Wheels of Time

The UK Government has now re-introduced the legal requirement to wear face coverings in most indoor settings, including museums and heritage sites.

Many of our sites are now in their normal seasonal closure period but we encourage you to support those that remain open. We have updated our Planner to show which sites they are. Please do comply with the requirement to wear a face covering during your visit. To further reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 we also encourage you to carry out a Rapid Lateral Flow Test before your visit.

Roamin’ Rex, Kent’s very own time travelling character who guides young explorers across the county’s heritage and museums, is setting his sights beyond the Garden of England.

Thanks to a grant of £47,460 from the Arts Council England for a three year project titled ‘Time to Change’, the Wheels of Time badge scheme will be able to develop its governance and operating model to enable the scheme to be replicated across museum and heritage networks outside of Kent.  

Wheels of Time began in 2015 to encourage young children and their families to visit participating museums and heritage sites to learn more about Kent’s vast and interesting history.  The character of Roamin’ Rex was named by one of the scheme’s first young explorers, Daniel, who collected his badge from Ashford Borough Museum.  Since then, the initiative has grown in popularity and now has 48 participating Kent sites with 30,000 badges being awarded to 15,000 children prior to Covid-19.

Bob Shrubb, Chair of the Wheels of Time management committee, said “the Core (management) Group were delighted to learn that their bid to Arts Council England had been successful and more so that they have been able to appoint Sarah Corn to help us deliver the project. We would like to thank South East Museum Development, for supporting our application, and everyone who plays the National Lottery, without whom we wouldn’t be able to do this.”

Press information.