Heritage Open Days 2006

Our 8th annual opening for Heritage Open Days proved very successful. Good weather meant the boxes and signs were looking at their best and the garden was a pleasant place to be this weekend! Altogether we had 75 visitors, with 40 on Saturday and 35 on Sunday. 10 LBSG members came, which considering we had an open day for them in July is very good. There were 79 boxes on display, as two more entered the collection this weekend. A remarkable start to Heritage Open Days was the unexpected arrival of an LB217 front casting and door. These were in very bad repair having been involved in a traffic accident. However, enough parts survived to enable us to fit a back and make up a reasonable box. Luckily I had a box back in stock for the 1977 pattern. The aperture upshoot is largely missing, but the box does show all the important features of its type. No sooner had I squirreled it away in the workshop for later attention, than another visitor asked if we were still collecting boxes! When I said "Yes" she immediately offered to donate an unwanted box. It turned out to be the wooden NSB335 from the HQ of the British Red Cross in Chelmsford. It is very interesting when compared with our own Cornish hotel box. They are clearly from the same manufacturer but show many interesting design differences. Both new boxes were painted overnight and ready for display on the Sunday.

Anotherlocal visitor says he knows the whereabouts of the AA village sign for Braintree, so that was also a good lead. Sales of books, badges and philatelic material were brisk throughout the weekend. The refurbished stamp machines were dispensing 1d Wildings and 10p stamp booklets while the youngsters were able to affix the Wilding to a cover and cancel it off with the newly arrived Edinburgh Postal Training Counter cancels. On the AA front, we had 14 signs in the garden, the largest number so far.

Now that everyone has gone home, the Museum goes into winter hibernation, with several slow restoration projects taking over for the winter months. We re-open again for visits in the Spring.

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