WIX Archives
Science Musuem to open up Wroughton permanently
Posted by Paul McMillan on Fri Dec 28, 2001 08:55:51 AM
In reply top null posted by null on null
From The Times today (28/12/01):
THE hangars of a former RAF airfield are to be transformed into a branch of the Science Museum, allowing the public to see more of its unrivalled collection than can be displayed at its London premises.
The redevelopment of the site which the museum currently uses for storage at Wroughton, Wiltshire, will create a ?Science Museum 2? that can show off hundreds of aeroplanes, machines and industrial artefacts too large for its Kensington headquarters.
At present, 10 per cent of the Science Museum?s collection can be displayed at any one time ? a smaller proportion than any other major British museum ? with the remainder warehoused at Wroughton and at Blyth House in Olympia, West London.
Some of the objects have never been on public view, while others, such as a working Victorian gasometer, cannot practically be brought to London. Wroughton and Blyth House will be refitted to cope with daily visitors as part of a ?75 million, ten-year redevelopment plan that will also encompass major changes to the existing galleries.
Lindsay Sharp, who was appointed as the museum?s director a year ago, said: ?We are always looking at ways to increase access. One answer is to take advantage of the facilities we already have: we have 620 acres in Wiltshire with 11 vast hangars, eight of them full of fantastic kit that hardly anyone sees.?
Among the jewels housed at Wroughton is a fine collection of early civilian aircraft. It includes a 1933 de Havilland Orcadian, the oldest surviving British airliner, a biplane that served the Shetland and Orkney islands. There is also an array of commercial vehicles.
Dr Sharp has asked curators to examine ways in which the stores can be redesigned to allow more access. One option is to open hangars more generally on a rotational basis.
Blyth House is home to the world?s largest collection of false limbs, as well as bicycle lamps, dental chairs, false teeth, medical ceramics, sewing machines and typewriters.
BTW wif you are thing what is a de Havilland Orcadian?
It is actually a de Havilland Dragon that is called Orcadian