Redditch Railway Interest Group - Programme for 2011/2012

The Redditch Railway Interest Group, which meets monthly at the Forge Mill Needle Museum Visitor Centre, have released their new programme for 2012 which you can download it by clicking HERE (pdf file)

We are currently developing our   Redditch Local History Society Programme for 2012 of exhibitions and other events. Among the exhibitions we will be covering the History of Redditch from the beginning to 1918 (see panel below), an exhibition  to coincide with  Olympics year, ‘Redditch Sporting Heroes’ celebrating those men, women and clubs that have put Redditch on the sporting map, and an exhibition in association with Redditch Public Library for the Queen’s  Diamond Jubilee (see panel below).

We will  be hosting the ‘Heritage Open Day’ at Forge Mill Needle Museum on September 8th which, as our successful event this year, will include free entry to the museum, guided tours of the Forge Mill Museum and  the Bordesley  Abbey site, and other  local history related events. .

As part our program of events  leading up to the 50th anniversary in 2014 of Redditch being designated as a New Town we are producing a sequence of annual exhibitions depicting the growth of the town at Forge Mill Needle Museum. The first of these covers the period from  Medieval beginnings to the end of the Great War. The exhibition will include a timeline of local events, with corresponding national and international events, and will include many images and artefacts rarely seen. The exhibition will run from Friday 26 October tp Sunday 25 November 2012.

From the 28th May to 30th June 2011, we will  be putting on an exhibition, in association with Redditch Public Library for the  Queen’s Diamond Jubilee,  and this will use material will displayed in the the Library’s ‘Gallery’  area. .The display will cover the period of the Queen’s reign and how Redditch has been involved with the Royal Family over this period. It will use largely material from the Local History Collection at the Library, but we would would be interested in material covering street parties in the town for her Coronation and memories and photographs related to this and other Royal visits to the town.

We will be present at  the Redditch Festival in Morton Stanley Park in August.(Date to be defined). This is organised by Redditch Borough Council and, as we did at the 2011 Festival, we will have an information display and local history competitions.