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Welcome to the Museum of Wigan Life Blog
On the 6th April work began on the
refurbishment of this great little building. The architects appointed
this time round are Bradshaw Gass and Hope from Bolton, a firm with a
long history in the area and many commissions of their own within our
borough. The contractors selected are William Anelay Ltd, a firm of
heritage builders specializing in restoration of public buildings. You
may have seen them recently on TV working on the Victoria Baths project
in Manchester. This featured in the BBC’s ‘Restoration’ series and was
awarded HLF money back in 2007 as a result of a public vote.
We have secured our HLF money through the more orthodox route of
detailed planning, careful application and intense scrutiny by the HLF.
Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust who operates the site, Wigan Council who
owns the building and the HLF are together funding a restoration of £1.6
million to bring the building up to the standards required for it to
function as the centre for heritage in our borough for generations to
come.
The refurbishment project is designed to
create a Hub for heritage services, a central point from which all areas
of local heritage can be delivered across the borough. There will be new
exhibition galleries telling the story of our borough’s heritage in a
modern and informative way, leaning events and activities for all
audiences delivered both at the History Shop and across the borough,
fantastic new research facilities for local and family history, improved
access to all areas of the building all culminating in an exciting new
environment for you to visit and enjoy.
This exciting project will not be
completed until Easter of 2010, and we intend to keep you up to date
with it as it goes along. Each month we will share with you the progress
made by the architects and the contractors and highlight the issues they
have had to deal with. Along side this each week we will comment on what
is happening on the ground, what it is like watching the building being
restored and historical snippets of what the building has gone through
in the past. We will also build up a gallery of photos you can access to
see progress for yourselves.
We would welcome feedback and comment from you as you read this, or as
you see our progress from the ground.
Latest Blog Entries
26th February
2010
Our recent half term ‘Discover Your Wigan’ day in the Grand Arcade was a
great success, with over 1000 visitors dropping in to find out about the
range of services and activities available across the borough through
heritage Services.
The exhibition installation at the new Museum of Wigan Life is well
underway now. Structures are being built to house exciting new displays
and lots of objects from the Museum’s collection, some of which have
never been on display before. The new ‘Revealing Roman Routes’ temporary
exhibition has been finalised , leaving just a few things for the Wigan
Archaeological Society to sort out.
Please note that on Thursday 1st April at 4.00pm we will be closing
the interim heritage service at Wigan Library to allow us to transfer
over to the Museum in readiness for our opening on Friday 9th April.
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5th February
2010
Final handover by the building project contractors took place today and
those of us who have worked in the building throughout the renovation
work are looking forward to dust free desks and quieter days ! We are
all in agreement that the building is looking stunning both outside and
inside – now that all of the renovated areas have had a last clean and
polish.
From Friday 9th April we will be open under our new name, Museum of
Wigan Life, with an official Launch planned for Thursday 17th June. Come
along and find out about your family history or where you live, join in
with the family activities, visit the shop, find out about people,
places, events stories and traditions that have shaped Wigan borough. We
want to hear what you think and hope you will feel as proud of the
Borough’s heritage as we do
Work on the new museum exhibition is coming alive as we reach the
halfway mark in the production schedule. If you want to find your way
around Roman Wigan don’t miss our first temporary exhibition, Revealing
Roman Roads. Worked in partnership with Wigan Archaeological Society it
showcases the Society’s work in tracing and excavating Roman roads that
cross the borough.
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15th January 2010
Happy New Year to everyone.
Work is moving on at a very rapid pace now in spite of a slight hold up
on final external pointing and painting due to the extreme weather of
the last few weeks.
Inside is a hive of activity, with final finishes underway to new
visitor facilities, carpets being laid , handrails fitted to the new
staircase and mechanical and electrical works tested – all in readiness
for the final handover by the building contractors, William Anelay & Co
Ltd , in a couple of weeks time.
Then it’s over to the Exhibition designers, PLB Ltd.,for the next phase
of the project !
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21st Dec 2009
Re-pointed, re-roofed and raring to go!
It's a landmark day! The scaffolding has been dismantled from
the
History Shop and it feels like we've all had a rather big Christmas
present unwrapped.
It's been a while but the library is now free of the protective
packaging and doesn't the outside look terrific!
Internally the electrical and joinery renovations are progressing on
target and so is the lighting and painting.
We can nearly see the finishing line but for now, everyone here would
like to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas.
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20th & 27th Nov 2009
Continued removal of sheeting and
scaffolding allows us to see the outstanding renovations to the
buildings exterior, including the splendid chimney stack.
