Education

• The Museum is a local resource for life-long learning.

• We strongly support the United Nations’ dictum: “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community”.

We welcome individual learners of all ages: and we like to engage with Schools, Youth Groups, U3A groups, families - in fact, any groups interested in our area, its people, places and history, as we tell the story of ‘what it was like to live and work round here’.

Our opening hours are shown in other parts of this website. But even outside them, we are able to offer guided tours of the museum, albeit of limited capacity (because we're small), by prior appointment: we usually make a small charge for this service.

We can provide, by prior appointment, local school visits for classes of up to 30 in the old council chamber of Basing House. We're very happy to consult with teachers on our available resources for the curriculum – the 1950s, archaeology, Roman coins, local significant people, World Wars, local transport, manufacturing and business.

And we can come to your school with material and presentations, although we can better provide in the musuem.

We also have ‘handling boxes’ with contents related to the following topics:

• “Downstairs” in Victorian and Edwardian times

• Victorian Toys

• World War 2 and Rickmansworth

For youth groups such as Brownies, Beavers and Cubs we can act as a resource for Badges such as Local Knowledge and Explorers.

We can provide talks and presentations to community groups: on the museum and on various aspects of the story of the area, including the records of the farmer diarist John White, as recently featured on the BBC's Countryfile programme. We ask for a donation for this service, which we're happy to discuss when you book - contact us here to do that.

We welcome individuals and groups whose culture or circumstances might not have brought them into contact with the past story of this area. We’re developing, in collaboration with Three Rivers District Council and W3RT, programmes to encourage and allow people from all parts of the district and whatever their circumstances, to visit and enjoy our museum and the wealth of information it contains.

We can lead or arrange local history walks, guided by prior appointment or self-guided with information from the museum.

Oral History

Memories matter, and everyone has a story to tell: we also have a programme of oral history recordings, and welcome local people who would like to make a permanent record of their experiences. This need not be old! Remember that what’s happening now will be history next week – so what it’s like to live and work here now is of real interest to us.

We welcome those wishing to study our local history, whether amateur or professional..

We have a large archive, increasingly digitised, of photographic and other resources - diaries, maps, videos - to the area. Many of our photographs and maps are displayed on the digital kiosk in the museum, but by no means all.

Contact us to arrange a study visit.