Crofton Beam Engines has secured a grant of £6,120 from the Association of Independent Museums under its ‘New Stories New Audiences’ programme funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for their ‘Crofton for Kids’ project. The grant will fund the development and production of a class set of working models of the pumping station, buildable by children and designed by volunteers.
Visiting groups of children will visit the station to learn how it works. They will be helped to build the models and will then work in small groups to create short videos about the station. These videos will be made accessible to visitors to the station through the use of QR codes, taking advantage of the intranet installed around the site.
Whitney Cawley, the Learning and Community Engagement Officer at Crofton Beam Engines said: “This is an exciting opportunity to develop our activities with children. We have already signed up three local schools to work with us, and are talking to others. We will then be able to use the models created as part of the project in our existing learning sessions and incorporate them into a more regular family workshop which we hope to offer throughout the year”. Graham Snook, a Trustee and Chairman of the Crofton Branch, said: “This grant recognises the value of the work we are doing at Crofton to develop our learning and engagement programme. We are grateful to the Association of Independent Museums for their continuing support to small museums such as Crofton Beam Engines.”
The New Stories New Audiences programme is designed to support small museums to stay relevant to their audiences and to increase their impact by identifying new stories and by working with a new partner, to work differently and to try something new.
Crofton Beam Engines is owned by the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, a registered charity. It is managed by the Crofton Branch of the Trust. For more information follow this link: https://www.croftonbeamengines.org/
Industrial Heritage Networks 