One of our readers tells us that during construction of Wigan Baths in
1960 excavations revealed old mine workings heading in different areas.
These included workings directly beneath the foundations of the History
Shop, to a depth of approximately 15 to 20 feet. Our excellent mining
library rests on ancient mine workings! The workings are almost
certainly those of Peter Plat who worked beneath Millgate and Library
Street in 1620, one of his access shafts being found close to the old
Children’s Library a few months ago.
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6th & 13th Nov 2009
Good news from our contractors, William
Anelay, who report that they are very pleased with site progress to date
New roof
With completion of the renovations to the north and east elevations we
can all see for ourselves now how impressive the new roof looks as it
emerges from its cover. It is certainly having its baptism during
current weather conditions (with no reported problems!). The scaffolding
is due be brought down in stages during the next few weeks as any
outstanding roof work is completed.
Recent work under way
Interior works
Office space redecoration is now complete and scaffolding to the main
staircase has been dismantled as this area also nears completion.
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9th & 16th Oct 2009
What is this?
The side wall of the Library Street
extension to the building seems to have suffered from some sort of
collision with a cartoon character! After they were peeled from the wall
an imprint of their outline remained! As this has done some damage to
the outer wall we are keen to identify the culprit. From the outline can
you name the cartoon character involved? Suggestions please to our
heritage email.
Actually the History Shop is suffering from spalled brickwork. This
occurs where moisture gets into the bricks and then freezes. The water
expands and flakes off the hard outer layer of the brick exposing the
softer inner clay. If left over time the brick will continue to decay
and eventually the wall will fail.
The treatment here of knocking out the outer layer of affected brick is
extreme structurally, but necessary to ensure the even appearance of the
brickwork. Unfortunately it appears that this side wall has been exposed
to damp for many seasons and the spalling affected more than the
occasional brick. This is one reason why the repair to the roof and the
improvement of drainage away from the walls has been so important.
Other progress items reported at the last
site meeting on the 8th October 2009:
- The slating of the roof is
progressing well with the east and north elevations now complete. Lead
work is nearing completion with the flashings to the cornice still to
do.
- Masonry works are completed with the
exception of a small amount of stonework to the west elevation and the
rebuilding of the chimney stack.
- First floor plastering works are
complete and decoration works have commenced to the office areas.
The staircase has been installed and
the lift is to be fitted from 19th Oct 2009.
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25th Sept & 2nd
Oct 2009
New Banner
The more observant readers may have noticed the new banner that has
appeared on the outside of our building on the Library Street elevation.
Just to give you a little more
information:
• The £1.6 million History Shop project includes the external building
work (particularly the windows and roof) and the internal building work
improving the access with a new entrance ramp, lift and second
staircase. It also includes the refurbishment of the first floor gallery
and study area, the installation of a new exhibition, reception and shop
on the ground floor with an area dedicated to temporary exhibitions, and
the creation of a dedicated learning space and meeting room. On top of
this the project is funding new ventures in learning and outreach for
heritage services and a digitisation project for our photographic
collection, capturing some 5,000 images and making them available to all
through the internet.
All for £1.6 million!
• We are currently on schedule for
opening Spring 2010, but there is lots still to do. The building work is
due to be completed at the end of the year, however for our staff the
work then really begins.
• In order to make this into Wigan’s museum and local heritage hub we
need to get the exhibition installed and all our objects in the cases,
we need to get all our study resources (books, microfilms, maps,
newspapers, photos) back from storage and onto the shelves and we need
to install all our new kit for researchers like microfilm scanners and
PC’s.
• Our partners in this project are the National Lottery through the
Heritage Lottery Fund, Wigan Council and of course Wigan Leisure and
Culture Trust.
New stairs take shape
Over the past two weeks a new phase of construction work has been
apparent within the building. The sounds, smells and flashing lights of
welding work have been dominating the ground floor area.
Frame for new lift
The metal sections to support the lift
and the split level staircase off the Library Street entrance are now
installed. This is great news and finally makes real the long held
ambition to guarantee lift access to the first floor. The welding and
subsequent metal grinding work has certainly been a challenge for those
of us still working in the building.
Roll on spring 2010…
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11th & 18th Sept 2009
It has been so long now since
we have seen the outside of our building we have begun to forget what it
looks like! Just to remind us here is one of the earliest photos we have
of the outside of the building probably dating from the turn of the 19th
century. The building would have been about twenty years old by then and
we are hoping that it will look just as good when it re-emerges from its
chrysalis before Christmas. The contractors have said that the
scaffolding can start to come down by mid-October and they hope to get
it down to below roof level before December.
