HLF – POWER HALL FORMALLY OPENED
The new Power Hall was formally opened by Julie Kirkbride, MP for Bromsgrove – in whose constituency the Museum is located – before invited guests on Friday 27 July 2007.
The day had begun overcast and rainy, but fortunately the event took place in sunshine. Here is a full transcript of the speeches given by Dave Taylor and Julie Kirkbride.
Dave Taylor:- “Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Transport Museum, Wythall and thank you for joining us for the opening ceremony of our new Power Hall display and exhibition.
“I’m Dave Taylor, one of four Trustees of the charitable trust charged with running the Museum. I’m joined by my fellow Trustees Paul Gray, Malcolm Keeley and Phil Ireland and other members and volunteers, identified by their yellow badges. So if there’s anything you need to know just collar somebody with a yellow badge.
“It’s amazing to think that just over twelve months ago, this hall didn’t exist; there were four aging railway carriages here and the yard outside alternated between a dust bowl and a quagmire! This transformation would not have been possible without the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund.
“In a moment I will ask Julie Kirkbride, MP for Bromsgrove to say a few words and to unveil the plaque commemorating this occasion.
“This project began back in 1999, when a young Phil Ireland announced that he had downloaded the forms from the HLF website and it didn’t look too onerous. In the following years we went through the accreditation process to become a ‘registered museum’ and purchased the freehold of this land. When we finally submitted our application to the HLF, one of our letters of support was from our own MP, Julie Kirkbride who took a keen interest in the development. Recently she also earned great respect from the preservation community nationwide, by playing a major part in gaining a relaxation of the tachograph rules for historic vehicles. So it is fitting that she should be here to celebrate this event with us now and I have great pleasure in handing over to her.”
Julie Kirkbride:- “Well thank you Dave for that very kind introduction.
“As I drove into the car park just a few minutes ago I didn’t recognise this place from the last time that I was here. I was expecting to see a mudbath after the events in Worcestershire in the last few weeks and it looks so utterly wonderful that it was a great excitement to come in and have the sunshine bathe this glorious event as well. So it’s a very exciting development that has been constructed here. It looks truly sensational. I really want to go and look at that old photograph that I have in my mind of what it used to look like, and just to remind myself of all the hard work that has gone into this project. It is absolutely fantastic and I don’t want to pull back that cord without triple underlining my thanks on behalf of the people of Wythall, in whose community this delightful Museum now stands, and everybody else who is going to come and visit; the schools and the public who are going to come and enjoy this.
“My grateful, grateful thanks to the four Trustees in particular, because it is sensationally hard work to put in a successful Lottery bid, and I’ll come to that in a minute. It is very hard work, and it takes a lot of commitment and I do thank you for that, because it couldn’t happen without you, it really couldn’t. And also to the volunteers; I know you like getting dirty and looking under buses’ bonnets and things like that, but nevertheless the buses wouldn’t be here either if you weren’t here to run them and to make them into an exciting, exciting day out. So thank you to everybody who has been involved in this, to the volunteers and to the Trustees particularly, but also to the Heritage Lottery Fund, we are very, very grateful to you.
“The Lottery has been a huge success in paying for things that the taxpayer wouldn’t pay for and which wouldn’t be realistic in terms of getting the money together from voluntary activities, and so it has been a wonderful way of corralling money into really worthwhile projects. And this is a really worthwhile project, because it maintains and preserves our mechanical heritage here in the Midlands and the buses and all the things that that means.
“I mean, I can remember some of these buses from way back, and it’s so old to say that, but I do, and it does give me a bit of pleasure to see them again now that we have all these trendy bendy buses, certainly in London anyway, when I’m down there. So it’s great to see them all, and I know how much pleasure again it gives to people to be reminded of our wonderful mechanical heritage, for which again our region is the first place in the country which is associated with those things. So it’s great that it’s here, and it’s great that it’s in Wythall, and that it’s in Bromsgrove. And without any further talking I’m going to pull the cord.”
[The commemorative plaque is unveiled]
“You are declared open!”
Dave Taylor:- “Thank you Julie.
“Can you imagine, being the Chairman of a charitable trust that has just been awarded a grant of nearly a million pounds for a major building project? What could possibly go wrong? Well, an awful lot really, but in this case, thankfully nothing! We have been blessed with highly professional contractors at all levels, architect, quantity surveyors, construction team, interior designers and fitters. Just as important is the role played by our members and volunteers who have contributed enormously to the success of this project. Without this team work and dedication we could have easily stumbled. Instead, here we are, completed on target and within budget. Furthermore, everybody who has visited us in the last few months has been delighted with the result.
“So I would like to close by thanking everybody who has enabled our dream to become a reality, this includes the HLF, the paid professionals, and all our volunteers, members and supporters. We thank you very much for your contribution to the successful conclusion to this project.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a lovely buffet available in our café, just behind the hall and a bus will depart at about three o’clock for a short ride into the country side. Once again, thank you for being with us today to celebrate this occasion.”
We thank David Hale of DAVideo for providing a recording of the opening ceremony to help with the preparation of this report. David subsequently conducted a one-to-one interview with Julie Kirkbride, which we anticipate will be included on a DVD of the event in due course.
For the record, Julie Kirkbride’s speech was unscripted (definitely no autocue). Not only did she then do the interview with DAVideo, but spent some time looking around the Museum along with the other invited guests, even finding time to record another brief video for her own YouTube website. (And so you can find out why she was pleased to discover a picture of a Halifax bus in the new exhibition.)
The guests were treated to a ride around the Earlswood Lakes route on the Leyland PS2 and BMMO S15, many taking the opportunity to change from one bus to the other during the mid-journey photo stop. Thanks to drivers Dick Lolley and Kevin Hill respectively and to many of the other “Museum Regulars” who were helping out on the day.
Thanks too to Becketts Farm for providing the superb buffet. Also a special mention is due to Lynn Taylor who produced the blue curtain for the plaque at extremely short notice.
And finally, thanks to the four Trustees, not only for all their efforts with the Power Hall project – and it is worth repeating the comment that it was “completed on target and within budget” – but also for organising the opening ceremony itself, because such events do not just happen by themselves.
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