Revisiting the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester, you cannot fail to notice that much has changed in the years since the museum opened in 1988.
After a prolonged hiatus, the regeneration of Gloucester Docks is now well and truly underway and the seven-storey Llanthony Warehouse, which houses the collections of the Waterways Trust, is now surrounded by new apartment blocks and a further-education college, while a planned factory outlet and supermarket are due to open in 2009.
Having anchored the regeneration of the docks for two decades, the accelerated pace of change in the area has taken its toll and the past five years have been difficult for the museum.
There have been some job losses, but the news in 2007 that it was to receive a major facelift was welcomed locally and the revamped museum reopened in May this year following a six-month closure.
Having been a regular visitor to Gloucester in the 1990s, I was intrigued to see what changes had been made to what had been seen by many as one of the best industrial museums in Britain. Walking around the museum, there are still echoes of the displays that won the Museum of the Year prize in 1991, but the feel is now subtly different.
There is clearly less to see today, as the second-floor exhibition spaces have been replaced by an education suite, and the old blacksmith's shop has been converted into a cafe and bar.
Going green
In keeping with the ever-present green agenda, the first space that visitors come across is Living Together, an ecology gallery highlighting the wildlife and landscape seen by the users of more than 3,500 miles of canals in Britain.
Graphics illustrate the huge variety of birds, mammals, insects and plants that can be seen close to canals, but I couldn't help feeling that the displays needed to be more challenging to visitors, with more interactivity.
The display narrative continues into Move It, a large gallery containing most of the museum's interactive exhibits, along with some larger objects such as pumping engines. On the day I visited, the space was crowded with children who particularly liked the "wet" interactive demonstrating how locks worked.
Elsewhere in the gallery, a large console houses a number of computer interactives explaining how canals were built and operated. But I'm not convinced that grouping all the interactives in one place is such a good idea.
Though Move It buzzed with the sound of children clearly having a great time, it made the displays that followed upstairs seem dull in comparison, and some of the computer interactives seemed out of context in isolation from other interpretation or exhibits.
Moving upstairs to the first floor, visitors walk up through a replica lock, a survivor from the old displays, sadly now without the atmospheric dripping water.
The first-floor exhibition, Water Lives, aims to tell the story of the people who worked, moved and lived on the waterways network from the 18th century to the present and concentrates heavily on the social history of canals.
Working docks
As the museum is housed in a former corn warehouse, it is not surprising that there is some attention paid to life in Gloucester Docks.
A display highlights the lives and experiences of local people. The museum building once held more than 40,000 sacks and 5,000 tonnes of loose corn and in this area of the displays it is not difficult to imagine the docks in its heyday.
It is easy to forget that canals used to move a huge variety of goods including tea, cotton, stone and timber. They even carried chocolate from the Bournville factory in Birmingham.
There have clearly been efforts to make the new displays more attractive to families, something that succeeds in part at least; a Children on Canals area highlights what it was like for young people to live and work on canal boats; there is also a selection of costumes to try on, although the lack of any other interactive exhibit in this space is a real shame.
Throughout the Water Lives gallery, the museum has made excellent use of evocative archive pictures, most featuring people as well as the hardware surrounding the operation of canals. But for me, the lack of any audiovisual material was a weakness.
The only use of video was a short British Waterways film from the 1960s, The Gentle Highway, with an evocative commentary from the late naturalist Johnny Morris.
Elsewhere, the use of audio or video would have brought an already excellent selection of text and objects to life. A case in point was a fascinating display on canals in the second world war, which told the story of a woman who opted for adventure carrying out war work on the canals and whose escapades deserved greater interpretation.
Where the exhibition does succeed is in the selection and display of objects from the collection; new large display cases feature well-chosen exhibits, although there are fewer large ones than previously.
One highlight is the Bluebird, a wooden pleasure boat dating from the 1930s that helps tell the story of the development of the canal network from an industrial thoroughfare into a resource for tourists and holidaymakers.
Mole catcher
Walking around the first floor displays you get something of a feel for the scale and history of Britain's canal network and the role of the people who built and operated it.
One display shows a who's who of those involved in operating a canal, and away from the familiar boat builders, engineers and blacksmiths, you learn that one vital job was the mole catcher. It was his job to keep the mole population down to prevent their tunnels undermining canal banks. Despite the undoubted strengths of the collections, the refurbished displays only partially succeed in telling the story of the waterways.
With a less conservative approach to interpretation, visitors could more readily engage with the collections on a greater emotional level and get a stronger feel for what it was like to work and live on the canals.
As the regeneration and gentrification of Gloucester Docks continues, it is perhaps inevitable that the National Waterways Museum should become more of a visitor attraction and less of a traditional industrial museum, but I hope that it does not stray too far from its roots.
Tim Bryan is the head of collections at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon
After a prolonged hiatus, the regeneration of Gloucester Docks is now well and truly underway and the seven-storey Llanthony Warehouse, which houses the collections of the Waterways Trust, is now surrounded by new apartment blocks and a further-education college, while a planned factory outlet and supermarket are due to open in 2009.
