Awards for St Neots Museum

Simon and Jenny Cooper at the St Neots Museum (Image: Archant)

The facility, in New Street, picked up the Cambridgeshire Small Museum of the Year Award at the Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, on November 4. They received two highly commended awards as well as main award, which was for museums up to 10,000 visitors per annum in Cambridgeshire.

"Our two highly commended awards were, firstly down to our hardworking documentation volunteer, Jean Stratford who was highly commended in the Heritage Heroes category and secondly for our Jailbreak Escape Room project, run jointly with Simon and Jenny Cooper of Mystery in History which was highly commended in the New for You category," said museum curator Liz Davies.

"The judges included regional museum professionals as well as a 'mystery visitor' who paid an unannounced visit to the museum to see how we measured up."

In awarding St Neots Museum the Cambridgeshire Small Museum of the Year Award the judges said: The museum team have worked tirelessly to improve every area of museum operation, generating new income streams in the process. They've developed effective new partnerships, become more involved in setting local priorities and have made welcome the many new communities springing up on their doorstep.

"This incredible team monitor and evaluate their work, feeding lessons and recommendations from professional advisors into their planning for the future. Although limited in capacity, their achievements over the past year make them truly deserving of the title."

In a joint response, Liz Davies and learning development officer, Lesley Sainsbury, said: "We are absolutely thrilled to have won this award which is recognition of the hard work of all the museum's dedicated volunteers, trustees and management committee and of our many other supporters in the community from artists to business people who contribute to our success in so many ways - without them we could not have achieved this award."