Doncaster Learning This year our Education Team loaned 1,211 handling items straight into classrooms and delivered high quality learning workshops and experiences to 5,624 pupils. The workshops link directly to subjects across the National Curriculum and help to increase pupil attainment across the borough. Doncaster 1914-18 delivered First World War outreach programmes to 2,715 children in primary and secondary schools across Doncaster. Our family activities and learning events have helped children to enhance their skills and have provided the opportunity for families to learn together. 350 people attended March s British Science Week event and 384 joined us for the British Archaeology Festival day in July. I loved it, especially the scarab beetle table. It was brill! Hensall Primary School Pupil Heritage Services takes a whole person, whole life focus to learning and hosts learning opportunities for adults. The Art Gallery continues to offer our very well-attended monthly Art History Lectures and Life Drawing workshops. The very popular Doncaster Heritage Festival put on over 25 talks and events this year, including family history workshops, with many events a sell-out. Over 900 tickets were sold for the ticketed Heritage Festival events. Photo Credit - Carol Hill Doncaster Heritage Services volunteer programme continues to develop skills, abilities and attributes amongst our volunteers that employers need. Nine Doncaster 1914-18 project volunteers went into work following a period of volunteering with the Service. We continue to support young people in Doncaster to develop skills for work with work placements and experience. Doncaster Archives hosted two work experience students with Asperger s to develop archival skills. Doncaster 1914-18 partnered with University Centre Doncaster for a variety of placements, including the opportunity for Performing Arts students to develop a play at Doncaster Mansion House based on true events from First World War Doncaster offering real-world experience as part of their degree course. Doncaster 1914-18 marked the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme with a commemoration service and event in Doncaster Minster, assisted by local history societies and schools. A series of Battle of the Somme film screenings were held across the Borough in collaboration with Mexborough s Cosy Cinema, the Read to Write Group and the Mexborough and District Heritage Society. It has really made me appreciate Doncaster and made me think wow, so much has happened here.., it makes me more interested to find out, well, what did that community do, what did this community do. It has really made my interest and judgemental view change so much. Michael, 19, Doncaster College Student
Doncaster CARING This year Doncaster Heritage Services has built on its aim to be accessible to all. With support from Museum Development Yorkshire, Barnardo s and a Learning & Opportunities group, the Education Team ran three well-received Arts Award workshops for children with disabilities, their siblings and carers. Volunteering with Doncaster Heritage Services offers the opportunity to maximise independence and improve health and wellbeing. For example, the volunteer gardeners at Cusworth Park donate their time to development and conservation projects in the Park. Volunteers across the Service gave 4,983 hours of their time this year. One volunteer said in this year s volunteer survey: I became a volunteer after I lost my job and I was becoming depressed. I thought volunteering for the Doncaster 1914-18 project would be interesting and would help to get me out of the house. I have learnt how to use Ancestry, Find my Past and how to write an interesting story. My family has noticed I am no longer depressed and feeling sorry for myself. The Education Team and the Doncaster 1914-18 project ran the second Disabled Access Day in conjunction with the Doncaster Inclusive Centre for Excellence (DICE) - some of whose members gave tours around the galleries following a hands-on training session. The Doncaster Partially Sighted Society has worked with us to improve our PenFriend offer giving access to objects and works of art, with several people attending the Disabled Access Day to give them a go. Detailed Access Statements and guidance can now be found on the website for both the Museum and Cusworth Hall. It was great to give some of our volunteers with various disabilities the opportunity to take part in training delivered by your staff and also to volunteer at the event and assist with activities and the tours. They really benefited from their experience and I know a couple of them are very keen to continue doing some volunteering at the museum. I ve enjoyed engaging with people from the public and guiding them around. Volunteering makes me feel important. Toni, DICE Volunteer Colin Findlay, DICE Enterprise
Doncaster WORKING Doncaster Heritage Services contributes to the local visitor economy each year, attracting visitors to our exhibition and events programme. 82,301 people visited our museums throughout the year, helping to generate 182,422 of income for the Service. For the first time both Cusworth Hall & Park and Doncaster Museum & Art Gallery were awarded a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. While it was the Museum s first year as part of the TripAdvisor Scheme, Cusworth Hall has been awarded a Certificate every year since 2013. Our annual events programme continues to be popular. At Cusworth Hall and Park over 1,000 people attended the annual egg rolling event and over 1,500 people attended the ever-popular Pirates & Princesses day. More than 500 people visited the Doncaster at War event in Doncaster Market Place. Doncaster 1914-18 launched four new exhibitions at our sites this year, and also worked with another local tourist attraction, the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum, on an exhibition telling the story of the 1916 Zeppelin raid on Sheffield and Doncaster s role in the war in the sky. Over 11,000 people visited our Making Tracks exhibition in the Frenchgate Centre, showcasing items from the Doncaster Grammar School Railway Collection and organised in conjunction with Doncaster Tourism, the Frenchgate Centre, the Grammar School Trustees and the P2 Locomotive Trust. Doncaster Art Gallery hosted a large-scale retrospective exhibition by eminent Doncaster-born artist John Sprakes and a sell-out display of works by well-known Doncaster artist, David Venables. The Art Gallery celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Doncaster Gold Cup, which was put together with assistance from the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket and English Heritage. The annual Open Art exhibition was once again hugely successful with 159 artists submitting 325 works to the exhibition, exceeding the total in 2015. The Service secured an Arts Council Resilience Fund grant of 180,000 this year to finance a new business plan as well as a new brand, a new fit-out for the Cusworth shop and public WiFi at both museums. Two posts were also created as part of this project. A Heritage Lottery Fund grant of 48,000 was secured to encourage more people to visit the Mansion House by exploring the Regency period and the architecture of the building. The Museum Education team were successful in obtaining funding to deliver free events during National Science Week and an Arts Award scheme for children with disabilities. They also secured Royal Society funding for Local Science Hero events and activities for summer 2017. Four new project posts were created through grant-aided funding two for the Arts Council s Resilience Fund Project, one for the Mansion House Heritage Lottery Fund project and one for The National Archives project to catalogue the amazing collection of 15,000 images from local photographer Luke Bagshaw (1890s-1940s). Cusworth Hall has supported local businesses to host events in its grounds, including the Little Green Workshop hand painted furniture business that regularly used the Bothy for their furniture painting workshops. In 2016 39,715 of income was generated through wedding bookings with 38 couples tying the knot. Cusworth Hall featured on Who Do You Think You Are? with Sophie Raworth using documents supplied from Doncaster Archives to trace her gardening forebears.
