THIS month we welcomed Owain Hughes, the learning projects officer from Salisbury Museum, to tell us about the new gallery at the museum which opened last year.

To show off the many items to a better advantage the new gallery was designed for Salisbury Museum in an expanded and rebuilt area as part of a co-ordinated effort with Wiltshire Museum, Devizes and the Stonehenge Visitors’ Centre.

The company Metaphor became Salisbury’s gallery designer in 2012.

Changes involved a group of volunteers to measure, pack and record the artefacts from the old galleries prior to the development using the old Stonehenge Gallery as a store.

The Downton Mosaic was taken down, restored and placed on the floor with a wax coating, whilst new exhibition cases were made in Belgium and installed in March 2014. The Duke and Duchess of Wessex came on March 1, 2014 to open the gallery, though the public opening was on July 12, 2014, when Professor Alice Roberts placed one of the last artefacts in its case.

The new exhibition has a child friendly feature as well as catering for adult visitors.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 3 at 7.30pm at Morgan’s Vale & Woodfalls Village Hall. Nick Griffiths will talk on Wiltshire in the Time of Arthur.

All Welcome.