The Mapping Museum research project was created to look at the increase in the number of museums in the UK. As part of this project, Paul Cowan was interviewed about the Pewsey Heritage Centre.

Explore more about the Mapping Museum project here and read Cowan's interview below:

Interview summary

Name of person being interviewed: Paul Cowan

Location of interview: Pewsey Heritage Centre

Date of Recording: 01:16:28

Recording Length: 21 November 2018

Name of interviewer: Dr Toby Butler

Description: Pewsey Heritage Centre is housed in a former Victorian foundry in the village of Pewsey, Wiltshire. It houses a collection of items relating to life in the Vale of Pewsey over the last 200 years including the domestic, social, commercial, industrial, and agricultural history of the area.

Summary of main points in interview: Paul Cowan is chair of the trustees of the Pewsey Heritage Centre. His wife’s parents owned and ran Whatley’s Foundry. He had plans to convert the foundry building into a two-floor workshop, but council planners objected as the building was historically significant. A new workshop was built instead and some machinery was donated to the Science Museum, but they couldn’t afford to transport the larger machinery to a museum. Cowan discussed the matter with the local history society and agreed to give them a third of the Foundry building to create a heritage centre in 1976.

The Heritage Centre gradually took over more of the building until the business was restructured in 2005 and the site was sold for development, with stringent requirements including the re-roofing, re-wiring, installation of a heating system, new windows and preservation of the Heritage Centre, which was gifted by the family/company to the local community (the Parish Council).

It was designed to be multi-use and accommodates 10-20 community talks a year attracting 70 to 80 people each, art exhibitions, and musical performances. In 2014 a building was bought alongside for an adult learning and research centre. It hosts school parties and 40-50 volunteers are involved. All the labour for converting the building was volunteered, even the electrical work.

Cowan describes the management of the Trust and the Centre; 10,000 objects have been accessioned. Numbers have grown year on year to 1,400 visitors. Visitors come from all over the world and family history research is popular. Last year display boards were put up all over the vale at sites of historic interest, with mobile links to a map to other places of interest and the Centre. The museum focus is on social history ("no stones and no bones, we’ve got plenty of those at Avebury").

Cowan discusses topics covered including the workhouse, unwanted pregnancy, and a communications exhibition featuring a telephone exchange and an early mobile phone. He talks about getting help from Wiltshire Museum Service, income streams and the different phases of development of the museum. He outlines the different skills volunteers have brought over the years, and discusses the sense of pride, possession, and ownership the Centre gives the community. He describes the local history information boards project, which aims to develop tourism in the area.

TRANSCRIPT ONLY; NO AUDIO FILE PROVIDED