Surrey Heath Museum

2014/15 Report

2015/16 Development

Plan

Surrey Heath Museum, Knoll Road, Camberley, GU15 3HD.

Tel: (01276) 707284, Email: museum@surreyheath.gov.uk

Open Wednesday to Saturday 11.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m – free entry

Great Place • Great Community • Great Future

Page of Contents

1.0 Brief History of the Service Page 3

2.0 Mission Statement Page 3

3.0 The Collections Page 3

4.0 2013/14 Performance Indicators Page 4

5.0 Staffing Page 5

6.0 Friends of Surrey Heath Museum and Page 5

Surrey Heath Museum Action Group

7.0 Progress and Working Objectives 2013/14 Page 5

8.0 Working Objectives 2014/15 Page 12

1.0 Brief History of the Service

Surrey Heath Museum dates back to the 1930s, when it was known as Camberley Museum and

based on the collection of Mr.George Poulter, who was the first Curator. It was housed in the

Frimley and Camberley Urban District Council Offices on London Road. In the 1960s the museum

moved to Newstead, a Victorian house on Knoll Road in Camberley. In the 1970s it was closed

and Newstead demolished. At that time a team of staff were employed to catalogue the whole

collection. In 1987, the museum reopened in an annex of Surrey Heath Borough Council offices

with a permanent display, exhibition area and on-site storage facilities.

2.0 Mission Statement

‘‘The Preservation, management and enhancement of a representative local collection for the

Borough of Surrey Heath’.

3.0 The Collections

Newstead, Knoll Road Frimley and Camberley UDC Offices, London Road

Museum Shop and farming display Mammoth Tooth

The collections reflect the social and industrial history of the Borough’s past and fit into the

following categories – costume, furniture, accessories, craft, art, photographs, industrial,

archaeology, geology, education, military and natural history. There is also a large amount of

reference material. There are c.16,500 objects in the collection. Nationally important collections

by Percy Harland Fisher (1865 to 1944), George Edward Lodge (1860 to 1954) and George Kenner

(1888 to 1971) are in the museum’s ownership. 10 of George Kenner’s paintings are currently on

loan to Galleries of Justice, Nottingham for an exhibition on 1WW Internment Camps in UK.

The permanent displays tell the story of the industrial and social history of Surrey Heath and have

been in situ since c. 1987. A very small percentage of the museum collection is currently on

display although the exhibitions programme has 2 to 3 collection based exhibitions yearly.

There are 2 collection stores – one in the basement of Surrey Heath House and the second at the

back of Bagshot Library. The museum was removed from the Arts Council registration scheme in

October 2010. The reasons are unclear - possibly due to legal ownership, responsibility of the

collection and cataloguing standards.

A selection of new acquisitions for 2014/15

1970s Ski Boots

Surrey Heath Archaeological and Heritage Trust material

Alf Tarry, local historian, archive material

1580 ale jug, from Bisley.

Watercolour of Camberley from the Obelisk (Lesley Kilner) , bought by FOSHM at the last Art

Society exhibition

GolF Clubs – played at Camberley Heath Golf Club.

Sign from The Mons Café, Frimley

Victorian Bamboo occasional table from Frimley Hall Hotel

4.0 2014/15 Performance Indicators

Performance

Indicator

2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16

TARGET

Visitor Numbers 3644 5215 4148 4567 4500

School Children

taught

1412 1190 1011 932 1000

Web Hits 6264 9144 7180 9747 9000

Events attendees 391 1158 (34) 980 (33) 1534 (47)

268 (7)

1500

External Talks

attendees

957 792 (17) 453 (13)

Enquiries 441 367 380

Income

Schools £904.84 £836.42 £1117.50 £860.14 970 1000

Sales of items £1242.75 £1697.97 £2,620.12 £2281.02 3018 2500

Donations/Other £295.86 £427.29 £806.88 £305.56 1440 1000

Grant £718 £4,300 £5,300 £1,500 13939 1000

Commission £127

Fees & Charges 978.37 1000

Total Income £3161.45 £7261.68 £9844.50 £5074.17 £19,367. £5,500

N.B (number) = number of events

or talks.

5.0 Staffing

Start of the year –

Gill Barnes-Riding, Senior Museum Officer and Georgina Salmon, Heritage Assistant - 25 hours pw.

Verity Cope, Museum Officer - 22 hours per week.

Georgina left the service in Sept 2014, though remained for occasional Saturdays until March 2015.

The post was left vacant to decide on staffing going forward and the needs of the service.

