Newsletter: May 2018

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TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence

We are delighted that both Granite’s and the Mountsorrel Heritage Centre have been awarded TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence. This “honours hospitality businesses that deliver consistently great service across the world. It is presented to businesses that have consistently achieved great reviews over the past year.”

Our volunteers and staff deserve a huge pat on the back, as it is their time and effort that inspires visitors to rate us so highly.

Volunteering

We urgently need to increase the strength of our volunteer teams to maximise the potential of our site. Probably the most important role at the moment is to guide and steward the site. To aid this, we have appointed Dave as our Volunteer Coordinator who will receive enquiries, meet potential volunteers and help to integrate them into appropriate teams.

Details will soon be available on the website and posters and explanatory leaflets will be placed in Granite’s.

In the meantime you may contact Dave by email via volunteer.2019@heritage-centre.co.uk. He will contact you to discuss how you may help us.

Leicestershire Festival of Archaeology

As part of the Leicestershire & Rutland Festival of Archaeology Robert will be giving guided tours looking at the history and archaeology of Nunckley Hill Quarry, the restored Mountsorrel Railway (the Swithland branch line), the remains of the 19th century building known as “Dobb Hall”, and the 1888 MSLR passenger carriage.

Tours cost £5 per person, start at 2pm from outside Granite’s Coffee Shop and last for around an hour.

Tours will take place on:-

  • Sunday 15th July
  • Friday 20th July
  • Tuesday 24th July
  • Friday 27th July

Booking is essential. Further details may be found at

Railway Museum

MLSR coach 946 platformThe walk-way for coach 946 is now finished, so visitors can finally see the fantastic job the GCR Rolling Stock Trust’s volunteers did restoring the interior of the coach. On days when we have a guide present visitors will be able to sit inside the coach.

Work on restoring the brake van is also continuing at a pace. The new springs have arrived and RVP will be back with us shortly to help us fit them. The roof should be re-felted soon and it won’t be too long before the van gets its first coat of paint. At this rate the external renovations should be complete by mid July.

Crazy Golf

Our volunteers continue to develop our “Crazy” Golf course. There will be 10 holes and various obstacles to knock the ball through to reach each hole. All but one of the pitches have ben dug out and our volunteer Bruce’s imagination is running wild as he creates the various obstacles, which include a castle, maze, see saw and wooden train. It is hoped that the course will be ready for you to try out around August.

Train hazard crazy golf banner

Trains

DMU weekend: 21st & 22nd July

Trains will be running on the weekend of the 21st & 22nd July. This time the DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) will be hauling trains that connect to the GCR main line, and visitors will be able to catch a train at Loughborough, or any of the other GCR’s main line stations, and ride up the branch line to the heritage centre and Mountsorrel and back. There will be four return trips each day. Train times and prices will be available soon. Further details on the GCR’s website.

Goods Galore Gala

Lots of people turned out to watch the Jinty pick up water and then shunt and pick up the Mountsorrel Granite Wagons. This month you are spoilt for choice with three videos to watch:-

Discovery Project

We are all awaiting the outcome of our Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) application. The HLF will be meeting on June 14th to decide our fate, so we will hopefully hear the outcome a few days later. Fingers crossed!

We will be sending out a separate newsletter detailing progress on the Discovery Centre. We will include a summary in this main newsletter but if you would like more detailed information then to receive these you can update your subscription to include the “Discovery Project”

GDPR

Arghhh! Not you as well!

Sorry but if you think reading a Privacy Policy is a pain you should try writing one!

The good news is that the essence of our privacy policy has not changed. We collect the bare minimum amount of information about you required for the distribution of these newsletters and for the operation and maintenance of our website. We do not pass your personal information on to third parties.

The bad news is that by including further detail about what we collect and the services we use to check for spam and to distribute these newsletters, the length of the policy has probably doubled.

You have always been able to change which newsletters you receive or even to opt out altogether. The Privacy Policy now includes a form that you can complete should you wish a detailed breakdown of the information we hold about you. And yes, by completing the form your digital footprint on our website has expanded by another small step.