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Yesterday Once More

As with many museums these days Milestones, whilst still delightful, is not what it once was. Time was when it transported us into a world of yesterday, evocative of a bygone era of local industrial heritage and how we used to live. Now it has succumbed to the modern need to provide endless "what's on experiences", to be a place of "child friendly" entertainment, to be big event driven. Heritage watered down, oh dear!

A lot of what was once there like the old camera shop with its extensive collection of vintage Leica, Zeiss, Agfa, Kodak, Voigtlander, Reid, and many more camera has gone replace with a teddy bear shop. A collection of old steam engines has been replaced by an area with table and chairs to hold kiddies tea parties, doors to places like the old garage show room wedged shut to prevent school party access and so on. Many of the vehicle exhibits now have permanent signs attached to them declaring "Look only. Do not climb on me" and warning of the wear and damage it does to these irreplaceable objects if you ignore the warnings. Unnecessary in past time when it was truly a museum but now essential now it has become an "attraction".  It makes photography more challenging as it restricts many angles of view when trying to avoid the signage.

Not-with-standing all these changes, not for the better, there remains much to be delighted in and still many great photo opportunities as the images below illustrate. Click into them and have a look.


So is Milestones still worth a visit? Very much so, but I would say you need to pick your times very carefully to avoid the peaks and if you remember it from a few years ago be prepared to temper your expectations and embrace the changes that have been made.