At present;

Gill Barnes-Riding, change of title, Senior Heritage Officer – 30 hours

Verity Cope, change of title, Heritage Officer – 28 hours per

Kathy Joice – Visitor Services Assistant, new post – 12 hours per week.

There are 25 volunteers helping with archive work, collection work, front desk duties and

exhibition/events. Three volunteer ‘get togethers’ have been organised seeking their feedback on

progress - summer picnic, Christmas meal and bacon and bagels morning. Volunteer hours equate to

936 staff hours per year.

We have also had work experience placements from Collingwood and Tomlinscote.

6.0 The Friends of Surrey Heath Museum and Surrey Heath Museum Action

Group

The Museum is supported by the Friends of Surrey Heath Museum who run a programme of trips

and lectures and raise funds for the museum activities. Membership stands at 87 they have

organised four trips in 2014/15 – Greenwich, Arundel Castle, Woburn and Salisbury (144 trip

attendees). Two talks were organised – Ken Clarke and Military Photographs with Niall Ferguson.

Surrey Heath Museum Action Group was set up to prevent the feared possible closure of the

Museum and expand its facilities to provide greater display area (including art, photography and

archaeology) research facilities and local involvement. Since Aug 2009 SHMAG has run a Heritage

Gallery in the Mall (opened on 29th

January 2013), Camberley to promote the museum with over 20

local society displays and a weekly lecture programme. From April 2014 to March 2015 they

attracted 5717 visitors (Jan to Dec 2013 6027 visitors). In its lifetime the gallery has had over 41,000

visitors (an average of 140 per week of opening sessions. From grants, sales and donations they

have provided financial support to the museum for specific purposes. The Museum and Gallery

work closely together with a display in the gallery, SHO taking part in lunchtime talks and changing

interactive craft activity.

7.0 Progress and Working Objectives for 2013/14

The objectives were under the following themes;

7.1 Improved Visitor Orientation and Experience

The exhibition and event programme

The exhibition programme has been diverse and for each exhibition a series of events were

organised. In 2014/15 we ran 47 events attracting 1534 people, events included toddler sessions,

talks, music festival and children’s workshops. In 2012/13 plans were put in place to turn the foyer

space into a separate display area. These have now come to fruition with last year’s displays

including – A Postcard from Surrey Heath (Henry Stanbrook), Andrew Furber - Wildlife Photographer

and Surrey Arts Council.

Our exhibition programme was as follows;

Why, What, When and Where? (5

April to 21 June) An exhibition

featuring objects and archival

material from the Museum’s

collection to celebrate the

Borough’s unique heritage. 1131

visitors.

Wartime Cartoonist (5 July to 30

Aug) Cartoons by Mr.Cox, who lived

in the area through the two World

Wars. He sketched cartoons of

everday life in the area, full of

humour, drama and social comment.

1047 visitors.

Windlesham and Camberley Camera Club,

Military Remnants (13 Sept to 12 Nov) An

exhibition capturing over 200 years of the

area’s military heritage digitally from

memorial stones, pill boxes to practice

trenches, military camps and war

memorials. 996 visitors.

Frimley and Camberley Art Society (8 Nov to

20 Dec) An exhibition featuring local artistic

talent. 621 visitors. We sold 7 paintings to

the value of £1045, income from commission

£261.45.

7.2 Improved Promotion and Raised Profile

We work with SHBC Internal Communications team and meet regularly with them to publicise future

exhibitions and events. The working relationship has developed well with improved publicity and

support for all exhibitions organised. Verity Cope, Museum Officer, has developed our social media

presence with an active Facebook page and tweets. She has initiated and taken part in the

museum’s involvement in #museumweek and May Museums Month.

Work with Wider Business Executive

We have worked closely with the Business Executive on a summer display for Surrey Heath

Photographic Competition and the creation and planned installation of Surrey Heath Mosaic. The

latter involved joint planning with Greenspace Team to create the Surrey Heath Mosaic. We worked

with Camberley Theatre on the first Surrey Heath Music Festival featuring scooter rally, ‘Over the

Moon’ performance of local musicians, open mic and a local piano school performance attended by

jazz musician and composer Andy Quin. We ran a successful schools week for Local Democracy

Week (13 to 19 October) – centred around a workshop involving the Mayor, Children’s Champion

and a polling booth activity – 5 schools took part, 197 pupils.

