UPDATE: 1st May 2025

At the end of February 2025 we were notified that we had once more been refused a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Their reason being that the risks were seen as too high because we did not demonstrate an adequate 10-12 year plan for maintenance and care of the building (we believe we had), that the building was not sufficiently at risk and our business model did not show a big enough return on their investment. Long gone are the days when the Lottery was for the funding of good causes. Seemingly, we also don't fit into their new criteria of 'conserving the UK's diverse heritage, to encourage people to be involved in heritage and to widen access and learning'. To say ​we are disappointed is an understatement, we could have created a wonderful heritage & community hub.  We therefore could not proceed and bid for the purchase of the Methodist Church, which has now been sold, subject to contract, to a local retired businessman. We have met with the  buyer, hoping to lease part of the building, but with the sale not completed at that time we have as yet not heard anymore from them.  We are therefore currently looking at funding to refurbish the Goff's School building, owned by MHDC, hoping to at least install heating, insulation, and perhaps a toilet, something the site has always lacked but it is early days. We will continue maintaining the museum and hope another opportunity arises.

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 12th December 2024

Having been busy over the last few months devising a maintenance and business plan, and pulling a formal bid together, we are pleased to announce we have submitted an application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund to help secure the purchase of the Methodist Chapel site. We hope to be able to give a positive update sometime in February.
We'd like to send our grateful thanks to our wonderful volunteer team and the heritage consultants who have all helped us get to this point.  We now must wait to see what Fate decides.

 

23rd October 2024

Always wishing to keep the local community informed, we have listed below all the work our volunteers have undertaken, while continuing to keep open and maintain the town’s museum as well as organising and hosting monthly history talks at the Pump Rooms:
 

June

• we were successful in our nomination for the Cornerstone Chapels to be designated Assets of Community Value; we offer grateful thanks to our local councillors for their support in our efforts. Whether or not the museum group are able to purchase, we hope we have helped to safeguard the buildings.

• a Project Enquiry was drafted and submitted to National Lottery Heritage Fund to determine if funding could be granted for a chapel purchase, for which helpful feedback was given and will be actioned upon over the coming months.

 

July & August

• once designated, the Methodist Circuit formally advised us and MHDC of their intention to sell the Cornerstone buildings

• an Extraordinary General Meeting was held with members unanimously agreeing to submit an offer;  in accordance with the legal process, we gave notice to all parties of our intent to bid for the property – this triggered a 6-month moratorium that allows charitable organisations time to raise necessary funding by 24th January 2025 deadline.

• we began local community fundraising with donation tins situated in various establishments, who were willing to have them, for 8 weeks. This was advertised on our website, social media platforms, in the local press, via posters in town and the Traders promotional screens. We also raised awareness and funds at our Tenbury Agricultural Show stand.

• we contacted local businesses & charitable trusts, some of whom have kindly donated/pledged funding

• we continued to host primary school and Regal summer school visits at the museum

• we began writing funding applications to two other national funders to be submitted during their December window (extra to the National Lottery)
   

September & October

• Several site visits and meetings held, followed by the commissioning of two professional consultants to undertake i) an independent valuation* and ii) a Feasibility Study of the two chapels, their fees being met by the Museum’s own funds. Further professional fees are also to be met for a future Structural Survey of the buildings

• a fundraising event ‘Talking Antiques’ was arranged and held on Friday 18th October at the chapel

  * Following standard practise and in line with Charity Commission requirements we instigated an independent valuation of the site. As per National Lottery advice, this was undertaken by the Government appointed District Valuer who is the final arbitrator for matters of valuation disputes in regard to the use of public money. The inspection was undertaken by a senior valuer and peer reviewed before a report was forwarded to us. It concluded that in comparison to many other redundant chapels and similar sized buildings, the combined value of both chapels was a little over half of the Methodist Church’s current asking price.   As the local Methodist Circuit have stated their wish for the chapel to continue to be used by the local community, we notified them of the value discrepancy and forwarded the report to their agent. The agent duly replied that the property will continue to be placed on the open market sometime after the 24th Jan 2025, for a 6-week period, when sealed bids will be invited to be submitted - their asking price to remain the same. 
This is very disappointing. We accept that as a charitable organisation the Methodist Church are duty bound to achieve the best price for their asset, but as a charity we also have restrictions not to spend donated funds on any item that is considerably over the market value. Indeed, the National Lottery will not fund a project that vastly exceeds the District Valuer’s opinion.

