rooms window, there are further shop fronts to look into as the route moves back to the entrance building, past vintage coin-operated curiosity machines.
The route proceeds to the top floor of the South Building, via a staircase which passes the site’s cafe. The top floor begins with the ‘Military History gallery’ which concentrates on York’s role during the English Civil War, particularly the Battle of Marston Moor. Whilst the information panels are largely taken up by the aforementioned battle, the gallery displays a great deal of 17th century armour as well as an interactive where visitors use pulleys to discover how heavy that armour is compared to more modern army protection. This transitions into more recent conflict, specifically looking at York’s experience with the Second World War. This ranges from the use of standee images and an interview with a local veteran to the larger display case room, which is full of military uniforms, equipment, and other supplies. The route then moves downstairs.
The middle level is the home of the ‘Children’s gallery’, which was closed at the time of my visit, and the ‘Costume gallery’. This begins with a Regency era room reconstruction, with the fine costumes on display benefitting from the dim lighting being used and a rare mannequin posed at a writing desk by the bed. After further displays of vintage clothing, shoes and jewellery, the route leads round to the stairs again and down to the ground floor. ‘The Cells’ has its subject matter split into two, depending on which side of the staircase the visitors are. To the left, each cell contains the products of local craftsmen and their industries, such as printing, joinery and brush-making. On the other side of the stairs, the original functions of the cells are explored, with panels interpreting the small “condemned cell” as well as a larger cell with a grill of a bed on display.
Highlights:
- Wide-ranging collections.
- Kirkgate.
Lowlights:
- Limited facilities.
Access: The museum is located within two of York’s most prominent historical buildings and opposite Clifford’s Tower, which has a large pay and display car park beside it. There are also bus stops nearby and it is very close to the commercial centre of the city, making it easy to reach for pedestrians. Due to the nature of the interiors, there are no stair lifts or regular lifts for wheelchair users to access the upper floors – the only accessible areas are the prison cells, through an alternate entrance, and Kirkgate street via a ramped walkway. For this reason, wheelchair users and their carers are allowed in free of charge.
Overall Impression: Even if you don’t use the annual ticket for repeat visits over the subsequent year, the admissions price is still a fair deal for the amount there is to see within York Castle Museum. Sadly, the preserved nature of the building means that it isn’t fully accessible and the route around the site can be confusing, even though this was partially due to refurbishment work. That being said, Kirkgate alone could be considered an attraction in its own right, despite the fact that there are many other more traditional displays that are very impressive and reflects the sheer size of the museum’s collection.
Update: 29th October 2011 – Following a fair bit of re-design, both buildings have seen significant changes. The North Building has a longer route down to Kirkgate after the Chinese Reflections gallery. Moving up the stairs, there is the first of two studios where members of staff put on demonstrations for visitors and allow them to handle certain objects. Keeping on the domestic theme, the first of these is the ‘Kitchen Studio’ in which a modern kitchen installation is surrounded by craft tables where visitors can drop in for family activities. This is followed by a number of older kitchen environments from the 1940s and 1980s, in addition to hearths from Yorkshire farmhouses and an old-fashioned ice cabinet and a 1930s refrigerator opposite the stairs. The next level down starts with the Dales Kitchen – a room that visitors cross through with some furniture along the walls and objects displayed in an adjacent, locked-off room – before reaching the ‘Barn gallery’. This area has old agricultural tools, equipment and miscellaneous artefacts, such as the mounted head of “Pat the Giant”, displayed on either side of the central walkway. The majority of artefacts have numbered labels with associated keys on standing panel and there’s also a projected film about growing up on a Yorkshire farm. Beyond the Barn gallery are more stairs which lead down to the top end of the Kirkgate street.
The South Building still starts the route off on the top floor, but the start point has become a display relating to ‘Merchant Adventurers’, which displays naval weaponry around information panels. Following on from this, there is a corner display containing dummies dressed in Elizabethan armour before leading into the ‘Military Studio’, where visitors are invited to handle weapons and armour from the past. This then leads into the unchanged top floor displays. The floor below has been fully redone however, with the Children’s galley becoming ‘Toy Stories’, in which toys from the early 20th to 21st centuries are grouped together in cases that run at intervals at either side along the length of the main corridor, with adjacent panels with number keys labelling each item. There is still a presence for costumes, with Hollywood-esque dresses and beachwear in their own displays with sound effects playing in, although what used to be the ‘Costume Studio’ has been transformed into the staff-supervised ‘Castle Playroom’ where all the toys and activities are based around medieval fortresses. The ground floor has also been radically overhauled as the route at the bottom of the stairs begins outside in the courtyard, where a certain number of playground activities are available. The door that leads back into the building takes visitors straight into ‘The Sixties’, a stylised street with overhanging coloured perspex shapes that represent symbols of the 1960s. Unlike Kirkgate, the street is filled with displays, from a case containing objects from the decade to a moped on a stand, a shuttle children can climb into, a standing outline of The Beatles from the cover of the album ‘Help!’ and a jukebox, in addition to a screen playing television footage from the time. There are shop fronts along one side, which house information panels and displays whilst the opposite wall features thematic information on illustrated wall panels.
This then leads into ‘York Castle Prison’, in which the prison cells have been cleared of the tradesmen’s products and left bare whilst eight actors in total perform monologues in character as past prisoners (and staff), which are then projected onto the bare walls. Following the claustrophobic cell, which utilises gasping sound effects and intermittent UV lighting to illuminate facts on prisoner suffocation, the route moves past the stairs and into the second set of cells. Here, the cell environments are used to look at the prison’s history more broadly through a room dedicated to petitions – with sample petitions on wooden boards hanging from the walls – another room projecting a computer animation of the site’s history progressing through the ages onto a screen on the floor. The “condemned cell” now looks at prison poetry, with readings being played through a speaker, whilst the adjacent cell charts the historical fate of the characters seen in the initial part of the prison area. The route then rejoins the central building.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
6 month update!
Hi there
Yes, it's been a long while again, but I have been busy as those of you following my Twitter will have noticed! At time of writing, I'm one visit away from site #150 whilst I am currently writing up entries 148 & 149 from my trip to York this past weekend.
As you can guess, that means I have 140+ museums, heritage sites and visitor attractions to get down on this blog. But I am finally in a position to get the ball rolling on this again, in no part helped by the fact that I have scanned my first journal - The Green Book - and added it to my computer as a means of quicker reference. I also used my trip to York to dash around the museum that I have been stuck on for so long.
Watch this space to find out which museum that is. I promise it won't take another six months!
Apologies for the massive delays once again.