7.3 Collection Care and Access

The Museum has 25 volunteers, some of whom have been working on the collection audit; the

latter has been in place since 2013 to improve current cataloguing standards, locate objects and

improve access. 130 boxes have now been audited and location index created. The painting

collection is now complete. The in-house database created by James Lovegrove in 2013 is working

well, after a few teething problems. It is enabling the searching of existing donor information to

identify an object, cataloguing and creating a location index. There are many objects still to go

through and the Collection Management Plan is updated for 2015. Volunteer get togethers have

been organised to update volunteers on progress and seek their feedback. We are now in a more

confident position to re-apply for accreditation in 2015/16.

George Edward Lodge (31 Jan to 14 March) –

A joint exhibition with the George Edward

Lodge Trust featuring paintings, drawings and

taxidermy samples by this locally based and

internationally recognised artist. 550 visitors.

A blue plaque was mounted on the home of

Lodge, Hawk House (funded by GEL Trust) on

14th

March as part of this exhibition.

Conservation equipment (boxes and secol) are being bought regularly. The stores were monitored

last year with 2 Thermo hydrometers on loan from SEMS – the results will be analysed to decide if a

dehumidifier is needed or whether the heating needs regulating more than at present.

Reproduction and Publication forms were introduced in 2014 with set charges for each.

Student Room

There is a now large amount of reference material and a student’s room has been created from part

of an old store. This room has reference books, a computer with directories and a microfilm reader

(kindly donated from Camberley Library). The room is booked by researchers and material from the

collections made accessible. Last year museum staff worked on 380 enquiries.

Surrey Heath Archaeology and Heritage Trust

The Trust was set up in 1983 to excavate the historic centre of Bagshot and surrounding areas. It has

carried out a number of significant excavations in Lightwater, Bagshot, Frimley and Windlesham

finding late Iron Age, Roman, mediaeval, Tudor, 17th

and 19th

century material. They have 64

members and are currently based at the Old Police Station on London Road, Bagshot. The Trust are

faced with eviction from this building (June 2016). The Museum has been working with them to help

secure a future for the Trust and organised an audit of their collections, to include report publication

plans and disposal. That report was completed in March 2014 with a cost of £4,000 – raised from a

number of sources - £500 from County Councillor Mike Goodman, £500 from SHMAG, £500 from

Surrey Heath Museum and £1,000 from the Trust themselves. £2,500 funds were secured in

2013/14; a remaining £1500 was funded in 2014/15. SCA Unit have been generous towards this

audit project, including reducing costs from £6,875 to £4,000 and stepping invoicing between the

two financial years. The archaeological material is being brought to the stores at Bagshot and some

is on display at the museum on a renewable loan bases. It is hoped to work closely with the Trust on

a development bringing the history of both museum collections together in a permanent display

area.

7.4 Income Generation

In 2014/15 the shop has continued to develop and feature new stock regularly. Georgina Salmon

has sourced exhibition related material – postcards and objects. There has also been regular craft

material on sale including Super Fancy children’s fancy dress, Valerie Salveson (Christmas crafts) and

Surrey Crafts Guild. Shop income for 2013/14 was £2281.02. The Frimley and Camberley Art Society

exhibition in Autumn sold 6 paintings with a commission income of £261.25 (2013/14 – 4 paintings

sold with a commission of 127.00).

Education

Income from education workshops and talks was £970.25 (£860 2014/15). The Heritage Officer has

developed the service and introduced school loan boxes.

Grant and Fees Income

The museum has received a number of grants;

a. SHBC (£4005) and £2500 from RMA Sandhurst plus a grant offer from the War Memorials

Trust for cleaning and relettering of the London Road Memorial.

b. £5300 from Surrey Heath Armed Forces Community Fund for creation of a wartime home,

military remnants leaflet, coach trips and a Wartime Bake Off event.

Fees income was £978 – from workshops and talks/walks. Income from RMA Walks was £1378 (£750

share to Sandhurst Trust).

Museum Calendar

Working with SHMAG and Frimley and Camberley Camera Club, the museum again produced a

calendar for 2015; this year’s theme was Hidden gems of Surrey Heath featuring museum items

relevant to an area. Out of a print run of 200, costs £849.60 to produce, 149 sold with an income of

£575.

7.5 Audience Development

We worked with a number of different societies and schools throughout the year, including musical

societies, art society, FOSHM and SHMAG. We have organised 3 ‘Monuments and Memorials’ walks

with The Sandhurst Trust to take place in 2014/15, to mark the importance of 2014 (Centenary of

the start of First World War) and joint collaboration between two local museums (ourselves and The

Sandhurst Collection).

We have also worked internally with Camberley Theatre on the Music Festival, Democratic Services

for Local Democracy Week and Greenspace on installation of the Mosaic.

