Britain's Museum of Computing could be evicted, scrap tech on the scrap heap
Five years after its inception, the Museum of Computing could be about to close due to the University of Bath leaving the Oakfield campus in Swindon, where the collection of old tech is housed.
The museum houses over 2,000 exhibits, 85% of which still work, along with piles of software, books, manuals, magazines, and other paraphernalia.
“In the UK we don’t know our computing heritage. One of the problems the museum has is that people don’t know we exist,” explained co-founder, IT consultant Simon Webb, “even in Swindon. But when people have been to our museum, they’ve raved about it.”
Despite not many people seeming to know about it, the museum was listed as one of the UK’s top 50 by the Times Educational Supplement.
The museum is currently sponsored by Intel. “It would be nice if some British companies put some sponsorship behind us,” Webb said.
If 175m2 of new space can’t be found by July, to house the museum and storage, then all that memorabilia could find itself on a real scrap heap. Or else, Mrs Webb isn’t going to be very happy about the new collection on the mantelpiece.
Museum of Computing (via Computer Weekly)
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