Ian
Yes, it's been a long while again, but I have been busy as those of you following my Twitter will have noticed! At time of writing, I'm one visit away from site #150 whilst I am currently writing up entries 148 & 149 from my trip to York this past weekend.
As you can guess, that means I have 140+ museums, heritage sites and visitor attractions to get down on this blog. But I am finally in a position to get the ball rolling on this again, in no part helped by the fact that I have scanned my first journal - The Green Book - and added it to my computer as a means of quicker reference. I also used my trip to York to dash around the museum that I have been stuck on for so long.
Watch this space to find out which museum that is. I promise it won't take another six months!
Apologies for the massive delays once again.
Ian
Monday, 2 May 2011
Hiatus apology/explanation!
Hello there!
The keen-eyed of you will have noticed that the typing up of my journals came to an abrupt halt after entry #5, nearly a year ago. I am afraid my MA very much threw a spanner in the works as I spent May-September last year working solidly on my dissertation, and ever since, I've been trying to finish writing up the backlog of my journals. This includes a trip to Chicago, where I visited two of the largest museums I've ever been to!
But now that I am writing up my most recent museum, I am ready to get this ball rolling once again! It's unlikely to be this week, but in readiness for its imminent return, I have set up a Twitter account to help publicise the blog as well as learning more about the museum sector. You can follow me here: http://twitter.com/MuseumWalkerIan
In the mean time, apologies for the virtual year of silence and with any luck, Museum Walker should start to grow somewhat rapidly from this point onwards!
See you soon!
Ian
The keen-eyed of you will have noticed that the typing up of my journals came to an abrupt halt after entry #5, nearly a year ago. I am afraid my MA very much threw a spanner in the works as I spent May-September last year working solidly on my dissertation, and ever since, I've been trying to finish writing up the backlog of my journals. This includes a trip to Chicago, where I visited two of the largest museums I've ever been to!
But now that I am writing up my most recent museum, I am ready to get this ball rolling once again! It's unlikely to be this week, but in readiness for its imminent return, I have set up a Twitter account to help publicise the blog as well as learning more about the museum sector. You can follow me here: http://twitter.com/MuseumWalkerIan
In the mean time, apologies for the virtual year of silence and with any luck, Museum Walker should start to grow somewhat rapidly from this point onwards!
See you soon!
Ian
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Inspire Discovery Centre, Norwich
Visit Date: 21 February 2008
Admission Price: At time of visit, the charges were as follow:
Adult - £4.50
Concessions - £4.00
Saver - £13.00 (defined as 2 adults and 2 children)
Please check to see whether these charges have since been revised.
Ownership: The Science Projects Foundation (in 2008)
Tel. Number: 01603 612612
Website: http://www.inspirediscoverycentre.com/index.html
Walkthrough: Housed in a former church, Inspire’s demographic is immediately apparent as the floor is covered in blue rubber matting, with a variety of books and toys at the side of the entrance, along with the refreshments area on the ground floor and the upstairs area for school groups. The main space of the building houses hands-on science exhibits, with individual panels that explain the science behind each display in an accessible way. Going around the space, these exhibits included spring-activated siege catapults, clockwork mechanisms, mirror displays, a ball chute and an interactive table area that tests a visitor’s hearing, reaction speed and ability to count. There is also a covered area where the site’s light-related exhibits are displayed. A large part of the centre was taken up by a temporary exhibition on flying, entitled Jet Set Go. This boasted features where visitors can stamp passport booklets, move objects through a conveyor belt and work an air traffic control display. This has further interactive buttons as well as a communicative link to the cockpit of the plane structure, which is split into the front area and the back area with a large space in between. Whilst the front area looked at the technical aspects of flying a plane, the back part of the plane was more of a cushioned reading/activity area.
Highlights:
- Interesting location.
- Fun interactives.
Lowlights:
- Jet Set Go didn't interpret much of the airline-based activities.
- Some additional interactives could have been fitted in.
Access: Located north of the river (Wensum), the site isn’t immediately easy to get to on account of the one-way road system, although it isn’t very far from the city centre either. There aren’t bus stops nearby and the parking is on-street with pay & display spaces nearby. The exhibits are all on the ground floor, although there is wheelchair access for the education space on the first floor.
Overall Impression: Whilst the temporary exhibition took up more space than it probably warranted, the Inspire Discovery Centre is a welcoming venue that allows children to get to grips with science. The fact that it isn’t a large venue limits the extent of what the site can offer, but it’s a good regional science-based attraction.
Admission Price: At time of visit, the charges were as follow:
Adult - £4.50
Concessions - £4.00
Saver - £13.00 (defined as 2 adults and 2 children)
Please check to see whether these charges have since been revised.
Ownership: The Science Projects Foundation (in 2008)
Tel. Number: 01603 612612
Website: http://www.inspirediscoverycentre.com/index.html
Walkthrough: Housed in a former church, Inspire’s demographic is immediately apparent as the floor is covered in blue rubber matting, with a variety of books and toys at the side of the entrance, along with the refreshments area on the ground floor and the upstairs area for school groups. The main space of the building houses hands-on science exhibits, with individual panels that explain the science behind each display in an accessible way. Going around the space, these exhibits included spring-activated siege catapults, clockwork mechanisms, mirror displays, a ball chute and an interactive table area that tests a visitor’s hearing, reaction speed and ability to count. There is also a covered area where the site’s light-related exhibits are displayed. A large part of the centre was taken up by a temporary exhibition on flying, entitled Jet Set Go. This boasted features where visitors can stamp passport booklets, move objects through a conveyor belt and work an air traffic control display. This has further interactive buttons as well as a communicative link to the cockpit of the plane structure, which is split into the front area and the back area with a large space in between. Whilst the front area looked at the technical aspects of flying a plane, the back part of the plane was more of a cushioned reading/activity area.
Highlights:
- Interesting location.
- Fun interactives.
Lowlights:
- Jet Set Go didn't interpret much of the airline-based activities.
- Some additional interactives could have been fitted in.
Access: Located north of the river (Wensum), the site isn’t immediately easy to get to on account of the one-way road system, although it isn’t very far from the city centre either. There aren’t bus stops nearby and the parking is on-street with pay & display spaces nearby. The exhibits are all on the ground floor, although there is wheelchair access for the education space on the first floor.
Overall Impression: Whilst the temporary exhibition took up more space than it probably warranted, the Inspire Discovery Centre is a welcoming venue that allows children to get to grips with science. The fact that it isn’t a large venue limits the extent of what the site can offer, but it’s a good regional science-based attraction.
Monday, 14 June 2010
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Visit Date: 21 February 2008
Admission Price: At time of visit, the charges were as follow:
Adult - £5.80
Concessions - £4.95
Ages 4-16 - £4.25
There are additional charges for the separate tours of the castle’s battlements and the dungeons. Please check to see whether these charges have since been revised.
