Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group (BECG) Heritage Open Days

[PaulM]

This is just a brief notice that our Broadcast Engineering Museum will be opening for the annual Heritage Open Days scheme this year which will be on the 9th and 10th September. Last year was a great success for us, despite being far from ready. This year, things have moved on tremendously and in due course we will post more details on what's to be seen this year at our museum near Gainsborough. From feedback from visitors last year, we know how much it was enjoyed. There's also much to see at the largest Antiques Centre in Europe right next door to us. We're based at the former RAF Hemswell, now Hemswell Cliff, DN21 5XS. We're all volunteers and many come from far and wide, so let's hope that the weather will be as good as it was last year.

The advance notice is on our website here:
https://becg.org.uk/event/heritage-open-days-2023/

There will certainly be much more to see and do this year as our huge building is now more in a poistion to receive visitors, and more of the primary exhibits are in place. These cover TV OB trucks, VT, TK, many, many vintage TV cameras, radio broadcasting and much else. More details soon!

Best regards,

Paul M
Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group
Broadcast Engineering Museum
www.becg.tv

[PaulM]

Ahead of our Heritage Open Days, we're are pleased to announce that the BECG is the new home to Yaxley public address collection, some of which will be on show. The late Ken Yaxley, a pioneering public address contractor, assembled the collection and built a dedicated museum next to his house in Norfolk. Ken died in 2015 and his family wanted to find a new home for the collection.

Initially the Yaxley collection was transferred to Lucien Nunes Vaz, with the intention of it forming part of his MEET (Museum of Electrical and Electronic Technology) project. Although the collection passed physically to Lucien, legally it remained part of the Yaxley estate as MEET was not yet a charity. Alas, Lucien became seriously ill with cancer and died in June 2023 aged only 51, leaving the Yaxley collection in limbo. Tony Clayden, a long standing friend of Lucien and a friend of the BECG, arranged with the administrators of the Yaxley estate that the collection would come to the BECG.

In July 2023 a small team from the BECG packed and transported the Yaxley Collection at one of Lucien’s stores and delivered it to our Broadcast Engineering Museum at Hemswell Cliff near Gainsborough.

You can see more pictures here:
https://becg.org.uk/2023/07/22/becg-...ss-collection/

Best regards,

Paul M

[Paul Stenning]

This is good news that the collection has a secure home and future now.

It would be lovely if you are able to recreate something similar to Ken's museum layout, but space is always a premium for any museum.

[PaulM]

Hello Paul,

We're actually good for space and we will be able to display the Yaxley collection well. Our building is almost 30,000 sq ft. on almost 2 acres of land, and the principal limiting factor is how fast we can repair and decorate the rooms! That mainly depends on money and volunteers. Our charity - BECG - owns it outright, so no fear of being kicked out either.

Best regards,

Paul M

[PaulM]

Three weeks to go and the pressure is on!

We've been working very hard all year and we can now say with some confidence what will be on show at our Heritage Open Days event this year.
Our building - the former RAF Hemswell Sergeants' Mess - is coming together. We even have hot water in the loos now!

Most of last year's attractions will be there - 'Southern' TV OB truck, the VT and TK collections, broadcast camera demonstrations along with the themed display of Coronation Street cameras down the years facing our very own 'Rovers Return' bar (sorry, it doesn't serve beer . . .).

This year we will be able to show 'Project Vivat' on site in our new display area for TV trucks, our 'ABC-Thames' OB truck project, a film show (programme still TBD) in our Studio 2 (the former mess room when it was a sergeants' mess), some larger items, plus this year there will be on site tea/coffee etc. Our CAR (Central Apparatus Room) will be open for viewing, although not yet finished (a lot of wiring to do . . .). There will also be a display of domestic TV sets reflecting out goal to have themed living room dioramas as part of our offering when time/money permits.

We will also be showing interested parties round our amazing building and that will include the first presentation in one of our refurbished rooms of the recently acquired Yaxley PA collection.

Parking this year is in our own car park, but you may use the adjacent antiques centre car park if you wish. Please don't park in the housing estate next to us - that will cause us problems!

Last year was a frantic rush to open after just 9 months of our trust's ownership of the semi-derelict building. A year on and we have a building with all its windows repaired, roofs not leaking (just about, anyway) and more and more of the huge space having been refurbished and coming into use.

