A new season at the Museum of East Anglian Life
The Museum of East Anglian Life opens its doors for the 2010 season on Sunday 21st March with its traditional free Stowmarket Day. It provides the opportunity for visitors to see what’s new around the museum and take advantage of a 25% discount on the normal price of a museum season ticket. Visitors will see historic traction engines in steam, demonstrations of 19th century printing, the working Alton water mill and children’s activities such as badge making and face painting.
This year will be a watershed for the museum, as work is due to begin on restoring Abbot’s Hall, a beautiful Queen Anne House. The £2.8m project which will be complete by 2012 will see the creation of a 9 room exhibition centre, the creation of a working walled garden and the restoration of two derelict cottages as a examples of workers dwellings from the early 20th century. Director Tony Butler is excited at the thought of expansion. “The Abbot’s Hall project has caused us to think how we might raise the standard of our other activities. We plan to have more people demonstrating crafts on site, more activities for families and improved interpretation of our unique collections.
The children's areas around the Museum have had a re-vamp for 2010. Look out for some new activities including a rope 'feely' box in the Boby Building and new toys in the 'Toys Past and Present' area of the Domestic Life Building! The animal area has also been revamped as has the children's play area. New for this year, the museum’s steam volunteers have restored an Innes chaff cutter which can be seen in operation driven by our 1912 steam traction engine ‘Empress of Britain’
There will be a range of exciting events happening throughout the 2010. In May musicians from London Sinfonietta will be performing with children from rural Suffolk primary schools to create new music inspired by the landscape of the county. In that month there will also be the ever popular May Day celebrations with Morris dancers and a procession of May Queens young and old and “Happy meal – an activity packed Saturday evening for young people followed by a fun family day event on the Sunday”. Visitors should also prepare for the Annual Beer festival in July and Traditional Music Festival in September.
The Stowmarket Free Day on 21 March, should be the perfect, ‘recession busting’ venue. Tony Butler adds “Even on days when admission is not free we think the museum is good value for money with 75 acres of countryside, 15 historic buildings live demonstrations and fascinating displays of the old East Anglia to see. Our single admission and group rates prices have been the same for 5 years and our season ticket prices are at 2008 level.
The museum is open from 21 March to 31 October 10-5 Mon-Sat 11-5 Sun.
For details of admission prices contact the Museum on 01449 612229 or check the website on www.eastanglianlife.org.uk