Ownership: Norwich City Council
Tel. Number: 01603 493 625
Website: http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/default.asp?Document=200.21
Walkthrough: Starting within the Castle Keep of the building, there are displays on the three storeys open to the public. The main floor, in so much as it is level with the admissions desk, has a number of displays that have the thematic connection of being linked with Norwich. These include a carnival costume of the Snap Dragon, medieval metalwork, displays of armour from the Norman era through to the English Civil War and activity tables for children. The floor above is effectively a balcony area that runs around the walls of the keep, with information panels about the castle, tapestries and a dummy Norman. You have the option of either doubling back to make it down to the basement level, or take the direct spiral staircase instead! This floor is more geared towards younger visitors and is split into two areas. One area examines the castle’s construction and masonry, with displays on where the stone came from, a boat journey table to illustrate how the stones were transported, dummy masons and an archway to construct from foam blocks. The other area has a circular area in the middle for children to play with assorted toys and building blocks whilst the outside of the circle featured the grated off castle well, map-based games, a model of the castle keep and imprisoned dummies.
Moving into the main museum building, the central hub (the “Rotunda”) leads to the majority of the site’s art galleries opposite the entrance, which include collections of watercolours, porcelain and teapots. The history begins with the stylised Boudica gallery, which splits itself between the local Iceni tribe and the Roman Empire. Starting through a wicker hut entrance, the main area combines displays of the gallery’s many artefacts (which include pots, amulets and coins) with eye-catching displays. These include a dummy Celt making a religious offering with birdsong playing over him, a tree stump colouring table, a model of a traditional roundhouse and a chariot simulator where visitors stand on an uneven cab floor and watch video footage that suggests the vehicle is in motion. Further along is a video of an Iceni storyteller recounting the history of Boudica from a local perspective before a diorama of Romans sacking Celtic huts. Somewhat symbolically, the rest of the gallery becomes Roman-ized with tiles underfoot and a brighter light intensity. The information panels in this area focus on Roman Britain, whilst the hands on features consist of a mosaic puzzle and a dressing up area containing togas.
Directly above it is the Anglo-Saxon & Viking gallery, which looks at life in East Anglia after the collapse of the Roman Empire. This splits the gallery space into three areas (Dark Ages, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings) via banners, with display cases for each one. Artefacts held include pots, weapons, coins and jewellery. Throughout each area are activity tables for children, with hands on features such as illustrated slide puzzles, a game with counters, a dressing up box and crayons. More specifically, the Anglo-Saxon area features the contents of a burial site, with a women’s skeleton within, whilst the far end of the gallery has a model of Norwich before the Norman invasion with a modern map of the city etched into the glass above the model. The remaining historical gallery on this floor is the Egyptian gallery, which is accessible through glass doors on the Rotunda’s balcony. The gallery corridor is dimly lit, to good effect, with motion-triggered lighting that flashes up onto the uncovered face of a mummy on display. There are artefacts along the wall, including mummified animals, a very grand sarcophagus, jewellery, pots, amulets and hieroglyphs, as well as a lit screen for visitors to press x-ray panels against.
Around the rest of the Rotunda’s balcony has more art-based displays, with the space opposite the Egyptian gallery taken up a display of the Norwich Silver collection. The final gallery space on the middle floor is given over to modern art, with the remaining galleries being located on the ground floor. With the art galleries to the rear of the building, the final rooms contain the Natural History galleries. These house a number of rooms containing various exhibits of animal taxidermy, set out traditionally in display cases with labels. The degree of stylisation differs between the rooms, with the mammal gallery being fairly minimal in stylistic terms whilst birds and waterfowl are situated against a mock riverside environment, with buttons that play duck noises when pressed!
Highlights:
- The Iceni & Roman Galleries.
- The Mammal Gallery
- The Castle Keep
Lowlights:
- Despite the displays, the Mammal gallery sound effects didn't fully work.
- The museum building was showing its age in places.
Access: Easy to find, given that it is a castle over-looking the city centre, and straightforward to get to as a result, with a number of bus stops running along the main road beside it and 10 minutes away from the railway station. There’s a car park directly underneath the castle which is connected to the nearby shopping centre, although it does charge for its usage. Despite being on top of a hill, there is a lift provided to allow wheelchair users access to the site itself. Within the building, there are lifts that allow wheelchair users, who are allowed to bring in one companion for free, to access all parts of the site.
Overall Impression: Norwich Castle Museum covers a wide range of topics in both heritage and art, and manages to be fully accessible as well, which is usually a problem with castles. There is a slight problem with regards to the condition of the museum building itself. Although it isn’t a glaring problem in the majority of the galleries, the admission price is sufficient enough to expect a higher standard of maintenance – particularly for the renowned natural history galleries. It is certainly worth visiting, although it may be slightly expensive for what it offers overall.
Admission Price: At time of visit, the charges were as follow:
Adult - £5.80
Concessions - £4.95
Ages 4-16 - £4.25
There are additional charges for the separate tours of the castle’s battlements and the dungeons. Please check to see whether these charges have since been revised.
Ownership: Norwich City Council
Tel. Number: 01603 493 625
Website: http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/default.asp?Document=200.21
Walkthrough: Starting within the Castle Keep of the building, there are displays on the three storeys open to the public. The main floor, in so much as it is level with the admissions desk, has a number of displays that have the thematic connection of being linked with Norwich. These include a carnival costume of the Snap Dragon, medieval metalwork, displays of armour from the Norman era through to the English Civil War and activity tables for children. The floor above is effectively a balcony area that runs around the walls of the keep, with information panels about the castle, tapestries and a dummy Norman. You have the option of either doubling back to make it down to the basement level, or take the direct spiral staircase instead! This floor is more geared towards younger visitors and is split into two areas. One area examines the castle’s construction and masonry, with displays on where the stone came from, a boat journey table to illustrate how the stones were transported, dummy masons and an archway to construct from foam blocks. The other area has a circular area in the middle for children to play with assorted toys and building blocks whilst the outside of the circle featured the grated off castle well, map-based games, a model of the castle keep and imprisoned dummies.
Moving into the main museum building, the central hub (the “Rotunda”) leads to the majority of the site’s art galleries opposite the entrance, which include collections of watercolours, porcelain and teapots. The history begins with the stylised Boudica gallery, which splits itself between the local Iceni tribe and the Roman Empire. Starting through a wicker hut entrance, the main area combines displays of the gallery’s many artefacts (which include pots, amulets and coins) with eye-catching displays. These include a dummy Celt making a religious offering with birdsong playing over him, a tree stump colouring table, a model of a traditional roundhouse and a chariot simulator where visitors stand on an uneven cab floor and watch video footage that suggests the vehicle is in motion. Further along is a video of an Iceni storyteller recounting the history of Boudica from a local perspective before a diorama of Romans sacking Celtic huts. Somewhat symbolically, the rest of the gallery becomes Roman-ized with tiles underfoot and a brighter light intensity. The information panels in this area focus on Roman Britain, whilst the hands on features consist of a mosaic puzzle and a dressing up area containing togas.
