We were delighted to install our first ever Ormskirk Pop Up Museum display today. A big thank you to Ormskirk Library for hosting our "Object of the Month" display case purchased with funds from supporters. Library Manager, Elizabeth Russ and Library Assistant, Amy Thompson, spent time checking it out this afternoon. Deciding which of our fascinating artefacts to feature was not easy. In the end we plumped for one of our favourites - the "Vigzol" oil can we use to represent the Percy Bilton story, which is always popular at our talks. Co-founder of the Vigzol Oil Refining Company in 1919, Ormskirk born Percy Bilton went on to become a multi-millionaire with an international property and oil refining portfolio. Despite his great success, Percy never forgot his Ormskirk roots; in 1972 he donated funds towards a swimming pool located at Ormskirk Church of England Primary School, which still serves the local community today. We are moving ahead with plans for a temporary exhibition space and also hope to display more artefacts in community locations in the coming weeks.

Ormskirk Heritage Hub will be displaying bottles and other artefacts connected to Ormskirk's brewing industry on 11th June, 7.30pm at Ormskirk Civic Hall, alongside a talk by Dot Broady Hawkes. As a supporter of our museum project, we would be delighted if you could join us for what will be another important step towards opening a pop up museum. To book a place please email [email protected] or via eventbrite using this link https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beer-bottles-and-breweries-the-stories-behind-ormskirks-beer-bottles-tickets-1990268578896?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwY2xjawSDp1NleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETAxVTYxR25Wa0x6MkpJWjdRc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHuV7G7Jlidq7VY35byW_1xmYtTnRgyUNbE6MQzgA94mALfSF7fbJgycuHuEx_aem_D9Z7Vl5dZINBHxCWY_c7cQ

We had a fantastic couple of days at Ormskirk's Medieval Festival over the weekend promoting our Pop Up Museum project. We received lots of positive comments and encouragement as well as donations and promises of material for the museum. Our campaign has now officially ended, although it will still be possible to donate through our project page on the Space Hive portal. Over the next couple of months we will continue to look for suitable premises (there are irons in the fire), begin to purchase the equipment we need, gather artefacts and write content for displays and interpretation boards, looks like we will be busy. We also have a few events planned in June, so please look out for those on social media and our Telephone Box Museum notice board. Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign with donations and amazing comments, you contributions mean we can now move forward with our plans... we are looking forward to the next chapter.

Great news, we reached our fundraising target this weekend, a huge thank you to everyone who helped get us over the line. Our campaign officially ends on 28th May; we will keep it running until then as any additional funds will give us a bigger contingency pot to run the project. We are delighted that your donations and support mean we will be able to unlock the pledge of £1,353 made by Lancashire County Council and that we can move forward with our pop up museum plans.