Awards for Heritage Sites Helping Visitors to Learn

 27/11/2015

They range from the grand (Chatsworth House) to the modest (Cottage Museum, Woodhall Spa), and from the famous (Titanic Belfast) to the obscure (the Museum of Hatting). But they are all award winners, and on Friday 4th December 52 heritage sites in the UK and Ireland will receive a Sandford Award in recognition of their education work.

Museums, forts, galleries, houses and archives will be among those represented at the annual Sandford Awards for Heritage Education which this year take place at the London Transport Museum, which also won an award this year.

The Sandford Awards are jointly managed by Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln and the Heritage Education Trust, and BGU’s Vice Chancellor, the Reverend Canon Professor Peter Neil, will present the awards this year. The 2015 winners, which represent a cross-section of heritage sites from across the country, include The Collection in Lincoln, Arbeia Roman Fort in South Shields, Black Country Living Museum in the West Midlands, Stockport Air Raid Shelters and the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham.

Dr Tracy Borman, Sandford Co-ordinator at Bishop Grosseteste University, said: “The Sandford Awards pay tribute to education excellence and we look forward to honouring another outstanding crop of heritage sites next month. For the first time this year we will also award a special prize: the Frances Garnham Award for Innovation in Heritage Education.

“We’re looking forward to another enjoyable ceremony and we’d like to congratulate all the sites who have been successful this year.”

The awards ceremony begins at 11.30am on Friday 4th December and the Sandford Award Winners 2015 are:

• Arbeia Roman Fort, South Shields
• Battle of Bannockburn
• Bingley Five Rise Locks
• Black Country Living Museum, Dudley
• Bruce Castle Museum, Haringey
• Burghley House, Stamford
• Canterbury Roman Museum
• Castell Henllys Iron Age Village
• Chatsworth House
• Clitheroe Castle
• The Collection, Lincoln
• Colne Valley Museum
• Cottage Museum, Woodhall Spa
• Danelaw Centre for Living History, York
• Discovery Museum & Tyne and Wear Archives
• Experience Barnsley
• Falmouth Art Gallery
• Foxton Locks, Market Harborough
• Framework Knitters Museum, Nottingham
• Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Hall Place & Gardens, Bexley
• Harvington Hall, Kidderminster
• Hatton Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Hatworks: The Museum of Hatting, Stockport
• The Higgins Bedford
• Holdenby House,Northampton
• Hopetoun House, Edinburgh
• The Judge's Lodging, Powys
• Keats House, London
• Kent Life, Maidstone
• Kerry County Museum
• Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Locomotion, County Durham
• London Transport Museum
• Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre
• National Maritime Museum Cornwall
• National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port
• Parliament Education Service
• Pollok House, Glasgow
• Queen Street Mill, Burnley
• Richmond Cultural Education Partnership
• Science Museum, London
• Segedunum Roman Fort, Wallsend
• Sheffield Cathedral
• Shipley Art Gallery
• South Shields Museum and Art Gallery
• Stockport Air Raid Shelters
• Tatton Park, Cheshire
• Titanic Belfast
• Wolves Museum, Wolverhampton
• The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere
• World Rugby Museum, Twickenham