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The Bolton Heritage Volunteers Group is very proud to be associated with The Fusilier Museum in Bury. The Museum tells the story of the 20th Regiment of Foot and the Lancashire Fusiliers from 1688 to 1968 when they became part of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The Museum continues the story for the whole regiment up to the present day. It was originally housed in the training depot at Wellington Barracks and opened its doors to the public in 1934. In 2009 the Museum moved to its present site in Moss Street, Bury which is excellently situated in the town centre. The Museum continues to grow and expand and during the summer of 2014 work is continuing on increasing the exhibition space with the help of £1.4m of Heritage Lottery Funding. The work should be completed in autumn 2014 to commemorate and honour those involved in the First World War.

Bolton NADFAS volunteers have been working at the Fusilier Museum since March 2005. Initially between March 2005 and August 2006 they worked with the Assistant Development Officer on the vital task of labelling the museum collection. Also during this time they worked on packing, collections care, sewing, inventories, new accessions and uniform repairing. It was decided that one of the first major tasks should be the re-storing of the uniform collection and between September 2007 and December 2008 three of the volunteers worked on the creation of padded coat hangers on which to store the uniforms. The other two volunteers continued the work of documentation – labelling, numbering and cataloguing.

In January 2009 all five volunteers – Wendy Lord, Rhona Bridge, Elaine Wilson, Margaret Hammill and Dennis Clark started on their biggest task to date which was to prepare for the museum collection to be moved to its new site in the town centre. Until the end of March 2009 they packed the collection into boxes, wrapped frames and filled in tracking forms to ensure everything ended up in the right place. During the three month period before the museum re-opened at the end of June they worked on display and collections care: polishing medals, installing objects into showcases and repairing uniforms. New display cases were installed so that all the medals in the Museum’s collection could be easily seen and appreciated.

The Museum is especially proud of its Victoria Cross collection. The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of British, Commonwealth and Empire armed forces. The Lancashire Fusiliers have been awarded nineteen VCs, eighteen of which were awarded in the First World War, more than any other regiment in that conflict. The Fusilier Museum holds seven VCs as part of its medal collection, including two of the six awarded "before breakfast" to the 1st Battalion at Gallipoli in 1915. At the start of 2010 Wendy and Rhona worked on the accessioning of new donations into the collection and from May onwards the volunteers worked on making a full inventory of items on display and in the archives. This full inventory was completed by Elaine, Margaret and Dennis and meanwhile Wendy and Rhona got stuck in polishing the regimental silver collection.

All this vital work continues to the present day as new additions to the collection are donated by members of the public and the quality of the existing displays has to be maintained – and that silver needs regular polishing. You can see the fruits of our volunteers’ labour on a visit to the Museum or you could even get involved hands on. The group usually meet each Monday morning for a couple of hours from 10am and they would love to hear from anyone interested in joining them. As with all our volunteer groups you must be either a member of Bolton DFAS or an Affiliate of NADFAS to take part in order for you to be covered for insurance purposes.

The Bolton Heritage Volunteers Group is very proud to be associated with The Fusilier Museum in Bury. The Museum tells the story of the 20th Regiment of Foot and the Lancashire Fusiliers from 1688 to 1968 when they became part of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The Museum continues the story for the whole regiment up to the present day. It was originally housed in the training depot at Wellington Barracks and opened its doors to the public in 1934. In 2009 the Museum moved to its present site in Moss Street, Bury which is excellently situated in the town centre. The Museum continues to grow and expand and during the summer of 2014 work is continuing on increasing the exhibition space with the help of £1.4m of Heritage Lottery Funding. The work should be completed in autumn 2014 to commemorate and honour those involved in the First World War.

Bolton NADFAS volunteers have been working at the Fusilier Museum since March 2005. Initially between March 2005 and August 2006 they worked with the Assistant Development Officer on the vital task of labelling the museum collection. Also during this time they worked on packing, collections care, sewing, inventories, new accessions and uniform repairing. It was decided that one of the first major tasks should be the re-storing of the uniform collection and between September 2007 and December 2008 three of the volunteers worked on the creation of padded coat hangers on which to store the uniforms. The other two volunteers continued the work of documentation – labelling, numbering and cataloguing.

In January 2009 all five volunteers – Wendy Lord, Rhona Bridge, Elaine Wilson, Margaret Hammill and Dennis Clark started on their biggest task to date which was to prepare for the museum collection to be moved to its new site in the town centre. Until the end of March 2009 they packed the collection into boxes, wrapped frames and filled in tracking forms to ensure everything ended up in the right place. During the three month period before the museum re-opened at the end of June they worked on display and collections care: polishing medals, installing objects into showcases and repairing uniforms. New display cases were installed so that all the medals in the Museum’s collection could be easily seen and appreciated.

The Museum is especially proud of its Victoria Cross collection. The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of British, Commonwealth and Empire armed forces. The Lancashire Fusiliers have been awarded nineteen VCs, eighteen of which were awarded in the First World War, more than any other regiment in that conflict. The Fusilier Museum holds seven VCs as part of its medal collection, including two of the six awarded "before breakfast" to the 1st Battalion at Gallipoli in 1915. At the start of 2010 Wendy and Rhona worked on the accessioning of new donations into the collection and from May onwards the volunteers worked on making a full inventory of items on display and in the archives. This full inventory was completed by Elaine, Margaret and Dennis and meanwhile Wendy and Rhona got stuck in polishing the regimental silver collection.

All this vital work continues to the present day as new additions to the collection are donated by members of the public and the quality of the existing displays has to be maintained – and that silver needs regular polishing. You can see the fruits of our volunteers’ labour on a visit to the Museum or you could even get involved hands on. The group usually meet each Monday morning for a couple of hours from 10am and they would love to hear from anyone interested in joining them. As with all our volunteer groups you must be either a member of Bolton DFAS or an Affiliate of NADFAS to take part in order for you to be covered for insurance purposes.