ABOUT THE HERITAGE CENTRE
The Heritage Centre will be a place where people can share their stories, understand more about our common history, and develop a sense of pride and belonging in Tamworth.
​​
The Heritage Centre will be based at 30 Church Street, Tamworth B79 7DX, and open on a regular basis as a place for permanent and temporary exhibitions; study and research space; educational outreach centre; tourist attraction and archive store.
​
The proposed building is ideal: it is in the very heart of the town centre, easily accessible with nearby parking, adjacent to the new Tamworth College and, originally designed as a bank, offers excellent security features for important artefacts and documents.
The Centre will bring together stakeholders from across Tamworth to serve as a focal point for preserving, interpreting, and celebrating Tamworth’s rich and storied heritage. It will provide a space for residents, visitors, and scholars to engage with local history through exhibitions, interactive displays, educational programs, and community involvement and outreach. The Heritage Centre will be designed to enhance the local economy, foster pride in the community, and contribute to cultural tourism in the town centre. It will allow the general public an unprecedented level of access to historical collections and archives.
We believe that this initiative will become a cornerstone of Tamworth’s cultural identity, offering a deeper connection to the town’s past while inspiring future generations. We look forward to working together with the whole community to bring this vision to life.
​
The Heritage Centre as proposed will include:
​
- over 150 square meters of permanent and temporary exhibition space
- a dedicated art gallery - the first of its kind in Tamworth
- study rooms for archival and historical research, available to to the general public
- two self-contained offices, designated for community groups and start-up ventures
- bookable meeting space for use by the wider community
- over 100 square meters of museum-standard archival storage space
- accessible wash room facilities
- a small gift shop selling locally-produced items
- parking for 6 cars
- the potential, if required, to extend rearwards, adding a further 30 square meters of gallery space
​
It is anticipated that the centre would be open Tuesday - Saturday, 10am – 2pm, although opening hours could be extended for special events, functions and exhibitions. In terms of day-to-day operations, the Centre would be principally staffed by volunteers; there is already a large pool of volunteers from several community groups who have expressed a desire to help in this regard. It may be possible, funding permitting, to employ a part-time Centre Manager to co-ordinate volunteers and oversee operational activities, volunteer recruitment, costs etc.
​
The Centre will be strategically managed be a management group, comprised of various stakeholders from across Tamworth and the surrounding communities.
Detailed cost calculations have been made and there is no reason why the Centre could not be self-funding and entirely sustainable within the first year of its operation. Entry to the centre would be free.
​
You can discover more about the proposals for the centre in the downloadable consultation document.
​
Below: just some of the thousands of treasures from the Tamworth Castle Museum Collection which we can make available for everyone at the centre​ including fine art, world-famous Gibbs and Canning pottery, Roman artefacts, document archives, rare signatures and historic photographs (all images courtesy of Tamworth Castle Archives)
