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VOLUNTEER NEWS LETTER

ISSUE 3 - Summer 2016

THANK YOU... Hello all,

This will be my final newsletter intro as Museum Su-

pervisor. As of August I will be changing position to

become the Learning and Events Officer, which is a

part-time role that concentrates on those aspects

(my favourite ones!). There will be a few months

where we don’t have a museum manager, until the

new Visitor Services Manager is appointed around

early 2017. During this time, there will be a little

chopping and changing regarding the appropriate

person for certain aspects of the running of activi-

ties. The three of us will still have our allocated vol-

unteer teams and Lisa will still be a main contact for

volunteer coordination, so if you are unsure about

who to contact in the first instance about something,

it’s probably best to speak with Lisa.

Thank you for all your help during my stint as the

‘manager’, I have learned lots and I hope to have

lots more enjoyable times with you all as the

‘learning and

events’ person. I

also hope you

will bear with us

for the short time

in which we all

readjust to new

roles and cover

various tasks,

before welcom-

ing the new man-

ager next year.

Big thanks –

Katherine

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY…

10th August Learning team year end gathering,

Badger Centre 1.30pm

11th August Memory Café, for Rem team.

Sandford 2.30 pm

16th August Walk through of History Weekend

Beach lawns 2 pm.

17th August Walk through of History Weekend

Beach lawns 10 am.

20th/21st Aug HISTORY WEEKEND

Beach Lawns 10am-5pm

25th August Sewing group and Volunteer

coffee morning. Blakehay 10am

25th August Family Fun Day

Ashcombe Park 12pm—3pm

17th September Civil war Re-enactment

Helicopter Museum. Time-tbc.

CONTENTS….

Thank you…...……………………… Pg 1

Events Team Update………………. Pg 2

Reminiscence Team Update………. Pg 2

Learning Team Update...…………… Pg 3

Writing Team Update………………. Pg 3

Volunteer Social Plans…………….. Pg 4

Funding News……………………… Pg 4

The Tivoli…………...………….…… Pg 5

Moving the project forward………… Pg 6

Friends Of the Museum…..……….. Pg 7

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EVENTS TEAM

Written by Jill Cowles

With lighter evenings and warmer days, Spring and Summer has been proving a busy time for the Museum team and volunteers to take part in events. From the Local Producers’ Market to the Classic Car Show, the Friends of St Andrew’s Church’s Summer Fayre to the Air Festival, Ashcombe Children’s Centre’s Family Fun Day to the YMCA’s Summer Starter, to Weston Pride and the Dairy Festival. We’ve

been running activities, talking to people about the progress of the Museum’s refurbishment, selling ‘Buy a Block’ and letting people know about volunteering opportu-nities. We’ve been really pleased with the response about how much people are looking forward to the Museum reopening next summer. After months of planning, History Weekend is almost upon us and we are looking forward to an en-joyable event on 20 and 21 Au-gust on the Beach Lawns. We have the Vikings’ encampment, warrior battles, ‘kiddi-vikes’, rides for young children, food and drinks stalls, face-painting, Avon Owls, Punch and Judy, Magic Matt, and history groups. I would like to say a very special thank you to Chris Fisher who has sup-plied me with lots of coffee whilst we have been ticking off actions on the ‘to do’ list, as well as the time he has spent organising the Land Train, organising sponsor-ship for competition prizes, deliv-

ering leaflets and putting up ban-ners. Another big thank you goes to the History Weekend events team for all your help too. You have all helped make a huge task much more manageable! I am also very grateful to all the volunteers who are going to help at the event itself. There’s still time to let me know if you have a few hours that you can spare over the weekend. It is a perfect oppor-tunity to let people know about our plans for the Museum and encour-age people to sign up to our Newsletter, and we can combine talking to members of the public and stewarding the event. Chris and I are organising a ‘walk through’ on Tuesday, 16th August at 2pm and Wednesday, 17th Au-gust at 10am for anyone who is interested in helping out.

Written by Jill Cowles

We have recently become mem-bers of the Weston and Worle De-mentia Action Alliance and the Charity has kindly offered to come on visits to Care Homes with us, so that the team and volunteers can feel more confident about en-gaging with residents who may

have different challenges in com-municating with us. We are also partnering the Alzhei-mer’s Society and will be going to some of the activities they organ-ise for people living with dementia and led by the Society’s dementia support workers.

We have so many resources that can be enjoyed by residents and people living in the community and it is really helpful that we can draw on and learn from the exper-tise of dealing with dementia. Many of our volunteers are keen to help with this by making ‘twiddle muffs’ and researching song lyrics.

