Facilitator's Blog - 1920's Weekend

Just time for quick catch up with our ‘facilitator’ year here at Coventry Transport Museum. I really hope you made it to our very glamorous 1920’s weekend ( 19^th – 20^th March) where we got the chance to dress up as ‘Flappers ‘ - the original ‘it’ girls. Our visitors of all ages loved trying on the sparkling head bands and fabulous feather bowers and posing for a photo or two with a cocktail shaker poised in one hand and a delicious ‘mocktail’ recipe to take home in the other.

Music and entertainment was provided by the wonderful dancers from Chloe Academy of Dance a Coventry Based school, who taught some unsuspecting visitors how to Charleston! They ended the weekend in style with an amazing and glittering Charleston performance.

Easter Activities

We decided to try something new for this years Easter holidays, especially planned for our very youngest of visitors – Storytelling for the under fives!

The first session was yesterday and it went brilliantly we had great fun telling stories, playing musical instruments and “Beep Beeping” along to the most popular story ‘ Little Red Car’.
Please come along to our next two story telling sessions which are free drop in sessions on Wednesday 20th and Wednesday 27th April at 11 – 12 on the mezzanine gallery and join in the fun.

CTM Facilitators

Pre-Royal Wedding Tea Dance – 28th April

To mark the Royal Wedding, we are staging a Pre-Royal Wedding Tea Dance at the Museum on the afternoon of Thursday 28th April between 12 noon and 3pm.

We can confirm that there’ll be a dance floor laid specifically for the event, with music provided by piano/keyboard wizzo - Martin Bissell.

Admission is FREE to our Tea Dance, with refreshments available all afternoon. Tell your friends and come along!

CTM seeks Italian Job Mini

The Museum is looking to acquire a 1960’s red Mini Cooper as featured in the film ‘The Italian Job’ for display in the Museum’s ‘Italian Job’ sewer pipe, as the scene where the minis were escaping Turin via the sewer system was shot in some of Coventry’s enormous sewer pipes.


If you can help with securing this iconic car, please contact Steve Bagley – Head of Collections Email: steve.bagley@transport-museum.co.uk

Facilitator Blog - 2011 so far...

It’s been a busy and exciting start to the new year and we’re really pleased with how our themed family learning weekends have been going. Our ‘Through the Decades’ weekends started in January with a closer look at the Victorians, and last week we had our Edwardian weekend. It’s been really lovely to see families having a go at the timeline quiz and drawing trails, and really working together to find the answers. People have had lots of fun trying on bonnets and top hats, while finding out more about how people lived in times gone past. We’re really looking forward to our next Through the Decades weekend in March where we’ll be revisiting the Roaring Twenties – it has been great fun for us finding out all about flapper fashion and this age of decadence. We’ll be dancing the Charleston and learning how to make our very own ‘Mocktails’ (child-friendly, alcohol free cocktails!)



January also saw our Storytelling Weekend as part of National Storytelling week. We were very lucky to have Lady Godiva, aka Pru Poretta, come in again this year to hold some very special storytelling sessions for our younger visitors. This year she also brought Kushumika with her and together they told wonderful stories and had their audiences entranced. All the children really enjoyed this, and I have to say I loved it too - I could have listened all day! Downstairs in the Museum, children created their own stories and turned them into small books or comic strips to take home with them. Thanks to everyone who came and had a go. As well as our 1920s weekend to look forward to we’ve also got our Land Speed Record Weekend in a couple of weeks (19th-20th February) where we’ll be making and racing balloon powered cars, and our Women’s History Weekend at the beginning of March (5th-6th) to coincide with International Women’s day and the Coventry Women’s Festival. We’ll be discovering all about the vital roles women played during the Second World War and there will be a Women’s History Trail that visitors can follow around the museum.