Centenary of the First World War – the museum worked on a number of projects and organisations;

1. War Remnants Leaflet – local historians and Windlesham and Camberley Camera Club

2. Churches Together in Camberley and the British Legion on St.George’s Stones project (to be

completed in 2015).

3. First World War Poetry Competition and World War I Remembered ( event in the Mall) –

Nov 8 2014 – performance by Bisley Brass Band of contemporary tunes followed by prize

giving for WW I poetry competition (judged by the Mayor of Surrey Heath, Deputy Mayor

and Stephen Mooney (Professor of Creative Writing, Surrey University). The winners of the

Poetry Competition read their poems out at the Remembrance Service on 9th

Nov at

St.Michael’s Church. We worked with Collectively Camberley and The Mall on this event.

External Talks

The Museums staff give talks on local subjects to societies in 2014/15 7 talks were given to 268

people on a number of subjects – Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Built to Serve, Ghosts and

Ghouls of Surrey Heath, Music Makers and Leisure and Pleasure.

Surrey Heath Music Festival

In the summer of 2013 the museum held a Music Makers exhibition featuring over a 100 years of

musical achievement in Surrey Heath including performers and producers. The musical singers and

songwriters heritage includes Arthur Sullivan (Gilbert and Sullivan fame), Dame Ethel Smyth

(composer), Brian May (locally based Queen guitarist), Rick Wakeman 1970s progressive rock

performer and 1980s pop group Bros, Five and modern day Union J. Also Chole Hanslip (classical

violinist) was funded by Surrey Heath Arts Council and is now an international recording star.

From this exhibition the concept of a music festival was developed. Working with Camberley Theatre

and Ivan Chandler (Musicalities) a festival programme was created (1 – 3 August) which included a

Scooter Rally with A% Scooter Club and High-S band, Over the Moon performance of professional

musicians, open mic session with 5 performers judged by 3 music industry judges (Julia Curnock (Vital

Concierge), Ivan Chandler and Andy Quin (jazz musician and composer) and performance by a local

piano school. The event was not well attended, but it was felt the good will the event generated, the

concept and heritage aspect was important to develop further.

7.6 General Museum Development

Plans for a New Museum – 3 Options

1. In 2014 the museum was part of plans for a new Camberley Library complex along with

other local organisations, including Adult Education and The Citizens Advice. These plans

were shelved in Jan 2014, due to concerns over financial viability and then followed a review

of this decision.

2. Focussing on our existing resources, Surrey Heath House has a large basement currently

underutilised. We are working with Property Services to investigate the possibilities of the

museum moving down to this level – we would have frontage onto the lawn in front of the

library, improved visibility, more space, improved disabled access, good potential to create

new multi-functional displays (i.e. can turn into an event space/education space), be able to

open independently and have direct access to our stores (some of which would have to be

lost as part of the move). We would look for HLF funding and local sponsorship.

3. The museum has increased synergy with Camberley Theatre working on a number of

projects (2015/16 - Music Festival, Wartime Bake Off). The concept of combining a museum

and art gallery in part of the existing large function room of Camberley Theatre with a

changing display area and permanent displays on the history of the area. This area is also

adjacent to the library and has the fish pond immediately outside – creating a separate area

for the museum and being part of Camberley Theatre. The museum suffers from low footfall

because of it’s location. A move to the theatre would increase footfall, ensure visibility and

place the heritage service on more equal footing as part of Business Services.

7.7 Development of the Education Service

Verity Cope began in August 2014 and has significantly developed and promoted the service and

what we offer to schools. She has developed new workshops based on the new curriculum changes

introduced in September 2014 and introduced school loans boxes utilising the objects discarded as

part of the collection audit. She has also created a new mission statement – ‘Our mission is to bring

to life the rich history of the Borough of Surrey Heath for young people living here today’. The

service has been involved in three big school initiatives – Surrey Heath Mosaic, Local Democracy

Week and Surrey County Council’s Learning on your Doorstep. The service taught 932 pupils and 8

loans boxes were used by schools. The workshops offered fit into Key Stage I and Key Stage II

(www.surreyheath.gov.uk/leisure/museum/schools);

• Local Heroes – Who Am I (KS I & II)

• What toys did people play with in the past (KS I)

• How was washing done before electricity (KS I)

• Art Detectives – Learning to Look (KS I & II)

• How we used to shop (KS I & II)

• Local Detectives – Learning to Research (KS II)

• Surrey Heath Through War and Peace (KS II)

• The Highwayman Expereince (KS II)

• WW II Our Home Front (KS II)

• Local Democracy Experience (KS II)

• What Animals live in Surrey Heath (KS I & II)

Education Loan Boxes are on a number of subjects - Old Toys, Victorian Life, First World War, World

War Two, 1950s Britain, The Stone Age.

