Heritage Lottery Fund bid for fire station museum

A bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to fund restoring and converting the former fire station on Maclure Road, Rochdale into a new museum is being submitted by the Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum Trust. 

Should the £1.8m bid be successful, and the important match-funding put in place, then the new museum will start to be developed later this year.

The fire station was vacated in January 2014 when the brigade moved to new premises on Halifax Road, Hamer and has been trying to sell the old building since without success.

The Maclure Road station was built in 1933 and designed by the borough architect.  It is one of the finest examples of between-the-wars large urban residential fire stations still surviving and, despite some necessary alterations over the 80 years it was in service, it contains many original architectural features.

Currently, the museum is located in an outbuilding at the rear of the fire station, where it has been open since 1983. However, it has outgrown this facility which is too small and has limited services for visitors, in addition to storage, archiving and other 'backroom' needs. 

Trustee Bob Bonner said: “The best future home for the museum is in a fantastic heritage fire station building, with plenty of space; the Museum Trust has tried a number of schemes in the past to acquire the building but has been unsuccessful. This has included asking the Fire Service to hand it over to us, also a partnership with a private funder which sadly fell through, and an earlier Heritage Lottery Fund bid which was unsuccessful.”

The Trust is now in a new partnership arrangement with Rochdale Council, which is in the process of buying the empty fire station from the Fire and Rescue Service for the purposes of enabling the museum to achieve its aims. 

The intention is for the museum to occupy the ground floor and part of the first floor, with the remainder of the building having a new – as yet undetermined – use in the hands of the Council.

In 2016, the Trust won a First Round Heritage Lottery Fund grant of over £100,000, which has enabled the essential architectural work, exhibition design, business planning and community activities programmes to be carried out and this phase has just completed.

Mr Bonner said: “We are now about to submit a larger, Round Two, bid to HLF for around £1.8m. Should this be successful and the important match-funding put in place, then the new museum will start to be developed later this year.  So, in terms of funding, we are submitting one major bid and are seeking around £100,000 of match funding.”

Mr Bonner added: “Despite this, we remain confident and know that we have a brilliant project . When fully restored through this proposal and converted to the fabulous new museum we are planning, it will become a major feature in the Maclure Road/Drake Street 'gateway' area of the town.”

The proposed new museum will provide around four times the present display space, enabling items currently in storage to be displayed for the first time and to be joined by new objects. The proposal also provides for an education centre on site, which will allow the Trust to expand its current schools programme – a major part of the museum’s work.

There will also be a library and archive research centre, cafeteria, temporary exhibition space and shop.  Existing favourites such as the Victorian Fire Station and Manchester Blitz tableaux will be retained with improvements, and a programme of community activity engagement for Rochdalians and wider visitors will commence.

As the project develops, the museum will be launching a recruiting drive for new volunteers to help with various roles once open.

Individuals or corporate bodies who wish to support the Museum Trust are welcome.

Contact the Museum on 01706 341219 or donate via the link below:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=H044ztr9Yx1e9Bs3NYupqIoSJsOln3ctPZX6c9Cz5GonTsMQrA1r4-OoXdsgwK1i46jxEW&country.x=GB&locale.x=GB