Chief mill trustee and local resident Paul Hawes had been collecting bygones since 1956 and displaying them at various locations in the village, including the Gardiner Memorial Hall and at bygones weekends in the early Eighties.
Skip collector
Alison Giles, Education Officer at the museum, described him as the “skip collector” as many items had been retrieved from skips. After an initial meeting in July 1982 by several residents who decided upon the foundation of a museum, the Burwell Museum Trust was set up in 1984. Following years of fundraising, it was opened at Easter 1992.
Eight trustees oversaw its creation, including Paul Hawes, John Wisbey, and Hazel Bradley. Items weresome former allotment land. Some £10,000 was raised to build the barn. All the other buildings on site apart from the windmill have been sourced and assembled by volunteers. The current collection numbers an impressive 17,000 objects. “In some cases, we have had to dispose of duplicate items,” Alison told me.
