MEND Project: 2023-26
The MEND fund from the Department for Culture, Media and Support and Arts Council England helps museums to undertake vital infrastructure and urgent maintenance backlogs which are beyond the scope of day-to-day maintenance budgets. Combined with support from Suffolk Growth, Mid Suffolk District Council, The Linbury Trust and the Foyle Foundation, our MEND project will:
- Carry out woodwork repair and drainage improvements to Grade II* Abbot’s Hall and the Grade II Victorian Stables. The Stables are not currently open to the public. This project is the first stage in bringing them into a usable condition.
- Build new toilets at the museum entrance and at the centre of the site, including a Changing Places toilet for disabled visitors (which will also be open to town centre visitors during museum opening hours).
- Reclad and extend our Collections Store and Estate Workshop. The project will increase our storage and work space (+250 sqm), upgrade the building’s energy systems and insulation, and consolidate our collections and estate operations to give us capacity for future growth.
- Take down and carry out recording and conservation work to Edgar’s Farmhouse as the first stage of relocating it to a more appropriate setting.
We are working with a design team led by Modece Architects.
Before and after: the repairs on the Victorian Stables
Before and after on the toilets