A huge well done to my friends at Athelstan Museum, Malmesbury, where the work of the dedicated volunteers who run every aspect of the museum has recently been recognised by two awards.

Volunteer stalwart Bill Reed received the Marsh Volunteers for Museum Learning Award for South West England for the Malmesbury Voices oral history project he has run for the museum for the last few years. Now numbering some 250 recordings, this record of life in Malmesbury is available to listen to in the museum. Like many others, Bill and the museum team have adapted to remote working this year and have also been sharing these Malmesbury stories through a series of popular Zoom talks.

In the recent Wiltshire Life Awards the museum received third prize for Conservation Project of the Year in Wiltshire, for the Rausing Building project. The museum completed a successful fundraising campaign and were able to purchase a disused Moravian Church in the town, which has now been repurposed as a new community facility for the town, providing museum, exhibition and event space.

The artist Melissa Cole also received first prize in the Arts, Culture and Music Individual Category for her ‘Moravian Star’ sculpture commissioned for the same building, pictured above.

Great to have some good news in these challenging times and to see all the hard work of the museum team rewarded.