Heritage Awards 2006

The following photos show the winners of the Leicestershire County Council Heritage Awards in 2006.

Read an article that appeared in Forum News, the newsletter of the Leicestershire & Rutland Museums Forum.

The Heritage Awards for 2006 were held on Thursday 6^th July at Donington le Heath Manor House on what must have been one of the warmest July days on record.  Following a buffet and drinks, the Chairman of Forum Terry Howatt, opened the evening by welcoming everyone to the Manor House, and introduced our sponsor, Tim Hobbs, Chief Executive of Museums Libraries Archives (MLA) East Midlands, together with the Vice Chairman of Leicestershire County Council, Mike Jones and Mrs Jones, and our panel of judges, Ruth Camamile CC, Cynthia Brown, Workforce Development Officer MLA East Midlands.  The third judge, Sheila Watson from the Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester was indisposed and unfortunately unable to attend.  Terry briefly addressed the meeting by reminding everyone that the Awards had been running since 1989, and  acknowledged the hard work given by the volunteers throughout the years in maintaining our heritage for future generations.

Heather Lomas, the Awards Co-Ordinator introduced the Awards, showing slides of the entries to each category and explaining the background to each project.

Both the judges spoke about the great difficulty in choosing the winner in each category; the qualities of all the entries was extremely high and the judges had a wonderful day visiting every project.  Because there were no entries to the Restoration Project, it was decided to award joint winners in the Best Special Project, together with a Highly Commended Award, and in the Best Special Event category, an additional award of a Highly Commended.

The presentations were made by Tim Hobbs, Chairman of MLA East Midlands, and the Vice Chairman of the County Council, Mike Jones.

Tim Hobbs said he had great pleasure in being at Donington-le-Manor and was extremely pleased to be part of the Awards Evening. He commended the volunteers for their continued dedication and hard work.

Following the presentation of the Awards the Vice Chairman thanked, on behalf of the County Council, all the volunteers involved in the museums in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.  He said the Awards are a very important event in the calendar, the museums are extremely well run by the volunteers, and without them all the valuable work, information and heritage would be lost.  The evening was a snapshot of many innovative exhibitions and events, and was a recognition of many aspects of museum work.  He went on to say that the County Council is very keen to give moral support and, where appropriate, financial support and to continue to recognise the important contribution made by independent museums and keep them so successful.  The Shire Grant scheme is one way to achieve this, but also the Museum Staff support makes a great contribution.  He had very great pleasure in presenting the Awards tonight.

The evening was concluded by the President, Duncan Lucas who added his thanks for the contribution made by volunteers, and thanked Heather Lomas for organising the evening.  We would be temporarily losing Claire Browne for nine months to Renaissance East Midlands, but she would be back after that time on a part time basis.  He concluded by presenting Heather Lomas with a bouquet of flowers.

The photos show the Heritage Award Winners, with Ruth Camamile CC, Vice Chairman of the County Council, Mike Jones, Mrs Jones, and Tim Hobbs, Chairman of MLA East Midlands.