Harbour Museum is on the move

LONDONDERRY’S Harbour Museum has closed its doors to the public and begun the arduous job of packing up collections to facilitate extensive internal works and changes to the services of both the museum and the Guildhall.

The building is expected to reopen early 2013 on completion of renovations with interim service arrangements in place to ensure minimal disruption to the public.

Museum services, which has been housed within the Harbour Museum since 1995, will now relocate to the Foyle Valley Railway Museum on the Foyle Road.

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Packing has already begun, with removal of the museum collection from Harbour Museum expected to happen early in the New Year.

The Harbour Museum display included objects focusing on the maritime history of the city, including architectural drawings of the Harbour port area and photographs documenting development works.

Artifacts range from bells from various ships that were docked or designed in the city, right through to what is probably the most well-known item in the collection - the original currach boat that was used in the journey from Londonderry to Iona in 1963 by a group of clerics as a celebration of the journey Colmcille made many years earlier. Other important objects include the figure head from the Minnihaha which is very well known locally and nationally having been one of the objects selected by the British Museum for the ‘History of the World in 100 objects’ project.

The John Noah Gosset art collection is also housed in the Harbour Museum. The Gosset collection includes watercolour images from across Londonderry and Donegal and is packed and ready to be relocated to the museum store which will become a temporary home for many of the objects.

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Museum staff are currently busy working on new projects as well as moving home. Roisin Doherty, head of Derry City Council Museum Services says: “This is a very hectic but also very exciting time for Museums Services, the Harbour has been a lovely home but staff are excited about new developments and projects.

“An example of current programming development includes the ‘Derry 400’ exhibition which will be located in the newly refurbished Guildhall come 2013.

“’Derry 400’ will focus on the Ulster Plantation, the links with the City of London and the London Companies as well as the legacy and the city today.

“The HMS staff are already researching and developing themes and collection lists for the exhibition which will play a central role in the newly refurbished Guildhall.”

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The removal of items will be a painstaking process as objects will be specially packed and prepared for relocation before been carefully delivered to a number of locations including the Foyle Valley Railway Museum and the Museum Store.

For full details on interim service arrangements for Museum Services including arrangements for accessing archive and genealogy services people are advised to telephone 028 71 377 331 or please visit www.derrycity.gov.uk/museums for further information.

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