Directly above it is the Anglo-Saxon & Viking gallery, which looks at life in East Anglia after the collapse of the Roman Empire. This splits the gallery space into three areas (Dark Ages, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings) via banners, with display cases for each one. Artefacts held include pots, weapons, coins and jewellery. Throughout each area are activity tables for children, with hands on features such as illustrated slide puzzles, a game with counters, a dressing up box and crayons. More specifically, the Anglo-Saxon area features the contents of a burial site, with a women’s skeleton within, whilst the far end of the gallery has a model of Norwich before the Norman invasion with a modern map of the city etched into the glass above the model. The remaining historical gallery on this floor is the Egyptian gallery, which is accessible through glass doors on the Rotunda’s balcony. The gallery corridor is dimly lit, to good effect, with motion-triggered lighting that flashes up onto the uncovered face of a mummy on display. There are artefacts along the wall, including mummified animals, a very grand sarcophagus, jewellery, pots, amulets and hieroglyphs, as well as a lit screen for visitors to press x-ray panels against.
Around the rest of the Rotunda’s balcony has more art-based displays, with the space opposite the Egyptian gallery taken up a display of the Norwich Silver collection. The final gallery space on the middle floor is given over to modern art, with the remaining galleries being located on the ground floor. With the art galleries to the rear of the building, the final rooms contain the Natural History galleries. These house a number of rooms containing various exhibits of animal taxidermy, set out traditionally in display cases with labels. The degree of stylisation differs between the rooms, with the mammal gallery being fairly minimal in stylistic terms whilst birds and waterfowl are situated against a mock riverside environment, with buttons that play duck noises when pressed!
Highlights:
- The Iceni & Roman Galleries.
- The Mammal Gallery
- The Castle Keep
Lowlights:
- Despite the displays, the Mammal gallery sound effects didn't fully work.
- The museum building was showing its age in places.
Access: Easy to find, given that it is a castle over-looking the city centre, and straightforward to get to as a result, with a number of bus stops running along the main road beside it and 10 minutes away from the railway station. There’s a car park directly underneath the castle which is connected to the nearby shopping centre, although it does charge for its usage. Despite being on top of a hill, there is a lift provided to allow wheelchair users access to the site itself. Within the building, there are lifts that allow wheelchair users, who are allowed to bring in one companion for free, to access all parts of the site.
Overall Impression: Norwich Castle Museum covers a wide range of topics in both heritage and art, and manages to be fully accessible as well, which is usually a problem with castles. There is a slight problem with regards to the condition of the museum building itself. Although it isn’t a glaring problem in the majority of the galleries, the admission price is sufficient enough to expect a higher standard of maintenance – particularly for the renowned natural history galleries. It is certainly worth visiting, although it may be slightly expensive for what it offers overall.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
The Dragon Hall, Norwich
Visit Date: 21 February 2008
Admission Price: At time of visit, the charges were as follows:
Adult - £5.00
Concessions - £4.20
Ages 5-16 - £3.00
Family - £12.00 (defined as 2 adults and up to 3 children)
Please check to see whether these charges have since been revised.
Ownership: Norwich City Council (Ownership), Norfolk & Norwich Heritage Trust (Management)
Tel. Number: 01603 663 922
Website: http://www.dragonhall.org/
Walkthrough: Audioguides are provided for you at the entrance before you walk through into the distinctly un-medieval glass gallery. Serving as an extension to the original building, the result allows visitors to look out into the landscaped yard. Within the gallery, there are podiums that each have models of the hall – one of the hall in its pomp, the other showing its location within Tudor Norwich – with related information panels on each side. The audioguide dictates the route towards the stairs and lift, leading up to the street level floor of the main building. This floor is split into three rooms, all of which have site-branded window blinds that block out the road outside. The initial room is a video re-enactment of the life of the building’s merchant owner Robert Toppes, where sensors send the audio of the video into the audioguide once visitors move towards the benches. The other two rooms are focused upon trading, life within Norfolk and the legend of the Snap Dragon, through information panels, artefacts and hands on features.
Doubling back to the staircases and lift, the upper level is the Great Hall itself. The wood beams extend down from the ceiling and into the walls, with a separating beam wall by the stairs at the far end of the hall. On the other side of that wall were tables laid out with activities for a later school visit, including wall-building and weaving. In the main area of the hall are movable tables, as the space is often hired out, with horizontal panels and hands on features, such as a wooden crown joint for visitors to build and a faux open book with some fabric pages to turn. There’s either the option of taking the far stairs that lead towards the Old Barge Room, where the local history of the outside road is showcased via panels, vintage photographs and display cases of local artefacts, or doubling back towards a different set of stairs from the ones that led up there. These stairs within the Tudor building itself lead down beneath the street level to the cellars. This level also splits itself into three areas, with panels and artefacts about the hall’s architecture, the archaeological dig that helped uncover the foundations and it’s Victorian history, when the hall was converted into terraced housing. The final stairs go even further down into the more spacious Undercroft with modern tiled flooring and replica woolsacks, chests and barrels to symbolise what used to be stored there.
Highlights:
- The audioguide.
- The Main Hall
- The Glass gallery
Lowlights:
- The outside traffic can drown out the audioguide at ground level.
Access: Slightly outside of the city centre of Norwich, the Dragon Hall is a five minute walk from the train station and whilst the site doesn’t provide a car park, there is a pay and display alternative on a nearby road by an alleyway that leads to the site. Whilst there are ramps and lifts within the building, the cellars and the undercroft of the building cannot be accessed by wheelchair users. To counter this, information about these areas are provided on the ground floor as well as through the audioguides.
Overall Impression: The Dragon Hall really brings to life the merchant history of the building, with a consistent focus on the life and times of Robert Toppes. Even if it isn’t an era of history that you might warm to as a visitor, the audioguide is very informative and the features should be varied enough to hold your interest. It was certainly worth the price of admission.
Admission Price: At time of visit, the charges were as follows:
Adult - £5.00
Concessions - £4.20
Ages 5-16 - £3.00
Family - £12.00 (defined as 2 adults and up to 3 children)
Please check to see whether these charges have since been revised.
