MasterplanApril 2018, Updated January 2020

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Executive Summary

Realisation of this masterplan will transform the Museum of East Anglian Life into one of the leading independent museums in the country.

It describes a jigsaw that can be achieved over time. The pieces are independent but complementary: each represents a step-change for the museum. It will result in an integrated and engaging visitor experience which attracts and inspires a 21st-century audience.

The museum has tremendous potential – location, size, subject matter – and the assets – collection, people, landscape – to play a significant role in East Anglia’s economy and society: a must-see attraction for visitors and a source of pride for local people.

We plan to transform the museum into a gateway for understanding the food inheritance of the region. This is the overarching theme of our collection. It allows us to incorporate working-class stories of agricultural labourers and artisans alongside the stories of internationally-significant innovations and invention in farming, to cover the role of the market town and also the day-to-day experience of cooking and eating in the home. It allows to look back at a horse-powered economy and forward to the sustainability challenges that will face us in the future, depending on how we act now. It allows us to make the most of our site – 75 acres of countryside in the heart of a well-connected, growing market town – and of our collection of buildings and objects which range from a watermill to photographs of farming life in the 21st century.

This masterplan is expressed as a menu of changes that we want to make to enhance the site around the core vision. We have priorities, but recognise the importance of flexibility. An agile approach will allow us to take advantage of funding opportunities, whilst remaining clear on our destination.

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Introduction

About the Museum of East Anglian Life

With 17 historic buildings set in 75 acres of beautiful countryside, the Museum of East Anglian Life is a leading regional visitor attraction and the largest independent museum in Suffolk. The museum is an educational charity and a social and cultural enterprise supporting the community. We care for over 40,000 objects – once the everyday items of East Anglian life. Our collection has a particular focus on the production of food and social history relating to it, reflective of the region’s strong agricultural character.

The museum opened in 1967 on farmland that was formerly part of the home farm of the historic Abbot’s Hall estate. The site was generously placed in trust by its former owners, Vera and Ena Longe, for the development of a museum.

Through our public programme, training and volunteering schemes, we aim to enrich people’s lives, encourage enjoyment, learning and participation. We hold events throughout the year, family activities during the holidays, a programme for schools and community-focused initiatives. We are a space for people to be active, learn new things, look at the world differently, make friends and give something back.

The museum has a strong track record of engaging hard-to-reach audiences through targeted programmes to build confidence and skills – working with unemployed people, mental health service users, ex-offenders and people with learning difficulties. The District Council’s independent assessment concluded that ‘MEAL is much more than a museum. It has an impact across the local community of Stowmarket, Mid Suffolk and indeed East Anglia as a whole.’

Vision, mission and values

Our vision is that people are inspired by the past to make positive change in their own lives.

The museum’s mission is to challenge the way people think about East Anglia, its landscape and its people.• Ideas: we use our collection to engage people with issues that are

relevant to them.• Identity: we reflect and celebrate the region and its communities; we

inspire local pride.• Impact: we promote wellbeing for people and the planet.

We have five core values:• Relevant: we engage people with our collection and how it relates to

their lives.• Open-minded: we challenge ourselves and others.• Collaborative: we build partnerships; we actively involve people.• Sustainable: we work towards a sustainable world.• Pioneering: we want to be recognised nationally as a museum with

a focus on food: its production, processing, consumption and culture over time.

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The Museum of East Anglian Life is a community asset which should be managed as effectively as possible to maximise public benefit and contribute towards the vibrancy of the area.

The museum has grown up over a 50-year period, from a volunteer-run organisation to increasing professionalism. We now need to implement a carefully-planned strategic approach in order to grow further.

We recognise that the impulse that set up the museum is unlikely to be the one that will sustain it. Current generations do not have the same memories of the age of horse-powered farming. We need to establish a unique selling point to keep our collection and stories relevant to modern East Anglian lives, and upgrade our displays, programmes and facilities to reach and engage more people more effectively. We need to interpret our impressive collection for a 21st-century audience and use the assets we have to maximum impact.

