Warwickshire County Council honoured at regional awards
Warwickshire County Council’s museum service was celebrating a triple victory at last week’s Renaissance West Midlands awards.
Over 30 of the region’s museums, galleries and heritage organisations, from Hereford to Stafford were in line for awards from Renaissance, the Museums, Libraries and Archive (MLA) Council’s £150million programme to transform England’s regional museums.
The Museum on the Move which took a 1970s exhibition around the county was highly commended in the ‘Best exhibition on a small budget’ (ca £10,000) category. The bus which Warwickshire shares with Worcestershire County Council has been touring the county for a year going to school and homes for elderly people with memorabilia based on 1977.
The Friends of the County Record Office were highly commended in the Best Friends category. This marked their achievement in the 2007 ‘Fundraising Frenzy’ supporting the staff of the record office not only to raise funds to support a Heritage Lottery funded project to save the Waller Collection but also to fundraise separately to secure the future of a second vital collection, that of the Willes family of Newbold Comyn.
The Waller collection comprises the papers of the Waller family of Woodcote House, Leek Wootton and their ancestors, the Wise Family, and includes notable items charting the history of many public parks and buildings in and around Warwick from the 16th century. The collection was held on loan at Warwickshire County Record Office from the 1940s onwards but was only permanently acquired last year after years of fundraising by the Friends. The Willes archive comprises legal documents, estate inventories, accounts and maps dating from the thirteenth century to the twentieth, as well as correspondence to and from several generations of the family and a range of other manuscripts, photographs and printed items. Much of the development of Leamington Spa is well documented here.
The third victory went to Barry James, chair of the Trustees of the Midland air Museum in Baginton. Although an independent museum, Barry is supported by the County Council’s community museums officer in projects and funding applications.
Edwina Cordwell, head of libraries, learning and culture at Warwickshire County Council, said: “These awards are a tremendous honour as they show our heritage services are excelling across the board. They have recognised the quality of our mobile exhibitions, the Friends and volunteers who are such an integral part of the museum and record office’s work in preserving aspects of our heritage and our outreach work, giving independent projects a helping hand. Congratulations to the many members of staff, Friends and volunteers from the community who have worked so hard to get our service this recognition.”