Ownership: Norwich City Council (Ownership), Norfolk & Norwich Heritage Trust (Management)
Tel. Number: 01603 663 922
Website: http://www.dragonhall.org/
Walkthrough: Audioguides are provided for you at the entrance before you walk through into the distinctly un-medieval glass gallery. Serving as an extension to the original building, the result allows visitors to look out into the landscaped yard. Within the gallery, there are podiums that each have models of the hall – one of the hall in its pomp, the other showing its location within Tudor Norwich – with related information panels on each side. The audioguide dictates the route towards the stairs and lift, leading up to the street level floor of the main building. This floor is split into three rooms, all of which have site-branded window blinds that block out the road outside. The initial room is a video re-enactment of the life of the building’s merchant owner Robert Toppes, where sensors send the audio of the video into the audioguide once visitors move towards the benches. The other two rooms are focused upon trading, life within Norfolk and the legend of the Snap Dragon, through information panels, artefacts and hands on features.
Doubling back to the staircases and lift, the upper level is the Great Hall itself. The wood beams extend down from the ceiling and into the walls, with a separating beam wall by the stairs at the far end of the hall. On the other side of that wall were tables laid out with activities for a later school visit, including wall-building and weaving. In the main area of the hall are movable tables, as the space is often hired out, with horizontal panels and hands on features, such as a wooden crown joint for visitors to build and a faux open book with some fabric pages to turn. There’s either the option of taking the far stairs that lead towards the Old Barge Room, where the local history of the outside road is showcased via panels, vintage photographs and display cases of local artefacts, or doubling back towards a different set of stairs from the ones that led up there. These stairs within the Tudor building itself lead down beneath the street level to the cellars. This level also splits itself into three areas, with panels and artefacts about the hall’s architecture, the archaeological dig that helped uncover the foundations and it’s Victorian history, when the hall was converted into terraced housing. The final stairs go even further down into the more spacious Undercroft with modern tiled flooring and replica woolsacks, chests and barrels to symbolise what used to be stored there.
Highlights:
- The audioguide.
- The Main Hall
- The Glass gallery
Lowlights:
- The outside traffic can drown out the audioguide at ground level.
Access: Slightly outside of the city centre of Norwich, the Dragon Hall is a five minute walk from the train station and whilst the site doesn’t provide a car park, there is a pay and display alternative on a nearby road by an alleyway that leads to the site. Whilst there are ramps and lifts within the building, the cellars and the undercroft of the building cannot be accessed by wheelchair users. To counter this, information about these areas are provided on the ground floor as well as through the audioguides.
Overall Impression: The Dragon Hall really brings to life the merchant history of the building, with a consistent focus on the life and times of Robert Toppes. Even if it isn’t an era of history that you might warm to as a visitor, the audioguide is very informative and the features should be varied enough to hold your interest. It was certainly worth the price of admission.
Sunday, 9 May 2010
New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester
Visit Date: 14 February 2008
Admission Price: Free
Ownership: Leicester City Council
Tel. Number: 0116 225 4900
Website: http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/nwm-art-gallery/
Walkthrough: The mosaic-walled entry hall, where the museum’s stairwell is located, leads into the central area by the cafe, with galleries on either side. To the right of this area is The Mighty Dinosaurs, the museum’s most popular permanent gallery. The central space is made up of standing dinosaur skeletons, dominated by the large Rutland Dinosaur. Along the rail around this area are a number of standing information panels, which focus upon both the skeletons in front of them and the history of dinosaurs in general. There are also display cases around the walls which contain a variety of fossils whilst the fossilised remains of an amphibious dinosaur are displayed on the wall itself. The adjacent gallery is Leicestershire’s Rocks, which displays a number of minerals and ores that were mined locally. The majority of the gallery is taken up by the labelled displays of these rocks, although there are also exhibits of artefacts that have been made from similar minerals and a map of popular mining areas within Leicestershire.
The opposite wing of the building starts with Ancient Egyptians, a dimly lit area with a number of orange walls. Between these walls are a number of spotlight displays, with information panels alongside. The general theme is that of death and mummification, with the highlight being a partially unwrapped mummy lying across a sheet of glass within its display case with both parts of the sarcophagus standing vertically behind its owner. There is a separate mummified hand in a nearby display case, along with a mummified cat with a panel nearby explaining that they were popular offerings. There is also a fake mummy posing as though it has just burst through one of the walls, with an adjacent panel listing a number of films that have included living mummies. The displays aren’t wholly devoted to death however, as there are display cases containing labelled artefacts of jewellery and wooden models. There is also a reconstructed Egyptian kitchen area, with lighter wall colours, ceramic pots and a model kiln amongst other objects.
The nearby Wildspace gallery moves away from history, looking instead at the natural world and its various environments. These main displays run along the wall, with labelled exhibits of animal taxidermy that are local to that specific environment and complementary features. In addition to the general hands on area in the centre of the room, the environments are explained via video footage of live animals in their habitats, buttons that play lengthy audio accounts of the conditions animals face within these habitats and laminated pages of information attached to the desks in front of the display cases. There are subtle touches as well, such as water lighting effects on the whale model, which benefits from parts of the gallery being lit differently to create different atmospheric moods. The highlight of the interactive features for children may be the woodland environment’s tunnel beneath the main display, with more animals encased within both the tunnel and the trees, which displays insects as well as birds. After moving around the environments, the back wall by the entrance is illustrated with the causes of extinction and lists species that have died out.
The remaining room on the ground floor is an art gallery entitled Our World Through Art, meaning that visitors have to return to the lift area or stairwell for more exhibition galleries on the first floor. As well as the permanent art galleries, including World Arts and Expressionism and Beyond, there is also a fairly large temporary exhibitions space located by the top of the stairs. During my visit, the temporary exhibition was Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes, a touring exhibition that originated in The British Museum. The main exhibits within the display case were examples of Greek pottery and sculpture, whilst the far end of the gallery had a large television screen showing a slideshow of further artefacts that were not physically on display. This retained a stylistic feel as the seating provided was curved, as though it was a tier in a classical amphitheatre! There were also specific activities for younger visitors, such as traditional Greek games for them to try and a dressing up area by a mirror, with handheld wooden masks in the style of stock character types in Greek drama.
Highlights:
- Stylised galleries.
- The Mighty Dinosaurs
- Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes
Lowlights:
- Some very dated features.
- Route unclear and impaired by construction work.
Access: Situated on one of Leicester’s longest pedestrianised routes, the New Walk Museum also provides a car park, although there are only a limited number of spaces and it isn’t easy to locate either due to the one way system. Additionally, the museum is a five minute walk away from the train station and its bus stops. There are ramps throughout the ground floor for wheelchair users, as well as a lift up to the first floor.
