MEMBERS LETTERS

A letter to the Editor

By Dr Peter G.H.Polli.tt ARPS.Evesham.Worcs.

: expect it is too late, (tor "PROOF" ?l but just in case it is not, here :; •ew photographs of some of the exhibits (A&H Group Summer Exhibition) at •- Museum of Buildings.

wishing to bore you with pages and pages of information about the museum·, try to confine my remarks to the bare essentials. You might be interested leaflet (enclosed), which has a site plan of the Museum, and also basic oration about some of the exhibits.

Avoncrott Museum of Buildings, which began its existance in 1967, consists • a 17 acre site on which there have been rebuilt a number of old buildings --:c would otherwise have been lost to posterity on account of neglect and disuse, :e :·tion to make way tor new projects, and so on.

e windmill has become the "trade mark" of the museum. The windmill was -esc ed from dereliction, and, now on the museum site, it is working most -·ays, roducing stone ground flour.

Quite a large 16th.century building, one time inn named "The String of Horses", and still so called, now provides admin. offices, exhibition room, lecture room, shop, etc., tor the museum. It used to stand in Shrewsbury, and had to be taken down to make way tor the road improvements.

There is a group of farm buildings, and others are in the pipe-line. Another timber frame building is the merchants house, 15th.century, which once stood in Bromsgrove, nearby. There are also several industrial exhibits, such as the chainmakers, and nail-makers workshops, and a rack saw, all fully equiped and in working order.

Recently completed projects include the reconstruction of an 18th.century ice-house ( removed from near Tel ford, to make way tor the motorway), and a 20th. century "Pre-tab" -one of the last to be demolished in Birmingham.

Avoncroft Museum is a registered charity, and therefore relies heavily on , ntary workers, part-time workers, and the efforts of its Committee in fund-raising and the finding of sponsors for projects.

· became involved three years ago. Premature retirement from medical practice y_e :o heart trouble, gave me the time to once more study seriously my life long y - photography. The Museum had just lost a staff member who had been doing -,e o otography, and my otter of taking this over was accepted. : ..,a..,e found it most interesting, and much more varied than I ever expected. :: ~as increased my knowledge of a number of subjects, not the least being that • o o ography ! Not only are photographs required for records, but also for ::,-ogress report 5, newsletters, brochures, explanatory "boards". And also all :~a, ich ont' .... ould expect- old buildings in situ, stages of the dismantling a special details, and stages of reconstruction, illustrating special skills ~ere ecessary, cont: on pp21