Stevenage Museum wants your New Town childhood photos

Stevenage Museum has opened a run of autumn sessions asking residents to hand over their own childhood, and it has been unusually specific about whose it wants. The museum says it is “especially keen to hear from people who grew up in the town from the 1980s onwards”, along with the photographs and records they kept. (Stevenage Borough Council, 26 August 2026)

The material feeds an exhibition called Growing Up in a New Town, built to mark 80 years since Stevenage was designated. There are three dates the public can simply turn up to or book:

• Saturday 12 September, 2pm to 4pm. “Family photos old school”, learning to use a film camera with your children to photograph a day in the life of your Stevenage family. Bring your own camera if you have one; the museum says it will have some to borrow, with film. Booking is through the museum’s TicketSource page.
• Saturday 19 September, 10.30am to noon. Share your family story and have your photograph taken.
• Saturday 26 September, 10.30am to noon. The same again, with multiple timeslots, and the museum says other days can be arranged.

A photographer will be at the museum to take images for its permanent collection, the point being to record what Stevenage looks like for families in 2026 as well as in the past.

Why the 1980s ask is the interesting part

The museum already has the founding years covered. Its own account of the New Town, published by the council, runs through the 1946 designation, the first residents, the neighbourhood plan and the pedestrian town centre. (Stevenage Borough Council, Stevenage New Town)

What a collection like that tends to be thin on is the generation after. A child who started school in Stevenage in 1985 grew up in a town the Development Corporation had already finished and wound up, and that is the stretch the museum is now openly short of. If your family album covers it, that is the gap.

The museum has listed the sort of thing it is after: arriving home with a new baby, pram pictures, a first day at school, hobbies and clubs, friends. It says it is open to other ideas.

The anniversary is 11 November, not just “this November”

Stevenage Borough Council’s cabinet member for culture, leisure and wellbeing, Councillor Myla Arceno, said the town “approaches its 80th anniversary as a New Town this November”. The council’s own history pages put a date on it: Stevenage “was designated the first new town on 11th November 1946”, after a decision that was, in the council’s own words, “not a popular decision with the local people of Stevenage”, who feared losing their community identity, property and roads to it.

The same page records the town’s first New Town arrivals: the Sulzbach family, who moved into 4 Broadview in 1951. Residents had to find work in Stevenage before they were offered a house.

That puts the exhibition almost exactly on the anniversary. The young curators’ programme timetable, published by the museum, schedules the private view of Growing Up in a New Town for Friday 13 November 2026, two days after the 80th anniversary of designation. (Stevenage Museum, Young Curators’ Programme 2026)

Key dates

The young curators’ programme is a seven-month commitment

The other half of the announcement is aimed at teenagers. The museum is recruiting 14 to 18-year-olds to help choose the objects and write the labels for the exhibition, meeting every other Thursday in term time, 4pm to 5.30pm.

This is not a taster. The museum’s application pack asks applicants to commit to at least 10 of the 12 sessions, and the published timetable runs from September to the Easter break in 2027. (Stevenage Museum, young curators application pack)

What the sessions actually involve, from the museum’s own timetable:

• 17 September: introduction, plus training on MODES, the database the museum uses to record its photographic and object collections.
• 1 October: how exhibitions are planned, researched and built, then research time in the galleries.
• 15 October: a tour of the museum stores, collecting policy, object handling training and label writing.
• 29 October, half term: optional trip to Young V&A.
• 12 November: the exhibition build, final touches.
• 13 November: optional private view of the finished exhibition.
• 26 November: research for a foyer exhibition on Christmas gifts.
• 10 December: repacking a recently donated costume collection.
• 7 and 21 January, 4 February: writing their own responses to the exhibition on school, on hobbies and clubs, and on a theme of their choice, to be added to the display.
• 18 February, half term: optional session installing those new labels.
• 4 and 18 March: planning and building their own foyer exhibition.

One thing to check before you apply. The council’s news page and the detailed timetable both give the start date as Thursday 17 September. The date list inside the application pack starts a week earlier, on Thursday 10 September, and includes 24 September. The two documents do not agree, so confirm the date with the museum before turning up. Contact is museum@stevenage.gov.uk or 01438 218881.

What it means for you

If you have photographs of growing up in Stevenage, particularly from the 1980s on, the museum is asking for them now rather than in the abstract, and there are three fixed dates in September when someone will be there to take them.

• Going to a September session? General admission to the museum is free, though the council notes that “a small charge may be made for some events”. The 12 September film camera session needs booking through TicketSource. We could not open the museum’s TicketSource listing on 8 September, so we cannot confirm whether that session carries a charge or how many places are left; check the listing or ring the museum before you set out.
• Opening hours are Wednesday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm, and Saturday, 10am to 5pm.
• Finding it. The museum is underneath the Church of St Andrew and St George on St George’s Way, SG1 1XX, and is signposted from the town centre for pedestrians.
• Parking. The council recommends the car parks on St George’s Way opposite the museum. There is no free parking nearby other than a disabled bay on the church forecourt in Cuttys Lane. Tariffs for every council car park are on our Stevenage parking page.
• Applying to be a young curator? The application pack asks three 200-word questions and wants your availability. Enquiries about the autumn programme go to Jo Ward on 01438 218883, Wednesday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm.

The museum’s current exhibition, Stevenage Football Club @ 50, runs until 31 October, so it is on through all three September dates. More things to do locally are on our things to do in Stevenage page.

Sources

• Stevenage Borough Council, “Stevenage Museum celebrates 80 years of the New Town”, 26 August 2026, for the September dates and times, the 1980s appeal and Councillor Arceno’s quote.
• Stevenage Borough Council, “Young Curators’ Programme”, 24 August 2026, for the age range, the alternate-Thursday pattern and the 17 September start.
• Stevenage Museum, Young Curators’ Programme 2026 timetable (PDF), for the session-by-session dates and the 13 November private view.
• Stevenage Museum, young curators application pack (Word), for the 10-of-12 commitment and its own, differing, date list.
• Stevenage Borough Council, “Stevenage New Town”, for the 11 November 1946 designation, local opposition and the Sulzbach family at 4 Broadview in 1951.
• Stevenage Borough Council, “About the Museum”, for free general admission, the parking advice and the location under the church.
• Stevenage Museum, for opening hours and the Stevenage Football Club @ 50 exhibition dates.
• The museum’s TicketSource listing could not be reached on 8 September 2026.