New Beginnings Project

2025 marked the start of ‘SGS: New Beginnings’, a multi-year project that aims to secure the Society’s future for the next century and beyond. The first phase of the project, funded by an Arts Council England MEND grant, will see the Society’s 1911 museum on Broad Street repaired, refurbished, and fully redisplayed for the first time in over a century. The museum will reopen in spring 2027.

Building Works

Our MEND project builders (Messenger Construction Ltd) have now started work on the museum. The historic woodwork, fireplaces and other features have mostly been removed for secure storage.

Taking plaster off the walls has revealed many faults and cracks, but the construction team are carefully stitching the walls back together with helical reinforcement bars and brickwork.

These images show the crack in the lecture room wall, before and after repairs.

Expansion Design Report

Meanwhile, we are embarking on a Development Grant funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to work toward an expansion of the museum on the former Leverton’s/Business Centre site in Broad Street. This expansion is intended to provide additional space and facilities to benefit members, visitors and the wider community in Spalding and Fenland.

This design report represents a concept for what an expansion on the Leverton’s/Business Centre site might look like. It is a concept design submitted as part of the application for our current Heritage Fund Development Grant, but is not a finished document or a concrete plan. It is a starting point for 18 months of development and consultation.

Museum Reimagined

SGS is being supported by Art Fund, the national charity for museums and galleries, to carry out the first large-scale redisplay of its collections in more than a century. The ambitious ‘Museum Reimagined’ project will bring fresh and diverse perspectives to our museum, library and archives.

The project will bring together a diverse team of young people, early-career heritage professionals, and community volunteers to collaborate on the first complete redisplay of the museum since 1911.