Previous Projects

Restoration of Historic Buildings

25 years ago the Museum saved one of the country's most important industrial buildings, the grade II* listed Long Shop, opening this significant building to the public and creating a space where visitors can explore the history of both Garretts and the town.

18 years later it undertook the ambitious task of restoring the Loggia and the grade II listed Water Tower. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, this project cost over £250,000 and today houses the Museum's archive store and superb exhibition space.

Education and Access

In 1998, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Museum was able to spend £150,000 building a fully accessible education room. Today this space is used as part of the Museum's active education programme as well as being used as a space to provide training for other museums and organisations.

In 2007 the Long Shop Museum, together with eight other Suffolk museums, worked with the Alzheimer's Society, a specialist reminiscence trainer and carers of older people to develop memory boxes that can be used in people's homes to encourage reminiscence and conversation. Three years on and these boxes are still actively being used.

In 2009, the Museum received a grant from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's Informal Adult Learning Challenge Fund. This allowed us to offer training to a group of volunteers who learnt new skills in digitising archives. They then used these new skills to digitise a huge collection of over 700 postcards, tracing the last 100 years of Leiston's history, and putting them on a new touch screen computer so that visitors to the Museum can also discover the area's fantastic past.

In 2010, a grant of £20,000 from Activities Unlimited is allowing the Museum to engage a group of young people with disabilities in a project that will teach them new skills and help them explore ways of interpreting our collections.

Restoration of Collections

Throughout the Museum's 25 years it has successfully restored important artefacts and collections. In 1987, with support from the manpower services scheme it was able to restore the derelict threshing machine to full working order. In 1991 the Museum completed the restoration of its steam road roller, Consuelo Allen, which was discovered derelict in Ibiza and donated to the Museum by the Transport Trust.

In 2004 the Museum continued this success by rescuing Sirapite from a salvage yard in Kent. In March 2010 it completed a £100,000 restoration of this rare steam shunting engine. Sirapite had been the works engine between 1929 and 1962 during which time it was the only visible link between the engineering works and the community. A grant of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, matched by £50,000 raised by an extremely supportive community has made this project possible, together with an enormous dedication from volunteers who gave an impressive 2,500 voluntary hours.

Volunteer Development

Thanks to a grant of £20,000 from the Renaissance East of England the Long Shop Museum has been able to employ a Volunteer Development Officer who has been successfully creating new opportunities for involvement at the Museum, including opportunities for young, vulnerable and disadvantaged people. The project is providing opportunities for people to learn new skills and interact with other volunteers.

To find out about some of the organisations, trusts and foundations that have supported the Museums projects click here.