Makeover for city museum (From Gazette Series)

Makeover for city museum

GLOUCESTER City Museumand Art Gallery is being refurbished, and the first stage is now complete.

The Price Memorial Hall on the first floor has been transformed: re-decorated, and including new material, displays and lighting.

The entrance to the gallery is marked by an impressive scale model of the Gloucester Cross, the centrepiece of the Cross-roads gallery which will be about Gloucester past and present. A clearer telling of Gloucester's story will feature as part of providing a quality service appropriate for one of Britain's most important historic cities.

The fascinating Time Gallery has a wonderful display of clocks, ranging from the 1680s to the 20th century, with everything from a pocket watch to a grandfather clock and from sand glasses to sun dials. There is even a clock that runs for a year. Time travellers can find out about the invention of the electric telegraph by Charles Wheatstone of Gloucester, and can also discover how clocks actually work.

Displays also feature one of the best collections of 18th century glass in the country with items by James Giles (1718-1780), thought to be the best glass decorator of this period.

Coins include examples over thousands of years, such as a rare Viking ingot and a sensational 17th century hoard from Painswick, which has not been on display for many years. There will be opportunities to turn into 'money detectives' and to identify the coins that you have discovered.

'Gloucester Works' shows how Gloucester has become famous for its manufacturing ingenuity and inventiveness over the past two thousand years. Items not seen previously include evidence of local metal working in the Roman period.

There are a number of interactive activities, including the opportunity to test bank notes and to use the Furniture Explorer to find some of the hidden secrets of our furniture.

The City Museum and Art Gallery is open all year from Tuesday to Saturday,10am- 5pm. (Closed 12 noon on December 24 & 27 and 12 noon from December 31- January 2)