Museums At Night - Magical Night-time Festival 13th-16th May

Museums at Night, The UK Festival of After-Hours Events which will explode into life from Wednesday 13th to Saturday 16th May 2015 is a biannual UK-wide festival which attracts visitors into museums, galleries and heritage sites by throwing their doors open after hours and putting on magical evening events all over the country, like the sleepover at the William Morris Museum in London and the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Who knows whether the dinosaur skeleton might come to life like in the Ben Stiller film Night At The Museum, but anyway, it'll certainly bring history to life.

Anyone in the Great Yarmouth area should take in the exceptional Time and Tide Museum which is Free on the 15th May, and those in Norwich need to explore the Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery also Free on the 16th May

See the full list of after-hours openings and events in your area at www.museumsatnight.org.uk/

Cadw Stargazing at Tintern Abbey

 

Galleries of Justice Museum - Nottingham

Mary Rose Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Great Yarmouth's outstanding Time & Tide Museum presents their amazing 'Super Models' exhibition

The Time & Tide museum is one of Norfolk’s real treasures, and offers the best introduction you’ll find to the fascinating and historic town of Great Yarmouth.

 

Set in a beautifully preserved Victorian curing works, Time & Tide tells the story of Great Yarmouth from its Ice Age origins to the present day.  Discover the town's rich maritime heritage and its development as a popular seaside resort. Hear gripping tales of wreck and rescue and meet colourful characters who made their living from the sea.

This dynamic and family-friendly museum places fascinating archive films alongside recreations of local cottages, a noisy 1950s fish wharf and the charming shops of a 1913 ‘Row’.  The highlight is the unforgettable chance to step inside one of the towering original smokehouses, where the smell of smoked fish still lingers. 

 The museum regularly updates exhibitions and the latest one called 'Super Models' is a real winner, featuring characters from the movie 'One Million Years B.C.' and 'Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'.

This model of a Fisherman's Cottage was made by Norfolk model maker Joesph  'Darby' Evans. He often used recycled materials in his work. The cottage was made from salvaged wood that he helped to construct while workign as a pile-drive foreman

 

Great Yarmouth Landmarks Recreated in Colourful Miniature

The exceptional Time & Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth is set an old Victorian Herring curing works and recreates the history of Great Yarmouth for visitors to experience. 

The latest attraction of the museum to captivate and enthrall is a quirky, automated miniature model of mechanical wizardry and saucy seaside tongue-in-cheek fun created by Suffolk toymaker Ron Fuller.

The exhibit was commissioned by the museum in response to visitor feedback requesting more interactive items, and it more than fits the bill with its bawdy, buxom Britannia swivelling her hips and spinning, a Greek Orthadox priest swinging his incense, and a couple of fishing wives riding the Joyland Snails (a great favourite of tourists and locals of Great Yarmouth, as well as some Hobbies staff ). 

Two clowns tumble a ball, a Spitfire circles a colourful revolving tower; Nelson walks the plank, an excitable dog barks, and a cheeky seagull swoops to steal a tasty treat - all fun scenes depicting Great Yarmouth's history and humourous holiday heyday. The mechanical exhibit will be the centrepiece of a  newly modelled Seaside Gallery which includes a 1950s themed seaside display showing fashions of the day, and even a replica bathing hut. Admission to the exhibit is 20p

Mr Fuller, 77, said he had great fun making the exhibit which has "as many working pieces as a Boeing 747". It took him 11 weeks and over 500 hours to complete the exhibit which meticulously recreates details of tattoo studios and seafront toilets featuring alongside a Circus Spectacular, and even a figure, representing the growing Portugese community, waving to the crowd. The exhibit also features two of Great Yarmouth's unique attractions which are no longer there, namely the Revolving Tower and the Hotchkiss Railway. The tower was removed for the war effort with the metal used to build Spitfires. The Hotchkiss Railway was a bizarre commuter track for cyclists and was sold to Blackpool.

Mr Fuller studied art & theatre design at the Royal College of Art. He had a career in teaching before going on to make wooden toys for a living in 1972. His work is highly prized and sold in specialist shops world-wide.