Tamworth Castle collections website is now live!

1st June 2021

The Tamworth Castle collections website is now live, thanks to the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund to help protect the future of the nation’s creative and cultural organisations.

The launch of the new digitisation of the museum collection, is the start of a long term project to make the castle’s collection pieces accessible to everyone online. During the next few months, new pieces will be added to the Tamworth Castle website weekly, via: https://collection.tamworthcastle.co.uk .

Drakon Heritage were successfully appointed as the contractors to support the castle along with Orangeleaf, to digitise the collection, which has more than 40,000 pieces.

Previously only 10% of these items have been on public display, so the project is to set up an online catalogue to showcase pieces that will highlight Tamworth’s rich heritage and Anglo-Saxon history, making it available to everyone. These items will vary in size, age and theme, and will be listed with images and facts about the pieces and their background.

The museum collection archive has its own website page and is available to view for free. The first few selected pieces are now listed and additional items will be added over the next few months.

Jenni Butterworth from Drakon Heritage and Conservation, said: “Tamworth’s fascinating collections shed light not only on the history of the castle, but on the town and its past residents and businesses. We’re pleased to have been part of this exciting project which will enable people to go ‘behind-the-scenes’ and virtually explore the objects that tell Tamworth’s story so vividly.”

In addition to the digitised collection archive, developers This Great Adventure, have developed an augmented reality trail around the castle.

The AR trail runs throughout the castle and invites visitors to download the Tamworth AR Explorer app and scan markers placed in different locations. Each marker launches an augmented reality experience – for example, a 3D object or a character - ‘bringing to life’ some historical information and facts about the furniture and objects on display or past occupants of the castle.

These augmented reality experiences will also be available to view remotely in the Discovery Hub on the ground floor. This will make the whole of the castle ‘virtually’ accessible for everyone.

A total of £375,000 has been awarded to Tamworth Castle thanks to the successful bid for investment as part of the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund grants, administered by Arts Council England.

The award was announced last year and confirmed that the money would help improve sustainability of the castle by developing a new online audience.

Cllr Rob Pritchard, Deputy Leader of Tamworth Borough Council, said: “We are now seeing our exciting plans for Tamworth Castle taking shape as we work on developing it even further as a major tourist attraction for the town and celebrate our rich heritage.

“The digitised collections archive will enable us to reach a wider audience and even showcase worldwide what the castle has to offer.

“This funding from the Government will help ensure the castle experience meets the expectations of modern audiences and fully explore commercial opportunities to make the ancient building as resilient to future challenges as possible.”