Overall Impression: The New Walk Museum is a venerable attraction within Leicester, with some interesting galleries. Despite this, aside from the temporary exhibitions, a number of galleries have barely changed in the space of twenty years – something I can vouch for, having grown up in Leicester. As a result, some exhibits have dated and are in need of being replaced. The museum has started to refurbish its natural history and dinosaur galleries whilst continuing to put on temporary exhibitions. It is well worth seeking out.
Admission Price: Free
Ownership: Leicester City Council
Tel. Number: 0116 225 4900
Website: http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/leicester-city-museums/museums/nwm-art-gallery/
Walkthrough: The mosaic-walled entry hall, where the museum’s stairwell is located, leads into the central area by the cafe, with galleries on either side. To the right of this area is The Mighty Dinosaurs, the museum’s most popular permanent gallery. The central space is made up of standing dinosaur skeletons, dominated by the large Rutland Dinosaur. Along the rail around this area are a number of standing information panels, which focus upon both the skeletons in front of them and the history of dinosaurs in general. There are also display cases around the walls which contain a variety of fossils whilst the fossilised remains of an amphibious dinosaur are displayed on the wall itself. The adjacent gallery is Leicestershire’s Rocks, which displays a number of minerals and ores that were mined locally. The majority of the gallery is taken up by the labelled displays of these rocks, although there are also exhibits of artefacts that have been made from similar minerals and a map of popular mining areas within Leicestershire.
The opposite wing of the building starts with Ancient Egyptians, a dimly lit area with a number of orange walls. Between these walls are a number of spotlight displays, with information panels alongside. The general theme is that of death and mummification, with the highlight being a partially unwrapped mummy lying across a sheet of glass within its display case with both parts of the sarcophagus standing vertically behind its owner. There is a separate mummified hand in a nearby display case, along with a mummified cat with a panel nearby explaining that they were popular offerings. There is also a fake mummy posing as though it has just burst through one of the walls, with an adjacent panel listing a number of films that have included living mummies. The displays aren’t wholly devoted to death however, as there are display cases containing labelled artefacts of jewellery and wooden models. There is also a reconstructed Egyptian kitchen area, with lighter wall colours, ceramic pots and a model kiln amongst other objects.
The nearby Wildspace gallery moves away from history, looking instead at the natural world and its various environments. These main displays run along the wall, with labelled exhibits of animal taxidermy that are local to that specific environment and complementary features. In addition to the general hands on area in the centre of the room, the environments are explained via video footage of live animals in their habitats, buttons that play lengthy audio accounts of the conditions animals face within these habitats and laminated pages of information attached to the desks in front of the display cases. There are subtle touches as well, such as water lighting effects on the whale model, which benefits from parts of the gallery being lit differently to create different atmospheric moods. The highlight of the interactive features for children may be the woodland environment’s tunnel beneath the main display, with more animals encased within both the tunnel and the trees, which displays insects as well as birds. After moving around the environments, the back wall by the entrance is illustrated with the causes of extinction and lists species that have died out.
The remaining room on the ground floor is an art gallery entitled Our World Through Art, meaning that visitors have to return to the lift area or stairwell for more exhibition galleries on the first floor. As well as the permanent art galleries, including World Arts and Expressionism and Beyond, there is also a fairly large temporary exhibitions space located by the top of the stairs. During my visit, the temporary exhibition was Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes, a touring exhibition that originated in The British Museum. The main exhibits within the display case were examples of Greek pottery and sculpture, whilst the far end of the gallery had a large television screen showing a slideshow of further artefacts that were not physically on display. This retained a stylistic feel as the seating provided was curved, as though it was a tier in a classical amphitheatre! There were also specific activities for younger visitors, such as traditional Greek games for them to try and a dressing up area by a mirror, with handheld wooden masks in the style of stock character types in Greek drama.
Highlights:
- Stylised galleries.
- The Mighty Dinosaurs
- Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes
Lowlights:
- Some very dated features.
- Route unclear and impaired by construction work.
Access: Situated on one of Leicester’s longest pedestrianised routes, the New Walk Museum also provides a car park, although there are only a limited number of spaces and it isn’t easy to locate either due to the one way system. Additionally, the museum is a five minute walk away from the train station and its bus stops. There are ramps throughout the ground floor for wheelchair users, as well as a lift up to the first floor.
Overall Impression: The New Walk Museum is a venerable attraction within Leicester, with some interesting galleries. Despite this, aside from the temporary exhibitions, a number of galleries have barely changed in the space of twenty years – something I can vouch for, having grown up in Leicester. As a result, some exhibits have dated and are in need of being replaced. The museum has started to refurbish its natural history and dinosaur galleries whilst continuing to put on temporary exhibitions. It is well worth seeking out.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
The Silk Mill, Derby
Visit Date: 3 February 2008
Admission Price: Free
Ownership: Derby City Council
Tel. Number: 01332 255308
Website: http://www.derby.gov.uk/LeisureCulture/MuseumsGalleries/Derby_Industrial_Museum.htm
Walkthrough: The route begins on the first floor at the front of the building, where the World Heritage Site Room is situated. The building’s niche of being the world’s first mill is conveyed by illustrated wall panels with information on the site’s history as well as printed sheets on a chair by the opposite doorway, talking about the alleged poisoning of the mill founder after his participation in industrial espionage for the designs of the throwing machines. The room displays one of these machines behind wooden barriers, along with a display case containing a model of the mill building at its height, a case containing silk products made at the mill and wooden mill building toys for visitors to assemble. By the exit, there is also a motion-triggered animatronic dummy of the mill owner within an office diorama, whose head turns for a brief audio history of the building.
The adjacent room is entitled Derbyshire Industries, although it shares Derby’s industrial past with the city’s social history. The diverse focus begins almost immediately, with the two doorways leading into the room arriving at a model of 18th century Derby (made in 1938) and a split 1890s/1990s recreation of children’s bedrooms, with panels comparing the two sets of conditions. The exhibits are split between the central feature of a chimney and an adjacent fireplace, where children upto a certain height are allowed to climb up both entrances as they are coated in foam to avoid injury. On one side of the chimney feature is a grandfather clock with a swinging pendulum and visible mechanism, a Victorian medicine counter with an information panel opposite the wooden barrier, and a reconstructed cottage with a panel in the interior. On the other side of the chimney is a Victorian school area with desks and a blackboard, a look at lead-mining and a free-standing push-button tower that looks at the process of a blast furnace. With no further central obstacles, the right hand side of the gallery continues to look at Derbyshire’s industries, with displays of stoneware, bricks, industrial pottery and steelworks – all of which have explanatory panels. On the left hand side is a narrow fabrics loom behind wooden barriers, a telephone exchange from the 1930s where visitors can dial one telephone to reach the other, and a model of a 90s train beside the ramp leading into the next room.