REMINISCENCE TEAM

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Written by Katherine Bell

Well, that was an eventful school

year! With the help of all the learning

team volunteers, we managed to en-

gage with at least 20 different

schools, from both Weston and the

wider North Somerset area. We de-

veloped and delivered 5 different

types of session to a range of ages

from reception level right up through

Primary. We have created some

great resources and some fruitful re-

lationships, all with your help.

My highlight of the year has probably

been seeing so many children get

excited about getting hands-on with

their own local history and imagine

themselves as Iron Age warrior

queens or Victorian street urchins!

Next year, I hope that we will contin-

ue to expand this engagement and

have even more bookings. We will be

introducing a manageable charge for

the sessions this coming school year,

so they will be aiding the fundraising

for the refurbishment. We will also

continue to evaluate and develop the

sessions and handling boxes, so that

we can offer a high quality, fun and

informative service for local schools.

We have lots of big plans for the

learning programme, from exciting

outreach sessions and varied han-

dling boxes, to online resources and

support for school projects, but all of

these need your help to make them

work. We need people to help with a

huge variety of tasks from research

and admin, through designing and

maintaining teaching resources to

supporting sessions.

We will be having a team gathering/

end of year celebration on

Wednesday 10th August,

1.30pm

at the Badger Centre to firstly cele-

brate what we have done so far and

also to plan actions for next year. If

you are curious about joining in with

learning activities, then please feel

free to come along There will also be

training days coming up in the Au-

tumn (once History Weekend is

done!), so you don’t need loads of

prior knowledge or experience, you

can start off slowly if you want to.

Get in touch with any questions and

join in the fun!

LEARNING TEAM

Written by Lisa Clemons

Summer is a busy time for everyone

but the writing team are still working

behind the scenes. The ‘On this day’

project is building, with some lovely

summer entries for Facebook and

Twitter (and some lovely pictures for

Beatles fans)

Local history is a passion for most

members of the writing team and as a

result they are producing some great

pieces for the newsletter and website.

I am assured the more ‘risky’ infor-

mation gained during the research is

being left out…

‘Object of the month’, ‘What’s in

store?’ and ‘Mystery objects’ are all

popular with museum followers. The

task for the team for these projects is

to go through the data sheets that

were compiled before the museum

closed and pick and research items

of interest.

This is no small task, as there is a

sheet for every item that was dis-

played in the museum. The bright

side is we have no shortage of quirky,

interesting objects to write about.

The Weston Mercury will also be run-

ning a similar series, using some of

our collection items, so watch out for

those.

Updating and organising the infor-

mation sheets, the launch of the

‘Rusty the Dog’ stories, quizzes, word

searches on a Viking Theme and

town trails are all being worked on as

I write this. So I would like to take the

opportunity to say many thanks for

everyone’s hard work and enthusi-

asm during the busy summer months

and…summer holiday anyone?

WRITING TEAM

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FUNDING NEWS...

Written by Zoe Clements...

It has now been over a year since

the HLF Weston Museum project

started and there is a little over a

year until completion and the

doors re-open to reveal the refur-

bished facility, and this time will

no doubt fly by.

The Museum refurbishment pro-

ject has again been successful

with funding, this time coming

from Arts Council England and

the Resilience Fund. This pot of

money will be paying for external

consultants to provide their exper-

tise in retail, catering and audi-

ence development to help the mu-

seum maintain a steady income

stream now the Town Council

have decided to remove the en-

trance charge.

The funding will also cover the

capital works for the shop and

kitchen areas based on the work

and advice gained through this

project.

Phil Gibby, Area Director, South

West, Arts Council England, said:

‘At a challenging time for funding

in the sector, it is vital that muse-

ums look at ways of improving

their resilience and making the

most of every opportunity. By in-

vesting £52,200 through our Mu-

seums Resilience Fund we are

helping Weston Museum find a

more sustainable business model

and improving the experience for

visitors. Museums need the sup-

port of public investment as well

as income from visitors to make

the most of the truly fantastic

treasures held in trust for local

communities and I hope we can

work in partnership with Weston-

super-Mare Town Council to

make the most of the city’s cultur-

al heritage in the future.’

Malcolm Nicholson, Town Clerk

says “The Town Council is de-

lighted with the recognition being

given to the Weston Museum

from the Arts Council. Their sup-

port is a vital part of the project to

produce a refurbished Museum

which we are confident will be an

asset to the town that will stand

the test of time.”

