Page 106 - MERCIAN Eagle 2021

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serving soldiers of the Regiment can get
in at a discounted rate and members of
the WFRA association are still eligible for free entry into the Castle with their green card. For any questions, please contact the Curator using the email curator@stand- firm-strike-hard.org.uk or contact RHQ Nottingham.
Once the gallery had reopened, we then set about adding content to the museum’s new website which launched in 2020. Such example of content includes blogs on items in focus from the galley and new pages on the history of the Sherwood Foresters in WW1. Currently in the pipeline is a page on the WFR, having published a page on the Mercian Regiment just before Christmas 2021.
2021 also saw the museum secure
funding from the Arts Council and AMOT for AV elements to the gallery. As part of the project, we have been working with a local company, Heritage Interactive to create
an introductory video for the visitors of the gallery. Thanks to those of you who have helped with the survey I sent out via social media. Your contribution to the project
has been a great addition. In addition,
the project is also enabling our medals collection to be available in the gallery on
a touchscreen and on our website for the first time. This means that for the first time every visitor to the gallery and website will be able to see what medals we have in the collection and explore the stories of the soldiers. More details to come on that in next year’s Eagle.
New Donations
Whilst COVID slowed down new donations to the museum for the start of 2021,
since June we have been receiving some interesting donations. Medals which come from the family of a Dunkirk evacuee, a photograph Album which belonged to National Serviceman Private Brittle and an Oil painting of Lt Col William Rook of the 7th Battalion (Robin Hood Rifles) The Sherwood Foresters.
Thanks to all who have supported the museum in 2021 and helped get the gallery back up & running in Nottingham Castle.
The Mercian Regiment Museum (Worcestershire)
Dr John Paddock, Curator
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has continued to significantly impact the activities of the Mercian Regiment Museum (Worcestershire) in 2021. It resulted, once again, in closure of our Museum Gallery and the archives for a protracted period of time, with a severe dislocation of our planned programmes and significant loss of revenue. Finally, the persistent financial pressures forced the Trustees to reduce costs and as a consequence they have reluctantly made the post of Assistant Curator redundant.
As well as impacting the Museum’s ongoing priorities, the second wave reinforced the changes to our ways of working and service delivery. For part of the year, it has meant working at home for the Curator and volunteers, with little direct contact with each other, or indeed with our
Friends Organisation, colleagues and our visiting public. Even Trustees’ meetings have continued to be conducted via Zoom!
However, it has not all been negative,
a small number of volunteers, including the WW2 project team, have been able to continue to do some remote transcription work. The Worcestershire Soldier Gallery, which is housed in the Worcester City Museum and Art Gallery, reopened to
the public on the 17th May 2021 and since then the Museum has seen record visitor numbers of 18,374, equivalent or
surpassing our combined annual visitor totals from previous years. The Museum Archives lodged in the ARC at Dancox House, Worcester reopened to volunteers in June when the final Covid restrictions were lifted and a phased return of our volunteers was possible from July. Unfortunately, some those who are over 75 and have underlying health conditions choose not to return. We owe them a great deal and are very sad to see them go.
The Trustees’ ambitious strategy to secure the Museum’s future and extend its
THE MERCIAN EAGLE