THE OPENING OF THE REFURBISHED GREEN HOWARDS MUSEUM
19th May 2007

Lady Crathorne formally opening the refurbished Museum, watched by Dr Fiona Spears

Over 70 members of the Green Howards Association, VIPs and guests attended the opening of the new ground floor of the Museum on the evening of the 18th May. For the past seven months the lower ground floor of the museum has been totally stripped and refurbished. A camouflaged Land Rover, with the model of a Green Howard driver in desert kit on operations in Afghanistan, greets the visitor entering though the glass door entrance into the brightly lit reception area. There is an area for children to try on uniforms and handle military hardware as well as a cleverly designed research centre, surrounded by glass walls, with the latest computer software linked to the internet. The Museum Assistant has a brand new and spacious office, where visitors can seek his advice about Green Howard history. However the space age reception desk alongside an attractive shop display, catches the eye with the words WELCOME TO THE GREEN HOWARDS MUSEUM. Major General Andrew Farquhar CBE, the Colonel of the Green Howards, gave a thought provoking speech linking the role of military museums to the modern army and in this case with the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards). before thanking the many people who had made this transformation possible. He then invited Lady Crathorne, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire, to officially open the ‘new look’ museum by cutting the ribbon. All this would not have been possible without the financial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. Dr Fiona Spears, the Head of HLF Yorkshire, informed the guests that it had taken over four million lottery tickets to pay for the £220,000 donation. All those who attended gave their warm approval to the improvements and what had been achieved by David Tetlow, the new Curator, Paul Cooper, the Museum Assistant, Sarah Taylor, the Collections and Audience Development Office, the Guides and Volunteers as well as to Will Daykin who designed the new lower ground floor. All are to be congratulated on a job well done, making The Green Howards Museum one of the best small military museums in the country.

More news items
News archive