VOLUNTEER SOCIAL PLANS... Written by Sally Dickson...

Hello Everybody,

As you know, we had our first so-

cial get together on 14th July and

it went very well indeed. The Cafe

Bar at the Blakehay was buzzing,

the coffee was flowing and it was

great to share the space with the

Sewing Group. It is very interest-

ing to see the projects they are

working on and how they fit into

the Museum learning programme.

The general consensus from the

first meeting was that the Blake-

hay was a good venue and that a

monthly gathering would be most

people’s preference. Some ideas

were put forward for future

events, with meals out, guided

walks, visits to other museums

and guest speakers being the

most popular with those present.

I will do my best to get some of

these organised, but for this

month’s meeting, as it is August

and many people may be on holi-

day, we will just sit back and relax

in each other’s company. The

date is Thursday 25th August at

10.00 and as that’s just after the

History Weekend, I’m hoping that

Jill or Katherine will be able to

come along and tell us how it

went.

So I hope to see you on the 25th,

tea and coffee will be available at

£1 per cup and as mandatory for

Museum social occasions, there

will be cake!

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Written by Pauline Colsey

In 1884 the area around Tivoli Lane was a hive of entertainment.

It was the site of the Summer and Winter Gardens, comprising Vic-toria Hall, later to become the Victoria Hall and Opera House, Gardens (for Fireworks), Tennis Courts and by 1900 a bowling green which became the Victoria Bowling Club and which still ex-ists on the site to this day. By 1908 it is thought there was also a roller skating rink, cinemato-graph and cycle track.

The Victoria Hall became the Pal-ace Theatre and a programme from 11th September, 1893 adver-tises a benefit to a Mr. Tom Barger. It included sketches and songs including the ever popular “Come into the Garden Maud” after which Mr. Barger changed from full evening dress into come-dian attire in only 25 seconds, concluding his contribution with a very un-pc “ripping yarn” for which he was far famed!

By 1918 the theatre became the Palace of Varieties under the management of Carlton Freder-icks, and together with his Family became known for his good clean fun pantomimes and was himself one of the best Pantomime Dames around. There was also a Fredericks Repertory Company, plus a huge wardrobe and fit ser-vice for both amateur and profes-sional productions.

Local journalist John Bailey re-members being taken to a variety performance as a small boy. There was a hypnotist act in which a man threw a girl into a trance. As she lay on the floor, members of the audience were encouraged to stand on her to show she was impervious to pain. A needle was also passed through her tongue! When brought round, just to show that she was alright she sang “Baby

Doll”. It seems that shortly after the Palace appearance the au-thorities banned the act.In 1928 the Palace became the Tivoli Cin-ema. At matinee performances, tea was served by staff in white aprons and caps and the audi-ence could watch their glamorous screen idols in between sips of “Darjeeling” and a sponge finger. The Tivoli also had its own five piece orchestra with local musi-cian Fred Mogg on trombone. There were even women selling Lavender at the entrance. I know this because I met a man at Wes-ton Museum whose Mother was one of them. From April, 1928 the Tivoli and Regent Cinemas were showing “talkie” shorts and by the end of the year “talking” pictures were everywhere. How-ever, the Tivoli was the first to show a “talkie” film.

In 1938 the Tivoli was renovated and re-opened on 22

nd August

1938. The semi-tudor appear-ance gave way to a more modern design. Background decoration was a warm straw colour, tinted with spots of wine, red and gold and the stage curtains were also of a straw colour and gold illumi-nated by colour cycled footlights. There was a general air of lofti-ness and thanks to steel girders and concrete the balcony was supported without the use of pil-lars. There were comfortable

seats of green “plush” and luxuri-ous toilets appointments for both sexes. The hall was kept at an even temperature day and night and capacity increased by 100. Films shown during the first week included “The Awful Truth” with Irene Dunne, Cary Grant and As-ta the dog, plus Grace Moore’s “I’ll Take Romance”.

Alas, in June, 1942 the Tivoli was damaged in raids, twice in fact. The first time local fireman were able to save it. But the second time it was gutted and this lovely building would entertain no more.

So the next time you pass Tivoli Lane, spare a thought for the grand building that once stood there and the fun and laughter your forebears enjoyed in a by-gone era.

Many thanks to John Bailey, Weston Mercury and Gazette and Brian Austin for their information contained in this article.

THE TIVOLI...

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Written by Amal Khreisheh.

