Heritage Centre Report

By Barbara Hooke and Frances Muncey

OUR special exhibitions this year are One Hundred Years of Guiding and Unearthing Britain and both are being well received with favourable comments appearing in our Visitors Book.

This year we are making a determined effort to attract more visitors and we hope that you will come along to support us. We have a new poster, designed by Nicholas Howell, outside the Heritage Centre to publicise our displays and we are arranging a number of events, some of which complement the exhibitions. Two have already taken place. We held a Children’s Workshop relating to the Guiding exhibition on 16 April and a coffee morning on 17 April at which Jo Seaman gave a most interesting talk on The Redoubt. Disappointingly numbers for the latter were lower than usual.

We have already had a number of bookings for groups of Guides, Brownies and members of the Trefoil Guild to come and see the Guiding exhibition and by the time you read this, Pat Lambie will have given her first talk about the exhibition on 6 May. If you missed this, why not come along to the second, different, talk by Pat entitled Guiding Past and Present which will be on Thursday 8 July at 7p.m. Bookings can be made by telephoning the Heritage Centre on 01323 411189 between 2p.m. and 5p.m. Outside these hours you can leave a message on the answerphone there or alternatively ring Frances Muncey on 01323 644727 to reserve your seat. There are also another three Children’s Workshops arranged for 4 June, 30 July and 27 August.

On Thursday 10 June at 7.00p.m. Lawrence Stevens, who is always a popular speaker, will be giving a talk about The Church Street Excavations and we recommend that you book your place early (on the telephone numbers quoted above) to avoid disappointment.
If you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to plan and arrange the Victorian Festival, you will have the opportunity to find out at our next coffee morning on Saturday 17 July at 10.30a.m. when Owen Boydell will give a talk entitled How to Run a Victorian Festival.

Our shop area at the Heritage Centre has been improved and we now have a new range of items for sale. There are Guiding items, novelties, toys, books, postcards and greetings cards to choose from.

It would be impossible for us to run the Heritage Centre without the help of our loyal band of volunteers and we recognise their commitment and thank them for the time they give so freely. However we urgently need more people to come forward to join us in this worthwhile task. Could you spare some time to help us? Rest assured that no experience is necessary and that you will not be thrown in at the deep end as all new volunteers are paired with experienced members of our team. For more information please call Frances Muncey on 01323 644727 or our Volunteer Co-ordinator, Alan Davis on 01323 645514. We look forward to hearing from you.