.

8.0 Development Objectives 2014/15

8.1 Improve Visitor Orientation and Raise profile

8.1.1 Mount six exhibitions/foyer displays

8.1.2 Run a 6 monthly events programme with toddler’s sessions, holiday workshops and events for

adults – walks, talks and craft workshops. Plus regular half term/holiday quizzes/competitions.

8.1.3 Promotion Plan in place and continue to work closely with SHBC Communications team

(uploading info on websites, magazines, poster distribution, social media etc).

8.1.4 Continue to develop social media marketing with Facebook and tweets.

8.1.5 Develop e-museum, beginning with 10 most important objects and important collection pages.

8.1.6 Work with other departments in the council – Transformation Team (St. George’s Stone project

and VC pavement stone), Camberley Theatre (Surrey Heath Music Festival), Democratic Services

(Local Democracy Week) and Communications Team (Publicity and Focus Groups).

6.1.7 Re-label and update permanent displays. Create costume interactive area.

6.1.8 Attend local shows if feasible – Surrey Heath Show, Bisley Strawberry Fair etc.

6.1.10 Produce the Military Remnants leaflet and Military Remnants booklet with Windlesham and

Camberley Camera Club.

8.2 Collection Care and Access

8.2.1 Improve accessibility of collections on digitally;

Web based collection pages (Percy Harland Fisher, George Edward Lodge, George Kenner)

Object database and excel files available on touch screen

8.2.2 Reapply for accreditation

8.2.3 Work with Surrey Heath Archaeological Trust to agree a way forward for their collections.

8.2.4 Continue with Collection Management Plan 2015. Ensure database is on the G: and backed up.

8.2.5 Stabilise environment in museum store and investigate heating programme and set up mini

environments where needed. Analyse environmental monitoring info from readers SEWS installed.

8.2.6 Purchase digital or microfilm copies of World War I & II Camberley News and secure funding

for remaining to be purchased.

8.2.7 Continue with volunteer projects – auditing collection, cataloguing photographs and re-

indexing and repacking Ron Francis negatives.

8.2.8 Improve security of stores at Bagshot, fitting door and lock.

8.3 Income Generation

8.3.1 Photographs to be catalogued and made digitally accessible.

8.3.2 Continue with shop development and stock products with new logo or exhibition themed.

8.3.3 Produce a calendar for 2016 with the help of SHMAG – theme ‘Villages of Surrey Heath’.

8.3.4 Turn oven in entrance to a donations ‘exhibit‘ with Perspex screen.

8.4 Audience Development

8.4.1 Heritage Open Day organised

8.4.2 Work with Heritage Gallery in Mall – joint events and displays.

8.4.3 Work on Military Event in November –

o Creation of new St.George’s Stones and installation in St.Michael’s.

o Involved in laying of VC stone to VC Garth Walford

o Publication of Military Remnants leaflet

o Publication of Military Remants booklet using material crated by Windlesham and

Camberley Camera Club.

8.4.4 Work with other organisations for the following projects;

o The Sandhurst Foundation and The Sandhrust Trust – joint walks in the grounds.

o Camberley Theatre – A Century of Sound, Musical Festival (9 to 16 Sept).

o Democratic Services – Local Democracy Week.

o London Road milestone and ‘Hug a Milestone’ concept.

8.4.5 Create two talks – Music Makers and Military Remnants.

8.4.6 Complete Wartime Home Exhibition, War Time Bake Off competition with WI and military

wives and school visits to the exhibition – part of Armed Forces funding.

8.4.7 Develop idea of children’s trail from Heritage Gallery to the Museum

8.5 Museum Development

8.5.1 Investigate signage in town and sponsorship of photos ‘then’ and ‘now’ scenes.

8.5.2 Community consultation on what role the museum has locally and what improvements can be

made.

8.5.2 Report of Management Board on museum development and moving based on three options –

in point 7.6.

8.5.3 Work with Surrey Heath Archaeological and Heritage Trust for a joint way forward.

8.6 Development of Education Service

8.6.1 Continue to develop the service – workshops and loan boxes.

8.6.2 Create worksheets for Century of Sound Music Festival

8.6.3 Develop war time workshop and organise school visits and coach travel to Wartime Home

exhibition.

8.6.4 Work with Democratic Services on Local Democracy workshops in Autumn 2015.

8.6.5 Investigate working options with Greenspace team for education projects.