Visit during week beginning 7 March 2005

Wroughton Science Museum looks fascinating from their website. They open sometimes to the general public (free) and at other times by arrangement for pre-booked groups (at £5 per head), so I'm fairly sure something suitable can be arranged.

Having been away for a couple of weeks, I've only just started looking into this. I have emailed Keith Brown at Wroughton and await a reply.

Wroughton is the “large object storage facility” for the Science Museum, and they're not kidding – about 18,000 objects including cars, agricultural machines, fire engines, aircraft (many, including a “flying bedstead”, a Comet, a Lockheed Constellation, ...), and a “whole spectrum of collections of scientific and technological interest”.

For further details visit http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/wroughton

• Keith

Visit during week beginning 7 March 2005

Science Museum, Wroughton.

I've had a reply from Keith Brown. They don't start their open days for the general public until the end of March each year because aircraft hangars are pretty chilly places during the winter. Pre-booked group visits are, however, welcome at any time. I have a Booking Form to complete.

Minimum number in group 15.
Adults £5 each,
Retired people 60 and over £3 each,
Young people 16 and under £2 each.
Charge is for a half-day guided tour
(longer periods by negotiation).

There are no catering facilities on site but tea/coffee can be provided at £2.50 per head.

We are asked for preferred arrival and departure times, and preferred and alternative dates.

I don't know whether a “half day” has to be either morning or afternoon or whether, say, 10–12 and 1–3 with our own packed lunch and their tea/coffee from 12–1 would count as a “half day”. I could enquire about that if we thought it might be what we should like.

Most of the collections are wheelchair accessible, but disabled toilet facilities are limited. We can state whether our group requires wheelchair access, a sign language interpreter, etc.

To help them plan our tour we are asked to select up to 5 categories from:

are we are asked to advise of any particular objects or collections we wish to be included in our tour.

We are supposed to include a cheque with our booking form. If we wish to go ahead and book this visit, I imagine that we could book places for, say, 15 adults and 5 retired people, then adjust the figures nearer the time and pay for any extra places.

So...
Would we like to make this our visit in March 2005?
Which of the above 5 categories get the most votes?
Shall I enquire about what constitutes a “half day”?
What would be our preferred arrival and departure times?
Would we want their tea/coffee?
Should I send a booking form?
(If so, I'll need a cheque from Tony.)
Would Thursday 10 March 2005 be our preferred day?
What would be a good alternative date?

For further details visit http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/wroughton

• Keith

Adrian's comments

Keith

Keith's note dated 2 July

Dear All,

Our proposed visit to the Science Museum's “large object storage
facility” at Wroughton looks interesting, as I hope anyone who has
visited http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/wroughton will agree.

We have a private tour of selected collections provisionally booked for 
Thursday 10 March 2005.

Their current booking form mentions half-day visits. I asked if we had 
to choose either a morning visit or an afternoon visit, or whether we 
might have an hour or two before breaking for lunch* then completing the 
tour.

(* They can provide tea/coffee, we would have to take our own packed
lunches.)

In reply they said they are revising their booking forms and all we need
do is tell them our preferred times of arrival and departure.

So:

• Would we like a morning visit?
  (probably meaning a quite early start and possibly
  including a local pub lunch before the return trip?)

• Would we like an afternoon visit?
  (then what would we do about lunch?)

• Would we like to take packed lunches?
  (and ask for something like an 11am-3pm tour including a break?)

Also:

• Which collections would we like to be shown?
  (I agree with Adrian's comments about this, but are there
  any other suggestions?)

I said that we would guess at numbers in the group, and let them know
more accurate numbers nearer the time.

As soon as I have some ideas of what to ask for (and a cheque from Tony)
I will confirm our booking.

Regards,

• Keith