When the Redditch Local History Museum was first envisaged in 2020 it was to meet three objectives in three years.
The first objective was to create an immediate and safe collection and storage facility for historic artefacts known to be at risk. Next was to provide facilities to display and promote Redditch local history and to show that the Redditch community were interested in Local History. Finally, the third objective was, and still is, to establish a long-term plan to ensure we have such a local history museum in the town to complement the work of Forge Mill, for future generations to enjoy.
We set ourselves a target of three years to meet these three objectives. The three years being Year-1 – Planning, Year-2 – Creation and Year-3 – Consolidation.
Well, we have completed the first two years and we have met the first two objectives. We are now entering our third year and our focus is now on consolidating the organisational structure of the museum and its funding to ensure its longevity as visitors to the museum have made clear, saving and presenting local history is important.
So we now face our biggest task, making sure that the museum is sustainable for years to come, organisationally and financially. To do this we need your help as volunteers, as residents both past and present and as leaders of the town politically and commercially.
Our trustees are few in number and work hard for long hours but their average age is 76! We need more, younger trustees to join the team to lead the museum for years to come. People with a range of business skills who can plan, organise and steer the museum charity in today’s, and tomorrow’s challenging times.
We also have a committed team of volunteers who run the museum on a day-to-day basis, opening & closing the museum, meeting and greeting visitors, cleaning the museum, creating window displays, creating museum exhibits and maintaining our archiving facility. But we need more volunteers to spread the workload, to allow us to open more days, to reach out into the community to promote local history more and to help raise the money needed to fund the museum.
This is why we need your help. Can you spare a day a week to volunteer at the museum? Have you got business skills to help on the organisational side of running the museum or artistic, design or computing skills to create interesting and informative exhibits & displays?
We have shown the need and provided to facilities to give Redditch a museum which promotes all areas of local history not covered by Forge Mill. We have one year to ensure that the local history museum is around for years to come. Please join us and ensure does.
RLHM Trustees