Understandably, not much is going on at the moment - our staff and volunteers are doing what they can at home, with a much-appreciated rota of locally based volunteers keeping an eye on the museum to make sure that nothing is going wrong on site. We're more than usually grateful to our regular mill and site maintenance volunteers for keeping things in a state where we are able to safely leave things alone for a little while. However, the winter is usually our time for tackling big tasks on site, so we haven't completely stopped. We're hoping that February and March will see two major projects:
1. An improved path to get onto site from Mill Close, and better access to the mill itself - this should help visitors who find the slope onto the museum site and the steep slope into the mill a challenge. We're very grateful to the Co-op and to John Lewis for providing the money for this and we're really excited to be getting close to getting it ready for whenever we're able to welcome visitors again.
2. A new shed so that we can start decluttering our workshop and making sure that everyone has the space they need to work and store everything on site. Admittedly this is probably more exciting for our volunteers than for the general public, but it will help to keep the site running and allow us to continue looking after our buildings and collections for everyone to enjoy!
After that we've still got our fingers crossed that we will be able to open to at least some extent as planned on Easter Sunday (4th April), but we haven't planned any of our usual events because things are just too uncertain. We'll keep everyone informed of any last-minute plans through the blog, newsletter, website and social media, so please keep an eye out for news - we're very grateful for your support!
