🚀 go-pugleaf

Phil Speight wrote:

> I have my own opinions but in the interests of even handedness I`d
> like to here other peoples . Initially I`m interested in , as ever ,
> the way there are vast sums of money available for designer
> exhibitions , new entrance ways , cafes etc and none for the boat
> collections . More importantly I`d like to know how many people agree
> with me that the canal museums should get far more support from
> goverment given that the canal network created the conditions for
> everything else that followed .

I thnik the three museums that belong to the Waterways Trust are very
different from one another, and it's difficult to make a generalisation
about them that would be true for all  -  except that if they are tio have
national status they ought to have the same sort of Government backing as
other national museums, and hence free admission, which would boost their
visitor numbers.

Some subscribers here may have seen by recent piece on narrowboatworld.com
about Stoke Bruerne.  There I argued that any museum has to strike a balance
between attracting and informing on the one hand casual visitors and on the
other knowledgeable enthusiasts.  It's very difficult to do both, especially
in a small museum.  Gloucester and Ellesmere Port are each perhaps big
enough to do both jobs, Stoke Bruerne certainly isn't.  Gloucester (judging
from when I last visited it whichb was some years ago) aims at the casual
visitor, and hits that target well, but offers little meaty content for the
enthusiast.  Stoke Bruerne's history has led it the other way.  As a
hard-bitten enthusiast I'm happy to spend hours there reading the faded
typed caption on small but fascinating old photos.  But that won't turn on
the casual visitor.  Last time I visited Ellesmere Port (once again this ws
a few years ago) it seemed to be making a fair stab at capturing boith
markets, but that was before TWT ran into financial difficulties (indeed, my
visit may have been before TWT was invented) and the museum began to neglect
 its boat collection, which should be its real glory.

To some extent all three museums need to attract both the enthusiast and the
casual visitor, as they are so far apart that specialisation would rule some
visitors out of visiting the one best suited to them.  This is, and will
remain, an almost impossible dilemma for Stoke Bruerne because of its
dimunutive size.  The archives are already being concentreated at Ellesmere
Port.  I think there is a strong case for basing the whole boat cololection
tgere, servicing it properly, and sending a varied selection of boats to the
other two places to provide some variety in the other two.  This would also
produce the valuable side-effect of the boats being seen on the move between
museums.


--
Mike Stevens
narrowboat Felis Catus II  -  taking over Felis Catus III in a few days!
(also a Trustee of the London Canal Museum)
Web site www.mike-stevens.co.uk

No man is an island.  So is Man.