Summer is here!
At least, the summer holidays are underway, and the Museum is full of activity and excitement.
Families have been enjoying the activities, Splash! On Wednesday, in the sunshine, the courtyard was full of children playing in the splash zone, which has extra paddling pools and water games for the summer. Under the gazebos Thames Water were playing games, getting families to join up pipes and challenging them to make the perfect water system. On other days, there is singing and stories, and even some steam model railways! Visit our What’s On to find out when. We’ve already seen families returning to take part in different things. We are open from Wednesday to Sunday, which so far seems to be the right balance for us and our visitors. Massive thank you to the front of house team, without whom we could not open the Museum.
Behind the scenes things are just as busy with the restoration of the Bolton & Watt going well, and training for the loco drivers. We can’t wait to get both these engines back up and running for our visitors to enjoy. It has been a massive undertaking on both fronts. The first to be back will be the train, which will make a lot of our young visitors very happy. Thank you to the train team for their hard work in getting the track and the train to the point where it is ready to run again.
And if that was not enough, we are getting ready to open our first temporary exhibition on Friday 13 August, which has been put together by the fan club of Brentford FC. As the team moves into the premier league, we are delighted to be part of celebrating the role of the fans in the club’s development. It is going to be an exhibition well worth seeing, both for fans and non-fans!
Summer also brings its challenges, with so few staff and volunteers, and people needing to take leave, it has been all hands on deck to get us and keep us open. And every time it pours with rains we get quicker running to catch the drips in the buckets!
We are lucky to have such a fun, safe and welcoming Museum to share with our visitors. Here to a summer of exciting developments, great visitor numbers and starting to build a better future for the Museum!
Written by Liz, Museum Director