In early 2026 the museum was delighted to receive project funding from Museum Development South West to make our museum better for families. Focusing on the under 5s, the project sets out to form a focus group of local families and find out what they really want from our museum.

  • What do they enjoy at other places they visit?
  • What can we do to make their visit as easy as possible?
  • What can we include in our galleries to include our youngest audience members in the story of the Army and logistics?
  • How can we combine this into a self-guided, easy to maintain, active invitation to play to connect toddlers with museums at the start of their learning journey?

The project began with a profitable and productive research phase focused on learning lessons from other museums with thriving toddler offers, and is about to move into the community engagement and focus group stage. We are putting together a focus group of local families to come to the museum and tell us what we do well, what we can improve on, and what they really want to see in our toddler offer.

The first focus group session is scheduled for July 2nd at 10am and is open to all.

This informal session will last no more than an hour and participants are welcome to step out as needed. Juice and biscuits will be provided and the session will be fun for families and suitable for the under 5s.

Anyone interested in coming along and helping to shape the future of the museum is invited to complete this quick google form so we know who is coming.

Watch out for updates to our toddler plans in late 2026.