The train theme continues for the remainder of the floor, beginning with the Railway Engineering room. The centre is taken up by a signal box, whilst the right hand wall is fully taken up by an encased model railway, based upon an actual line that runs through Derbyshire. Although some buildings aren’t fully detailed, the painted mural backdrop, hilled landscape and detailed sections are very impressive. The railway is operational once a month (which wasn’t during my visit) and there is a collection box provided for “new rolling stock”, whilst the left side wall is coated in information panels, images and memorabilia (such as signs and signals) on Derbyshire’s railways. Before the stairwell, there is a side gallery entitled Railway Research. Dating from the early 90s, the majority of walls are occupied by backlit information panels on the railway system provided by the former British Rail (who sponsored the exhibition). Between these panels is the doorway into the Midland Railway Study Centre, an archive for train enthusiasts which can only be accessed when they make appointments to use the room. The main feature of the room is the cab of a 90s train, which has been converted into a theatre area as the windscreen has been replaced with a screen playing video footage of a train driver’s perspective of a train journey between Derby and Leeds. Not only is the footage strangely engrossing, the museum also happens to sell the footage on DVD in its gift shop!
Down the stairs, or the service lift if you ask the Front of House staff, is the temporary exhibition gallery, which was displaying a number of Model Ships (NB/ I missed the actual name of the exhibition). The models were contained within display cases and although there were no information panels for the models, the Front of House desk had printed information available as well as a member of staff at the table. To the side of the temporary exhibition gallery, directly beneath Railway Research, is the Power for Industry room. This features a number of machines, either in cases or behind a wooden barrier, with one particular large engine being turned on, like the model railway, on a monthly basis. There are hands-on features, with button-operated miniature engines and turn-able wheels to demonstrate how a piston works. Not all of the features were responsive, but there were panels for each feature, looking at various forms of power.
The final exhibition consists of Rolls-Royce engines, split between the main building and the side gallery containing the RB211 jet engine. As well as having Perspex information panels behind it, there is also a raised walkway to the side of it. Within the main building, the smaller engines are mounted with individual, coloured, standing panels beside them. There are also panels on the founders of the company, and its history, and an old computer console which will play one of two films depending on the button the visitor presses. Down the ramp, there is a play area on one side, with Lego, K’Nex and toy trains, and a machine that creates engine designs on the other side, as well as more engines. The route ends by the main Front of House desk, with gift shop displays on either side and a window display case nearby, containing school-related artefacts.
Highlights:
- Some very innovative forms of interpretation.
- The World Heritage Room
- The Train Cab
- The Model Railway
Lowlights:
- Some interactives were broken.
- There was not a lot of space devoted to the building's history.
- The social history area was very confusing.
Access: The Silk Mill is within the city centre of Derby, although it isn’t immediately visible. There is no car park provided, although there are pay and display spaces and a multi-storey car park nearby. There are lifts at both ends of the building as well as ramps, allowing wheelchair users full access to most of the site, with the exception of the RB211 walkway.
Overall Impression: The Silk Mill is an impressive site as it makes Derby’s industrial heritage engaging, despite having only a few interactive features. Although the ground floor isn’t as varied as the first floor and a few displays look slightly dated, the museum manages to cover most aspects of the city’s industrial past and attracts repeat visits from the monthly operation of both the model railway and the powered engine.
Update: 19 December 2009 – The ground floor has been rearranged since that visit, with the shop area moved fully against the left side wall. In place of the gifts opposite the main desk, there is now a drinks machine. The temporary exhibition gallery was hosting Derby City Open 3D, part of an annual art exhibition which displays 3D artworks, such as sculpture and ceramics. These are displayed in cases on white pedestals with captions attached to them.
Other notes:
- The museum closed down in April 2011. Derby City Council have pledged to re-open it in 2013.
- In the interest of full disclosure, I volunteered here over the summer of 2009.
Admission Price: Free
Ownership: Derby City Council
Tel. Number: 01332 255308
Website: http://www.derby.gov.uk/LeisureCulture/MuseumsGalleries/Derby_Industrial_Museum.htm
Walkthrough: The route begins on the first floor at the front of the building, where the World Heritage Site Room is situated. The building’s niche of being the world’s first mill is conveyed by illustrated wall panels with information on the site’s history as well as printed sheets on a chair by the opposite doorway, talking about the alleged poisoning of the mill founder after his participation in industrial espionage for the designs of the throwing machines. The room displays one of these machines behind wooden barriers, along with a display case containing a model of the mill building at its height, a case containing silk products made at the mill and wooden mill building toys for visitors to assemble. By the exit, there is also a motion-triggered animatronic dummy of the mill owner within an office diorama, whose head turns for a brief audio history of the building.
The adjacent room is entitled Derbyshire Industries, although it shares Derby’s industrial past with the city’s social history. The diverse focus begins almost immediately, with the two doorways leading into the room arriving at a model of 18th century Derby (made in 1938) and a split 1890s/1990s recreation of children’s bedrooms, with panels comparing the two sets of conditions. The exhibits are split between the central feature of a chimney and an adjacent fireplace, where children upto a certain height are allowed to climb up both entrances as they are coated in foam to avoid injury. On one side of the chimney feature is a grandfather clock with a swinging pendulum and visible mechanism, a Victorian medicine counter with an information panel opposite the wooden barrier, and a reconstructed cottage with a panel in the interior. On the other side of the chimney is a Victorian school area with desks and a blackboard, a look at lead-mining and a free-standing push-button tower that looks at the process of a blast furnace. With no further central obstacles, the right hand side of the gallery continues to look at Derbyshire’s industries, with displays of stoneware, bricks, industrial pottery and steelworks – all of which have explanatory panels. On the left hand side is a narrow fabrics loom behind wooden barriers, a telephone exchange from the 1930s where visitors can dial one telephone to reach the other, and a model of a 90s train beside the ramp leading into the next room.
The train theme continues for the remainder of the floor, beginning with the Railway Engineering room. The centre is taken up by a signal box, whilst the right hand wall is fully taken up by an encased model railway, based upon an actual line that runs through Derbyshire. Although some buildings aren’t fully detailed, the painted mural backdrop, hilled landscape and detailed sections are very impressive. The railway is operational once a month (which wasn’t during my visit) and there is a collection box provided for “new rolling stock”, whilst the left side wall is coated in information panels, images and memorabilia (such as signs and signals) on Derbyshire’s railways. Before the stairwell, there is a side gallery entitled Railway Research. Dating from the early 90s, the majority of walls are occupied by backlit information panels on the railway system provided by the former British Rail (who sponsored the exhibition). Between these panels is the doorway into the Midland Railway Study Centre, an archive for train enthusiasts which can only be accessed when they make appointments to use the room. The main feature of the room is the cab of a 90s train, which has been converted into a theatre area as the windscreen has been replaced with a screen playing video footage of a train driver’s perspective of a train journey between Derby and Leeds. Not only is the footage strangely engrossing, the museum also happens to sell the footage on DVD in its gift shop!
