Apologies to all our readers that it’s been so long since the last update. With only 7 weeks to go before Basing House re-opens for “Preview fortnight” on 14th August this is an incredibly busy time for the team. The good news is that although there are a thousand and one things still do the project remains on track.
New Operations Manager joins the staff
The big news is that Basing House now has its new Operations Manager! We welcome Claire Capel into her new post and wish her every success. We look forward to working with her. Claire will do her best to meet as many local residents as she can in the coming weeks.
Construction and Conservation
On the construction side highlights of the past few months have been the completion of the new tile roof on the Little Barn and all of the ‘first fit’ electrical work, the laying of limecrete floors in the Learning and & Community Centre, the completion of the toilets at Garrison Gate and the museum, and the start of work on the new museum space. Villagers will have noticed too that our new tourist road signs have been installed.
New roofs…
...and new floors…
Services
From next week and for several weeks there is likely to be some disruption to traffic on The Street and Basing Road while a new broadband service for the village is installed, and also the new road crossing at Garrison Gate and water supply for Basing Grange. The County Council will do it all it can to minimise disruption but ask residents to be patient while this essential work is carried out, or find alternative routes.
Volunteers
An introductory meeting for prospective volunteers was held on Saturday 8th May, which was attended by 21 people including some existing Friends of Basing House.
If you wish to find out more about sort of activities that you might become involved in as a volunteer and the training that we can offer please send in your details via the form on the ‘Future Plans’ page of our website. There will be another introductory meeting at Basing House on 10th July. Induction for new volunteers will start at the beginning of August.
Marketing
Behind the scenes the main emphasis now is on putting the marketing plan into action. Look out for changes to our website very soon. There will be lots of new information on display, for example about our new opening times, admission prices, and forthcoming events.
A new tourist sign
Interpretation & Exhibition
Exhibition consultants PLB Projects are putting the final touches to all the graphics for the site information points and these will go into production very soon. Also progressing well is preparation of the sound track for the Great Barn audio-visual presentation and of the site models. Meanwhile the Museum Service’s own exhibition team is forging ahead with putting together the new museum display.
August Bank Holiday – a date for your diary!
The centrepiece of the celebrations to mark our re-opening will happen on August Bank Holiday weekend, when there will be whole series of exciting things going on both on-site at Basing House and on Basingstoke Common next door. Highlights will be two magnificent (and fierce!) Civil War battle re-enactments performed by The Sealed Knot telling the story of the long sieges and final dramatic downfall of Basing House to Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentary army on the fateful morning of 13 October 1645.
The Sealed Knot in action!
Look out for more information coming on our website shortly.
www.basinghouse.org.uk
