Commendation for museum staff who overcame flooding

STAFF who helped to save priceless exhibits from filthy floodwaters at an industrial museum in South Yorkshire have been commended for their work in helping the attraction recover.

The commendation, awarded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), has recognised the work carried out at Sheffield’s Kelham island Museum following the floods in June 2007.

Officials at the MLA said the hard work and determination of all the staff and volunteers had enabled the museum to bounce back and be reopened only two years later.

Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, which runs Kelham Island, also achieved full accreditation from the MLA for the museum and its Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet venues, meaning it meets standards for management, collections care and visitor services.

Trust chief executive John Hamshere said: “To be awarded both full accreditation and to get a special commendation is incredibly important to us as it recognises the quality of what we do but also acknowledges that we have done this during a very difficult time.

“At the same time as we were trying to recover from the flood over the summer of 2007 we wrote a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a new gallery for the Hawley Collection of tools.

“We were successful with a grant of 595,000 towards a 700,000 project. That gallery opened in March this year.”

Alex Pettifer, trust chairman, said: “The commendation is clear national recognition of the Trust’s resolve to rebuild Kelham and recognises the determination and hard work of all the staff, volunteers and all those who helped to actually make it happen.”