Folkestone’s Heritage goes to Hell in a handcart!
At
the meeting of Shepway District Council on 18th December it was agreed to set up
a joint working group involving people from the community, Shepway District
Council and Folkestone Town Council. The aim being to discuss a long term
solution, for the storage and display of the museum collections. Folkestone Town
Council met in January and proposed about 14 people from the above groups to be
on the working group. The first meeting was on 13th of February and there was
huge support for having a new museum somewhere in Folkestone. In parallel to
setting up the working group, Kent County Council aim to progress their plans to
develop the History Resource Centre. Public feeling has been so strong that they
are ensuring that no collections are permanently transferred out of Shepway, at
present.
Essential building maintenance work is being done at the Grace Hill site. The
need for this work was identified following the earthquake that struck
Folkestone last April. Because of Health and Safety the Museum and Heritage Room
are totally out of bounds. Local historians who need access to the Heritage Room
are becoming increasingly frustrated. Building work apparently needs to be
organised before the History Resource Centre can be implemented.
Oddly the earthquake may help save Folkestone’s heritage by delaying KCC’s
plans.
Kent County Council does have some capital (one-off) funding allocated for
Museum Development Ł70,000. However some of this money has already been used to
develop the History on Wheels and handling boxes – which aim to make “the
collection more accessible”. These are obviously going to be items which do not
matter if they get broken or stolen. So far, contractors to remove the current
display cabinets, which cost thousands of pounds to install in 1999, have not
been chosen.
Kent County Council has admitted that the whole History Resource Centre concept
is new, although there are some places where the visible storage system has been
introduced. It is however, “visible storage” and in no way replaces our museum,
which was one of the oldest in Britain. Apparently the artefacts in the new HRC
can only have minimal labelling, because if they offer any more interpretation,
then it is classified as a “museum”. Ultimately we are losing the museum that
interpreted Folkestone’s history through the ages and are being given glorified
locked shelving units. In this scenario many of Folkestone’s important artefacts
will ultimately end up in other museums, due to storage issues.
Helen Glass, an archaeologist from the Saltwood dig is coming to give a talk at
the University Centre Folkestone on 6th March. It will be an opportunity to
learn about the excavation. However, in order to display these artefacts, in
Folkestone, there needs to be a registered museum! Sadly, Folkestone Museum was
allowed to lose its registration in November 2007. However, the people of
Folkestone can pull together to bring about the creation of a super new museum
to house their heritage.
Stephanie Fair
Article from Go Folkestone Newsletter March 2008
