Curtain comes down on town puppet museum as it finds a new home

IT was the final curtain call for an iconic puppet museum at Abbots Bromley in November 1993.

Punch and Pinocchio, along with a host of kings and queens from faraway lands, were packed away ready for their new home.

The original museum was a former shop premises in Abbots Bromley’s High Street and housed a proscenium marionette stage for demonstrations.

Speaking at the time of its closure in 1993, museum director Douglas Hayward said: “I have recognised for some time that for a variety of reasons it would not be possible for the museum to continue indefinitely in its present form of premises.”

After two years of searching for a new home, Mr Haywood said the offer of space at the National Trust property of Shugborough Hall was “beyond anything I have dared to imagine”. The offer was in the form of two linked rooms in the middle of the museum at Shugborough.

Mr Haywood said: “Not only will this ensure the future of the collection, it will also commemorate the Abbots Bromley museum with its Staffordshire associations and such items as our hanging sign and photographs will be incorporated in the proposed permanent display.

“I can imagine no more exciting place for the collection to find a new home.

“An assured future and the potential to inspire very many people for many years to come.”

Jane Spier, marketing and publicity officer at Shugborough, said: “We are delighted to have the puppet museum here. We have a small amount of puppets ourselves and we hope the new collection will be enthusiastically received by visitors, especially children.”