The village of Allendale is not the most obvious location for a Museum of Classic Sci-Fi. Deep within the North Pennines of Northumberland, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, one man has been building a museum. Neil Cole has built a collection that will soon be on public display and inside his museum Doctor Who has a significant presence.
The museum collection began two decades ago but the past 3 years have seen the conversion of a damp, flooded cellar into a museum worthy of housing some precious exhibits. This has all been achieved when work as a teacher and family commitments have allowed. Neil, like most of us, is a Doctor Who and science fiction fan. However, rather than just hide his collection away, he has worked tirelessly to create somewhere to showcase it.
Doctor Who related items in the Museum will include a Cyberman, a Terileptil, the Garm and many more. Some of these are relics from the old Blackpool, Longleat and Llangollen exhibitions. Time has not been kind to these often very fragile creations. As a result they have been carefully restored to their former glory. Again, this has been done by Neil himself when time would allow. Already this has been an amazing project but the end is now in sight.
In a few weeks time a Kickstarter page will be launched to raise money required for the final stages. The Kickstarter begins from 27th February 2018 with the Museum hopeful of opening later this summer. BlogtorWho will of course bring you details of the Kickstarter launch in a few weeks time. Before opening we’ll also look at some of the specific items in the Museum and the restoration work that has gone into bringing them back to display condition.