There is a clear business need for change. Local authority funding has reduced and is likely to reduce further. We need to pursue a proposition which has public appeal whilst also remaining true to the museum’s core purpose and charitable objectives. Higher visitor numbers equates to greater stability and more effective management of the heritage in our care.

This masterplan presents an opportunity for the museum to redefine itself, to work closely with local businesses and be recognised as a progressive centre of excellence: locally, regionally and nationally.

The aspirations within this plan are clearly vulnerable to changes in capacity, some of which will be unforeseeable, and they are formulated in a funding climate which we cannot control. However, this is an optimistic plan which sets stretch targets in the belief that we should aspire to be the best that we can be. Even a 25% completion rate against the projects described herein would transform the museum substantially.

The case for change

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Assets:Our Location

The museum is ideally situated in the historic market town of Stowmarket, in the agricultural heart of Suffolk, population 22,000 people. The museum is located within the boundaries of the town centre, just off of the main shopping street.

Mid Suffolk District Council’s new ‘Vision for Prosperity’ and New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership strategy identify Stowmarket as key area for growth. The town is earmarked as a Food Enterprise Zone.

The museum sits at the centre of the town’s cultural offer, within easy walking distance of the John Peel Centre for the Creative Arts, the independent Regal Cinema and The Mix young people’s centre. The museum supports the town’s growth and attractiveness as a place to live.

Stowmarket has excellent transport links – a mainline rail station (1hr 20min to London, 30min to Norwich and Colchester, 12min to Ipswich, 1hr to Cambridge) and easy access to the A14 East-West corridor through the county.

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Listed buildings open to visitors

Buildings open to visitors as exhibits

Shop, cafe, toilets

Learning spaces

Back-of-house buildings (stores, workshop)

Private buildings

Assets:Our Site

The museum’s assets include 20 buildings open to the public (including 17 historic buildings), 75 acres of land and 40,000 objects.

The historic Abbot’s Hall estate lies at the heart of the museum. The original buildings are listed at Grade II or Grade II*. Other historic buildings have been brought to the museum and re-erected.

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Assets: Our People and Ethos

The museum is reflective of the local community and plays an important role in the life of the town, hosting community events such as Bonfire Night celebrations. We collaborate with a wide range of partners and we value our volunteers. We want our visitors to get a sense of the kind of organisation that we are in the experience they have and the service they receive. Some of our 250 volunteers and staff are pictured here.

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Assets:Our Collection

By definition, the museum has a long-term purpose and holds its collection, which includes historic buildings and the site itself, in trust for the benefit of the public.

We hold an extensive collection of objects relating to the social, economic and industrial life of East Anglia from the 19th century onwards, covering Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. This amounts to about 40,000 objects, including 200 objects which are held on renewable loan agreements.

Our collection has been built up over 60 years. The main subjects and themes covered are:• Agriculture, land use, processing and marketing of agricultural products• Crafts, industries, trades, commerce and other economic activity• People and society, including domestic life, social institutions and services• Transport and power• Market towns and the industrialisation of the countryside

Within these subjects the museum has a number of significant objects and collections including:• The contents from Mrs Wilding’s Cottage in Crowe St, Stowmarket representing

working-class life and business.• Wheeled vehicles, including farm wagons, gypsy caravans, hand carts and carriages,

steam traction engines (Empress of Britain and Burrell ploughing engines) and paraffin engines

• Floral Gypsy funeral tribute• St Audry’s Hospital collection from Melton• Suffolk Area Trading Standards collection of weights and measures• Ransomes ‘Hunter’ SP Beet Harvester• Stowmarket clock and carillon• Photographic collection, including glass plates from Ransomes, Smythe’s, and the

Farming Press The museum aspires to maintain high professional standards in the presentation and protection of its collection and to encourage public access to promote knowledge and understanding of the rural, industrial, social and natural heritage of East Anglia.

