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The Client.
St Fagan’s is one of Europe’s foremost open-air museums and Wales’s most popular heritage attraction. It stands in the grounds of St Fagan’s Castle, a late 16th-century manor house donated to the people of Wales by the Earl of Plymouth.
The Challenge.
Having provided Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales with storage products and services for many years, Metalrax Storage was commissioned to provide 800 linear metres of static and mobile shelving in a purpose built collection centre. The building was designed and erected to accommodate the museum’s wide and varied collections. These include Eisteddfod chairs, agricultural artefacts, domestic furniture, harps and coracles. There was also a requirement for a specialised textile store. The store was to house over 300 custom built drawers containing items such as jackets and shawls as well as rolls of textiles up to 2700mm long.
The Solution.
A comprehensive survey was conducted by conservation staff to produce an array of bay elevations to house the collections. Metalrax Storage then incorporated these into an effective and efficient layout.
Many special features were designed and built into the standard shelving system to ensure the artefacts were kept safe yet easily accessible to museum staff. Pull out shelves measuring 3000mm wide x 1800mm deep were incorporated into Widespan shelving to store fragile wall paintings taken from the inside of one of the re-erected buildings. The paintings, which are large, heavy and difficult to manoeuvre, can now be kept flat and do not need to be handled to be viewed. Other special features include a roll in-roll out rack which is used to store window and door frames in an upright position. Mobile picture racking is being used to store walking sticks and agricultural implements that were previously laid flat on shelving.
Working in close collaboration with the members of staff at the museum, Metalrax Storage were able to successfully design a scheme that accommodated the St Fagan’s collections and stay within the original budget.
‘Although we had a fairly good idea of how we wanted to utilise the space in the new store, the expert input from Metalrax Storage proved invaluable in fine-tuning the design. Their creativity has enabled every square inch of space to be used to its maximum efficiency. Metalrax Storage delivered excellent service and value-for-money.’ Diane Gwilt Head of Collection Care and Access Projects, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.
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