2003 Season Opens
Relief that Easter was late this year and thus would benefit from better weather proved, as ever, off the mark. A month of glorious Spring weather ended exactly on the Easter weekend, which turned out chilly in comparison. Not that such weather is bad for the museum for, provided rain holds off, overcast weather keeps potential visitors looking for attractions closer to home.
The season opened with no less than three Bank Holiday weekends in close succession, which was not very helpful. Six operating days were included, the first five being simply marketed as ‘Blossom Into Spring’ with an encouragement to ride the little steam trains and on the buses into the blossoming countryside. There was no emphasis on the enthusiast market and all five days were a successful balance between visitor numbers, bus rides offered and volunteers required.
Enthusiasts clearly want more from their days out so the museum has been moving towards concentrating on around three major enthusiast events per year. The first in 2003 was Two Museums Day, returned to Spring Bank Holiday Monday after last year’s disturbance to the calendar for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Buses operate between Wythall and the Aston Manor Transport Museum across the centre of Birmingham every half hour. Four buses are required, one plus the odd duplicated departure are operated by North Birmingham Busways on our behalf but the rest we run, providing particular pressure on staffing. The gradual increase in popularity of this event led us to borrowing the Britannic car park, an action previously only employed on August Bank Holidays. What a piece of foresight this was as the cars kept arriving on what proved to be our best day ever for this particular event.
Not that it should be assumed that all the visitors are enthusiasts wishing to go to and from Aston Manor. Over half the visitors buy admission only tickets and some of these would like the short rides we provide on other days. The use of Britannic required five additional volunteers, including reliefs, on shuttle buses and the car park itself. The short rides are not run because of the pressure on volunteers and the number of operating discs and Class VI vehicles we have. Nevertheless the short rides would be a very popular improvement to the event, which needs to develop if it is to continue to thrive. Mention should also be made of the Model Bus Federation displays in the Scania Hall. I know this is a very popular event within the MBF with a clamour to grab available space for the displays, which then are an unexpected delight for our visitors.
Time to thank people for their efforts so far this season. An enormous amount of hard work has been put in which has been rewarded by very good results. What a pleasure to see a number of new volunteers working well and putting new blood into the enterprise, making life a bit easier for the longer standing volunteers. Good to see Jim Munro at last old enough to drive the vehicles he has helped with over the years! Special thanks to those who empty and clean the Scania Hall for the special days and then have to put all the buses back again! Moving on to the ‘Two Museums’ event, special thanks to Keith Billingsley, Ray Ward and Andy Walcott whose buses both provided the car park shuttles and were attractions of enthusiast interest themselves. The three chaps drove back and forth for much of the day without the glamour of far away places such as central Birmingham or Aston! Lots of volunteers escaped at the end of the day without receiving proper thanks; you all worked very hard to excellent effect.
Finally some words on Dennis Herbert of the railway group who keeps our grassed areas so immaculate, as well as providing his expertise on clocks. Dennis grows vast quantities of fuchsias as yet another hobby and surplus stocks are sold at Wythall. One of the pleasures of working the entrance is watching the number of visitors, usually ladies, walking off with obvious pleasure at acquiring at least one splendid fuchsia. It really adds to their day and one can imagine them remembering in years to come “Oh yes, that didn’t come from a garden centre - that’s the plant I bought at that nice transport museum!”
Malcolm Keeley
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
A registered educational charity no 507191
