Museum closures mount up

The Times reports more than 40 museums have closed since 2010 because of cuts to council budgets, with campaigners warning that the collective memories of communities are being "wiped out". The Durham Light Infantry museum is the latest to be earmarked for closure because the council says its building is too expensive to maintain.

The Times, Page: 22

This demonstrates just how well we have done so far, despite severe cuts to the Council budgets, in not closing any of our museums during this time.

Cllr Hilary Richards' passion for Colne Valley Museum

Image from Wikipedia

Over 40 years ago Golcar Branch of the Colne Valley Constituency Labour Party moved out of its old club on Cliff Ash at Golcar and gave their old building to the newly formed Colne Valley Museum (CVM).  This was the start of a slow expansion from one weaver’s cottage to three and finally, into the old fish ‘ole.  All this has been done with volunteer labour only supplemented by paid tradesmen when members did not have the specialist skills needed.

Today, Colne Valley Museum has around 300 members which include individuals, couples and families.  Over 100 members are  active volunteers.  

The museum opens each Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday to give a glimpse of life in the 1850s.  On the top floor members demonstrate how wool processes from the preparation the fleece for spinning to weaving the resultant yarn into cloth on period looms  There is a kitchen that demonstrates how people lived in this era as well as a working kitchen where bread, Christmas puddings and other delicious traditional items are prepared and baked for sale some weekends. 

Exhibitions that usually change every 4-6 weeks have included the work of members of art societies, photographic collections and have been on bee keeping.  There is a wide variety of new things to see each time you visit the museum. 

During a visit you will see many volunteers, dressed in period costume, demonstrating and helping visitors as well as providing coffee and cakes in the new café which opens in January in what was the old fish and chip shop.

There are speciality weekends, most recently a Victorian Christmas Fair with traditional games and the chance to meet Father Christmas. 

Many of you reading this may have visited CVM while at school as a Victoria experience is provided for several schools most weeks of the school term and can be tailored for older audiences when requested.  Children from other authorities as well as Kirklees come for the day.  They arrive in costume ready to step back into 1850 to meeting the lady of the house when they enter her kitchen before helping to prepare their own lunch, polish the brasses, do hand washing and crafts.  After eating their lunch the children are allowed into the small shop where they can buy traditional sweets before returning to the 21^st centuary.  We have many adult visitors who tell us how they remember their day with us many years before.

CVM is in the process of bidding for a substantial award from the Heritage Lottery Fund.  They have already awarded the museum money to enable a full feasibility study to be undertaken prior to the submission of the final lottery bid in February 2014.  Once the bid is in, we will all be holding our breath …….. 

The museum has come a long way in the last 40 or so years and may be making a vast leap forward in the future if their bid is successful …. and all this has been done without a single paid employee in sight. 

I believe the reason why CVM has survived and thrived with only volunteer support has been the long term commitment people, often from the local community, make to the museum; and the marvellous friendships and support members give to each other as they work together.

Dates and times of all elements of the museum can be found at www.colnevalleymuseum.org.uk

 

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Cllr Alvy contemplates future of Red House Museum

Cllr Alvy contemplates future of Red House Museum

I was lucky enough today to take my family to the upper barn of Red House Museum, to take part in a Christmas Craft event. It had been organised by the Friends of Red House society and was very well attended. But, as I sat there helping my daughter to stick jigsaw pieces to card, I gave some thought to the future of the museum.

Red House Museum is in my ward and there is little secret to it being "under threat" due to the Conservative and Lib-Dem Government imposed spending cuts. It's a great shame that we may potentially lose use of this building.

There has been a lot of coverage in the local press about falling visitor numbers at Kirklees Museums and there is always going to be the "use it or loose it" element surrounding all our services. However, with museums I always believe it is important that even though we are not visiting them each weekend that they are there for future use.

That said, I have not had many Liversedge and Gomersal residents beating a path to my door to ask for the museum to be saved.  I am very curious to know how many in the ward would miss Red House if it were to be bought by a private owner. The only people who have contacted me expressing their concern have been from outside of the ward and branch members of the local Labour Party.

The suggestions that have come from them do not see the museum being run in its present form. Many seem to like the wedding venue plan and some even think it should be run as a cafe. All seem to think that preservation of the museums future is, at least in part, as a commercial concern. There does seem to be an understanding that in these hard times, there needs to be new thinking around how our museums are run. Or is the future based in the volunteer sector?

Maybe the real test of the publics love for these buildings is if they are willing to run them themselves.