Wigan Library
c.1900
All of the timber works are
now complete with joists and trusses either replaced or treated. The
roof has had all the old slates removed and new ones are being used for
the Library Street elevation. Once completed the detailed work on the
lead flashing and the cast iron gutters can begin. We have had new
replica cast iron hopper heads and downpipes in rectangular cross
section made for the building to recreate the images above.
Internally the building has become something of a warren with the
erection of scaffolding in many of the larger spaces. This is to allow
for the remainder of the construction work to go ahead, like the new
staircase, the first section of which arrived on site this week, and the
internal decoration which is due to start next week.
New lead flashing detail in place
28th August & 4th Sept
Q&A’s continued…
So is the project still going to schedule?
Gary – Yes very much. Due to finding a few more sections of roof that
required repair during the preparation we are about a week behind the
schedule for the outside, but we have put a good period of time in for
slating and I’m sure we will make that time up.
On the inside of the building we are possibly as much as two weeks ahead
of schedule with the plaster work on the upper floor and attic space
nearing completion.
Repair work on the stairs
That’s great, what else has moved on inside?
Gary – Well, on completion of the plasterwork we will need it to dry out
thoroughly, so a space of four or five weeks will be needed before
decoration. However it is going to look much better, as well as new
sections of plaster, the sound sections in the offices will be stripped
back to original and repainted, we just need the architect to give us
the colour scheme and we can make a start!
Repair work in the first floor
office
So does that mean you are nearly finished inside?
Gary – That would be jumping ahead quite a lot, but things are going
well. In a few areas we had to do additional timber treatment for dry
rot. Affected timbers have been removed and replaced and the surrounding
areas treated with a water based agent inside and a mineral oil based
product outside. This needs a little more plaster repair work to finish
off.
Dry rot in the roof – slates
removed
The most exciting development is the opening up of the ceiling in the
ground floor gallery near the Library Street entrance. We can now fit
the first steel piece that will form the frame for the lift and the
support for the lift.
Note: For the next blog I will try to get photos of the lift and
staircase as it is being constructed.
If there are particular descriptions within the blog that you feel you
would like to see a picture of, please contact us through the Heritage
Service email and we will try to get something up on the site.
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14th & 21st August
2009
Summer holidays
Following a short break by both your correspondent blogger and the site
manager here at the History Shop, things are now back in full swing.
On such a big project it can sometimes be difficult to see progress
especially when you are on site each day. However after a two week break
it becomes much easier to see where big changes have been made,
nevertheless it was only with a little help from the site manager Gary
that some of the other more subtle developments were spotted. Over the
next three blogs I will try to cover developments.
My questions, his answers…
What has been happening over the last two weeks?
Gary - Following on from the selection of the buff coloured lime mortar
work has been brisk and now about 80% of the building has been
re-pointed. This task will be finished in another week and the building
looks great, behind the scaffolding of course!
Mortar samples – we chose the buff coloured mix
Has there been any other work outside, on the roof for instance?
Gary – Yes again the work has gone very quickly. Following careful weeks
revealing sections of concern on the roof and preparing the whole area,
we have now started re-slating. On the West elevation the roof has been
fully stripped and the lads are busy re-using the sound slates. This
looks fantastic, like a new roof and again will be finished soon.
Slates on the roof awaiting re-use
What about the East side?
Gary – we will have used all the original slates we can on the back
elevation, so the East side facing Library Street will be slated with
new Northumberland Green slate. In fact we have already started that
with the dormer roof sections over the high level windows. We had to get
additional scaffolding towers within the main scaffolding and so we
completed the repairs, the slating and the lead finial details on these
four windows. The new slates look even better!
High level window dormers under
repair
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24th July 2009
A few weeks ago we reported that
the contractors, the architects and the Historic building adviser had
been debating long and hard about the composition of the mortar to be
used when re-pointing the building. Well today I came across this image
from the contractor that I requested at the time to illustrate the
point.
On a secluded section of wall different
mixes were tried to see the effect. On my last enquiry the final mix had
not yet been agreed, but it was settled that the lighter lime mortar of
the same composition as on the original building would be used on the
non-visible sections of wall.
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17th July 2009
It’s great to get positive
feedback for your efforts and we have had two specific pieces of
evidence that
a) the blog is being read
b) you are enjoying what you read
The blog was even mentioned on the front page of the Wigan Observer last
week with a photo, picking up a story that we ran in early June about
the danger of trespassing on building sites like this.
