How do you pack up and move a Museum?

One of the first and largest parts of our redevelopment project has been the work of moving most of our collections off site to a nearby collections centre. This was necessary in order to ensure their safety whilst renovation and building work are carried out on site.

Work began back in July 2024 with the appointment of 2 new Collections Assistants - Osian Thomas and Mathew Williams - who joined Curator Cadi Iolen, to begin the enormous task of itemising, labelling and packing up each object in the Museum. 

Here they tell us a bit more about what was involved in 'moving a museum'. 

"There are over 8,000 objects in our collection ...this was an enormous task!" Cadi Iolen, Curator

The National Slate Museum is housed in the original engineering  workshops at Gilfach Ddu, and was opened in 1972 following a dedicated campaign by the community to keep it in tact as a Museum. Although the majority of our collection was documented, quite a large amount wasn't and so we've had to go back to basics and document and tag everything in the Museum so that everything's recorded. 

"It's a process that has never been done in the Slate Museum before, When the museum opened in 1972 it wasn't in a new building with white walls, and people bringing things in to display. It was sometimes difficult to know what was here originally and what has been transported here by the museum staff over all the years. But of course that has also given us a different kind of museum which is so unique and beautiful."      Cadi Iolen, Curator

From Slate dressing tables to bellows, blocks and tackles to dressing machines, the sheer scale of the project has been immense and surprising at times. From the smallest wooden pattern to our much-loved locomotive, UNA, the Gilfach Ddu workshops are now a very different place to what people are used to seeing during a normal visit. As we’ve moved through the Museum we’ve made some surprising discoveries. 

"I found a box of tools owned by the Pattern family who exclusively worked up in the Pattern Loft. The box had been hidden underneath bag of patterns for years. We’re so happy that we came across them as they – like many items at the Museum – seem to have been left as they were when the workshops complex was closed in 1969!" Mathew Williams, Collections Assistant

The Foundry was another room which needed to be recorded before items being moved. The massive sand area in the middle of the room was once filled with casting boxes and metal equipment and the walls were adorned with wooden patterns so big that it is difficult to grasp their size until they eventually came off the wall – each one revealing their legacy imprint on the paintwork behind them.

"While examining the building, we uncovered several hidden graffiti pieces. In the Volunteers’ Loft, we found WW2-era drawings of war leaders, previously hidden behind storage racks. I made a personal discovery while tagging tools on the crane in the Foundry. My grandfather, Gwynfryn Thomas, worked there as a Moulder, and I noticed “GT” etched into the woodwork. To my surprise, I counted nine of hiinitials on the crane—a touching connection to my family history." Osian Thomas, Curatorial Assistant

We closed the Museum at the end of October 2024 and in November the removals began! This was challenging on many levels, from huge items which needed their very own transport to moving all the tiny items in storage boxes. Working with Restore Harrow Green – an expert removals company specializing in large scale library, museum and office moves – things were relocated very quickly and efficiently. 

One of the first rooms to be emptied was the  Volunteers Loft (the last room in the pattern loft) which was full of Conserved Collections of wooden patterns and other objects. The Foundry, Smithy, Caban all followed and room by room, the museum slowly transformed from a place full of objects where space was at a premium, to suddenly feeling eerily empty.

Then it was time to move the larger objects on the Museum’s main yard. Who would’ve thought at the beginning of this redevelopment journey that we’d see one of our locomotive boilers suspended over the museum yard by a crane on a Thursday morning? 

"It’s been a real learning journey for us, one which has made us realize and appreciate the sheer scale and variety of the Museum’s collections. It’s also been an incredibly rewarding journey, handling objects that were last held by the workmen here and now seeing them all neatly organised and stored in the new collections Store."   Osian Thomas, Curatorial Assistant.

This is just the end of the first chapter of this large redevelopment project.  

The objects have now found a new temporary home at our new Collections centre in Llandegai near Bangor. 

We're planning open days there soon ...but we'll tell you all about that amazing space in the next blog!