News

Our Redevelopment - Get Involved!

28 February 2014

From March 2014 to Spring 2015, Coventry Transport Museum is undergoing a major redevelopment, which will see nearly all of the museum completely transformed, enabling us to tell the story of Coventry's proud transport heritage in a bold and innovative new way. Alongside this work, we are also bringing our neighbouring 12th Century 'Old Grammar School' back into public use as an exhibition, education and events space.

A key part of the redevelopment work is to involve local people, by sharing plans with them and finding out what they think of the ideas, as well as gathering real peoples' memories to form parts of some of the displays.

Our new Community Engagement Officer Laura Musgrave is tasked with undertaking this part of the project, so we asked her to give our website readers a brief insight into what she has been up to so far, and how you can get involved:

Hi everyone! My name’s Laura and I’m the Community Engagement Officer for Coventry Transport Museum. We’re improving the Museum for 2015, and want your help to do it.

In November, I started to meet with Coventry people of all ages. I showed them the plans for the new Museum and asked what they thought of them. For example: What they liked, what they didn’t like, what else they wanted to see... There were lots of great ideas!

We used those ideas to help improve our plans, such as: adding in more activities and games, changing our signs to make them easier to read, and much more. A big thank you to everyone who has helped so far! We hope the new Museum will be fun and accessible for everyone.

How You Can Get Involved:

We’re now looking for memories to go into the new galleries. As well as the Transport Museum, we are restoring the Old Grammar School (Hales Street). We want them both to tell the story of Coventry, its history and its people. Who better to tell the story than Coventry people themselves?

We are looking for:

1) Memories of the Old Grammar School. If you remember taking part in activities, clubs or events here, please share them with us. Your memory might even form part of the display when the building reopens!

2) Pride in Coventry: What do you think is the City’s biggest achievement? What makes you proud to live or work in Coventry?

3) Memories of working in the transport industry. These can be your own memories or your memory of a relative or friend who worked in the industry. For example: manufacture, design, inspection, driving taxis, buses etc. in Coventry. We are especially interested in hearing from women who worked in the transport industry.

There are two ways to submit your memories:

1) Enter your memory online on our Coventry Memories website - click here to do so now.

2) Send your memory by mail, remembering to include full contact details in case we need to find out more from you. You can write to:
Laura Musgrave, Coventry Transport Museum, Millennium Place, Coventry CV1 1JD.

Stay updated on the redevelopment works by checking our Facebook and Twitter pages, and by signing up for our fortnightly email newsletter.

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