Doncaster Living Over 300,000 people visited Cusworth Park this year as part of living an active and healthy life. The Park continues to be a popular destination for fitness activities and dog walkers, hosting the Cusworth Cycle Hill Climb and Cusworth 10k run. The Park was once again awarded a Green Flag Award for the excellence of its visitor experience. The Green Flag award is given annually to the most visitor-friendly parks and green spaces in the UK. The Service also encourages people to live active lives through physical activities at events, including the climbing wall at Doncaster 1914-18 s Doncaster Goes to War event and egg-rolling down the hill at Cusworth Park. The Doncaster 1914-18 app was launched over the summer, featuring First World War walking tours across Doncaster, with over 200 people downloading the app this financial year. Heritage Services continues to preserve and protect items from Doncaster s past. This year we saved another piece of Doncaster s racing heritage for the people of Doncaster with grant awards of 6,144 to help us secure the 1787 Doncaster Gold Cup. We were also awarded a further 6,735 to help us to purchase a rare 17th century reliquary cross found at Scawsby, a medieval silver gilt brooch and various family items from Hooton Pagnell Hall. The Friends of Doncaster Museums purchased a painting by John Sprakes of a butcher s stall in Doncaster Market for the art collection. The King s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (K.O.Y.L.I.) Regimental Museum has had a steady stream of donations this year, including a Second World War propaganda leaflet that was dropped by the Luftwaffe just before the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940. The Service supported the Friends of Doncaster Minster with a successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid of 10,000 to restore the Queen s Own Yorkshire Dragoons First World War memorial. Interacting with 5,832 people, to encourage them to discover more. We also offer people the opportunity to discover their family history, developing a sense of pride in Doncaster. 15,737 documents were retrieved for users by the Archives and Local Studies Library to discover more about the Town s past. Doncaster 1914-18 s Great War on Tour visited 37 places around the borough and into the old West Riding, interacting with 5,832 people, to encourage them to discover more about their First World War stories. 263 First World War family stories have been uploaded to the Doncaster 1914-18 website by volunteers and members of the public. Since November 2016 the K.O.Y.L.I. Regimental Museum received 118 enquiries from the public, of which 42 resulted in paid research or donations. In Autumn 2016 the K.O.Y.L.I. Regimental Museum and Doncaster 1914-18 project helped Trevor Powell, who resides in Italy, to find out about his mother s cousin, William Royle and the role he played in the First World War. This research led to Trevor Powell being able to re-unite with his second cousins in Doncaster.
Connected Council Ready for the Future Doncaster Heritage Services has a commitment to be more resilient and sustainable as an organisation. The Arts Council Resilience Fund grant awarded this year will develop a business plan, a marketing plan, a new website and a strong brand for Heritage Services as well as increasing capacity through the use of volunteers, re-fitting out the Cusworth shop and Wi-Fi enabling our buildings. The Service demonstrated its modern approach to customer interaction by capitalising on this year s Pokémon Go craze attracting international support for our inventive and creative promotion of the Museum via a viral social media post. Wonderful response to the recent Pokémon outbreak from Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery... Well worth a visit even if you're not hunting imaginary monsters! Reddit User Doncaster Heritage Services aims to help build community resilience through effective partnership working. Volunteers, including students from Hall Cross Academy, project volunteers, members of local history societies across the borough and volunteers at the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum spent 1,697 hours researching and contributing content to Doncaster 1914-18 project exhibitions. The Service also supported exhibitions by the P2 Locomotive Trust, Doncaster Grammar School Railway Collection and grant applications by the Friends of Doncaster Minster. The post received comments from around the world including America, Canada, Australia, Spain, Poland, Bosnia, Mexico and Israel. Doncaster 1914-18 also produced its own mannequin challenge video inspired by the Twitter craze with students from Hall Cross Academy. Doncaster Heritage Services provides effective leadership and governance through museum accreditation advice to local museums including Ashworth Barracks and South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum. South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum spent 1,697 hours researching into content for Doncaster 1914-18.
It has really made me appreciate Doncaster and made me think wow, so much has happened here.., it makes me more interested to find out, well, what did that community do, what did this community do. It has really made my interest and judgemental view change so much. Michael, 19, Doncaster College Student