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Assets:Our Collection

Here are six objects, drawn from our collection of 40,000, which illustrate its breadth.

‘Fieldwork’: a collection of photographic prints by Justyn Partyka, taken 2001–11. They show farmers on small farms where traditional methods and knowledge remain deeply rooted. Two of the largest images are ‘Sugar Beet Harvest, Norfolk, 2006’ and ‘Harvest, Suffolk, 2007’.

Ancient Order of Foresters Banner from Needham Market, Suffolk: the members of a friendly society paid a few pence weekly into a common fund enabling sick pay and funeral grants when needed. This banner would have been carried in marches and rallies.

Ransomes AM54 Threshing Drum: before the advent of the combine harvester, the grain was separated from the husk and straw by a threshing machine. This example from 1947 was used to thresh beans, peas, barley and oats, and is regularly demonstrated at the museum.

Grundisburgh Smithy: this 18th-century working smithy was originally sited at Grundisburgh, near Woodbridge, and relocated to the museum in 1972. It would have been a location for sharing village news, while waiting for a horse to be shod.

Water meadows and woodland: we manage part of our landscape under a Higher Level Stewardship agreement in order to enhance its potential to support diverse flora and fauna.

Booty’s milk float: Booty’s dairy was founded in 1923. This was their second float, purchased to meet higher standards of hygiene with milk churns giving way to sterilised bottles. It was pulled by their horse, Sandy, and was in regular use until the late 1960s.

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Our plans reflect a desire to take advantage of the potential of the site – it size, its location – and to make the most of the tremendous assets that we manage – our collection, our buildings, our people, the landscape – to meaningfully engage with people.

The museum has significant potential to develop into a magnet for tourism, bringing economic benefits to the area and consolidating the local cultural offer. It could play a substantial role in East Anglia’s economy and society.

We plan to transform the museum into a gateway for understanding the important food inheritance of the region: presenting the stories of challenge and innovation, a must-see attraction for visitors and a source of pride for local people.

The masterplan is expressed as a menu of changes that we want to make to enhance the site around the core vision rather than a linear timetabled plan. This agile approach will allow us to take advantage of funding opportunities, whilst remaining clear on our priorities.

We are aware of the changes that are happening around us, and that, while museums might often look back, they can and should, look at the present and future. There are opportunities for the Museum of East Anglian Life to get involved and reflect contemporary debates and concerns while staying true to its roots. The impetus that will take the museum into the mid-21st century is unlikely to be the same as the one that set it up: the museum needs always to be relevant, whilst staying true to a strong core purpose.

The museum is excited by the possibilities and direction presented by local development, the agenda of the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the priorities of Suffolk’s Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) and Mid Suffolk’s Vision for Prosperity. There are very strong synergies between our values, mission and vision and these initiatives and priorities.

Our Plans

A Museum of Food

There is no museum of food in the UK. There are brewery tours and chocolate factories, but no museum dedicated to reflecting the heritage of something that all of us need every day and which has preoccupied society for as long as people have existed.

Our collection is well placed to tell the story of food production, processing and consumption. Food is the common thread which runs through our medieval barn, our watermill and our windpump; it encompasses our carts, milk floats and machinery as well as it does our animals and domestic interiors. It allows us to keep what we have and tell new stories with our collection. Our aim is that people understand where their food comes from, its impact on the landscape and on themselves.

To do this, we need to re-zone our site and develop our buildings to accommodate new stories and ways of working. By delivering the masterplan, we will conserve and consolidate our collection, making our objects relatable to 21st-century audiences. It will enable a whole new range of activities focused on food heritage – making and tasting – which will provide an unusual model for interactivity in museums and address contemporary issues of sustainability, technology and business diversification.