These details, maps and other instructions will soon go live on our website.
Please check in at: https://becg.org.uk/event/heritage-open-days-2023/

The event is FREE, but donations would be gratefully accepted.
If you're coming, it would be good to let us know so that we can judge numbers.

The address is: Broadcast Engineering Museum, 41 Capper Avenue, Hemswell Cliff, GAINSBOROUGH, Lincolnshire, DN21 5XS

A few pictures attached.

Best regards,

Paul Marshall
Chairman, BECG

[PaulM]

Just one week to go before our Heritage Open Day event here at the Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group's museum near Gainsborough. In the past few weeks we've been working very hard up at our Broadcast Engineering Museum to ready our sprawling building for visitors. It's still very much a work in progress, but things have come together and there's a lot to see. From classic cameras, telecine, VT, standards converters, three large TV OB trucks, radio broadcasting equipment, vintage domestic TV sets and our new acquisition, the Yaxley collection of public address equipment dating back as far as the late 1920s. There will be working cameras, including a chroma key demonstration, OB trucks and operational telecine and VT. Progress on the building front means that we can offer tea and coffee this year as well as hot water in the loos! We've used gallons of paint so far but still a lot to do. We will be showing people round other parts of our building this year and showing more of its own heritage as having been an RAF sergeants' mess as part of the former RAF Hemswell built in 1936. Don't forget that the the largest antiques centre in Europe is our near neighbour and just a few hundred yards walk.

Hope to see you there next weekend, 9th and 10th September, 10am to 4 pm. Parking this year is in our own car park and directions are on our website.
See: https://becg.org.uk/2023/08/21/herit...ate/#more-4121

Best regards,

Paul Marshall
Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group
Broadcast Engineering Museum
Hemswell Cliff, near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire DN21 5XS

[Jez1234]

Just had a look at the becg site and wow what amazing work you guys have done! fantastic stuff.

[PaulM]

Thanks, Jez - we appreciate your comments. It truly has been a long slog over the 18+ months and there's still so much to do, but we hope that it now looks and feels like a museum! The last few months have been a long way from electronics scraping off ancient paint and applying gallons of new. We're now at a much more interesting phase fitting things out and making it attractive and a pleasurable experience for visitors. As all of our volunteers and trustees are unpaid, with many coming long distances, events like Heritage Open Days make it all worthwhile.

Best regards,

Paul M
BECG
Broadcast Engineering Museum
www.becg.tv

[PaulM]

I think that we're ready to welcome visitors to our Broadcast Engineering Museum this weekend, 9th and 10th September, 11 am until 4 pm.

If you're coming, make sure that you take the sign showing 'Primary School' into Capper Avenue and we're the 4th left on to our private drive sweeping round to the front of the building to our car park. It will be signposted off the main A631 to the Broadcast Engineering Museum.

Much to see! We would be pleased to show you around and the progress made by our charity in the last year.

Best regards,

Paul Marshall
Chairman BECG
www.becg.tv

[Paul Stenning]

I hope you have a great weekend.

[chriswood1900]

Good luck Paul and team sorry I won't be able to make it due to other commitments this weekend but I would love to come up on another day.

[Sound Man]

Well I visited the museum today and thoroughly enjoyed it. You've certainly got some very interesting equipment there on display. I was particularly interested in the Yaxley collection having only ever seeing photographs of it years ago.

David

[60 oldjohn]

I had a very interesting day at the museum. Plenty of very well informed enthusiastic helpers. Back in the day how did they cope with the heat in the Outside Broadcast Unit lorries? I believe none had any sort of Air Con.
Some of the people I was talking to were from London and Southampton, I am sure it was well worth their effort.

A Big Thank you to Paul and all involved, John.

[PaulM]

Many thanks to all of our supporters and visitors this weekend. Our visitors came from far and wide - Glasgow to Plymouth! There will - no doubt - be pictures to come, but for now it's time to wind down after such a frenetic weekend.

Best regards,

Paul M
BECG

[HamishBoxer]

Excellent again Paul and must need to wind things down for now. Will get photos sorted shortly.

Regards,

David

[PaulM]

Ahead of the photos of this event, there's a video posted by one of our volunteers on YouTube with some of the 'behind the scenes' prep.

It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aUhLLy6Ryg

Best regards,

Paul M