Heritage Interpretation |
A National Lottery Heritage Funded project to develop a visitor experience plan for this wonderful historic military building and its archives.
This was a project we were particularly pleased to contribute to. It is a delightful building in a fabulous location, with an inspirational and highly motivated volunteer team that was a pleasure to work alongside.
Steve
(Maltings)
The Cart and Wagon Shed was built in the 1860s and is an early example of a prefabricated iron frame military building. It is Grade II listed for its special architectural and historic interest and it once formed an important part of a Royal Artillery garrison and associated weapons testing range.
The building is part of a nature reserve managed by Essex Wildlife Trust and it sits on the edge of the Thames Estuary with its beautiful and interesting views. The building was restored as part of the Garrison redevelopment and its owners, Southend-on-Sea City Council, undertook basic fitting out within the building. It is on lease to Shoebury Coastal CIC to secure a sustainable future for the building as a heritage and community space. The Cart and Wagon Shed main hall is the largest space in the building and is split into two; one third being the café and two thirds being the exhibition space.It is currently home to the Shoebury Archives – a collection of documentary and artefactual material covering the history of the military base and the town, originally amassed by Major Tony Hill MBE, a former Royal Artillery officer based at Shoeburyness. This was the opportunity space for a significantly enhanced interpretation/exhibition offer that Maltings Studio was delighted to be commissioned to develop plans for.
Following a series of fruitful site visits, surveys and stakeholder workshops, we developed a plan for the main exhibition themes and concepts which included:
• Exploiting Resources: Shoebury has developed in response to its people finding opportunities in its many natural resources – from farming to coastal trade, brickmaking to seaside resort development.
• Soldiers and Civilians: The evolution of modern Shoebury has been fundamentally shaped over the last 200 years by the close interaction between a major military presence and a civilian settlement.
• Military Pioneers: The Shoebury military base was a unique site in British military history and the artillery and other weapons testing and training work undertaken here helped shape the nature and course of international conflicts for 150 years.
• Nature at the Edges: The special estuary environment around Shoebury supports a particularly rich variety of wildlife – everyone can play a part in conserving and protecting this natural heritage.
• Linking the café and exhibition spaces to each other, and to the wider natural environment.
• Temporary and updatable exhibition zones to keep the exhibition as a ‘living’ space – encouraging repeat visits.
Being a listed building, there were significant limitations to what could be structurally introduced. The building itself is an early example of a modular 'kit form' military structure, built in sections. To reflect and celebrate this, we proposed creating the main display areas from a modular tubular system, that could be constructed from commercially available individual components. This would be a fully reversible scheme that would sit within the building, also offering the significant advantages of cost effective future updates as the collection grows or loan exhibits become available.
To evaluate our proposed themes and structural concepts a test exhibit was produced. This consisted of a graphic panel on the theme of the War Dog School, incorporating interactive elements (flap reveals). A summary handout was also created, outlining the background to the project and the proposed themes and content areas. Feedback on both of these was very positive, with overwhelming support for the general approach to design and content.
Our final Exhibition and Interpretation Plan was a richly illustrated document approaching 100 pages. It detailed all themes and major stories, digital and physical interactives, exhibition display systems and general layout/visitor flow. An interpretation matrix was created as a companion document which allocated specific delivery methods to each story, alongside rationale and intended audience notes. This was all supported within a fully costed budget breakdown for the future implementation of the plan. The client team were delighted with the document, and it was submitted as part of a wider application for National Lottery Heritage Fund support for the delivery of the scheme. We are happy to share that it has now been granted funding – maintaining our 100% success rate in achieving delivery stage funding for our interpretation and visitor experience plans.
Maltings are members of the following professional organisations: Association for Heritage Interpretation, Group for Education in Museums, and Association of Illustrators.
