During the summer of 2024 the Crich Tramway Village were awarded £83,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Whilst we are used to funding such as these being for a big restoration project or something related to a new exhibition, this cash has a different purpose as it is to be used for a project called “Foundations First” which will help the museum plan for the future.
The project is about getting the museum to a point where it is more sustainable as a business and charity, and helping them to understand what visitors and (possibly more importantly) potential visitors would like to see them doing. The funding has started to be used with external advisors and the museum’s own skills and expertise helping out in three distinct areas:
- A focus on gathering more insightful audience date building on the knowledge they already have from current visitors (511 feedback forms were completed in 2024). Audience specialists “A Different View” have been hired to engage with (especially) current non audiences or lapsed audiences, gathering and analysing all the data, and putting a series of potential site developments “propositions”, working with the outline ideas generated by the museum’s Development Committee.
- Preston based consultancy “Osprey” have been appointed to help the TMS Board and staff create a new Business Plan for the museum. This will involve specialist advice on how the museum’s customers interact with them when they buy tickets online. It will also look at how the retail and on-line shop offer can be improved, and also staff succession planning in areas where they need vital skills.
- There will also be a boost to the museum’s volunteer operation. There will be support to the museum’s recently appointed part-time Volunteer Co-Ordinator and Mentor, Victoria Dickerson and it will cover how they recruit, recognise and reward, and retain volunteers.
Perhaps a good start would be to get rid of all these paid consultants with fancy names and paid staff who know absolutely nothing about trams?
Oh, and when they get a bequest to restore a specific tram, perhaps they copuld actually do it, rather than letting it sit festering in a damp Atcost cow-shed while some knowledgeless curator talks about originality when there is film in their own archive that proves that originality is not true! (Leeds 602 for those who don’t know the story)
Then they could afford to put the ticket price down a bit?
Mile per mile it’s more expensive to ride on a tram at Crich than it was to fly on Concorde and come back on the OrientExpress!
Stay cheerful Andy