Phew! With all this going on I guess I’d better go and do some work! Hope we see some of you at our weekends very soon! Naomi

A look back at 2010 by the Museum's Facilitators

Wow, I can’t believe 2010 is nearly over! We’ve had such a busy and exciting year. 2010 saw us really get going with our themed weekend events. Throughout the year we’ve had many varied activities for all our visitors to take part in over the weekends. In January we kicked off with our Storytelling weekend, to tie in with National Storytelling week – and had Lady Godiva (the lovely Pru Poretta) come in and tell her story to the little ones.

In March Coventry Women’s Festival was once again held at the Museum, and we put together a Women’s History trail around the museum to go with it, as well as focusing on all the wonderful work women did during the Second World War in our Blitz area.

In July we had our first ever Land Speed Record weekend, which was a massive hit! We saw the competitive side of our visitors as they built and raced balloon powered cars! It went so well in fact that we had another Land Speed Record weekend in October, and this time the Bloodhound SSC team came in and brought Thrust SSC Driver Andy Green with them!

Throughout the summer holidays, visitors may have spotted us in the Ice Cream Dream Machines exhibition. Sadly we weren’t selling actual ice creams (although we looked as though we might be!), but we did have fun showing people how Ice cream was made in Victorian times, and challenging people to our fun Ice Cream quiz!

Drawing the year to a close we had a spooky Halloween in October, our Road Safety weekend in November, and we’ve just rounded off our Wartime Christmas weekends!

As well as all the weekend events we’ve put together this year we also developed our new Tactile Tour. We developed the tour for blind and partially sighted visitors and worked with some students from Hereward College, who gave us some excellent ideas. We were very pleased when we heard we’d been awarded funding from the CultureLink project to develop our tour and help improve access for blind and visually impaired visitors to the museum. As part of this exciting project we held a workshop where blind and partially sighted participants used cameras to photograph their experiences of the Tactile Tour. In December we showcased an amazing exhibition called My Mind’s Eye, which displayed some of their photos. It was a privilege to work with these people, their enthusiasm and open mindedness was incredible, and the photos they produced were amazing!

Looking forward now to 2011 and things won’t get any less busy! We’re stepping up the program of weekend events, repeating many of the popular ones from this year and adding in a new series of weekends which will take our visitors ‘Through The Decades’! Starting in January we will be taking visitors on a time travelling adventure that will visit a different decade each month throughout the year!

We also hope to develop the work we have begun with the Tactile Tour and photography workshop, and hope to continue improving access for all at the museum.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and took part in any of our activities this year! It’s been really fantastic and we hope to see many of you back again in 2011!

See what's on on 2011

Are you a Maths, Science or Technology teacher?

Coventry Transport Museum houses lots of exciting technical innovations, and whilst we already run an excellent education programme for schools, we feel we could be doing more to support the teaching of Science, Technology, Maths and Engineering.

We would love to work with local teachers to develop a range of new learning sessions using our fantastic collections.

If you feel you could support us in this project please contact Julia Gandy, Life Long learning Officer on 02476 234270

Surprise Visit

There was a nice reunion on Wednesday the 17th of November at the Museum. We had a visit from a Mr. Ian Williamson aged 80 of Followfield, Manchester who had just experienced one of the ‘Store Tours’ guided by Chris van Schaardenburgh our Curator of Vehicles. Mr. Williamson, was employed from 1943 by his Uncle Hubert Hackett (b. 1908) who ran a the largest fleet of coaches in Manchester during the War, one of which was our very own 1948 Maudslay Marathon as seen our Commercial Gallery.

Mr Williams, who drove the bus regularly told us some fascinating stories in relation to the Maudslay. He recalls that is was purchased by the company in 1948 from Oswald Tillotson’s of Salford, but had to be recalled because of engine trouble, but this was soon put right. It was part of the fleet booked to take Manchester United fans to the FA Cup final at Wembley in 1948, and returned to Lancashire triumphant – the team beating Blackpool 4-2. Early on it had a collision with a land-mark water fountain in Cheadle Village due to unpredictable steering issues – the fountain never spouted water again. And in 1952, whilst the bus was parked up in Moss Side, it was stolen by an opportunist, but only briefly and returned safely to the fleet.

