 We were really excited today to receive our FINAL evaluation report from consultant Harriet Foster. This summarises all the learning and achievements of the last year and a half. As you might imagine it is a pretty big document! We are so proud and excited to be able to demonstrate how we have hit our objectives and how we have a made a difference to museum working with workhouse collections and archives.
There is a long gap (20 years) in Sarah’s life. In 1851 aged 21 Sarah was working as a servant in Marylebone London and in 1881 she was at Gressenhall, where she was listed with a specified health condition ‘imbecile’ and where she lived until her death in 1905. I often wonder what might have happened to her in the ‘lost’ years between those two censuses. I suppose no individual’s story is every truly closed. She was the first person I researched so I learnt to keep better records as I go along and discover information. I often had to look for things that I had previously seen and had not annotated the source properly. I try to be more methodical now and have developed my own system. (Research Volunteer working on the project talking about one of the pauper biographies) Most of the evaluation has been qualitative but we have been able to capture some numerical data too:
Megan Dennis Curator, Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Chair, Workhouse Network
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More Than Oliver Twist - the beginning of the end
As I am sure you are aware Wednesday Batchelor and Elspeth Hunter’s shared Project Support Officer post came to an end on Friday. This is not however the end of the project (not yet anyway!). We are still working on the few remaining elements of the project, and the final report isn’t due until 13th October. Exhibition The artists (Mel Rye and Morgan Tipping) have completed their work (and it looks pretty fabulous!) and we are now awaiting publication by Google. This can take a few weeks and I will be sure to let you all know as soon as the exhibition is available upon the website. Forward Plan The Forward Planning Group held a Virtual Visioning meeting a few weeks ago and now have the building blocks of a Forward Plan for the network. We’ll be working hard on this over the next few weeks and will share with you once it is ready. The final document will be signed off by the Workhouse Network Steering Committee. We are already thinking about new funding applications and really want to build on the success of the More Than Oliver Twist project and stay in touch with all our fabulous regional groups and volunteers. If you are part of the Forward Planning Group I will be in touch with you separately to agree a work plan for the next few weeks to make sure we can get this completed within the time left. Evaluation The majority of the evaluation for the project has now been completed and our Evaluation Consultant, Harriet Foster, is busy compiling the Final Report for Arts Council England, our funders. Can I take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you for your vitality, passion and enthusiasm for the project and for the network. As we reach the final push towards the deadline it will be great to finish the Forward Plan and look towards an interesting new era of growth and working together. If you have any questions about the last few elements of the project please do let me know. Megan Dennis Curator, Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse |
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