Open our museums

Congratulations to the Folk Museum, the Occupation Museum and La Vallette Underground Military Museum, all of which reopened very promptly.

Candie Museum seems to have been slow off the mark and we have to wait until 2 July – and then opening for just four days a week.

The worst appears to be Castle Cornet, the island’s premier visitor attraction.

It reopens only on 18 July and then for just four days a week, 10am-3pm. Normal weekly opening hours are cut from 49 to 20.

Even then the cafe will be closed and the noonday gun will not be fired. Fort Grey and the Signals HQ are not reopening at all this year.

Are the museums short of staff? I’m sure there are unemployed or underemployed locals at present who would be happy to help out.

The 18 July opening date for the castle is explained as being ‘In time for the school summer holidays’. However, the colleges break up on 3 July – perhaps they don’t count as schools?

Castle Nights seems to have been abandoned. Surely a few local musicians could be invited to give us the super local entertainment evenings we have enjoyed in past years, or is it too much effort to organise?

The popular Discovery Pass has not been of much use recently, the castle will have been closed for nearly nine months by the time it reopens and Fort Grey and Signals HQ not available at all.

Despite this, the passes are not expected to be extended and will expire after 12 months in the usual way. The only beneficiaries will be the lucky few who bought their passes in October, as those are to be extended to the end of 2021. At least these few won’t miss out.

So come on Matt Fallaize, president of Education, Sport & Culture – open all your museums with proper opening hours.

Let’s have some special events and evening openings at the castle.

Show the island and the world Guernsey is back in business and help give us locals the 2020 summer staycation we shall remember for all the right

reasons.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD.

Editor’s footnote: Deputy Matt Fallaize, president of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture, replies:

Lots of work has been going on behind the scenes at Guernsey Museums throughout lockdown and activity has jumped in recent weeks to ensure Castle Cornet and Guernsey Museum are ready to open after months of enforced closure.

Guernsey Museum will open today, 2 July, just 12 days after the start of phase five, and with a new exhibition in place for visitors to enjoy. Castle Cornet will be opening when all of the island’s students are on their summer holidays. At present, there is building work being undertaken at the castle, and this has been delayed because of lockdown. We did not want to open the site when it was as much a construction site as it was a historical site, and therefore we decided to wait until all of the scaffolding was erected so the castle’s offering can be properly enjoyed, including its museums.

The writer of this letter will be pleased to know that his expectations regarding the Discovery Passes are, in reality, wrong.

My committee took the decision to extend any pass purchased from 1 October 2019 until 31 October 2020, so they will be valid until 31 December 2021. We feel this a very generous extension and we hope that it will encourage repeat visits to our sites both this year and next.

The correspondent will also be pleased to hear his assumption that Castle Nights have been abandoned is also wrong, and we were happy to be able to announce a weekly series of Castle Nights events from 17 July until 7 August – with free admission – will be taking place this year. Similarly, Candie Concerts have already resumed, and we hope to run many more family activities throughout the summer.

One accurate assessment made in this letter is that the ‘normal’ weekly opening hours of our attractions will be different to previous years. But this is because ‘normal’ is quite different itself. The world has changed a substantial amount in the last few months, and without any potential for tourism this summer, the stark reality is that our predicted footfall, and therefore income for 2020, will be drastically reduced. Local, paying visitors made up less than 5% of our total visitors at most sites last year.

We therefore have had to carefully think about our approach to opening the museums, to both ensure that the island’s ‘staycationers’ can enjoy its offerings, while also preserving them for the future. We could not just open ‘as normal’, as we would be unable to cover our seasonal staffing costs, resulting in significant losses. As a result, we have had to redistribute our Guernsey Museum staff across the two sites, resulting in limited opening.

We will do our absolute best to return to ‘business as usual’ as quickly as possible, however we will be working with both the direct and indirect consequences of Covid-19 and the lockdown for some time. Right now, we are very pleased that we are able to open our doors, and look forward to welcoming visitors again.