Looking beyond the displays: A history of The Hull and East Riding Museum
Museums provide us with insight into history, but we rarely get a glimpse of the story behind the collection or building.
Visitors get insight into KCOM operations
A Hull friendship group was treated to a walk down memory lane – followed by a peek into the high tech present – during a visit to KCOM.
The Forget Me Not Friendship Group visited KCOM’s Salvesen Way offices for a tour of the internet provider’s Lighthouse Museum, which provides an insight into how the telecommunications industry has evolved during the past hundred years.
The centre takes visitors from the earliest days of the Hull Telephone Department and brings them bang up to date with a demonstration of how the latest fibre broadband works.
KCOM's Iain Hill presnting to the group
Group member Steven Calver said the tour had been a brilliant experience for the Forget Me Not members.
He said: “We were delighted to visit the Lighthouse museum for a look through Hull’s unique history.
“The day was tremendous. We were hosted really well and made to feel so welcome. It’s great that a group like ours can go somewhere they’ve never been before and find somewhere so interesting in Hull.”
After a quick buffet stop, the group were transported from the past to the cutting-edge present when they were given a tour around KCOM’s brand new £1.5m Customer Services Operations Centre (CSOC) which handles many of the technical service calls the company receives.
As well as taking part in a video conference call for the first time the group was able to witness how the centre keeps Hull and East Yorkshire’s ultrafast broadband network online.
Steve said: “The best part of the day for me was seeing the group enjoying themselves so much. You could tell they were having a good time by all the questions they were asking. Our hosts were brilliant at explaining how everything works in the CSOC – it was quite an eye opener seeing all the technology in action.”
KCOM community coordinator Brendon Smurthwaite, said: “It was really good fun welcoming the Forget Me Not group into the Lighthouse and then the inner sanctum of the CSOC. It’s nice to be able to show the public all the work that goes on behind the scenes here at KCOM and, judging by the smiles on everyone’s faces, everyone had an enjoyable day.”
The group inside KCOM's CSOC
The Forget Me Not Friendship Group is an over-55s friendship group and meets at Thornton Village Hall, Walker Street, opposite the Octagon, Hull, on Mondays and Thursday between 1pm and 3pm. For more information visit the group’s Facebook page.