Museum of Cannock Chase reopens to revisit links to past
A link to the past was re-established as a Staffordshire museum reopened its doors to visitors after five months.
The Museum Of Cannock Chase has been able to welcome visitors back for the first time since closing in March after lockdown restrictions for coronavirus were enforced.
The museum in Hednesford plays an important part in the historical and cultural offering of the region and acts as a first port of call for visitors to Cannock Chase.
Museum manager Lee Bellingham spoke about what closing had meant to the museum and her feelings on reopening.
She said: "We are a community venue and are at the heart of the community, so not being able to open has been really difficult for us.
"This was especially difficult as we know a lot of people who come to us regularly and were not able to take part in our activities or events or even just call in for a cup of coffee.
"We have put a lot of work into reopening the museum and trying to do it safely and we were all a bit nervous today about if people will want to come back and whether they'll feel comfortable.
"However, we know we've put everything in place and when we reopened the doors today, we were excited and that was mirrored by the people wanting to come in."
The museum has made a number of changes to ensure it complies with social distancing guidelines, including a one-way system and hand sanitising stations, and a number of interactive areas have had to remain closed.
The re-opening will include The Toy Gallery, Domestic Galleries and Mining Gallery, while the toy room will be closed, and the coffee shop will be open outdoors.
Lee said that while there were a few changes that had had to be made, the museum still had a lot to offer both inside and in the wooded area surrounding the museum.
She said: "We still have quite a lot of things open and want to give as interactive an experience as possible.
"We are selling activity bags, which are based around our outdoor space because we certainly have a large outdoors area and there are a host of different activities you can do while walking around the foothills."
There will be new opening times of 11am – 4pm Thursday to Saturday, with last admission at 3:30pm, which will be reviewed in the coming weeks, and new activities and events introduced through the schools programme.
To find out more information, go to museumofcannockchase.org/
