Museum of Timekeeping investing £50,000 in new watch exhibition, to open for British Summertime on March 29
After ticking along nicely for many years, an Upton museum is ringing the changes.
The Museum of Timekeeping’s new manager, Alex Bond, has said it’s time for a change, and is investing £50,000 in a new watch exhibition, due to open on March 29.
The museum is based at the home of the British Horological Institute in Upton Hall, and has 500 clocks and watches on display and more than 8,000 altogether.
The new exhibition, funded with a grant from the HB Allen Charitable Trust, will introduce new technology to modernise the exhibition space in a user-friendly way.
Alex explained: “We want to modernise the space, but not so much that it will dominate the exhibits as we don’t want to put off our key demographic of visitors, but we also want to appeal to families with more hands-on exhibits too.
“We want it to have a family feel and to have learning opportunities for people of all ages. You’re never too old to learn something new.”
One example of the new watch exhibits will include a screen which will show the inner workings of a pocket watch, and include activities where visitors can make their own watches.
As one of the museum’s most prized possessions is Arctic explorer Captain Scott’s pocket watch, the new centrepiece will see a new Captain Scott interactive exhibition, where visitors will be able to stand on a model of a bow of a ship where an interactive screen will explain how an 18th century ships chronometer works.
“We also want to emphasise the roles that women had in watch making over the years,” Alex said.
“They were massively overlooked throughout history and we want to give them the recognition they deserve, as there were many female pioneers in the field.”
The museum will extend its opening hours for the summer season, and is planning more community events.
“This year, after the grand re-opening, we will be opening every Friday from 10am to 4pm from April to October, as well as on eight different Sundays with different themes,” Alex said.
“And following on from the success of our steam punk event, we’ll be running a heritage skills workshop with our horologists over the summer, looking at the skills required to do with watch-making, such as dial restoration, cabinet making, bell ringing and so on.
“We also want to host another dining experience as our Fawlty Towers dining event in December was a huge success and raised more than £2,000.”
The Museum of Timekeeping is also working to receive official Arts Council England museum-accredited status, which will open up plenty of opportunities for the museum, including access to Lottery funding and allow the museum to borrow objects from other museums more easily.
The application is being overseen by the museum’s freelance curator Simon Davies, and is due to be submitted next week.
Alex said: “We’re a tiny independent museum reliant on donations, so having museum status will be hugely helpful.
“We’re such a niche museum. Not everyone likes clocks, but there’s something here for everyone.”
On top of this, the museum is teaming up with the Southwell Yarn Bombers and have set them a challenge to create a long clock cover with an autumn theme.
The museum’s official spring forward re-opening will take place on March 29, the start of British Summer Time.
For more information about the Museum of Timekeeping, visit www.museumoftimekeeping.org.uk/
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