Having anchored the regeneration of the docks for two decades, the accelerated pace of change in the area has taken its toll and the past five years have been difficult for the museum.
There have been some job losses, but the news in 2007 that it was to receive a major facelift was welcomed locally and the revamped museum reopened in May this year following a six-month closure.
Having been a regular visitor to Gloucester in the 1990s, I was intrigued to see what changes had been made to what had been seen by many as one of the best industrial museums in Britain. Walking around the museum, there are still echoes of the displays that won the Museum of the Year prize in 1991, but the feel is now subtly different.
There is clearly less to see today, as the second-floor exhibition spaces have been replaced by an education suite, and the old blacksmith's shop has been converted into a cafe and bar.
Going green
In keeping with the ever-present green agenda, the first space that visitors come across is Living Together, an ecology gallery highlighting the wildlife and landscape seen by the users of more than 3,500 miles of canals in Britain.
Graphics illustrate the huge variety of birds, mammals, insects and plants that can be seen close to canals, but I couldn't help feeling that the displays needed to be more challenging to visitors, with more interactivity.
The display narrative continues into Move It, a large gallery containing most of the museum's interactive exhibits, along with some larger objects such as pumping engines. On the day I visited, the space was crowded with children who particularly liked the "wet" interactive demonstrating how locks worked.
Elsewhere in the gallery, a large console houses a number of computer interactives explaining how canals were built and operated. But I'm not convinced that grouping all the interactives in one place is such a good idea.
Though Move It buzzed with the sound of children clearly having a great time, it made the displays that followed upstairs seem dull in comparison, and some of the computer interactives seemed out of context in isolation from other interpretation or exhibits.
Moving upstairs to the first floor, visitors walk up through a replica lock, a survivor from the old displays, sadly now without the atmospheric dripping water.
The first-floor exhibition, Water Lives, aims to tell the story of the people who worked, moved and lived on the waterways network from the 18th century to the present and concentrates heavily on the social history of canals.
Working docks
As the museum is housed in a former corn warehouse, it is not surprising that there is some attention paid to life in Gloucester Docks.
A display highlights the lives and experiences of local people. The museum building once held more than 40,000 sacks and 5,000 tonnes of loose corn and in this area of the displays it is not difficult to imagine the docks in its heyday.
It is easy to forget that canals used to move a huge variety of goods including tea, cotton, stone and timber. They even carried chocolate from the Bournville factory in Birmingham.
There have clearly been efforts to make the new displays more attractive to families, something that succeeds in part at least; a Children on Canals area highlights what it was like for young people to live and work on canal boats; there is also a selection of costumes to try on, although the lack of any other interactive exhibit in this space is a real shame.
Throughout the Water Lives gallery, the museum has made excellent use of evocative archive pictures, most featuring people as well as the hardware surrounding the operation of canals. But for me, the lack of any audiovisual material was a weakness.
The only use of video was a short British Waterways film from the 1960s, The Gentle Highway, with an evocative commentary from the late naturalist Johnny Morris.
Elsewhere, the use of audio or video would have brought an already excellent selection of text and objects to life. A case in point was a fascinating display on canals in the second world war, which told the story of a woman who opted for adventure carrying out war work on the canals and whose escapades deserved greater interpretation.
Where the exhibition does succeed is in the selection and display of objects from the collection; new large display cases feature well-chosen exhibits, although there are fewer large ones than previously.
One highlight is the Bluebird, a wooden pleasure boat dating from the 1930s that helps tell the story of the development of the canal network from an industrial thoroughfare into a resource for tourists and holidaymakers.
Mole catcher
Walking around the first floor displays you get something of a feel for the scale and history of Britain's canal network and the role of the people who built and operated it.
One display shows a who's who of those involved in operating a canal, and away from the familiar boat builders, engineers and blacksmiths, you learn that one vital job was the mole catcher. It was his job to keep the mole population down to prevent their tunnels undermining canal banks. Despite the undoubted strengths of the collections, the refurbished displays only partially succeed in telling the story of the waterways.
With a less conservative approach to interpretation, visitors could more readily engage with the collections on a greater emotional level and get a stronger feel for what it was like to work and live on the canals.
As the regeneration and gentrification of Gloucester Docks continues, it is perhaps inevitable that the National Waterways Museum should become more of a visitor attraction and less of a traditional industrial museum, but I hope that it does not stray too far from its roots.
Tim Bryan is the head of collections at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon
Project data
Cost: £235,000
Funders: Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company, British Waterways, Friends of the National Waterways Museum
Exhibition design and graphics: Hotrod
Project management: Philippa Chamberlain
Cost: £235,000
Funders: Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company, British Waterways, Friends of the National Waterways Museum
Exhibition design and graphics: Hotrod
Project management: Philippa Chamberlain
