Alma Project Update

The Museum has tendered for various aspects of the Stage 1 Development work for the project, which received a generous grant of £100k towards the £119k cost from the Heritage Lottery Fund North West (HLFNW) last year. The work will include the Architectural Design, Design and Exhibition Layout & Plan and the Activity Plan. Swarbrick Associates (David Swarbrick) of Carlisle have been appointed as the Architects. PLB Ltd  of Swinton, near Malton in North Yorkshire will be doing the Design & Exhibition and Activity Plans. The Museum Staff & Trustees will prepare the Business Plan and a Quantity Surveyor and Project Manager will also be appointed. 

 Amongst a number of projects on historic, listed and other buildings, David Swarbrick has previously done work at Carlisle Castle. PLB Ltd have carried out a wide range of work in the Museum & Heritage sector including the new History of the Tank in Warfare Gallery at the Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset. They have also done a lot of work in the Education and Outreach sector including the development of discovery visits for school groups on English Heritage sites including Carlisle Castle. This experience of Activity Planning is crucial to the Project as the Museum seeks to cater for existing audiences and most importantly attract new ones through permanent displays, temporary exhibitions, education and research work, facilities and a range of activities and events for educational and other groups, individuals and families.

There is a considerable of work to do and all of the detailed plans and development work will form part of the Stage 2 Application to HLF in March 2012 for an HLF grant of £900k which, with additional match funding, will cover the cost of the work on the building and the exhibition and museum fit-out. The Project Manager will assist the Alma project team with the preparation of the Stage 2 HLF Application and the management of the Project. A decision from the HLF will be expected in early June 2012. Following tendering and appointment of contractors the actual work on the building would be planned for the second half of 2012 with completion towards the end of the year or early 2013.

As part of the architectural work, the Museum commissioned a computer based CAD-survey of the building both internally and externally. Andy Russell of Russell Geomatics completed the work in early February and produced an incredibly detailed set of drawings, both plans and elevations. The survey was completed in early February and the drawings have been put to good use by the architect to develop the building layout.

THE BIGGEST MECCANO KIT IN THE WORLD

Alma Block was emptied of Archive material by Christmas 2010, but the County Council still have tenure on the building. They are currently in the process of the formal handover of the building to English Heritage and once completed we will formally take the building over in late Spring or early Summer. 

 The Council have kindly granted us access to the building since January to complete the computer based survey and other development work. However, in order for the survey to be completed inside the building, Museum Staff had to dismantle the mass of dexion steel racking, which the Archives did not require and which had been left. This filled the basement, one ground floor room, and the whole of the first and second floors (600 sq. metres). On the first floor this was constructed to mezzanine level almost to the ceiling and one estimate was that there was some 4.5 miles of shelving!!!!!
 
The massive task of dismantling was organised by Tony Goddard, the Assistant Curator with volunteers Chester Forster & Matt Lund and with occasional help from Nick Hazlewood and Stuart Eastwood of the Museum Staff, Mike Milbourn from the Friends Group and Graham Cameron of the 1st Battalion Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. One building surveyor assumed that a gang of 20-30 men had spent a month doing the work. Tony and his team are to be congratulated on their phenomenal achievement, which if it had not been done would have caused long delays to the project. By avoiding the use of contractors, they have also saved a huge amount of money. 
 
Above – the former Restaurant/Bar with the original bar on the left, dismantled shelving in the centre and the patterned linoleum floor. This room will be the temporary exhibition gallery of the new Museum.

THE HERITAGE & ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ALMA BUILDING

Remarkably the Museum has no internal photographs of Alma and no plans of the original internal layout of the building. However, as the building has been cleared many original features have been revealed for the first time since 1959 and we have worked out the original usage of the rooms. The former Dining Hall on the ground floor has a narrow oak planked floor throughout. The rear of the building includes the kitchen, preparation & storage areas. In the basement there were two class-rooms. On the first floor there are three principal rooms at the front of the building; the Games Room (left) with its mahogany floor and the marks where the feet of the billiard table have been; the Restaurant/Bar with the original mahogany bar and linoleum floor in regimental colours of yellow & green; and the former Corporals’ Room again with the coloured linoleum floor; these and other features will be retained wherever possible. Behind the bar was another kitchen, pantry, stores and the living room and bath-room of the canteen manager. The three rooms on the second floor formed the rest of the manager’s accommodation

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