March update - preparing for reopening

 

Burwell Museum: Getting Ready for Reopening

Usually this post would be all about our fabulous start of season events, but of course things continue to be different this year! As I write, museums are not allowed to open to the public until the 17th of May at the earliest, making our first day Thursday 20th May and our opening event Sunday 23rd May.  Of course, that depends on everything going smoothly with the “road map” out of lockdown, so please keep an eye out online and for posters around the village to find out what we’re up to. We’d love to welcome you back but we want to make sure that it’s safe to do so. 

While we’re closed to the public, our wonderful volunteers have been busy over the last few months and we’re making some improvements to our site. The biggest change will be a new path up the side of the mill and a more accessible entrance to the mill itself - the photo shows the work in progress. We’re very grateful to Martin Mead and his team for the building work and to the Co-op community fund and the Cambridge branch of John Lewis and partners for funding this project, which will help more people to be able to access the windmill safely and comfortably. When we told them that the path was being built, Christine Shaw said “at John Lewis & Partners,  we appreciate the local area we work in and enjoy being able to give back to the local community, as it’s a way of saying thank you for your support and our Partners in the Cambridge shop will also have the added benefit of being able to visit this amazing local museum”. Steve Smith, who is a great supporter of the museum above and beyond the community fund, said “I’d just like to say what a pleasure it’s been to work with and support the museum through being one of our local causes and also by collaborating on community events. We are so pleased that funds raised have gone to support works on the grounds and hope this benefits so many in the community for years to come. Also we look forward to post covid times and planning future events with them”. 

We’re also planning a new shed on site so that we can get things better organised. We always welcome new volunteers, although at the moment there are some restrictions on what we can do - if you’re interested in helping the museum then please contact Alison on education@burwellmuseum.org.uk to find out more. 

Update - exciting news about sheds!

 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! 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Burwell Museum and Windmill. 

We are intending to open at Easter as usual, subject to any Covid-19 regulations that may be in place at the time. 

All donations, no matter how small, are a huge help and gratefully received. Please see our website https://burwellmuseum.org.uk/support/make-donation/ for ways to donate. Thank you.

Celebrating 200 years of Stevens' Mill!

We knew that 2020 was going to be a memorable year at Burwell Museum and Windmill, but we weren’t expecting it to be quite like this! Plans for celebrating the 200^th anniversary of our tower windmill had to be shelved in May, but we were very lucky to have perfect weather on Sunday 20^th September so that we could celebrate in a safely socially distanced way with folk music, beer from Burwell brewery and lots of lovely support from our friends in the village and further afield. We were particularly pleased to have members of the Carter family, descendants of the man who built and first owned the windmill, with us on the day.

Particular thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers, both those who were able to be there on the day and those who are supporting us with maintenance work or from home, and to:

Burwell brewery for creating a special (and very tasty) beer for us so that we could raise funds

Pat Kilbey and everyone involved in the Burwell Folk Collective both for amazing music on the day and for creating and recording two special songs for the windmill anniversary

Year 1 at Burwell Village College for the lovely birthday cards

Everyone who came to visit on the day, complied cheerfully with all of the safety rules and made it such a great day!

We’re not sure what will happen with the museum going forward – we hope to continue opening on Sundays from 11 until 3 until the end of October, which is always the end of our open season. Then it’s fingers crossed for next Easter…

Keep an eye on our website and social media for more information when we have it.

 

Burwell museum plans for the rest of the year

 It feels a bit like tempting fate even to type the word "plans", and of course we will continue to change things according to the latest government advice, but if we manage to avoid local lockdowns and other disasters the museum will be open:

11am-3pm on Thursday 27 August

11am-3pm on Sundays throughout September and October but NOT on Thursdays, as one day a week is all we can safely do without an amount of deep cleaning which wouldn't be appropriate for our collections 

For a special event on Sunday 20th September as part of Heritage Open Days, again from 11am to 3pm. Again we will be subject to changes at short notice so please keep an eye on our website and social media, but we are hoping to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Stevens' Mill with:

Live music from local musicians 

Birthday cards to make for the mill

A special beer brewed by Burwell Brewery

Parts of the museum open (alas, still not the mill itself as social distancing is very difficult in such a small space). 

If all goes to plan we will be able to celebrate on site, but we will also make sure that parts of the event are available online so that you can enjoy it at home if your circumstances make it difficult for you to visit in person. We're very grateful to all of our supporters, both those who are able to come out to us and those who still can't but wish us well! 

The museum will close for the winter on Sunday 25 October, but volunteers will continue to work on mill and site maintenance - more volunteers always welcome! We hope to reopen as usual at Easter 2021 but we will need to work that out nearer the time.