Wallingford Museum bids to add a £350,000 extension

12:27pm Tuesday 17th November 2009

By Herald Reporter

DOZENS of apprentice carpenters will camp on the Kinecroft next summer to hand-build a new extension to Wallingford Museum.

The museum has unveiled plans to double its exhibition space by contracting trade body The Carpenters’ Fellowship to construct a new timber-framed building while teaching people about historic building methods.

If it succeeds, the project will be at the heart of attempts to boost tourism in the town.

Curator Judy Dewey said: “Wallingford is really emerging on the heritage map. It is coming out of the footnotes and into the mainstream.

“We need a museum that is fit to reflect the importance of what is going to become a really talked-about town. This could be such a draw.”

If the project wins planning permission early next year, 20 tonnes of oak and traditional wattle and daub building methods will be used to create the eco-friendly extension, providing an extra 200 square metres of floor space.

It will house a major new display area, including exhibitions on famous Wallingfordians including Agatha Christie and Judge William Blackstone, as well as a kitchen, toilets and an education suite able to accommodate a coach party.

After two weeks of site preparation in July, a team of carpenters, DIY enthusiasts, and local people is set to prepare oak beams using medieval building methods. They will then construct the timber frames, which will be winched into place behind Flint House in the High Street.

Many of the 50-strong team may camp at their improvised workshop on the Kinecroft while the timber frames are built.

Project manager Norman Guiver, of The Carpenters’ Fellowship, said: “The building will be an exhibit in itself. We will use different styles from across Wallingford’s history, so you can see the development of architecture in the building. The building will be part of the story.”

The museum, which opened at Flint House in 1981 and is staffed and run by volunteers, has long needed an extension for new exhibition space and to open up facilities to disabled visitors.

Academics have shown major interest in the town’s history as one of the most important Saxon towns in Wessex, and the location of a castle on the River Thames until the Civil War.

On Monday night, town councillors unanimously backed the plans to build the extension on council land.

Mayor Dee Cripps said it would be a huge pull for tourists, and the town’s appeal to visitors continued to grow.