January 2023 Update

From everyone at Burwell Museum and Windmill, we wish you all a very Happy New Year! 

Before we know it ‘Spring will have sprung’ and it will be time for us to open for our exciting 2023 season. 

We open ourseason on Easter Sunday, 9th April 2023, closing for the year on Sunday 29th October 2023. 

We will have many new exhibitions and exhibits to share with you; come and experience our working windmill and grind the grain, see our new blacksmith and our woodturner at work in our forge, and of course for our opening weekend there will be the traditional Museum and Windmill Easter Egg Hunt and Easter raffle too. (Can you guess what the raffle prizes will be?) 

Our opening days and hours are Thursdays, Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays 11am – 5pm, last entrance is at 4pm. 

We do recommend Season Tickets are purchased as they are such good value for our visitors. 

A Season Ticket gives free entry to the Museum and Windmill throughout the entire season to visit the museum, the mill and all our on site events and talks too. We have a choice of Season Tickets; an individual season ticket is £15, a Joint season ticket is £20 (two adults at the same address) and a family season ticket is £25 (two adults and up to three children at the same address ). Please purchase these from our Kiosk at the entrance to the Museum using cash or card from our opening day. 

Our Season Tickets provide vital support to help to keep the museum open for all to enjoy and ensures we can protect and preserve local artefacts and showcase the history of Burwell and surrounding areas for years to come across the generations. 

If you would like to play a part, even for just a couple of hours a week, then we are looking for front of house volunteers to work across the season and help with our event programme too. If you love talking to people, have a love for and interest in the local area, and if you would like the opportunity to bring our history to life through storytelling and sharing fascinating facts, then please do contact us via museum@burwellmuseum.org.uk, social media or our website contact form. See https://burwellmuseum.org.uk/contact/

 We look forward to seeing you!  

 Sara Phipps Trustee of Burwell Museum and Windmill

Burwell Museum: We’re back!

We have had a fantastic first opening month and it was great to see some many visitors, both local and from further afield, enjoying the museum and windmill once more. We have many events on the horizon including:

Jubilee Weekend Thursday 2nd and Sunday 5th June

We will be holding a special ‘Tea for the Queen’ event on Sunday the 5th of June with Fortnum and Masons tea and cakes by Lexi in our tea room. Please note the museum will be closing early (gates locked at 4.30pm) to enable visitors and volunteers to enjoy the event taking place at St Mary’s church at 4.30pm.

Burwell Museum and Windmill’s 30th birthday 24th July

We will be holding a birthday party for the museum with live music, games and crafts and more cake all day from 11am-5pm so don’t miss out.

We rely on volunteers to keep running and open to the public, and are always looking for new faces. If you are interested in volunteering please email Sarah James at admin@burwellmuseum.org.uk .

We are continuing to take bookings for group visits, outreach events and talks both in person and by Zoom. To book please contact Alison Giles on education@burwellmuseum.org.uk. 

Thank you very much to those of you who have paid for a season ticket by direct debit – your tickets will be waiting for you at the front desk from the first day. As always we’ll be looking for new front of house volunteers as the season starts, as well as welcoming people back from previous years. If you’re interested in being a volunteer please contact the museum at volunteers@burwellmuseum.org.uk to find out more about what’s involved.   

Looking forward to welcoming you back!

You may have noticed the sails of the mill turning over the last few weeks as we prepare to welcome visitors back for the new season – of course nothing is ever certain, but we hope to be able to offer our full range of activities and events this year. We are still working on our events programme as we welcome the wonderful Sarah James as our new administrator. However, we expect that the start of the year will include:

Easter Egg hunt Sunday 17 and Monday 18 April

We will be opening the museum to the public again on the 17^th of April, back to our old opening hours of 11am to 5pm (last entry 4pm). Will you be able to find all the Easter eggs? And can you spot the differences in our displays after a busy winter for our volunteers?

National Mills Weekend Sunday 8^th May

We did everything we could to mark the 200^th birthday of the windmill during lockdown, but this will be a chance to celebrate properly!

Jubilee Weekend Thursday 2^nd and Sunday 5^th June

We’re still working with other groups in the village on this one to make sure that we don’t clash, but there will be a chance to look back on previous jubilee celebrations at the museum and to enjoy some tea and cake.

If there is something else you want to do at the museum, remember you can still book a group visit, outreach talk or Zoom talk by contacting Alison on education@burwellmuseum.org.uk.

Thank you very much to those of you who have paid for a season ticket by direct debit – your tickets will be waiting for you at the front desk from the first day. As always we’ll be looking for new front of house volunteers as the season starts, as well as welcoming people back from previous years. If you’re interested in being a volunteer please contact the museum at volunteers@burwellmuseum.org.uk to find out more about what’s involved.                 

Changing times at Burwell Museum

Although the museum is closed to the public until Easter, there is plenty going on behind the scenes! Look out for some revamped display areas when we reopen, as well as a new temporary exhibition on Burwell Carnivals through the ages. We’ll also be celebrating the museum’s 30^th anniversary in 2022 – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

 

We will be having some changes in personnel as the year begins. Alison has reduced her hours and will be concentrating on the education officer role, so we hope to welcome a new administrator very soon to take on the rest of her job. The new person will be in charge of planning the year’s events, so we have nothing to share yet, but you can book a visit, outreach talk or Zoom talk for a group by contacting Alison on education@burwellmuseum.org.uk.

 

Some volunteers are also stepping back or taking on new roles, and we are grateful to all of them for their hard work over the years. We’re also grateful to those who are filling their places, and as always we would welcome more volunteers to join our team. If you’re around on a Tuesday in the winter, or a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday in the summer, and you are interested in helping the museum please contact us on volunteers@burwellmuseum.org.uk for more information about volunteer roles. We are currently recruiting new trustees, so if you are interested in having a say in what happens at the museum please come and join us.

 

Although we don’t have an official events programme for this year yet, we do know that we are planning to open to the public for the new season with the Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday 17^th April and Monday 18^th April. Please save the date and we look forward to seeing you there! 

https://burwellmuseum.org.uk 

Halloween fun at Burwell Museum!

We're coming to the end of the season, but as our last open day is actually on Sunday 31st of October there's still a chance to join us for some Halloween fun! We've really enjoyed welcoming Burwell Rainbows, Brownies and Guides to test drive our spooky activities and now we're ready to welcome visitors on Thursday 28th and Sunday 31st. We'd like to thank everyone who has supported us over the last two years as we hope for a better time next year!