So the stars aligned to offer me the chance of a lifetime to design, curate and build a museum dedicated to Britain’s industrial past from scratch.

A part time job as the caretaker at Botley Mills evolved into a full focus on bringing their Heritage Centre to fruition – a project that has tapped into a broad spectrum of my interests, skills and knowledge as well as helping expand them considerably too.

The opportunity emerged when I helped my employer pull together material and displays for their Centenary celebrations at the end of 2021. At the evening event it was announced that a space dedicated to the history of Botley Mills would be created during the following year.

As soon as I saw the part of the old mill building that was being designated as a museum space my mind went into overdrive imagining the story that could be told in exhibits and graphics.

Once Ken, the mill’s resident builder, had done an absolutely sterling job fixing beams, floors, walls and ceilings, as well as adding toilet and kitchen facilities I had an excellent blank canvas to work with.

After walking around the space and studying the previous work that had been done back in the 1990s to envisage a working roller mill museum in another part of the enormous site, I came up with a proposal for topics and visitor flow that covered off all the key aspects of milling from the 1000 plus years of history at this location.

Continue reading →