As the building has not yet been tested on the open market, we are willing to continue in our endeavours and submit an offer, subject to a survey, when we are allowed to do so.  We are therefore working hard to devise both a maintenance programme and business plan that will help us conserve the museum’s collection and the two chapel buildings should we be successful.

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8th MAY 2024:

A reply to our bid has been received. While the local Methodist Circuit are supportive of the Cornerstone Chapel remaining in use by a community enterprise, the national church trustees have decided they are not in a position to hold the property for any single purchaser while they raise funds, so the plan to place the building on the open market shall continue.   The museum group has therefore decided to take a proactive step and mount a major fundraising campaign now, in the hopes of placing a successful bid when allowed to do so. We have nominated the chapel to be registered as an Asset of Community Value with Malvern Hills District Council, which if accepted would offer the chapel some protection from development and allow us to enact the ‘Community Right to Bid’ once it is placed on the open market. It would provide a six-month moratorium to allow finances to be raised by a community enterprise such as the museum group, although we acknowledge that this could still prove unsuccessful. The Cornerstone Methodist Chapel is a well used, long established community building and the only viable solution to securing a stable future for the museum and its increasingly fragile collection. See our Donations page for ways to help plus there will be collection tins located around the town.  If you think there should remain a museum in Tenbury please consider donating.

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8th April 2024

Frustratingly, the last 12 months have seen much discussion but little progress. Dialogue with representatives of The David & Christine Lloyd-Jones Foundation regrettably proved unsuccessful with their interest instead being drawn to an alternative Tenbury project.  We sincerely wish it every success and, if realised, hope it will provide much-improved facilities for the town.

 When one door closes another one opens, and talks were subsequently held with representatives of the Cornerstone Methodist Chapel - soon to be placed on the open market. The site comprises of two unlisted buildings, needing much less remedial work than the Old Fire Station and offers the capacity for the museum to hold more community engagement events, alongside the daily opening of the museum. A purchase by the museum would enable the Chapel to continue being used by the local community with its unique interior features remaining accessible and out of danger from demolition. The Church Trustees declined our initial purchase offer but we have subsequently submitted a second that is equal to their own valuation/asking price. We are currently awaiting their decision on the matter and once again we're keeping everything crossed!  Should the sale be agreed, it would be subject to a 12-month funding initiative, comprising of a much lower national lottery grant, the museum group’s own financial contribution and match-funding raised through activities and kind donations from Tenbury’s residents and businesses.    As a larger, more visible and accessible building, the Cornerstone would enable the museum to attract more visitors ….which can only be good news for the town.

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8th March 2023
Since their decision in December 2021, the museum group have continued to heed the advice of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and have engaged with heritage consultants regarding the resubmission of a second funding application.

We regret to report, however, that due to the rising costs of materials post Covid plus the stringent stipulations of the National Lottery Heritage Fund itself, the relocation to the Old Fire Station is no longer viable. A new overall project cost of £1 million pounds and possibly more, has been estimated - a figure out of proportion to the size of building and one we cannot hope to meet.

Realising this and needing to secure the future of the museum, we submitted a formal proposal to Tenbury Town Council for the museum to relocate to the historic pump rooms, seen by many of our members and visitors as the museum’s ‘natural home.’ At their meeting in July 2022 Town Councillors voted to approve the move in principle, subject to alternative accommodation being found for their office and meeting room. To date we have not been advised of any such accommodation being sought or found, so we are to remain at Goff’s School – an isolated and unsuitable building that is adversely affecting the condition of the museum’s collection.

We continue to be diligent in our duties and have approached a new, local Foundation introduced to us by the Town Mayor, Eric Hudson. Along with other Tenbury projects, we submitted an  application to the Foundation's trustees via their chosen agents in August 2022 for funds to relocate either to the Old Fire Station or the Pump Rooms, but was refused. Following a subsequent meeting with representatives from the museum and Tenbury Town Council their agents seemed keen to help the museum further and expressed an interest in any potential funding to the town being directed via the museum.  Ongoing talks are proving to be frustratingly slow, but we hope to be able to give a more positive update of this new option in the near future.

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12th December 2021

Following a strong bid submission from the Tenbury Museum Trustees, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has declined our initial application. They have, however, acknowledged the necessity for the museum to move premises in order to protect the collection and are offering to meet with the Trustees in the new year.  We hope further guidance will be given on how to strengthen our case on resubmission.  Whilst the Trustees are very disappointed in not succeeding in this first application attempt, this is in no way an unusual outcome, as many similar organisations have achieved a successful result at a later stage.   