Down the stairs, or the service lift if you ask the Front of House staff, is the temporary exhibition gallery, which was displaying a number of Model Ships (NB/ I missed the actual name of the exhibition). The models were contained within display cases and although there were no information panels for the models, the Front of House desk had printed information available as well as a member of staff at the table. To the side of the temporary exhibition gallery, directly beneath Railway Research, is the Power for Industry room. This features a number of machines, either in cases or behind a wooden barrier, with one particular large engine being turned on, like the model railway, on a monthly basis. There are hands-on features, with button-operated miniature engines and turn-able wheels to demonstrate how a piston works. Not all of the features were responsive, but there were panels for each feature, looking at various forms of power.
The final exhibition consists of Rolls-Royce engines, split between the main building and the side gallery containing the RB211 jet engine. As well as having Perspex information panels behind it, there is also a raised walkway to the side of it. Within the main building, the smaller engines are mounted with individual, coloured, standing panels beside them. There are also panels on the founders of the company, and its history, and an old computer console which will play one of two films depending on the button the visitor presses. Down the ramp, there is a play area on one side, with Lego, K’Nex and toy trains, and a machine that creates engine designs on the other side, as well as more engines. The route ends by the main Front of House desk, with gift shop displays on either side and a window display case nearby, containing school-related artefacts.
Highlights:
- Some very innovative forms of interpretation.
- The World Heritage Room
- The Train Cab
- The Model Railway
Lowlights:
- Some interactives were broken.
- There was not a lot of space devoted to the building's history.
- The social history area was very confusing.
Access: The Silk Mill is within the city centre of Derby, although it isn’t immediately visible. There is no car park provided, although there are pay and display spaces and a multi-storey car park nearby. There are lifts at both ends of the building as well as ramps, allowing wheelchair users full access to most of the site, with the exception of the RB211 walkway.
Overall Impression: The Silk Mill is an impressive site as it makes Derby’s industrial heritage engaging, despite having only a few interactive features. Although the ground floor isn’t as varied as the first floor and a few displays look slightly dated, the museum manages to cover most aspects of the city’s industrial past and attracts repeat visits from the monthly operation of both the model railway and the powered engine.
Update: 19 December 2009 – The ground floor has been rearranged since that visit, with the shop area moved fully against the left side wall. In place of the gifts opposite the main desk, there is now a drinks machine. The temporary exhibition gallery was hosting Derby City Open 3D, part of an annual art exhibition which displays 3D artworks, such as sculpture and ceramics. These are displayed in cases on white pedestals with captions attached to them.
Other notes:
- The museum closed down in April 2011. Derby City Council have pledged to re-open it in 2013.
- In the interest of full disclosure, I volunteered here over the summer of 2009.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Introduction
Hi there! Welcome to the Museum Walker blog page!
My name is Ian Wilson and I've started this blog as a means of converting my recorded journeys around the museums of the United Kingdom from paper to webtext. I am hoping that, in time, this will expand to something bigger, but for now I will explain what's going to be happening with this blog for the time being.
Since the beginning of 2008, I have wanted to turn my somewhat unused degree in History into something practical, which began my road towards an MA in Museum Studies. To prepare for this - in addition to working for 18 months to fund it - I started visiting museums. Now I have spent most of my life going to museums, but the difference this time around was that I would write up my visit afterwards in a green hardbacked book (which I would later christen "The Green Book"). Initially I did it as a means of having some kind of record of material to work from when I finally got to university, but it became a means of visiting friends who had moved away to most every corner of Britain, as well as providing me with a number of weekend breaks between working. And when I finally got back to university, I didn't stop.
What is going to follow is the electronic form of the entries in my three museum journals, which is aimed at describing the site, the collections housed within it and how they are presented. If you want additional details of on-site refreshments, toilets or opening hours, I suggest you look at the site's website (which the entries will link to) or the Culture24 website. Some entries will be slightly outdated, but the date of the original visit will be provided for context and, where possible, I will add in separate updates if I have made a subsequent visit to the site and can report on any changes since the initial visit. In time, I'm hoping to get more people on board to collaborate, so that this blog can extend and offer a wider to guide to museums across the country, and maybe even overseas! Still, one step at a time....
If you have been to any of the museums or visitor attractions that appear on this blog, it would be great if you could leave a comment for that post to make your opinion known on either the site or how it has been written up.
I reckon that's enough of an introduction. Please let me know what you think of this blog once it gets off the ground as all feedback will be appreciated. Well, within reason obviously!
Enjoy the site!
Ian
My name is Ian Wilson and I've started this blog as a means of converting my recorded journeys around the museums of the United Kingdom from paper to webtext. I am hoping that, in time, this will expand to something bigger, but for now I will explain what's going to be happening with this blog for the time being.
Since the beginning of 2008, I have wanted to turn my somewhat unused degree in History into something practical, which began my road towards an MA in Museum Studies. To prepare for this - in addition to working for 18 months to fund it - I started visiting museums. Now I have spent most of my life going to museums, but the difference this time around was that I would write up my visit afterwards in a green hardbacked book (which I would later christen "The Green Book"). Initially I did it as a means of having some kind of record of material to work from when I finally got to university, but it became a means of visiting friends who had moved away to most every corner of Britain, as well as providing me with a number of weekend breaks between working. And when I finally got back to university, I didn't stop.
What is going to follow is the electronic form of the entries in my three museum journals, which is aimed at describing the site, the collections housed within it and how they are presented. If you want additional details of on-site refreshments, toilets or opening hours, I suggest you look at the site's website (which the entries will link to) or the Culture24 website. Some entries will be slightly outdated, but the date of the original visit will be provided for context and, where possible, I will add in separate updates if I have made a subsequent visit to the site and can report on any changes since the initial visit. In time, I'm hoping to get more people on board to collaborate, so that this blog can extend and offer a wider to guide to museums across the country, and maybe even overseas! Still, one step at a time....
If you have been to any of the museums or visitor attractions that appear on this blog, it would be great if you could leave a comment for that post to make your opinion known on either the site or how it has been written up.
I reckon that's enough of an introduction. Please let me know what you think of this blog once it gets off the ground as all feedback will be appreciated. Well, within reason obviously!
Enjoy the site!
Ian
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