Folkestone - A Town Without a Past?
In eleven years time when the Seafront development, with its
university campus, art gallery and other public buildings is completed and the
Creative Quarter with its colourful independent shops, cafes, galleries,
Performing Arts Centre and artists studios is even livelier than it is now,
Folkestone Museum will be celebrating its 150th anniversary. Or will it? Not if
Kent County Council has its way. For their intention is to deregister the
museum, remove some of the collections and bury the whole archaeological
collection in the basement without access to the public. According to current
plans, Folkestone’s history will start in the middle of the nineteenth century
and will be stored in ‘state of the art’ shelves behind a screen in the space
currently taken by the museum. This astonishing act, almost of vandalism, in
such an old town, is being rushed through with scant public consultation. Indeed
the Town Council, whom the KCC claim to have consulted, now say this is simply
not the case.
Attempts are being made to stop the precipitate de-registration so that other
alternatives can be considered though it may, unfortunately, be too late.
Sevenoaks Museum, with collections of less importance than Folkestone's, is
supported by a combination of the KCC, Sevenoaks District Council and Sevenoaks
Town Council. This could well be the way forward for Folkestone. A great deal of
good will and concern about the current situation has been shown by museum
professionals in the region and it is likely that expert help and support would
be offered if asked for. Paul Bennett, Director of the Canterbury Archaeological
Trust, who has expressed concern for the future of the Museum’s collections, has
also given his support. A Heritage Lottery Fund bid for excavations across the
town and including the Bayle and the Roman Villa on the East Cliff is now being
considered. This follows the archaeological work carried out in the development
of the Channel Tunnel rail link which produced extraordinary Bronze Age and
Anglo Saxon jewellery as well as other finds, much of which is currently in
storage in Canterbury and Lincoln without even replicas on display in the town
of its origins. It is ludicrous to remove the Museum that might house these and
other important future finds of undoubted interest to the public.
It is stated on the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council website that “The
collections of Folkestone Museum cover the full range of human history” and
refers to "Folkestone's important archaeological past”. Were the KCC to go ahead
with their proposals, Folkestone would suffer the indignity of being the only
town on the Kent Coast without a museum. The artefacts housed at the Library
belong to the people of Folkestone not bureaucrats in Maidstone and deserve
better treatment than they are now receiving. The whole town should be able to
look forward to the museum’s 150th anniversary.
Folkestone People’s History Centre Group.
Article from Go Folkestone Newsletter December 2007