Whilst visiting Mr. Williamson also presented us with the Maudslay's original starter handle shaft, of which we very gratefully have accepted as a gift. He also very kindly assisted us with our label on the Maudslay, informing us that the all-over colour was originally post-office red, with the aluminium strips brightly polished. He also told us that our estimated top-speed of 50mph was well off the mark, and should be in excess of 75mph! He should know, he drove it!!!

Coventry Memories Website

Coventry Memories is a joint project between Coventry Transport Museum and the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, and aims to be a unique website where you will be able to browse through hundreds of stories and photographs of real Coventrians through the ages, as well as adding your own memories of anything relating to Coventry.

Craig Joy, Head of IT at Coventry Transport Museum said:

“Coventry has a wonderfully rich and varied history, and we recognise that the story of our great City is made up of millions of personal stories and histories, which are in danger of being lost as time moves on. We wanted to create a place where those individual tales can be told and preserved, so we came up with the idea of the Coventry Memories website.

As we approach the commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Coventry Blitz, we have collected a series of memories from Blitz survivors, and these will form an important part of the website. But as well as landmark events from our City’s past, we’re also fascinated by the smaller events that have been important in peoples’ lives.

Whether your favourite Coventry memory is watching the Sky Blues winning the FA Cup in a local pub, learning to ride a bike at the War Memorial Park, enjoying the Godiva Festival in the sunshine or meeting a future husband or wife ‘under the elephant’, we want to read it.”

Festival of Motoring 2010

It was a good day at Coventry’s Memorial Park last Sunday – lots of people and plenty of cars to be admired. The biggest worry as always was our unpredictable weather – the forecast was good but as luck would have it the heavens opened up just as the cars set of on their runs. It didn’t last all day though fortunately and it turned out nice in the end.

As well as showcasing some of the vehicles in our collection, we also had a tent promoting our archive service – what we do as archivists/curators and what we have to offer as a service. It created quite a bit of interest and we met and spoke to a number of people who had various stories to tell about either themselves or members of their families who had once worked in Coventry’s cycle and motor industries.
One man told of his grandfather who was a Turner at the Singer Company at Canterbury Street, before transferring to the Triumph Cycle Co. in 1898 at Priory Street.

Another recalled his days working at the Humber Company in the 1950s whilst they had departments still at Humber Road – now all gone sadly.

But the best for me was being introduced to a 92-years old gentleman who was formerly Chief Designer at Francis-Barnett at Ford Street in the 1950s. He had prior to that worked as a Designer at Coventry Victor at Cox Street and he had so many interesting things to say. So much so that we decided that it was too good an opportunity to pass up, and have arranged to interview him fully next week as these firsthand accounts are fast disappearing.

We’ll let you know how it went.

Damien
Curator Research and Information

The World's Most Travelled Motorcycle

Peter and Kay Forwood started on a ‘round the world’ trip 14 years ago. This amazing adventure began in Australia on the 3rd of February 1996.

In October 2008, this Harley-Davidson motorcycle, carrying all the
luggage, became the first and only vehicle to have been ridden in every
internationally recognised country of the world. Since then Peter and Kay have continued travelling, visiting places they previously missed or
returning to places they enjoyed.

This motorcycle was purchased new in 1994 and has been ridden over 580,000 kms. By August 2009 the motorcycle's original engine required substantial repair after completing 540,080kms.

It was replaced with a brand new engine so it could continue travelling. The original engine will be rebuilt and placed back into the motorcycle, should any new countries be created.

To date, the motorcycle has visited over 414 countries, states, territories, isolated parcels, atolls and disputed territories as identified in the ‘Most Travelled Persons’ list. This is more than any other vehicle, hence the claim
"The World's Most Travelled Motorcycle"