Improved Access to Sandwell's Historic Collections

Sandwell Museum Service has a new service. Collections staff at Haden Hill House and Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery can search the CALM database. We can check whether Community History and Archive Service (CHAS) has a document or photograph and provide a reference number to help you find the item at CHAS.

We are also adding our own collection information into this database. This will help us to deal with enquiries about our collections more efficiently.

If you wish to speak to a member of staff about this service please phone Emma Cook (Collections Manager) on 0121 556 0683.

Oil Painting Collection - New Feature

You can now view all the oil paintings in the Sandwell Museum Service collection and see what artist's work we have. Click the link below to take you to the oil painting homepage, and then follow the links on the left hand side of the screen.

• Oil Paintings online

Ruskin Online

You can now learn about our Ruskin Pottery Collection, the history of Ruskin factory and view our Ruskin photo galelry.

Accreditation

Four Sandwell Museum Service sites have been awarded accreditation status by the MLA (Museums, Libraries Archives), which is the government body for museums. The sites to receive this nationally recognised award are Haden Hill House, Oak House Museum, Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery and Bishop Asbury's Cottage. The accreditation standard is an indicator of the quality and depth of services provided by Sandwell Museum Service.

For Further information on the accreditation standard please click the link on the right hand side of the page.

Galton Valley Re-opens

Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre is now open again following extensive refurbishment. Visit us soon to see our brand new lottery funded displays and exhibitions.

Improving Customer Service

Sandwell Museum Service is working towards Chartermark, which is a Nationally recognised award for excellence in customer service. As part of this process we have consulted widely with users and non - users of our service to produce a set of service standards to enable us to continuously improve the service we give to the people of Sandwell.

• Our service standards.
• How we performed 2006/07.

Lift at Haden Hill House

We now have a lift at Haden Hill House to improve access for those that are unable to climb the stairs.

Achievements

We aim to provide a high quality service and this has been recognised.

One of our museum assistants at Haden Hill House won a bronze award for outstanding customer service through Black Country Tourism awards in 2006.

In 2007 staff at both Oak House and Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery achieved joint silver award for their customer service. Museum staff have now gone on to achieve silver and highly commended in the Heart of England 'Excellence in Tourism Awards' 2007.

We have also been awarded the national 'Best Event in a Museum' award through the Campaign for Learning for our 'Ancient Antics' family learning event on 8th October 2005 at Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery, this is the second time we have won this award, the first being in 2003 for our Egyptians family learning event.