2013 A Busy “Summer”

January 4, 2013

The new season’s exhibition opened on Saturday May 4th.   The closed season was hardly a closed season at all with a number of school groups visiting the exhibition and members of the association going out to give talks in the town and further afield. The subject of the talks has widened from Cirencester in wartime. The one on the “Lost places of Cirencester” has proved popular not only in the town but even in Swindon.

Friday 3rd May 

The Opening day  of the revamped Exhibition was a great success repaying all the hard work from 4th January  Our new sign went up on the cottages and the last minute alterations and panics were worth it.  We are pleased to say thatwe  had generous donations from the Winstone Charitable Trust, the Cirencester Town Council, the Bingham Library Trustees, the Lord Faringdon Trust and the Langtree Trust to help set up the new project.  As well as working in the new cottage premises, the elictrical system and lighting has been replaced in the shelter and the shelter exhibition revamped.  

As the exhibition continued through the season we were able to see where there is still room for improvement and development.  The new purpose made street signs proved very successful in directing visitors from the Town Centre.                                 

Below are a few photographs of the preliminary work on the Home Front Exhibition.   There were a few changes in the layout before the opening of the exhibition as we reinterpreted the displays.

A New Look for 2013

With the New Year came the news that we had managed to secure a new lease for space within the Old Hospital Cottages in Sheep Street, which once housed the Memorial Hospital administration offices.

Living Memory Historical Association Hospital Cottagesjpg

Until recently it was the home of Cirencester Volunteer Bureau.  It is still within very easy reach of the Air Raid Shelter and will give us a chance to revamp the Home Front Exhibition.  It is envisaged that the format will be much as before with a Kitchen Front display together with another display of daily life in two separately housed sections.  The latter will include more space for childhood themes.  The Civilian Services display will be housed in a separate room off which will be our office and store space.   

 The move and new start has had financial implications but we are in negotiations for funding to help with the move and revamp.  As part of the revamp there will also be work carried out in the shelter, particularly to bring the lighting and electrical system up to modern standards.  As always of course the lease is our most demanding outlay and we continue to have to find over £3000 pounds each year for this alone in order to continue.  As many grant giving bodies will not provide grants for on going costs such as rent, rates and electricity charges we would be glad of any information regarding sources of funding (legal of course!)

 Whilst we were disappointed in not securing space in the Old Town Railway Station we are glad of this new opportunity and who knows the station could be a possibility in the future.