MUSEUM 2

Work had been due to start on the Derventio Heritage Village, a £1.2m attraction to celebrate Derby's past after more than three years on the drawing board. But the project is now the subject of a review by Derwent Community Team, the organisation sponsoring it, which could take two months to complete. The amount of money spent on creating and submitting plans, paying staff, producing a model and holding an archaeological dig remains a mystery. The review follows the resignation of project manager Ed Buckley, the Chaddesden man who came up with the idea.

Karl Walkinshaw, director of Derwent Community Team, said, "Our company, Derwent Delivers Ltd, will interview everyone concerned to find out what has happened. We need to find out why Ed decided to resign. We're committed to the project. We'd like Ed to deliver it." After becoming disillusioned by delays, Mr Buckley resigned. Michael Foote, director of corporate services for the council, said the authority received an objection over the plans for the land after a notice was advertised. Although the issue has now been resolved, it meant the lease could not be signed as planned. But Mr Foote said, "If the team came back to us to conclude the agreement, there would be no issue from our side." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

The Derventio Heritage Village, that cost more than £1m to build, has been closed temporarily only six months after it opened, due to low visitor numbers, as well as difficulties with its electricity supplies. The project, which opened in August 2006, had setbacks with the planning permission for the site and long delays in securing the lease. Attractions include a Viking village, Celtic roundhouse and model Roman fort and re-enactments were staged at the park along with corn grinding, bread baking, thatching, construction of buildings and walls with wattle-and-daub and spinning and weaving.

Anthony Baines, of Derwent Delivers, said he hoped the museum would open again soon. He said, "Those setbacks prevented it from opening at the beginning of the tourist season, it has not had the opportunity to trade properly. We are hoping to come up with an action plan to secure its future. We have to learn from our mistakes and move forward." The Derventio Heritage Village's board of directors said in a statement, "We are distressed that the setbacks the project has suffered have prevented us from fulfilling our vision and objectives." (Source: BBC News, Feb/07)

The Silk Mill museum has put together a bid for £4.95m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and hopes to secure the rest of the money from other agencies. The £13.3m overhaul of the museum, which celebrates Derby's industrial heritage, would open up two more floors, create a cafe area, move the entrance and use biomass boilers to make the building carbon-neutral. The work would mean that the museum would have to close for two years from 2010 while it was carried out. The new-look museum would reopen in 2013.

When the museum reopens, it hopes to draw in double the number of visitors in 2006-7, when 36,000 people went through the doors. A deficit of £28,783 in the year it opens is expected, rising to £64,958 by 2018-19. Roger Shelley, principal keeper of the Silk Mill, said, "We want to make the museum more about people. We want to increase the amount of material we have on display and present it in an innovative way."

As well as a lottery grant, the museum hopes to secure £2.5m from the East Midlands Development Agency and the Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership, £1.5m from grant-giving bodies and trusts, and £3.5m from the city council. Councillor Alan Graves, cabinet member for culture, leisure and direct services, said that the Silk Mill was vitally important as the gateway to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, which stretches to Matlock Bath. He said, "We're very conscious of the fact that the Silk Mill hasn't had a lot of money spent on it for many years. It's about time we did something."

At the moment, the museum only uses two floors because some of the building cannot be used under fire regulations. The plans include safety work to enable displays to be spread across four floors, with more storage in the attic space. The entrance would be on the side of the building, through gates where the original mill entrance used to be. Project leaders are considering putting a piece of artwork outside the building and there are plans to replicate the old mill wheel in some form.

Inside, displays using different types of mood lighting, sound effects and plasma screens would be installed. On key dates, such as Bank Holidays, actors would be employed to bring parts of Derby's history and characters such as John Whitehurst, Erasmus Darwin and Joseph Wright to life. The museum's new theme, Big ideas that changed the world, aims to tell how key people and innovations in Derby shaped not only the city and country but also the world. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jan/08)

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