Wollaton Park Industrial Museum

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Wasn't Wollaton Hall and Park donated to the people of Nottingham by the National Coal Board who acquired it from Nationalisation.??

[littlebro 234]

Wollaton Park & Hall were purchased in 1925 by the then Nottingham Corporation. They promptly sold off some land around the perimeter that basically funded the purchase.

Ownership has passed to the now City Council.

Whether the museum is open or not, unless it is removed, the property & contents will still need securing, insuring, maintaining etc. I hope they do not sell the contents.

I would agree, a 'reasonable' fee could/should be charged for admission.

Who knows where the car park fees go. I assume they are treated as income for the central pot.

[radfordred 6,284]

If anyone had walked around Wollaton park lately which i do , you would find its in a bad state rubbish , fallen trees , broken fences , smashed statues , the algae infested lake , its a tip.

With all that space they could turn it into a top UK attraction , once you've seen some scabby old gorilla , and that giraffe that looks like its got mange and a load of old rusting machinery , you only need to go there the once.

It will be the cafe that takes over the courtyard area there cappuccinos and special coffees must be the best in Nottingham.

[firbeck 859]

But I thought that they'd just spent millions doing the place up, or has that just been spent on the structure of the hall and the Camelia House, I thought that one of the priorities was to restore the statues and stone balustrading.

Perhaps it's time to rethink the whole concept of the place, put a green dome on top of the hall and it would make a fantastic mosque, I can see it happening in a few years.

Seriously, what will they do with the collection then, have they thought this through, do they think that simply locking the door and leaving things sitting where they are, gathering dust, is a good alternative.

Braintree Museum charges £3:00 admission for adults, but importantly, kids are free, I don't think it's very much in this day and age and there's plenty of concessions. It also gives you entry to another really good museum in the town, The Warner Silk Museum, a fantastic collection of Braintree textiles in it's original beautiful silk mill setting, many of them original Pre-Raephalite. Not only that, but keep the ticket and you can go back to the museum as many times as you want within a month for nothing. It's run by just a few people, who are really friendly and helpful, they have a small shop and you can buy a cup of coffee and a snack, it is right in the town centre in an old Victorian school. It's not the greatest museum by any means, but well set out and informative. They have a fantastic collection of old photographs and the staff will obtain copies of them for you for the cost price of copying them.

Perhaps the considerably larger and supposedly more wealthy Nottingham Council should give Braintree Council a ring and find out how to run a succesful museum, our lot would give their left arms for some of the stuff that Nottingham has, the next time I go up there, because they sensibly rotate exhibits, I'll tell them about this, they won't believe it.

[poohbear 1,360]

It would seem our council aren't very speedy at making decisions..Some twenty years ago I was called to the hall to reproduce some of the plaster mouldings on an interior staircase.

While there I was asked if I could look at four vandalised statues in the rear gardens.They represented the four seasons,and had been smashed to pieces.

The various bits and pieces were stored in a greenhouse.After studying the pieces I told them they could be rebuilt with a bit of licence to replace missing sections...Unfortunately...I think it was 'Autumn' which was the most vandalised.

It seems that the various parts had been carried off and lost except for the part pictured.

The very serious council representative was not impressed when myself and my compatriot burst into a fit of laughter when he enquired if we would have a problem reproducing this piece.

Now I thought I was pretty good at my job...but not that good.We never heard any more.

[BackAtOm 0]

THE closure of the Nottingham Industrial Museum has been confirmed by the city council to save money.

Very sad indeed and only saving fotty-for K!

NEP Story