There continues to be strong support from the general public and followers on social media and the Trustees remain fully committed to achieving their goal to provide a heritage based centre that will ensure the history of Tenbury is preserved for future generations.    The work goes on!

 

23rd August 2021

Today, the museum trustees finally submitted their formal grant application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund ahead of the 25th August deadline. The Trustees wish to thank its project support, Sam Hine from Communities Can, the museum volunteers, local residents and businesses and the many advisors who gave of their time and expertise to make this possible.  We will not hear from the NLHF of their decision until mid December, so we're keeping our fingers and everything crossed till then for a positive outcome.

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April 2021

National Lottery Heritage Fund finally reopened its Grant scheme in February. While their criteria have changed we are confident that our project matches them. A mandatory Expression of Interest was submitted in March and received approval so  we are now working towards submitting our full bid for the next round of 25th August; the outcome of which will not be know till the Winter. Unfortunately, the Covid crisis has set our project back by at least 12 months.

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18th December 2020

Planning Application approval received today from Malvern Hills District Council. We are now in a good position to submit our bid for a National Lottery Heritage Grant when the process reopens in Spring 2021.

Our grateful thanks to Mark Newall of Baart Harries & Newall Architects, our MHDC representatives and all our local supporters. Some good news to end a miserable year.

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26th July 2020

Planning Application ref: 20/00994/FUL has now been submitted to Malvern Hills District Council Planning Department. Site notices were posted on 26th July and will remain in-situ until 20th August.
Local community members are able to submit their comments of support for the project on MHDC planning portal and would be gratefully appreciated. 

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12th April 2020     (Grant Application delay)

Owing to the Coronavirus outbreak, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF formally Heritage Lottery Fund or HLF) has reordered their funding policies to help the broader emergency requirement.  As a result they have suspended all new applications for a period.  We are continuing to plan for our funding bid so that we will be ready to respond quickly when they are restored.  As a result progress is delayed for an as yet unknown period.

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Review of Open Meeting held 12th February 2020

We would like to thank everyone who attended the public open meeting held at Tenbury Community Centre detailing our latest aspirational plans and designs for a move to the old Fire Station, Teme Street.  Following a presentation by the architect, Mark Newall,  there was an engaging discussion with valid questions being asked by residents, councillors and business owners and hopefully we calmed any concerns felt. We were overwhelmed and encouraged by the support and good will shown by Tenbury residents and we hope to update you with our progress in the near future. 

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13th - 18th September 2019:  
Three architects were interviewed on 13th September in a bid for the contract. We are pleased to announce that as of 18th September BAART HARRIES NEWALL ARCHITECTS (BHN) have been appointed to the project.

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August 2019:

The following press release was been issued regarding the possible relocation of the Museum.  We hope this will be the first post put on the website  and also on our Facebook.  As we progress further information will be put on Facebook and the Website.

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Exciting plans in the pipeline for Tenbury Museum

Following a number of years considering the future for Tenbury Museum, plans are beginning to develop for an exciting future in a new town centre location. The Tenbury Museum and History Group Trustees have been in discussion with Tesco regarding the Old Fire Station building at the entrance to the town. Agreement has now been reached in principle to a long lease, subject to securing planning permission and funding to undertake the necessary capital works to renovate and convert the building into a Museum and Local History Resource Centre. 

Liz Finlay, Chair of the Trustees said, “This is a really exciting time for the Museum and History Group.  A Condition Survey on the Old Fire Station building has been completed so our next task is to appoint architects to help us draw up the designs for the conversion so that we can apply for planning permission.

We will then need to raise the necessary funding to undertake the work. It has been a long held aspiration for the Museum to move to a central location and more suitable premises. We hope the Old Fire Station will enable us to achieve our ambitions for the museum and the town.”  The Museum and History Group has recently secured an Awards for All grant from the National Lottery towards the costs of the architect fees.

Liz said, “Once we’ve appointed architects we’ll be organising opportunities for local people to find out more about the project. If anyone would like to get involved in the project or as a volunteer at the Museum please get in touch via the volunteer page on our website, we are always looking for more people to join us.”

 

Photo shows: Tenbury Wells Museum & History Group Trustees outside The Old Fire Station

l-r Tracey Morris; Liz Finlay; David Patrick; Phil Rees; Mike Thompson; Monica Rees

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