New borough museum will bring Big Society to life

7th September 2010

Council plans to give the Royal Borough its own museum have taken a significant step forward with contractors appointed to carry out the works that will transform Windsor's Guildhall.

The ambitious project will also reflect the ideals of the Big Society, bringing in volunteers of all ages to help run the museum and encouraging a sense of local ownership of what is likely to become a nationally recognised heritage centre.

The historic Grade I listed Guildhall is to be sensitively refurbished and equipped, turning the Maidenhead Room into a home for the Windsor and Royal Borough Museum Collection and the building itself into a visitor 'must see' - not only for the seven million visitors who flock to the borough every year but, importantly, for residents who will have free entry with their Advantage Card.

Tenders from four specialist contractors were accepted by cabinet on Thursday 26 August for the refurbishment works, installation of the museum display, audio visual software to help bring the exhibits to life and for specialist mounts to ensure exhibits are displayed to best effect.

Cllr Simon Dudley, lead member for adult and community services, said this was a significant stage in the council's plans to give the borough the museum it so desperately deserves.

He said: "It is ridiculous that our museum collection spends much of its time in storage with limited public access. We have an amazing resource that cries out for its own home and I am delighted that we have a solution in the Guildhall - itself the most important and historic building in the council's care."

Describing the museum development as an ideal project to demonstrate the Big Society in action, Cllr Dudley added: "The Friends of the Museum already embody the ideals of the Big Society, volunteering their time and considerable expertise to maintain and expand the collection.

"The new museum will give us even greater opportunities to bring in even more volunteers of all ages - many of them not necessarily used to going to museums. In this way we can develop the worth and spirit of volunteering, increase understanding of local heritage and culture and engender a sense of local ownership of this fantastic new resource."

The Guildhall will close from Monday 4 October for three months of intensive works to provide a museum that will include specialist display cases and graphics/ panels telling the story of Windsor and the borough through five themed areas:
• The Royal Borough and its settlements
• Military associations
• Aeronautical Windsor, including a model of the World War II Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft designed by Windsor resident Sir Sydney Camm
• Working Windsor and
• Life and childhood in Windsor.

The museum will be open to the public six days a week (Tuesday to Sunday), with Mondays reserved for school and community visits. There will be a new entrance lobby from the Corn Exchange with audio guides and audio visual presentations illustrating aspects of the collection. There will also be interactive elements to involve and engage visitors of all ages.

The council also plans to develop the Guildhall itself as an exhibit in its own right over the next two years, including a virtual tour of the first floor where the chamber holds a fine display of royal paintings spanning the years between Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II. This would allow visitors unable to use the stair lift to experience the building and its treasures.

A first stage bid for a grant to develop this idea has been submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund. If successful a second stage bid for funding to cover the actual work would be submitted by the end of the year and, again if successful, the project would start in summer 2011.

In the meantime the council is exploring opportunities for attracting a wider range of commercial functions to the Guildhall, for example dinner packages with pre-meal river trips or guided walks, wedding receptions and corporate events.

Notes:
Owned by the Royal Borough, the Guildhall was built between 1687 and 1689. It was designed by Sir Thomas Fitch, Surveyor of the Cinq Ports, but after his death in 1689 the project was taken over by Sir Christopher Wren, whose father was the Dean of St George's Chapel, Windsor. The Guildhall cost around £2,000 to build.

The Guildhall stands on the site of an earlier market house and the open space beneath the Guildhall became the Corn Exchange - a market for grain.