From cheese-making to brewing, historic breads to seasonal eating, we will engage new audiences with the heritage of food. It will give the museum a new sense of purpose and relevance to 21st-century audiences. We will use creative and participative ways to tell the story of food production in East Anglia from 1850 to the present and beyond, exploring issues and challenges through personal stories and perspectives, and through hands-on activities related to our collection, which will challenge visitors to think about their own choices and see the landscape around them in a new way.

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The Museum of the Future We are working towards a re-zoning of the site:

1. Entrance: introduction, tickets, cafe, shop2. Food Production: the raw materials3. Food Processing: between field and fork4. Food and Nature: how we harvest from the natural world5. Dining: how a historic estate fed itself6. Food in the Home: how we ate7. Temporary exhibition gallery8. Events area: wartime food, summer glamping

The following pages set out the projects we need to do in order to realise this vision.

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We will create a new entrance area for the site to give a strong sense of arrival and a clear presence. We will unlock the commercial potential of the site.

We intend to:• Create a pedestrian route to take visitors into the museum

through the nearest corner to the car park.• Create a new visitor entrance with shop, café and introductory

exhibition. • Bring the historic caravans inside, conserve and protect them.• Remove the deteriorating temporary buildings including the

ICI building, the Farming Year shed and both toilet blocks; re-site the modern stables.

• Restore the spectacular Grade II* listed barn; re-clad and re-thatch it to bring it into year-round use as an events space.

• Convert the existing shop into a meeting room and toilets to serve the barn.

• Re-site the Second World War huts onto the Top Field as a showcase for the wartime food production story and accommodation for school and group ‘Land Army’ residential visits.

• Landscape to accommodate outdoor café seating including a covered area.

• Convert the current café into a multi-purpose learning space and lunch room for groups.

• Install a ground-source heat pump and solar power.• Create an enclosure around the Home Close area to act as the

pay barrier, using the line of Crowe Lane and the edge of the current café.

1. New Entrance

New entrance building

New cafe and sheltered seating

Toilets

Learning spaces

Restored medieval

barn

Current entrance

Proposed new entrance layout

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We have reorganised and enhanced our farm to showcase the living side of food production: crops and livestock. This is key to our family appeal.

We have to:• Planted a new orchard• Renewed the animal enclosures• Planted a four-course crop rotation• Represented local breeds including the Suffolk Trinity• Built a new barn to improve visitor and volunteer facilities• Improved paths and roadways

2. Growing area

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Wheat

Barley

Turnips

Clover

WildFlowerMeadowGoats

Sheep

RabbitsGuineapigs

Toilets

New barn

Play area

Picnic area

Awning

Pigs

Fencedenclosures

Henhouses

Doublegate

Duck houseon island

Orchardwith poultry

Existingcherry-tree-linedgrass path

Bone Building

BobyBuilding

MortlockBuilding

Manege

Horsemeadow

Existingstables

These aren’thard boundaries - just lines to indicate the 4-crop rotation

Existing buildingsand pig sty

Grasspath

Interpretationlecterns

SettlingHouse

MillWind pump

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We will create a stunning new attraction at the heart of our site which explores the story of where our food comes from and how it is processed, using our historic collection and new objects acquired to bring the story up to date.

It will show what East Anglian agriculture and food industries – past and present – have contributed to the world and also look to how future challenges are being addressed. We will work with individuals, businesses and organisations working in East Anglian food production to showcase the region’s current food heritage and explore what the past can tell us about sustainability. It will cement the museum’s new direction.

3. Food Production

RIBA Plan of Work Stage 1 Report – Museum of East Anglian Life – The MEAL Project

Poole & Pattle Chartered Architects | November 2017

Conceptual sketch plan

The building will:• Include interactive displays showcasing processes,

for example a milking parlour and fruit store. • Bring our large farming and industrial collections

and newly-collected objects together and provide better display and conservation conditions.

• Incorporate a flexible kitchen to allow us to introduce hands-on sessions with food and heritage cookery.

