Curator's Notes
From Joint Line magazine for winter 2016-17
Deadline October 30th. Last NNR main season steam service day. Museum lights off, close the doors and lock up pending March re-opening. Good Night………..
Well, not exactly. There is a certain amount of tidying up and assessment of the current state of the displays to be done, plus deciding on what redecoration needs to be ‘titivated’. There is the working out of totals for the year, both takings and visitor numbers. Have we achieved our targets, set a year ago?
Our Accreditation application is in and we expect some (usually sticky) questions back before long. Of course the monitoring of the collections and storage units is ongoing, as is the work of adding new items into the catalogues and we have quite a lot from this very successful year.
As a precursor to the renewed winter activities, the Museum staff met on Saturday 12 November for a working lunch to review the past year and plot and plan for 2017. As far as 2016 goes, our target was 20,000 visitors, which we surpassed by over 200 (phew!), with sales and donations also achieving their targets. For 2017 the visitor target will be 21,300, up by the 5% we specified in our Forward Plan.
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Museum decorating crew, from left, Gerald Thomas, Pat Wilson, Trevor Wilson, Mike Hadley and Brian Welch
Richard Spicker spearheaded an in-house survey during the summer, asking our visitors how they had found out about the Museum. Results from this showed that we need to improve our advertising, both physically and with an improved presence on the various websites with which we are associated. The meeting came up with some excellent ideas, which will be put into action after due consultation with the Society.
As to winter works inside the Museum, Trevor Wilson is heading up some redecoration work parties, starting with a couple in November to repaint the main display walls. We are also looking at touching up the special red floor paint – which has lasted an incredible 10 years so far!
The lorry was again called up for war work in September. Alas that was before it received its brand new repaint into M&GN colours to match the dray. It is now back home again, in the garage, splendidly repainted and proudly boasting a screen washer (shock, horror – but modern transport legislation requires it.)
Once more I must heap praise on all my staff for all their splendid efforts during the year. I make special note of all my ‘undercover’ crew, who are getting out and about on the Railway, learning new skills, but still having time to help us out back at base. My heartfelt thanks go out to you all!
Dave King