Page 90 - Mercian Eagle 2016

88 THE MERCIAN EAGLE
Museum Of The Mercian Regiment (WFR Collection)
Jennifer Brookman, Curator
This year at the museum has been exceptionally busy again as we said good bye to our old gallery within Nottingham Castle and moved to our new premises on the upper ground floor of the Castle. The move took approximately 2 months, as
we had to take all of the items out of their cases and give them a clean before they were packed up and sent back to store at Chilwell. With the help of Volunteers and students from Nottingham Trent we were able to remove items at quite a pace and the old gallery officially closed to the public in December 2015.
The Colours of The Sherwood Foresters, which date from 1881-1935 were the very last items to come out in January 2016. These were not easy to get down and were probably the hardest due to their size and
weight but thanks to the RST they are now displayed in Foresters House.
A new year, a new gallery
As we said goodbye to the old gallery, we had to slowly start to move objects to the Castle for redisplay or objects which would on display for the first time. The main focus for the new gallery is the stories that we have to tell through our objects and these stories then backed up with Regimental History which is on information boards around the gallery. Eventually by May 2016 we were able to open the doors to the new gallery and our new Regimental Museum Ambassadors in place to welcome the public to the new gallery. On 2nd July 2016 the new gallery was officially opened by the Lord Major of Nottingham.
The Lord Major of Nottingham declaring the new Museum open at Nottingham Castle with Chairman of the Trustees Brigadier Peter Dennis
Students from Nottingham Trent University helping
to clean the objects going into the new gallery
MUSEUMS