MUSEUMTHE JOURNAL OF NATIONAL HERITAGE G SUMMER 2008 G ISSUE 83 G £3news INSIDE NEWS History at risk listed 1 Lottery cash for collections 2 Luton’s eco-friendly museum 3 Motion to head MLA 3 General Wolfe saved 3 NH PROFILE Nick Dodd 4 Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, 200 years on LOCAL FOCUS Hitchin’s elementary battle 5 Throughout 2009 Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Shropshire, built on the site where Abraham Darby first smelted iron with coke in 1709, will be celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of the Industrial ART FUND PRIZE Revolution. Woking’s wonder 6-7 The first of a series of events marking Darby’s discovery at Coalbrookdale was a public archaeology programme coinciding with National Archaeology Week in July. The major archaeological NH investigation was intended to provide more detailed information about the workings of Darby’s original furnace, now known as the “Old Furnace” (above). On certain days the general public were DEBATE 7 invited to participate in the excavation - in the less sensitive areas of the site, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The results of the excavation will go on show in 2009. MUSEUM IN THE NEWS Our black history 8 English Heritage to MUSEUM OF THE YEAR REVISITED list history at risk The River and Rowing Museum New register latest safeguard for are for buildings. It is to include grade II listed build- (1999) 9 heritage in peril ings, scheduled monuments, archaeology, historic landscapes, parks and gardens, places of worship, English Heritage have launched a new Heritage At conservation areas, battlefields and even designated Risk Register in a bid to safeguard all aspects of the maritime wrecks, deemed to be at risk of loss national patrimony in the same way that buildings through decay or damage. are. In the first phase of the project experts have Modelled on the Buildings At Risk register first added to their knowledge of the country’s 30,687 NATIONAL compiled in 1998, the new list will make England Grade I and Grade II* listed buildings – which are HERITAGE GUIDE the only European country to have a comprehensive eligible for the Buildings At Risk register published knowledge of the state of its protected heritage. each of the last ten years – an assessment of all A selective list of current and “The Heritage At Risk project is at the heart of 19,711 of the country’s scheduled monuments, all forthcoming museum what English Heritage does, identifying what is 1,595 of its registered historic parks, gardens and and gallery exhibitions 10 - 15 important and in danger and devising ways to save landscapes, all 43 of its registered battlefields and all it” said Simon Thurley, chief executive of English 45 of the protected wrecks off our coasts. EVENTS Heritage. This very ambitious systematic survey of “The long barrow overgrown with brambles Forthcoming heritage at risk will enable us to prioritise the most that you saw on your last country walk, the Civil War visits to the urgent cases and save more of them, more quickly. battlefield under threat of development, the broken Museum of Seeing the whole picture, we will be able to identify war memorial in the village square or the boarded-up Garden solutions which can be applied across the whole old mill buildings that no-one seems to care about, History, and country.” these are all part of the rich backdrop of our lives in the AGM at The new register is English Heritage’s bid to England” Thurley said. “But our heritage is a finite the Wellcome Collection 16 create the kind of safeguards for our ruined resource, and if we don’t act these things won’t be and buried history and for our landscapes that there here for our grandchildren.” MUSEUM NEWS CHAIRMAN’S LETTER Lottery cash for collections Introducing the The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded in providing curators with a sum of money for £3m for 22 museum and galleries in a bid to stim- strategic collections development rather than hav- NH blog ulate collecting and curatorial skills. ing to wait for a specific painting or object to Grants have gone to a range of institutions, become available on the art market. o win the biggest arts prize in the including museums in Norwich, Buxton, The programme was over-subscribed – 95 country (the £100,000 Art Fund Northern Ireland, Barking and Exeter. Collecting applications worth a total of £13.3m were received T Museums and Galleries Prize) projects which will be funded under the scheme, against the budget of £3m. Grants awarded range within its first year of opening is a called Collecting Cultures, include a range of from £50,000 to £200,000. 