Historic element to taste day at the Tenbury Pump Rooms (From Ludlow Advertiser)

Historic element to taste day at the Tenbury Pump Rooms

1:33pm Thursday 21st March 2013 in News By Adrian Kibbler

TENBURY’s outreach museum at the Pump Rooms has a special opening on Saturday.

The Pump Rooms is taking part in a major initiative to promote the town’s heritage and all that it has to offer, during the latest in a series of Taste of Tenbury' days.

Volunteers from the museum will be on hand in the Pump Rooms from 10am – 2pm to show the visitors the town’s historic fountain and well and to answer any questions about this iconic part of the town’s history.

The fountain and well were moved during the refurbishment of the town’s original museum.

One of the bathrooms which is currently being reconstructed with its unusual four tap bath and other original fitments, will also be open to visitors.

There will be another viewing to coincide with the Teme Valley Food Fair on Saturday, May 4.

Tenbury Museum opened in 1977 and is based in a small former Victorian School.

It is run by a team of volunteers and is open from Easter until October. New exhibits are planned for the 2013 season.

In recent years, the town council had expressed a wish to open up the building more often to encourage more appreciation of its historic importance.

So when the Museum Society volunteers approached it to seek a partnership to facilitate the restoration of the items from the spa the town council responded with a grant towards conservation.

Worcester County Council also allocated an additional grant for the relocation.

The restoration work was car ried out by heritage conservators, Treasures of Ludlow.

Also part of the current museum display is the cast iron bath from the male bathroom with its unusual feature of four large brass taps – two for hot and cold and two for the spa water, as well as the hand basin and original towel rail as seen in the archive illustrations of the room.

These will also be relocated to the Pump Rooms A series of ‘taste of Tenbury’ days are being staged throughout the year to enable shops in the town to show off.