We also received this:
"Your blog brought back many happy
memories and the photos are fascinating. I'm looking forward to the next
instalment and hope you will be able to do many more!"
This was part of a message from someone who used to work in the building
and spent many happy years upstairs in ‘the ref’. In it our reader
reminisces about all the different sorts of wood, brass shelf fittings,
elevated galleries, what seemed like a bunch with hundreds of keys and
of course the books.
Most intriguingly she also makes reference to something we would love to
hear more about, the atmosphere within the building:
The only thing I didn't like was being there by myself, especially on
dark evenings listening to everything creaking and knowing I had to go
through every gate to check everywhere before locking up! Also, I never
went into the attic without feeling that something had just "stopped"
because they'd heard me on the stairs...
If anyone does have any stories about the building please share them
with us at the Heritage Service and we can share them with our readers.
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10th July 2009
As work goes on we
are getting more views of the building that have been hidden for the
past one hundred and thirty years. The latest area to be uncovered is
the roof, under its eerie shroud provided by the scaffolding.
At times it looks more like work is going on underground rather than
sixty feet up in the centre of Wigan.
The good news is that much of the roof has been found in good condition.
The original sarking* boards have been saved and can, in the main, be
re-used. I have also been informed that boards of this quality also act
as additional bracing between the roofing timbers.
*(′särk•iŋ)
(building construction) A layer of boards or bituminous felt placed
beneath tiles or other roofing to provide thermal insulation or to
prevent ingress of water.
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3rd July 2009
Looking around the building this
week it seemed that the contractors had made a major discovery which
looked uncannily like some sort of archaeological excavation.
What could it be? The foundations of some previous long forgotten
dwelling? A waste pit from medieval Wigan rich in discarded artefacts?
Or even, with its chilling shape, an ancient burial find? Alas not, the
excavation beneath current foundation level at this point is required
for the new lift installation, and nothing was found that had not been
disturbed back when the original foundations were laid in 1878.
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26th June 2009
We are happy to report the
History Shop now has a lift!
Yes, this is not a misprint we have a lift albeit not inside the
building. Walking down Library Street now you may be lucky enough to see
it in action on the outside of the building rising from ground level to
just above roof height. An open cage for carrying supplies and materials
up and down once the serious work on the roof begins. It seems quite
reasonable on a nice sunny June day, however in the rain and wind it
would be a different prospect.
Fear not though, the renovations within the building do also include a
lift. When we reopen in 2010 visitors to the first floor who have
difficulty with the stairs will be able to ascend gently in far more
comfortable surroundings.
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19th June 2009
It can be a fascinating process watching an historic building being
slowly examined, problems diagnosed and solutions found. Only this week
we had architects, contractors and independent experts all musing over
samples of the mortar discussing the colour and composition to replace
damaged brick and stonework and re-point the building. The result of
their investigations revealed that two distinct mortars were used in the
original construction. Firstly there was a dark grey mortar, coloured
with ash and clinker from the local steelworks, which was on the front
and side of the building facing the street. Secondly there was a buff
coloured lime mortar used around the back of the building and for the
stonework higher up.
An exact match of these colours cannot be made without using dyes as the
precise composition of ash and clinker cannot be replicated. However we
cannot use dyes on a listed building such as this so a decision will be
made in the next few weeks as to what colour to go for and where. I will
report back then and let you know – hopefully with a photo of a sample
and the precise composition of the mortar.
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12th June 2009
Just to report the contractors on
site have had some issues with a group of young people breaking through
the perimeter and climbing on the scaffolding. Clearly warm weather and
long days in June have contributed to this, but it is very dangerous. In
this case the intruders were caught on town centre surveillance cameras
and the police called in, but these people were risking their lives and
that is not acceptable.
In making sure this does not happen again, you can help. If at any time
you see anyone on the scaffolding clearly not meant to be there, without
hard hat or high visibility jacket, please report it straight away to
the Central Watch Unit – tel. 01942 404040.
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5th June 2009
We have lost our chimney! Not that you’d know to look at the History
Shop site now from either Library Street or Rodney Street as it is now
fully enclosed by the scaffolding and protective hoarding.
However from within this protective cover we can confirm that the
distinctive three pot tower, that has dominated the bottom of Library
Street for over 100 years, is still on site dismantled and stored on a
scaffolding level a little above the roof parapet.
This though, as with much of the work in this project, is only a
temporary removal. The chimney is to be fully rebuilt using as much of
the original stone and brickwork as possible. When the scaffolding
finally recedes the three pot chimney will once again tower over the
corner of Library Street and Rodney Street.
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More Blog Entries
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May 2009
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April 2009
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