18th-century bagpipes, Inuit art and artefacts, Organisations were also asked to show how remarkable achievement for the small memorabilia from Belfast’s Titanic, exquisite Tain they planned to develop curatorial skills, increase (but, in the judges’ view, perfectly silver, and trainers, boots and fashion footwear public involvement and enjoyment of their collec- formed) Lightbox Museum in Woking, from the shoe capital of Northampton. tions. not least because it was up against the Announcing the grants HLF outgoing chair Dame Liz said that although it was a one-off Wellcome Collection in London, the Dame Liz Forgan said that she had backed the programme, she hoped it would act as a catalyst for British Empire and Commonwealth scheme because she felt “the culture of collecting other funders. Museum in Bristol and the Shetland was under threat because lack of money meant The Lottery is an important part of a bigger Museum in Lerwick. But the judges that many curators were not given the opportunity support system for museums and galleries and found the Lightbox irresistible, in the to develop collection expertise”. must work alongside a culture of private giving words of their chairman, Sue MacGregor, She added that Collecting Cultures was unique and strong government support,” she said. because of its novelty, its international and local collections, the professionalism and air of enthusiasm of its staff, and of The 22 successful Collecting Cultures projects the fine design of its building (by Marks Barfield). The museum is featured on East of England Art Gallery - The Potters Art in the 20th page six of this issue. • Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge - Century (£60,000) Not everyone will share the judges’ Arctic Visions: Inuit Art and Material Culture • Macclesfield Silk Museums/Macclesfield verdict. We are not privy to the judges’ (HLF grant: £200,000) Museums Trust - Changes and Exploration deliberations but it would be surprising if • Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery - in Silk (£74,500) Collecting Cultures: Sharing Norfolk’s Past there had not been some voices raised (£199,500) Scotland in favour of one or other of the other • Groam House Museum - Developing the three, particularly perhaps for the East Midlands George Bain Collection, Rosemarkie Wellcome, which is financially flush and • Buxton Museum & Art Gallery, Derby (£99,000) had announced in advance that if it won Museums & Art Gallery and Belper North • Tain and District Museum – Tain Silver – it wished the prize money to be shared Mill - Enlightenment! Derbyshire Setting the the Collection (£98,400) between the other three. Readers who Pace in the Eighteenth Century • Edinburgh University Collection of Musical turn to our website (£200,000) Instruments – Enriching our Musical • Northampton Museums and Art Gallery and Heritage (£80,000) (www.nationalheritage.org.uk) will see Kettering Manor House Museum - that we have recently introduced a blog Collecting Cultures - Trainers, Sneakers, South East which includes a number of lively Pumps and Daps (£130,000) • Crafts Study Centre, Farnham – Developing comments from our members and a National Collection of Modern Crafts others on what’s going on in the London (£185,000) museum and gallery world, including • V&A - Staying Power – The story of Black • Museum of English Rural Life, Reading – one unflattering appraisal of the Woking British Identity 1950 – 1990s (£157,500) Collecting Rural Cultures (£95,000) • Valence House Museum – The Industries of museum. The writer wonders what the Barking and Dagenham (£60,000) South West judges were thinking of in selecting it as • Museum of Garden History - To Develop • Dorset County Museums Advisory Service: the winner. Others question our our Art and Design Collection (£99,400) Dorset County Museum, Portland Museum, acceptance of the Museum Association’s Sidmouth Museum, Lyme Regis Museum, new criteria for the disposal of museum North East Wareham Museum, Swanage Museum, objects (see my letter in the last issue of • Tyne and Wear Museums – Collecting Langton Matravers Museum, Allhallows Museum News), urge that the old Design (£145,000) Museum, Fairlynch Museum, Royal Albert Museum and Galleries Commission be Memorial Museum Exeter – Jurassic Life Northern Ireland Initiative (£200,000) reinstated, and praise our publication but • Fermanagh County Museum, Derry Heritage are critical of the Museums Journal. and Museum Service, Inniskillings Museum Wales I urge you to read the blog, and to – Connection and Division (£100,000) • Chepstow Museum Monmouth Museum – put forward your own views and • National Museums Northern Ireland (Ulster The Wye Tour (£200,000) suggestions on museum and gallery Folk and Transport Museum) - Titanic Built subjects. You’ll find much to comment in Belfast (£174,500) West Midlands • The Herbert, Coventry and Wolverhampton on in this issue of Museum News – or North West Art Gallery – Peace and Reconciliation you can write to us at the National • The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Project (£199,500) Heritage Administration Centre, Rye Manchester - Cultural Reflections: Strategic Road, Hawkhurst, Kent TN18 5DW. We Acquisition for the Whitworth Art Gallery Yorkshire and Humber need to hear from you.