Steven Heddle has been first off the mark in responding to our call for model builders & interpretation experts to develop the ‘Building of the Barriers’ exhibition, which is going to go in a new gallery at the Orkney Fossil & Heritage Centre in Burray.

 

No sooner than we’d put a press release out, indicating that we were after model builders, Steven provided us with the attached image, which has carefully greyed-out his kids’ building blocks.

 

 

To see the full technicolour version, visit his website at: http://www.allaboutorkney.com/news/374-model-builder-sought-for-building-of-the-barriers-exhibit

 

Sunglasses are recommended.

 

Anyone interested in being considered as the contractor to produce the Building of the Barriers exhibition, including its model elements, should email bill.jenman@orkney.gov.uk or visit the Public Contracts Scotland website, where the Brief and Pre-qualification Questionnaire can be found: http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=MAR089336

They will have to try a bit harder than Steven.

 

The model and exhibition will be developed over the next 12 months, and will be installed at the Orkney Fossil and Heritage Centre in Burray next March, just before the Centre opens for the summer 2012 season. The exhibit will be funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund, and go on permanent display. It should give a striking impression of the scale and difficulty of this impressive engineering feat, whilst also giving a fascinating insight into the social history of wartime Orkney.

 

In the meantime, the Orkney Fossil & Heritage Centre can be recommended to everyone, for their existing impressive collections, and excellent food and refreshments. The centre opens for the season on Easter Saturday, April 23.

 

The collection of Orkney fossils on display includes specimens from the Sandwick fish beds, as well as rare and beautifully preserved fossils from around the world. The heritage galleries upstairs give a real flavour of local life since Edwardian times, told through everyday objects, and in particular during the wartime years. The Archive Room has an intriguing collection of photographs and also holds the census records for South Ronaldsay and Burray from 1821 to 1901.

 

 

Julian Branscombe
SFLPS Manager