PRESS RELEASE
Date 24 April 2009
Work starts on museum construction

Work is set to begin on a new seafront museum at Sheringham, 10 years after the idea was first floated.
Over the coming months a lifeboat will be craned on to the site and a new observation tower added to the £1.1m project which will be open by this time next year.
Contractors take over the site on Monday 20th April after years of planning and funding applications, which have finally paid off with a £799,500 Heritage Lottery grant.

The balance of the cost comes from the sale of the five cottages which previously housed the museum, along with £30,000 of local fund raising.
Museum company chairman David Brown said: "There have been lots of delays but they are history and we are now looking forward."

The major works that will be obvious to the public include the craning of a third lifeboat into the courtyard in the week beginning May 11, ready for a roof to be put over the top.

A new entrance and education room will also be added, along with an observation platform to replace the current conical top of the tower at the building, known as the Mo - which was originally given to the town by Anglian Water as a community asset during a major new sewerage scheme in 1999.

It has been apparently un used ever since, but has been used to store two old lifeboats from the town's unique collection, and is now poised to combine the maritime artefacts with other elements of the town history.

Other issues that had to be resolved included allaying AW concerns about putting the 18-tonne extra boat and carriage on to the site, which is on top of a storage tank, and red tape involving a party wall shared by the Crown pub next door.

The finished museum will include three lifeboats, model boats, paintings, reconstructions of historic shops, a sea view room for school parties and talks, and a 10-person observation tower.

The attraction, expected to draw more than 12,000 visitors a year, will take at least an hour to tour, and entrance cost will be around £3, or £1 for the tower only.

It was aimed to have a "soft opening" next February with a formal opening in March 2010 in time for Easter.

Mr Brown said the facility would provide a good spin-off trade to local businesses, as it did not have its own catering.

A professional manager is being recruited this spring, and the 60-strong team of volunteers bolstered and trained for the new venue.

Anyone wanting to join the team of volunteers, or require further information, please email sheringham.museum@yahoo.co.uk

(Article reproduced by kind permission of Richard Batson, Chief Reporter, Eastern Daily Press) www.sheringhammuseum.co.uk