SHREWSBURY MUSEUM & SHROPSHIRE ARCHIVES · In the main auditorium, the Shrewsbury Gallery tells key stories about Shropshire's history, which was at the heart of the scientific revolution

SHREWSBURYMUSEUM &SHROPSHIREARCHIVES Case Study

The UK’s largest manufacturer of Pallet Racking, Shelving and Lockers

LINK 51 WORK WITH SHROPSHIRECOUNCIL TO MAXIMISE STORAGE &PRESERVE LOCAL HERITAGE

Shrewsbury MuseumThe new Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery occupies

the town’s old Music Hall - an extraordinary complex

of buildings featuring a rare medieval stone mansion

that is the only one of its kind in this region.

Shropshire Council turned to

local storage equipment

manufacturer Link 51 to deliver

storage solutions for their

Shropshire Museums,

Shropshire Archives and

Records Management

departments at two sites in

the county.

Including geology, archaeology, socialhistory, arts and photography, there aregalleries devoted to prehistoric and Romanartefacts, the Medieval and Tudor periodand the political and religious turmoil ofthe Stuart era. Items on display include: theCondover mammoth, a great Auk, acollection of locally discovered 9,315bronze Roman coins, fossilised rain dropsand Queen Victoria’s stockings.

In the main auditorium, the ShrewsburyGallery tells key stories about Shropshire'shistory, which was at the heart of thescientific revolution in the 19th century.

The Brief

Prime Contractors for the museumrefurbishment, international constructionservices group, ISG, invited Link 51 to enterthe tendering process to supply a mobile‘roller’ racking solution for the museum’sbasement exhibit storage facility andracking for the archival storage of pictures,housed in a separate room. Working todetailed architectural specification andbased on utilising all available space,Link 51 submitted their preliminary designsand were awarded the contract.

For the basement exhibit storage solution,installation concerns centred on thereduced height of the facility and theflooring, which required the fitting of afalse floor infill to provide a flat levelsurface for the mobiles to run smoothlyover.

The Solution

l In the basement exhibit storage facility, the system featured a combination of mobile and static shelving in order to achieve full utilisation of floor space. Allowing for the reduced ceiling height variations, Link 51 installed a mix of 17 Stormor mobile ‘roller’ racking units and static shelving to accommodate to the varying sizes of the material being stored (ceramics and artifacts).

l For the picture racking, the 13 racks installed were supported by an overheadlightweight frame, with each rack incorporating steel mesh panels to both sides. Using smooth running tracks, energy absorbing buffers and self braking systems, these racks provide a high density and safe storage facility that can be extended when required.

Shropshire ArchivesShropshire Archives is the archives and local studies service for the historic county of Shropshire, which

includes the Borough of Telford and Wrekin. Shropshire Archives is based on Castle Gates in Shrewsbury.

“For Link 51 to provide the range of storage in our basement facility that they did, was a feat in itself given the

space confines. I was very impressed with Link 51’s approach to this project.

“Given the background to the museum, the expectation of its refurbishment and the fact that Link 51 are a local

company, all made this particular challenge all the more important - I’m very glad to say that Link 51 ticked all the

boxes in that respect.”

Emma-Kate Lanyon, Team Leader (Collections and Curatorial Services), Shropshire Museums, Visitor Economy Team, Shropshire Council

The function of Shropshire Archives is topreserve and make accessible documents,books, maps, photographs, plans anddrawings relating to Shropshire’s past andpresent. Shropshire Council also maintainsan offsite combined museum, archives andrecords management store, which islocated at Hortonwood, Telford.

The store itself, which is not open to thepublic, is shared with the County’s ElectionServices and it has been operational sinceApril 2014. It has been fully refurbishedand an internal archive ‘pod’ built - aseparately constructed building within thestore itself, which the service has had builtto provide an environmentally controlledarchival facility for historical records. Thepod (94m³) is working to meet the

standards of PD 5454:2012 -‘Recommendations for the storage andexhibition of archival documents’ - whichspecifies temperature and humidity rangesfor document storage, shelving schemes,and materials for document containers.

The remainder of the storage within thebuilding is assigned to records (325 m³).These are mainly Shropshire Council’s ownrecords integrated with the RecordsManagement Service. Storage includes anarea given over to storage for the MuseumService’s collections. The main operationalfocus of the records store is for transfersand collections. The Election Services usethe building to accommodate theirelections equipment and records.

Shropshire Archives

The Solution

For storage requirements, the building wassplit into two clear areas: the integratedpod for archive storage and the remainingmain area for records storage, with bothareas having a requirement for the storageof outsized items.

By using Link 51, Shropshire Councilbenefited from:

l UK based in-house manufacturing capability

l Fully managed market-leading mass storage solutions

l Extensive knowledge and experience

l High quality product range combining strength, durability and operational reliability

“In overall terms, we are thoroughly satisfied with the service and the

product and we are delighted to have worked with Link 51 on this

project.”

Dale Pitt, Records Manager, Records Management Service, Shropshire Archives, Shropshire Council

The Pod

To facilitate the access and retrieval ofarchive material and in keeping withPD 5454:2012 recommendations, Link 51installed a mix of Stormor mobile and staticshelving to accommodate the differentsizes of archive items. The mobile units arecoloured red to indicate ‘archival storage’.

Records Storage

A mix of 15 mobile units and 5 staticshelving units were installed toaccommodate the Archives’18624 standardrecords management boxes. The mobileunits are coloured blue to indicate thestorage of ‘semi-current records’ -i.e. business records that are occasionallyused for administrative or legal purposes.

The shelves within the mobile systems areall finished in RAL7035 - Light Grey - whichincludes ActiveCoat anti-microbialprotection as standard. ActiveCoat isproven to reduce levels of bacteria oncontact surfaces by up to 99.9%,drastically reducing the risks of bacterialcross-contamination and the spread ofharmful bacteria and moulds.

Link51

Link House, Halesfield 6, Telford TF7 4LN

Tel: 0800 169 5151Fax: 01384 472 599Email: [email protected]: www.link51.co.uk

Note: This publication shows general concepts only, and should not be used as a guide for specific design or assembly purposes. Link 51 reserves the right toalter the specification on any of these products, in the customers interest, without prior notification.

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