Museums

[Stuart R]

A trip to Lille, in NE France is on the cards soon. Whilst planning the route, I thought I'd found a great place to take a break, not far from the main A25 road - a radio Museum.

https://museedelaradio.fr/

Sadly, on making contact with the owner, I was told the Museum is now closed with no plans to re-open. There are a few videos to be found on-line, but the news story regarding the current owner's desire to pass-on the collection on is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_yP-3Qy-1Q

Further South towards Lille, at Steenwerck is 'La Ferme des Orgues' a rural Museum featuring mechanical musical instruments, fair organs, gramophones and player pianos:

https://www.lafermedesorgues.com/

It looks like an excellent afternoon out but we've failed to make any contact at all via email, web-page or social media.

We have managed to get an appointment at the small, private B&O Museum, just over the border in Belgium:

https://www.bomu.be/

Hopefully I will have something to report back,

SR

[Pamphonica]

Trawling through this thread yet again (lots of good ideas for visits!) I realised that Waveney Wireless at the Waveney Heritage Museum seems not to have been mentioned. This museum is based on the donated collection of broadcaster and entertainer Stuart Orr.
It’s in Brockdish, Norfolk. Sadly only open now on the last Sunday of each month. But packed with radios, tvs, record players and broadcast equipment. Very friendly team!
Well worth a visit.
https://www.waveneywireless.org/
-Jeremy

[Phil G4SPZ]

Nice to know about that one, Jeremy, thank you. I note they are short of volunteers. If any Forum members live nearby and are wondering about offering their time and skills, I can wholeheartedly recommend volunteering at a museum, especially one where the subject matter is so dear to our hearts. I’ve been a museum volunteer for thirteen years now.

[PaulM]

Anyone been to see the new Sound and Vision galleries at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford? Curious to know what they've been up to all this time with all that money. I will have to go look, but perhaps somebody has already been? Opened on July 10th.

https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/sound-and-vision

Best regards,

Paul M

[David G4EBT]

When you open the link to the 'Science & Media Museum', maybe as I did to see what items there were in the collection, and to discover what is on display, if you click on 'Objects and Stories' then scroll down to 'Radio Communication' ('Discover the history of radio and TV through objects that illustrate the history of transmission and reception'), when you open that link, it takes you to the 'Science Museum Group'.

There, it lists 2,400 Radio & Communications objects you can view at 50 per page.

If you then click on 'On Display' it will tell you what objects are actually on display, and at which museum in the Group. It lists 206 radio & communications objects on display at the Science Museum, but only three objects on display at the Science & Media Museum. Namely: a 1923 crystal receiver, a 1928 Mullard 'pure music cone loudspeaker', and a 1931 valve broadcast receiver by Burns-Jones & Co.

I'm not being critical in any way - they can't possibly display everything.

Looking at the Museum Group website, under 'components' it lists 5,455 objects, under 'radio' 2,400 objects, 'TV' 3,100 objects. (An 'Object' doesn't necessarily mean a radio - it can be a circuit diagram, a radio licence, a poster or a magazine cover). I've not visited and am unlikely to visit, but having visited the Science Museum and the V&A some years ago, I was a little disappointed to discover how few items of a large collection of radios were on display.

I'm not being critical in any way - they can't possibly display everything.

Hopefully some forum members will visit and provide a more accurate impression of what's on display than can be gleaned by trawling the website. (Do bear in mind that Bradford's long awaited Park & Ride Scheme still isn't open, and from my experience, parking in the city centre is a bit of a nightmare, and is expensive).

Bradford has a 'Clean Air Zone' but cars and motorbikes are exempt:

https://www.bradford.gov.uk/breathe-better-bradford/check-if...ed-to-pay/check-if-you-need-to-pay/

[Sinewave]

I went to Hendon earlier in the week, it just didn't seem as good as when I went last about 6 years ago.

Also with the Henlow Signals Museum closed, which other Signals Museums are left to go and visit?

[line sync]

I visited the black country museum this week and meet up there with Phil who is a volunteer at the museum ( phil g4spz ) and also a member of this forum.
I went just to look at vintage radio,s and televisions and can say the Griptons radio shop is well worth seeing.
There is another shop which apart from being a record shop is also a bush radio & tv dealer.
There are various radio,s and tv,s in houses with 1940-50,s period set living rooms and the attention to detail in these settings is brilliant.
I was impressed by the wall paper , just think where do you find enough 1940,s wall paper to decorate a whole room.
There is car garage with some lovely vintage vehicles and also a motorcycle shop with some lovely old bikes.
This is well worth seeing and thank you to Phil for showing me round.

Robin

[Phil G4SPZ]

It was great to meet you, Robin. Your early contributions to the radios displayed in Gripton’s is much appreciated. See you again!

[martiR2R]

On returning from hols in Northumberland I popt into Solway Aviation Museum (Carlisle Airport) - obviously mostly aircraft, but a fair bit of electronic stuff too. You can touch practically everything and even clamber in and out of several of the aircraft, including the Avro Vulcan and the Canberra. Most aircraft are outside and not polished to perfection like Cosford or Duxford but for a fiver (pensioner) I had a great couple of hours.
Martin.

[martiR2R]

Some of the aircraft

[SiriusHardware]

Another museum worthy of a visit, the City of Norwich Air Museum on the edge of what is now Norwich airport.

I won't go into the purely aviation side of things in case I get shot down, but there is a display section dedicated to 100 group who I gather were the 'wave warriors' of the RAF, specialising in electronic warfare / jamming. They provided specially equipped aircraft to accompany raids over Germany etc.

As such, there are quite a few interesting electronic items on display, such as a 'Carpet' jammer which I understand specifically targeted the German Wurzburg radars. You can also see the rearward-facing tail radar unit from the site's own Vulcan.

[PaulM]

Having looked through this section, our Broadcast Engineering Museum near Gainsborough doesn't appear to have an entry! We are a large, real bricks and mortar museum in our own building showcasing all kinds of broadcasting hardware and technology. Increasingly, we're now featuring more consumer electronics, especially TV sets. There is much to see, including several demonstrations which include a re-creation of the early 1960s Grandstand teleprinter football results with working Image Orthicon camera and period teleprinter.

What would be really good is if one of our visitors could write something about us here rather than me going over the ground as I see it. That way, there's something 'on file' from an independent source.

We're next open this Sunday.
See: https://becg.org.uk/event/october-open-day/

We believe that we are the largest museum of our kind in Europe (unless anyone knows differently) and the nearest comparable ones are in the USA.

Hope to see lots of people as there's a huge amount of work gone into this project. Our volunteer numbers continue to grow and we're no longer fighting our amazing 1936 former RAF Sergeants' Mess. In the beginning, just shy of 4 years ago, we faced nearly 200 broken windows, lots of leaking roofs and an unimaginable amount of rubbish. We're through that phase, and the museum content and displays are now the prime tasks. The new skylights in our transmitter hall are lovely and for now, that's the last of the big building tasks.

Best regards,

Paul M

[HamishBoxer]

A first class place to visit and a pleasure doing photographs of inside and out in the not too distant past.

Since I was last there a heck of a lot more has been added , including "Snoddys Worksop" remember that place from Television magazine?

Go on the website and have a look around or visit if at all possible, easy to find and to park.

[60 oldjohn]

If anyone is visiting the Hull area over Christmas they may like to visit my private radio and much more museum. We are 10 miles East of the Hull Ferry terminal. I have to limit visits to a maximum of two people and it is upstairs. Please PM , or Email me if interested.

John.