Nicky Barr

In the last two years the IBCC has hosted over 20,000 people from 14 different nations on the site on free guided tours or Open Days.

This has enabled us to connect with people from all sorts of backgrounds and ages. It has included over 1,000 children who have joined us for events and learnt about Bomber Command and the project.

We have now recruited over 650 volunteers from 10 countries and they are all working hard to ensure the memories of those involved are preserved and made available for generations to come.

The construction of the site was completed in mid-December and is only awaiting the final fencing to be erected.

The IBCC has been working hard to establish relationships with a number of different organisations within the tourism sector and joined AHL, SKDC, the Petwood Hotel and Visit Lincoln at the British Travel and Tourism Show in March.

The aim is to promote the whole of the county through relationship marketing. The stand was awarded the “Innovation in Tourism” award by the Group Travel Organisation at a glitzy ceremony in London. We will be back at the event in March 2018.

The archive team have digitised over 180,000 letters, diaries, photographs and other documents, all from private collections and recorded over 800 oral history interviews with veterans, survivors of the bombings and those who from support services during the War.

This collection will become the largest free to use research repository on Bomber Command in the world, once launched in April 2018.

The doors open for the first time on the 30th January 2018 and we gently build up to the grand official opening on the 12th April which will form part of the RAF100 national commemorations.

Amongst all this positive news the team had to cope with the loss of the Chairman and inspiration behind the project, Tony Worth CVO, who cruelly passed away just seven weeks before the centre was finished.

He was an active member of the team and was determined to get the job done. A loss to both the project and the county, which he loved so much.

My New Year’s Resolution

To ensure that Tony Worth’s legacy can be the very best it can be

During the last year, the team has hosted over 8,000 people from nine different countries around the site on free guided tours. This has included involving 600 primary school children in tours or events.

We have hosted six film crews, outside of regional media, for both TV and the silver screen. We have also trained 172 of our 528 volunteers in new tasks.

Construction on the Chadwick Centre has now started and the steel frame is now in place, along with the first-floor concrete slab and the stairs.

The car parks have been stripped and the sub base laid and works are now underway to put all the site drainage in place.

During these works we uncovered 31 Romans – a very expensive and time-consuming process.

The IBCC has been working hard to establish relationships with a number of different organisations within the tourism sector and will be joining with AHL, SKDC, the Petwood Hotel and Visit Lincoln at the British Travel and Tourism Show in March.

The aim is to promote the whole of the county through relationship marketing.

We have also been looking at specific coach programmes with the castle, cathedral and other city based heritage sites and also looking at joint ticketing offers with other sites across the county.

The archive team have digitised over 70,000 letters, diaries, photographs and other documents, all from private collections and recorded over 600 oral history interviews with veterans, survivors of the bombings and those who from support services during the War. This collection will become the largest free to use research repository on Bomber Command in the world, once launched in summer 2017.

Below is a taste of what our team have been up to in 2016.

January

• Launched the One in a Million campaign
• Attended the Royal British Legion Conference

February

• Spring Ball with 10 veterans attending. The event raised over £16,000
• Launched IBCC membership Scheme

April

• Volunteer event at the Cathedral’s Chapter House
• Hosted the Queen’s 90th Birthday Beacon, which was lit by local veteran, James Flowers.

May

• HLF award £3.1 million for education, archive and outreach, claimable over five years

June

• Appointed exhibition designers – Redman Design
• Hosted Lincoln based TV and Film celebrity, Colin MacFarlane’s Making History
• Project, Fosse Way Academy and Bomber Command veteran Terry Clague
• Attended Lincolnshire Show and Armed Forces weekend
• Attended Wings and Wheels Show
• Attended RAF Waddington Families Day

July

• Launched talent search for the Youngstars
• The IBCC Digital Archive digitizes its 50,000th document
• Attended Woodhall Spa 40’s weekend
• Visited Italy creating connections with universities and museums. Recruited 8 more volunteers

August

• Attended East Kirkby Air Show
• Attended RAF Digby Families Day
• Recorded “Tears of the World” with the Youngstars
• Attended RAF Cranwell Families Day
• Appointed RG Carters to complete phase 2 of the building works.

September

• Took part in Lincolnshire Heritage Forum Open Week
• Visit Lincoln, Lincoln Big and the Tourist Information Centre presented IBCC with donation
• Held an “Afternoon Tea with Heroes” with 14 veterans and 120 guests in attendance
• Appointed web site and app design team – Surface Impression
• NKDC announce £200K support grant for the Hub Café

October

• Government announces £1.5 million of LIBOR funding for the IBCC Chadwick Centre
• Attended Lincolnshire Lancaster Association day at RAF Coningsby
• Ground breaking ceremony as construction for the Chadwick Centre gets underway
• Hosted 17 Tour operators for a familiarisation visit.
• IBCC awarded 2016 Structural Steel Design Award
• Volunteers and staff planted 6000 donated daffodil bulbs
• Losses database grows to over 48,000 entries – these will all be available to see from next summer, on the Walls surrounding the Spire
• Held Membership AGM
• Attended Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire Conference

November

• Hosted the Director and Head of Research of the National Archives at the IBCC site
• Remembrance Ceremony with 120 schoolchildren from 4 local schools’ laid poppies and spent time with the 8 attending veterans.
• Youngstars – “Tears of the World” released
• First IBCC Open Day – 800 people visited the site.
• Filmed a programme with Bargain Hunt – due to air April 2017
• Hosted the Curator and Head of Research of the Luftwaffen Museum, Berlin on the site
• Volunteer event at RAF Waddington Officers’ Mess. Over 100 volunteers from across the country attended
• Sleaford Town Concert Band and the Lincoln Orpheus Male Voice Choir perform concert, Aspire to the Skies, in aid of IBCC
• Youngstars hit number 1 in the physical sales charts two weeks running!

December

• City of Lincoln Freeman’s Guild and Lincoln Concert Orchestra put on a concert at St
• Katherine’s Cathedral to raise money for the IBCC
• Visit to Germany creating connections with universities and museums and sourcing oral history contacts.

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My New Year’s Resolution

To finally open the doors to the visitor centre at the IBCC