Background

Leominster Museum was one of six small museums from across England which were selected to join Creative Museums, an eighteen-month programme of experimentation from 2015 to 2017. The programme, which was funded by Arts Council England used a process which helped them to build lively programmes and venues that enriched the experience for visitors, directly and creatively involved their audiences, and tackled challenges.

• To develop new role descriptions for the volunteers who have specific responsibilities at the Museum.
• To develop deeper partnerships with other organisations in the town.
• To find out exactly what the people of Leominster want from their Museum and what they think of the role of heritage as a whole, before we begin to develop our plans for modernisation.

Trails of the Unexpected – 15th October 2016

The day dawned grey and wet, but the sun quickly emerged from behind the clouds, and shone all day until 5pm. It made a brilliant backdrop to ‘Trails of the Unexpected’ – the event organised by Leominster Museum.  During the day, 89 adults and children took a guided walk in small groups around the centre of the town, visiting the Grange, the Community Centre and the Forbury.

As they walked, they learnt about the lives of two families – the Pewtresses and the Hodges – who lived in Leominster during the period of the First World War.  They also discovered, during their imaginative journey of discovery, why a 100 year old Chelsea bun is one of the Museum’s most precious and well known exhibits.  The walks were energetically guided by two actors, Tom Bowtell and Kerry Frater, both playing the part of Kerry Hughes the new Museum volunteer.

After each group had completed the trail, they were invited to free tea, coffee & day old (!) Chelsea buns at Grange Court.  We asked them to give us their opinions, not only about the event, but also what they thought of the Museum and the town itself.

After each group had completed the trail, they were invited to free tea, coffee & day old (!) Chelsea buns at Grange Court.  We asked them to give us their opinions, not only about the event, but also what they thought of the Museum and the town itself.

Writing Opinions on Post It Notes…..

We were very honoured and glad to have several 21^st century descendants of the Hodges and Pewtress families with us during the day, and hope that they felt that we had done Alec Hodges and William Pewtress proud.  At the end of the day, we had a short act of remembrance at the war memorial on the Grange, which was a moving way of saying thank you for the sacrifices made by all the young men who went out to fight in the Great War – and an excellent way of rounding the day off.