Museum won't reopen sooner than April 2021

THE doors to Fordingbridge Museum will remain closed until at least April next year because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has announced.

The decision means the venue will not celebrate its 20th anniversary this month until 2021 – but bosses have vowed to throw a huge celebratory event when it is possible.

They will use the time to spruce up the Salisbury Street facility and revamp some of its displays.

Museum chair Chris Ansell said: “The management team have consulted with our volunteers and looked carefully at government regulations and reluctantly decided that it is not feasible to open this year.

“We are very disappointed that we will not be open to welcome visitors this summer. The museum is proud of being one of the major attractions in Fordingbridge with thousands of visitors and locals coming to explore the heritage of the area each year.

“This August marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of Fordingbridge museum so we are determined to open with a major relaunch in April next year.”

Museum manager Jane Ireland added: “Although the museum will be shut to the public, our energetic team of volunteers will still be working away behind the closed doors. They are determined that something positive should come out of the crisis.

“We will be rearranging and expanding many of the displays and also producing exciting new ones.

“Not having visitors is also an opportunity to give the outside of the building a much-needed coat of paint. Visitors can look forward to a completely new and enriched experience once we reopen.

“Financially we rely entirely on donations from the public and fundraising by the Friends of the Museum and we have no paid employees. Luckily, as a responsible organisation that forward plans, we have some limited financial reserves to see us through this difficult time,” she continued.

“To restore depleted funds the Friends of the Museum will be pulling out all the stops to continue fundraising whilst complying with the current restrictions.”

She added: “We are urgently looking for new volunteers who could be allocated a range of simple tasks to help us achieve our ambitious aims.”