What the Friends do

The Friends support the Museum through a variety of activities.

The Friends raise funds for specific projects to augment the Museum’s own investment in projects.  Events and visits are organised, and any surpluses from the modest charges are banked.  These are accrued and donated.

Grants and funding from The Friends to the Museum – August 2015 to February 2025

 

2015 – £35,000 for the Museum’s re-development project

2017 – £2000 for the purchase of a medieval gold ring found locally, declared as treasure trove and offered to the Museum

£700 for an oak and glass donations box

2018 – £550 for the purchase of 2 planting troughs for project work with students of Spring Common School. The troughs stand outside the Museum on the Waits and are regularly replanted.

2021 – £560 for 4 display cases for the exhibition gallery

2022 – £1000 to fund a professional bid for the ‘Muddy Hoard’ of Roman coins

£5250 towards the purchase of the Muddy Hoard (in conjunction with grants from the Arts Fund and the V&A Purchase Fund

2023 – £1800 free standing display boards for the exhibition gallery

In total : £46,860

Within these ten years there were the lockdowns and restrictions due to the Covid pandemic. The Museum was closed and this meant that one of the main streams of income for The Friends – the sale of its publications – was significantly affected. Nonetheless, the magnificent total of The Friends’ financial donations can be seen as a great example of their continuing commitment to support the Museum. The next item for financial support will be to help the permanent display of the Muddy Hoard coin collection.

Funds are also raised through sales of publications and Christmas cards.

 

A wide range of books and pamphlets can be purchased from the Museum or Just Cards about collection-related topics and the history of Huntingdonshire and its people.  They have been written by a number of authors including former Curator Bob-Burn Murdoch and Friends member Bridget Flanagan.

 

 

 

Each autumn the Friends produce a professionally printed Christmas card depicting an appropriate scene either from an original photograph or from the Museum’s extensive art and photographic collection.  Cards are sold from the Museum, Just Cards or from The Bridge Chapel on its specific opening days, when it is staffed by Friends volunteers (dates available from the Museum).