Grantham Museum loans artefacts boxes to schools, community groups and families to learn about history

Boxes full of artefacts and historical facts are being offered on loan to people by a museum.

Grantham Museum offers boxes of artefacts on loan to people for £10 a week.

Whether it’s the Victorians, the Romans or the Second World War, anyone - whether it’s a family, school or community group - can borrow the boxes.

The museum has been running the scheme for several years, however staff and volunteers are now “starting to shout about it” to let more people know what they are doing.

“It’s great for people to get their hands on the artefacts, but also learn about the history,” said museum consultant Hannah Tomlinson.

“It’s a different way of learning instead of reading a textbook.”

There are currently seven boxes on offer. These are: Africa culture box, the history of writing, Victorian kitchen, Second World War, Egyptians, Roman life and seaside puppets.

Each box includes some artefacts, fact cards and activities to do.

In recent years, they have been used by local schools, but Hannah and museum manager Shan Davis hope more families and community groups may want to borrow them.

Hannah added: “They are really good for schools because with the cost of visiting us, it isn’t feasible for some schools so this is more of an affordable way to learn.

“Also with families, it gives them a chance to do something different with their child at the weekends.”

Now they are letting more people know about the boxes, they hope to create some new ones in the future.

Shan said: “We want to look at doing more boxes on local history.

“At the moment, they cover the school curriculum needs. Some of the boxes do need a bit of TLC, but we just want to make them better and keep doing them.”

Hannah added: “We want to give people more options, some more niche boxes and like Shan said, more towards local history.”

Anyone who would like to loan a box can get in touch with Grantham Museum by calling 01476 568783.