Margaret and Raymond Hyder and grandson Joseph were delighted when they found out they were the lucky ones, winning life membership to the museum and a celebratory bottle of British fizz to toast the occasion.
Mr and Mrs Hyder, from Atch Lench, near Evesham, were taking their grandson for a day out when they were welcomed by museum director Simon Carter and presented with their gifts.
Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings officially opened to the public in June 1967 after a ceremony and medieval banquet in the medieval town house – the venue’s first reconstructed building, taken from Worcester Road in Bromsgrove.
The museum was officially opened by famous designer and furniture maker Sir Gordon Russell.
Since then, Avoncroft has reconstructed 30 different historic buildings and structures that have been threatened with demolition or dereliction.
The independent museum is owned by annual subscribers and a board of trustees is elected to run it.
For its upkeep and new projects, it raises all its own funding from admission charges, applying for grants and donations.
Mr Carter said: “We were very pleased to welcome the Hyder family and all the 1,999,999 all our visitors before them.
“Reaching 2million visitors shows what an important asset Avoncroft is to Bromsgrove, as for almost 50 years we’ve been bringing large numbers of visitors into the town and area and showing them the history of the people of the Midlands through our rescued buildings.”
Avoncroft has welcomed an average of 40,000 visitors each year since 1967 and, by offering ‘hands on history’ days out, it prides itself of being completely opposite to a ‘glass case museum’ where nothing can be touched.
Mr Carter added many of the annual members visited regularly, treating the venue like a country park where the children could run around and take in history while enjoying the great outdoors.
“We are very much a friendly and un-stuffy museum.”
He added they had been planning the long-term future of Avoncroft and have a number of exciting new developments in the pipeline for the next couple of years which he hoped would bring in a lot more visitors.
“I’m confident it won’t take another 50 years to attract another two million to Avoncroft to see this wonderful collection.”
Visit www.avoncroft.org.uk or call 01527 831363 for more on Avoncroft Museum.