David Revell, Creative Head at Imagemakers (Exhibition Design-ers) and John Cooper from Beau-fort Bespoke (Fit-out Contractors) visited the Somerset Heritage Centre near Taunton to work with museum curators from the South West Heritage Trust on this part of the project. While Weston Mu-seum is closed for its redevelop-ment all the objects are being stored at the Somerset Heritage Centre, where they are accessible to the public by appointment. Over eight days we worked through the new displays case by case. Weston-super-Mare Town Council, Imagemakers and the South West Heritage Trust had previously decided which stories we were going to tell in the new galleries based on feedback from consultation with Weston Muse-um’s users and non-users. We had then created a shortlist of ob-jects that would help to tell each story. Imagemakers used this in-formation to prepare design plans which showed in detail what each gallery would look like.

This was our first opportunity to look at all of the objects selected for the new displays and see if they worked well together. Each day we got all the objects shortlisted for a particular story out of the museum stores. David and John measured out each dis-play area on a large piece of backing paper. We then placed all the objects on the paper as we wanted them to be in the new gal-leries. John advised on how the objects could be mounted to show them off to their best advantage.

We also worked out how many object labels would be needed for each display. Sometimes the objects we had shortlisted worked well together. At other times we had to make adjustments to make the displays more interesting. This often in-volved finding different objects in the museums stores to include a display area. We worked on each display case until we were all happy with the final arrangement! Working with David and John was very enjoyable. They were both very patient and good at problem solving. It felt really exciting to see the new displays come to-gether. After three years of plan-ning, it suddenly feels very real! The next part of the project will take place in July and August when we will prepare all the inter-pretation for the new displays. This includes writing labels for all the objects, choosing images for each gallery and writing scripts for audio-visual interactives.

MOVING THE PROJECT FORWARDS

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The Friends of Weston-super-Mare Museum have been enjoy-ing some summer activities re-cently. In June, twenty two mem-bers visited the Lambretta Muse-um in Alfred Street. None of us had ever been there before alt-hough the museum is just around the corner from our own museum and has been there for many years. Entrance is by arrange-ment, and we were all amazed by the many different models of Lam-bretta scooters on show as well as posters, adverts, toys, photos, and memorabilia connected to the vehicle. The owner told us some details about the collection, but unfortunately he may be closing the doors sometime soon and selling off the collection.

In July we held our annual garden party at the home of the chairman. The weather was warm and sunny and thirty-six members sat in the garden imbibing fruit punch and eating a scrumptious array of teatime goodies.

On August 16th we will be visiting Sandford Station Railway Herit-age Centre and museum, where we will see railway memorabilia, vintage rail carriages, a video and hopefully they will now have an engine on site which I was told last year was on its way. Refresh-ments will be available from the station café.

On August 20th and 21st we will be joining museum staff on the Beach Lawns for the History Weekend they are organising. The Friends will have a stand to publicise the role we take in the life of the museum. Do come to see us and have a chat.

The Friends Sewing and Knitting Group continues to meet every month at the Blakehay Café, and has been busy making garments for the school lessons that Kathe

The Friends of Weston-super-Mare Museum

Charity No. 1163034

rine and her volunteers give to local schools. At the moment we are making Victorian waistcoats and shawls and Iron Age tunics and cloaks, all in children’s sizes. We are also helping to produce patchwork pieces for a replace-ment quilt for the bed in Clara’s Cottage.

In September our monthly lecture meetings will re-commence. These are held on Wednesday afternoons in the Blakehay Café. You will see the programme for the rest of this year below. Non-members are welcome to come along to any of our activities, but you can join us for a yearly sub-scription of £12 if you are under 60, or £8 for retired or non-workers. We will of course be moving back to Burlington Street when the museum re-opens.

Our role in the museum is as a support group, some of us have been involved with the museum for many years, both as volun-teers and fundraisers. Now, as a registered charity we are actively seeking grants to add to the funds required for the refurbishment of the museum. We have 80 mem-bers at present and would wel-come you if you would like to join us at one of our meetings.

Dates for Your Diary Wednesday September 21st 2016, 1.30 pm ‘The Odd Couple’ by David Kings-bury & Dean Harris - 25 years ex-perience as TV and Film extras. Wednesday October 19th 2016, 1.30 pm ‘The rise and fall of chocolate making in Bristol’ by John Penny

Wednesday November 16th

2016, 1.30 pm

‘Memories of the Blitz in Weston-super-Mare’ by Pat Hase and Derek Venn

Wednesday December 14th

2016, 1.30 pm

‘Eating off the Ration Book’ by Linda Hotchkiss