Comments on: Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry – Newhall Street

By: Kevin Murrell

Kevin Murrell — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:15:54 +0000

On a weekend break back to B’ham – where I grew up some forty years ago.
I am sad to say Birmingham should be ashamed of itself over the fate of the science museum. It was something to be treasured – place to inspire and enthuse young potential engineers. The sad replacement is frankly laughable and costs £12.50 to even get in. The few items they have belong to Birmingham and it’s people and they should be be charged to see them. I can only presume a few people made a lot of money over this sad state of affairs.
I for one, would not be in my role now had it not been for those Saturday afternoons at the original science museum.
As a city of science and industry, this is a lamentable state of affairs.
MOSI in Mcr, manage a much better job – and it’s free.

By: Ann MacDonald

Ann MacDonald — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 14:36:49 +0000

So very disappointed the old science museum is no more. Had just been raving to my grandson about how wonderful it was — the plane, the tram, everything I remember from my visits there as a child — and went on the Internet to show him some of the wonders, only to find it has gone! What a waste of a valuable and exciting resource

By: RONALD EVANS

RONALD EVANS — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:11:03 +0000

I am very sad to see that this great institution has closed. I was looking forewarg to taking my two grand children to see some of the great things that have come out of the black country. I used to visit every school holiday and had much fun and also learned many things about out heritage.

By: Adam Jeynes

Adam Jeynes — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:51:17 +0000

i cannot believe this. i went here as a lad some 20 years ago aged 8 with my dad sister and brother on a sunday not long after he and my mom had split up. it was an emotional time but i have such a fond memory of spending the day there with him, having a go building the foam arch bridge in the science area trying to get it to hold my weight, playing with the air tube holding the beach ball aloft in mid-air… and seeing the big train just had me mesmerized…. 20 years on i also am a single father but to a 2 year old, and he has such a fasination with trains, i have been searching online for ages to find out exactly what this place was called and where this place was so i could re-live the happy memory of being there with my dad at such a hard time, and so i could take my boy not only to let him feel the same as i did back then when being confronted by this amazing train, but to let him know that daddy still loves him…. To find out this no longer exists has literally bought a tear to my eye.

By: ANDREW ROFFEY

ANDREW ROFFEY — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 13:37:06 +0000

My father Keith used to work at the museum and I have very fond memories of getting covered in coal dust and helping with the steam engines particularly the Burrell tractor Busy Bee.My fondest memories are of the annual traction engine rally held outside the museum every year in may from 1960 to 1995.All my memories are loved ones of the museum.

By: Tim Down

Tim Down — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:26:44 +0000

Just echoing much of the above,really. As a child growing up in Warwickshire in the sixties and seventies it was a frequent treat to go to the Science Museum.
I returned last weekend with my family to find it had been shrunk and moved to the Thinktank. I wasn’t too keen on the new one. Too much of my childhood had vanished. But nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. The collections of exhibits were fine as far as they went. Quite a few fond memories returned. The new interactive bits I thought superficial (much the same as the Eden Project – so much potential wasted, but I digress).
Particularly sad to not find the fox-and-geese game, which was less interesting for the game itself, but more for the fact it was a ‘computer’ built from relays which made a most impressive noise.
The other big computers which were in the old museum I am pleased to discover by the power of Google (other search engines are available) have been moved elsewhere and are being restored by groups of enthusiasts.

Having said all that, my children loved it ( 6 and 4 years old, which supports one of the previous comments). And the staff bent over backwards to help me recapture my youth.

If I may comment off-piste slightly, the Science Museum isn’t the only Brum landmark to vanish. Went to a family reunion recently, and all I needed to remember was ‘turn left at the Maypole’
Somewhere in the last thirty years someone nicked a whole pub! Needless to say I got very very lost.

By: John Minter

John Minter — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:32:26 +0000

The old Museum of Science & Industry was a never-ending source of delight for me as a child- along with the cavernous ruins of snow Hill nearby, where we’d dare each other to go down the subway, and the tiny but excellent model shop at the bottom of the hill. The roundabout mosaics depicting GW steam are (I hope) still with us. I well remember the tune played by the different radios in the museum, the big model railway carriage nearby (sectioned, I think- or with the roof raised so that you could see inside) and the bike wheel with covered sides that you could spin to investigate centrifugal force. I think the wonderfully complex button making machine made it to Think Tank but boy was that place disappointing. Children pushing buttons and running off too bored to wait & see what happens next. Think Tank really is the worst of Britain’s new dumbed-down “museums”. I can’t think of any other museum that can compare with th old Museum of Science and Industry- the hall with all the steam and hot air engines all working at once, all with detailed and informative descriptions, aimed to stretch slightly the intellect and imagination and inform, using the written word. On to happier things- “Secundus” I saw recently at Corfe Castle (what an old friend! I didn’t realise how painful nostalgia can be!). I did love the T Rex and I remember the excitement in the Birmingham papers when it arrived. Why do we throw away so willingly so much that is good?

By: Steve Cryer

Steve Cryer — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 19:11:37 +0000

I am currently on holiday in Shrewsbury and had planned to visit the Birmingham Museum of Science aand Industry which I last visited in the late 1980’s and have been extremely disappointed to find it no longer exists. I trained as an engineer in the late 1960’s and it was wonderful to see something from the history of the famous companies of the Midlands so familiar to me. I live in Tavistock in Devon and you can imagine my delight in seeing a small narrow guage steam engine that worked at Wilmingstone Quarry in Tavistock. I can understand the need to modernise but surely this could have been done alongside the original exhibits as is done elsewhere in the Midlands, Irongorge being a fine example. I have a message for Birmingham Council which you might like to pass on or let me have a contact to use and that is if they do not want these exhibits then there are individuals and organisations willing to take them off their hands. I certainly would be ineterested in the Tavistock Steam Locomotive to return it to its home

By: Helen Bowden

Helen Bowden — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:17:13 +0000

As the daughter of an engineer I was a regular visitor to the old museum of science and industry. I always enjoyed the steam and traction show which was held once a year outside. The music, the smell of steam and the general excitement are all still very vivid to me. I remember the museum with such fondness. However can it be that such important pieces of our heritage have been removed from the public domain?

By: M R Francis

M R Francis — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:19:33 +0000

Does anyone have a poster for the ’sight on sound’ section of the real museum of science and industry. Required for family of Bill Brookes who set it up.
Many thanks
Malcolm