Page 164 - The Bugle 2018

News from Cornwall’s Regimental Museum
THE ICING ON THE CAKE WAS A 4 STAR REVIEW IN THE SUNDAY TIMES WHICH SAID, ‘A CLEVERLY SCRIPTED AND BEAUTIFULLY THOUGHT OUT EVENING WITH NO JINGOISM AND NO TALK OF FUTILITY.’
The cast of The Trench
It’s been another very busy year at Cornwall’s Regimental Museum in Bodmin. Our staff and volunteer teams have grown, visitor numbers have continued to increase and our volunteer research team, led by Major Hugo White, has one again helped many hundreds of researchers with their family history enquiries. We’ve also made major changes to our governance to strengthen the organisation for the future and we’ve worked with an architect to look at how we can make our wonderful building accessible and welcoming for more visitors in the future.
Our most ambitious project to date has happened this year; The Trench, an innovative immersive theatre project has been our way of marking the centenary of the end of World War 1. This £110,000 project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England, involved 12 months of research into DCLI soldiers of World War 1, many
thousands of hours of volunteer time, 40 volunteer researchers, 20 community actors and 8 profes- sional actors. Over 2,000 members of the public attended the performances in June and July. The icing on the cake was a 4 star review in the Sunday Times which said, ‘A cleverly scripted and beautifully thought out evening with no jingoism and no talk of futility. Anyone could take part in this remarkable immersive theatre regardless of how they might feel about the First World War and find it nothing but compelling’. We’re very proud of the project which has shown how a military museum can use the Arts to tell its stories to a new audience and it’s raised the profile of the museum significantly. We’ll now start thinking about what we can do to recognise the role of the DCLI and Cornwall in World War 2!
We’re also nearing completion of another major project which will develop public understanding of our Light Infantry collection. Entitled ‘Voices of the Light Infantry’ and funded by the Armed Forces Community Covenant, we have interviewed many Light Infantrymen and created a film which will be shown in the museum. This will be launched on the day of the LI Reunion here at The Keep on 8th September 2018. It will help us to bring our Light Infantry collection to life, and create a superb digital archive of material which tells the stories of the Regiment.
From Easter 2018 to July we were also delighted to host a temporary exhibition on tour from The Rifles Collection in Winchester. Entitled ‘I am a Rifleman’ it gave our visitors a fascinating insight into the current regiment and also included a real army quad bike which delighted our younger visitors!
We’ve also been recognised by various award schemes this year. In the Cornwall Heritage Awards our large piece of the Berlin Wall won Object of the Year, and our learning volunteer Jenny Simmonds was in the final shortlist for Volunteer of the Year in the national Museum and Heritage awards. We’ve also been shortlisted for Visitor Experience Team of the Year alongside some big players such as the Houses of Parliament and National Museums
Justin Maciejewski and Hugo White at Bodmin
170 REGIMENTAL MUSEUMS
THE RIFLES