Blog

It All Adds Up

We are looking for an Accountant to help organise the Museum's finances. If anyone can help or knows of anyone who might be able to, please do get in touch!

The Friends' Newsletter

The Friends’ Newsletter has just been published and features the dramatic story of the War Birds – three American Air Aces from WW1 and their training and life at Shenley Aerodrome.  Visit the Friends page on our website to join and get the Newsletter – it’s only a £5 a year!

Cowley Hill Visit The Museum

This week Year 3 pupils at Cowlley Hill School were given a short presentation on The Changing Face of Borehamwood, followed by a mini-handling session during which children were able to handle and explore a range of artefacts.

A visit to the museum followed and the children took part in a range of workshops, including making their own camera obscura, experiencing a photography dark room, exploring local maps and lots more.

Our photo shows Dave and Vania in discussion with the pupils at the school.

Our First AGM

Elstree & Borehamwood Museum held its first Annual General Meeting since becoming a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) on 6 January 2016 at the historic Schopwick Place (hosted by Norman and Anne Shuker).

The Trustees were elected:

 Chair of Trustees: Cynthia Barker

Vice Chair: Norman Shuker

Secretary: Elaine Butchins

Trustees: Paul Welsh MBE, Anne Lawrence, Pat Strack and Clive Butchins.

It was proposed that Mary Hanson and Alan Lawrence be made Honorary Patrons.

The re-elected Chair of Trustees, Cynthia Barker, thanked our Museum Manager, Dave Armitage, and the enthusiastic Volunteers for a fantastic year in 2015 and wished them well in 2016.

Dave reported on some of the highlights for 2015 including EastEnders' 30th Anniversary exhibit, and a visit from John Altman who played Nick Cotton, talks on WW1 and WW2, school visits, reminiscence groups, piazza event, Summerswood street party, history walks, teachers’ event, Remembrance parade video, newsletters, talks to WI, Shenley Fellowship and youth guests from Offenburg, outreach sessions and receiving our 10,000th visitor.

Year 2015 also saw the re-launch of “Friends of Elstree and Borehamwood Museum”.  During the “Friends” evenings, there were talks on WW1 from the German perspective and the showing of the DVD Hertfordshire at War.

Volunteers continue to grow, pulling 5600 volunteer hours in 2015.  Ruth Stratton from Hertsmere Borough Council acknowledged the hard work of our volunteers who consistently give up their time in the interest of the museum, our local heritage and community altogether.

We thank Hertsmere Borough Council, Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council, Hertfordshire County Council and the Lottery Fund for their continued support.

Volunteers make it all possible!

It's Christmas Time!

The volunteers who run our Museum enjoyed their Christmas Party at Shopwyck House courtesy of Norman and Ann Shuker who kindly let everyone meet up for a drink and chat.  Not often the whole crew get together and it was great to catch up and talk about the events of a busy second year at 96. Looking forward to greeting more and more visitors into 2016!

Photos by Derek Allen and Charli Lees

"Nick Cotton" Drops By

John Altman, who has played 'Nasty' Nick Cotton in EastEnders since it started, but was killed off this year, visited our popular EastEnders Exhibition - In Our Manor - yesterday with some friends.

Here they are going in :

And after seeing the exhibits :

Happy Birthday!

This week marks the second anniversary of the opening of the new Elstree and Borehamwood Museum at 96 Shenley Road. It’s been a very busy two years. The Museum has had 10,500 visitors during this time, enjoying a range of temporary exhibitions from 100 Years of the Film Industry to World War I and most recently celebrating EastEnders’ 30th anniversary.

There is something for everyone at the Museum, there is always something new to discover and friendly volunteers to show you around.

In these past two years, the Museum has been involved in different aspects of the community, such as hosting History walks, talks and reaching out to schools and teachers. The ‘Going Down the Village’ free monthly reminiscence group has been hugely popular and offers a chance to share your memories and learn more about Elstree and Borehamwood.

Future exhibition plans include ‘Smile Please’ looking at the importance of Borehamwood in the development of photography and ‘Are you being served?’ charting the changes of shopping in the high street. ‘From village to Town: Celebrating a Century of Migration’, planned for 2017, encourages people to tell us about how they came to live in the area.

Moving to 96 has also provided the chance to modernise, with the permanent installation of two large screens at the rear of the museum, which provide visitors with scenes from films made in Borehamwood and interviews with prominent people in the film industry. If you would like to learn more about volunteering or becoming a Friend of the museum, please visit our website for more details. Thank you for all the support during the last two years and here’s to the next years at 96!

And can you help our photo archive and identify this occasion? And anyone in the photo?

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Teddy's Trails

If you like History and you like Walking, then Teddy’s Trails are for you. These trails are a set of self-guided walking routes through the countryside around the town. They have been reconnoitred and are personally recommended by Teddy, a fox terrier who has been a resident of the town since his puppyhood,  and is an enthusiastic and experienced user of the local footpath network.  The description of each trail includes facinating historical and architectural information about places of interest passed along the way.

For full details visit the Town Council pages HERE

Haunted Hertfordshire

The third edition of Haunted Hertfordshire, written by the Museum’s own Ruth Stratton and Nick Connell, is now available from Amazon, in time for Halloween.

The book is fully revised, is over 400 pages and contains 500 stories of hauntings around the county.  There are entries for Elstree and Borehamwood and if anyone has anything to add, please get in touch!

Number 10,000

David Nathan from Borehamwood became our 10,000th visitor today when he entered the Museum.  We’ve been open under two years, but we have been attracting nearly 500 visitors a month to the Museum, and David was number 10,000 through the door. He was presented with a bottle of champagne by the founders of the Museum, Alan & Ann Lawrence, and the current Museum Manager, Dave Armitage, to honour his visit.  Here’s to the next 10,000!

L to R : Alan Lawrence, Ann Lawrence, David Nathan, David Armitage.  Photos by Derek Allen.