• Use film and objects creatively and memorably to bring agricultural processes alive for visitors, including an impressive centrepiece exhibit: an exploded combine harvester, displayed with parts suspended in the air.

• Introduce energy-generating technology to allow the building to be sustainable and cost-neutral.

• Include learning spaces and office spaces to offset running costs and enhance the museum’s role as a cultural enterprise hub.

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We will transform the river trail to tell the story of the interplay between food production and nature.

We will undertake a major landscape and footpath renewal project along the river banks in order to create a defined route and improve the variety of plant and animal life that the river habitats support. We will reintroduce the osier beds, hops and coppice woodland. We will commission creative sculptures from natural materials to make a trail which showcases the importance of biodiversity to support healthy eco systems which secure effective food production.

4. Food and Nature

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We will grow our catering, in response to growing visitor numbers, to showcase East Anglian produce and skills.

We will retain a café in the entrance area, delivering light meals and cakes. We will introduce a summer coffee and ice-cream kiosk on the top field to encourage longer dwell-time and a restaurant in the Abbot’s Hall area – bringing the stable block into use, and possibly some of the closed garden area and ground floor of Abbot’s Hall itself. The restaurant will be open evenings and trade under the Abbot’s Hall brand (as with our weddings). It will be a destination restaurant specialising in local ingredients and make use of the produce grown in our Walled Garden and polytunnels.

5. Field to Fork

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We will repair and improve existing exhibits to bring them to life as working machinery so that we can demonstrate how technological innovation enabled food production to keep pace with population growth by draining land for agriculture and mechanising flour production.

We have:• Restored and brought the Eastbridge Windpump into operation as a working

exhibit interpreting the story of land reclamation for food.

We intend to:• Restore the Alton Watermill as a working flour mill using grain

grown on the estate to demonstrate milling to visitors.• Replace the bridge and jetty on the pond; undertake repairs

and redecoration to the Fishing Lodge to open it up to visitors.

6. Regeneration

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We will create a coherent historic hamlet – a group of domestic buildings to showcase our collection, explore working-class village life and tell the story of everyday food in the home.

We will move Edgar’s Farmhouse to the Historic Hamlet where it can be placed in a more appropriate setting. We will actively look for other appropriate buildings to add to the hamlet, for example a pub-microbrewery, baker, chemist, schoolroom, prefab house, street lighting and historical allotment structures.

7. Historic Hamlet

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We will create a larger space for temporary exhibitions, increasing the flexibility of what we can host and showcase.

We will consolidate the displays on the first floor of the Boby Building and upgrade the environment in order to create approximately 275m2 of flexible and secure display space. This will allow us to display more from our own collection and also to borrow objects from elsewhere for the benefit of local people.

8. Temporary Exhibition Gallery

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We will create an interactive area which focuses on the experience of eating and growing food during the First and Second World Wars.

We will move the two military buildings from the entrance to the top field where we can partially restore and use them to tell the story of the Women’s Land Army and of rationing and cooking during wartime.

There will be space in the building for school groups to be able to stay at the museum and a seasonal glamping offer over the summer.

9. Food in War

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This masterplan desribes a jigsaw that can be achieved over time. The pieces are independent but complementary: each represents a step-change for the museum. Realisation of this plan will transform the Museum of East Anglian Life into one of the leading independent museums in the country.

We are looking for substantial investment to help us realise this vision.

Our progress:

Heritage Farm (2) – we have largely completed this area, which will open in April 2020.

Regeneration (6) – we have completed the restoration of the windpump and are currently seeking funding to deliver high standards of improvement to the existing watermill to bring it back into use as a working exhibit.

We have completed a business plan, working with Jura Consultants.

Food Production (3) – we have established a Development Board to galavanise stakeholders and the local community and help us raise funds to deliver the vision. We are seeking partners with kinship in their missions.

Next steps