Opening Times at Galton Valley Museum Change

The opening times at Galton Valley museum are changing from 1st September 2010

The new opening times will be:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - 10am-3pm

Sunday 2pm-5pm

Closed - Mondays & Fridays

Please note that Opening hours may vary due to special events or activites outside of the hours above.

Sandford Award for Heritage Education

Haden Hill House Museum & Oak House Museum education services for schools have been awarded the Sandford award for best practice in heritage education. This is extremely prestigious and a great showcase for the hard work and dedication of our education team.

Who Said Museums Were Living in the Past?

You can now follow us on Facebook and get updates on up and coming events and activities and museum news.

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 Dave Waring (Collections Officer) on 0121 556 0683.

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.

Improving Customer Service

Sandwell Museum Service was again awarded Chartermark in 2009, 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 and Wednesbury Museum

We now have a lift at Haden Hill House Museum and Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery 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.

In 2009 Haden Hill House Museum again achieved the gold award for best small visitor attraction at the Black Country Tourism Awards.

This is the second year running, and we are very proud that we have again proved to be the best in the Black Country. Galton Valley Canal Museum achieved the silver award on the same evening, and showed that it can hold its own against much bigger attractions. Haden Hill House will now go forward to the Heart of England regional awards later in the year.

One of our Museum assistants at Galton Valley Canal Museum was awarded the gold award for excellence in customer service at the 2009 Black Country Tourism Awards.

Since 2005 /06 we have won either gold silver and bronze awards every year at the Black Country Tourism awards, and many of our front of house staff have been recognised for their outstanding customer service.

In 2008 Sandwell Museums was awarded a prestigious award through Renaissance in the Regions, which aims to promote best practice in museums. The award was given for our work with excluded teenagers on key skills and entry to employment programmes,

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.