Hertfordshire Association of Museum Awards 2025
The awards, run by the Hertfordshire Association of Museums, took place in Hertford Castle on the 27th February 2025.
Following this year’s public vote Garden City Collection have taken home the coveted Hertfordshire Museums Object of the Year award. Their entry was a Tawa (a pan used to make chapattis) that was handmade out of steel from the K&L factory in Letchworth.
The pan was made by Gurdev Singh Shergill, using metal from the factory where he worked as it was not possible to buy these pans in any local shops.
Runners-up included:
A Roman tegula roof tile, with animal paw prints from Lowewood Museum. Roman clay tiles were left to dry in the sun and this one has attracted a dog, and possibly other animals, to have a wander over it, leaving their paw prints for us to admire centuries later.
The Marconi Clocking in Clock from St Albans Museum + Gallery. The clock was used in the Marconi factory in the Fleetville area of St Albans, to record the working hours of employees until 1988 when it was put up as a prize in a company raffle.
Other award winners were:
Creative Health Award: St Albans Museum and Gallery - Communities-in-residence. A year-long museum residency with the local ME/CFS support group
Engagement Award: Lowewood Museum – Borough Beats. Project and exhibition collecting stories and memories of the music scene in the Borough of Broxbourne from the 1950s to the 1970s
Innovation Award: Watford Museum- Museum Next Gen. Museum Collective/co-curation project for 5 young people aged 18-25 to curate a re-hang of the Museum’s fine art collection and develop the accompanying interpretation.
Environmental Sustainability Award: Royston Museum- Royston Museum Goes Green – New ways of working and development of a 5-year plan to underpin and inform our work going forward.
Heritage Hero Awards were presented to staff and volunteers from museums across the county to recognise the wonderful work they have done supporting museums and communities.
Hertfordshire Association of Museums are grateful to the judges who kindly gave up their time to review and score the Creative Health, Environmental Sustainability, Engagement and Innovation Awards.
Amy Stone -Museum Development Officer Kent and West Sussex – Brighton
Alex Gordon-Jones- Museum Development Officer Suffolk
Emma Bunbury - Museums Partnership Officer Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Jamie Everitt– Museum Development South East Programme Manager