My first impression of the 'new' exhibition hall is that of a big shed that B&Q would be proud of, containing some trams in various states of disrepair. The shed is not new: all except one of the trams have been at the Museum for years - most of them in the very same shed.
My questions are where did all the money go? What proportion, if any, was spent on conserving the existing trams?
I think that resources should now be made available for each tram in the exhibition to be taken to the workshop and be assesed for structural and mechanical condition and also historical accuracy and then be given the care and attention they deserve. This plan would take several years to complete.
Is this inelegant notice on Glasgow 1115 a portent of the future if no action is taken?
My questions are where did all the money go? What proportion, if any, was spent on conserving the existing trams?
I think that resources should now be made available for each tram in the exhibition to be taken to the workshop and be assesed for structural and mechanical condition and also historical accuracy and then be given the care and attention they deserve. This plan would take several years to complete.
Well Richard, I've finally decided to post some thoughts and comments. I have been following your blog for quite some while and a visit to Crich on Easter Sunday has caused me so much disappointment in the museum like you I help to build in my own small contibution.
ReplyDeleteThe new Exhibition Hall was a dimoralising shock and horrified me that individuals have been allowed to wste so much money on what only can be described as our trams (we already had them!) laid out without any great theme and where the hell has the money been spent???? I think ssome individuals within the museum need to get out of their ivory towers and their own agendas and motives, and start to think about what the mueum is all about.
Follwoing your disgusting way you, Richard have been treated, discriminated against, shut out in such a personal and vindictive way, what sort of people make such decisions, hiding behind the cowardly title of the "Board"? When will someone stop these individual, power-crazed, holier then thou people be put once and for all in their place?
Your only crime Richard is being one of the earliest TMS who is enthusiastic, passionate, and unfortunately have your own opinion. My experience of you is that your motives have always been for the common good and not personal. Why should you be ex-communicated by people who clearly do not become motivated by the common good?
It is so sad that the museum in so many ways has turned its back on the core values the people of the "sixties" used to shape the museum we now have. I could write a book on the amount of historical innaccuries individuals have chosen to apply and in the process, they re-write history!!!
You appear now to be well and truly sent into the world of those not welcome to contribute anymore; what are people afraid of??? Some of a mutual departed friends would be horrified with your treatment.
Richard, please keep going with your blog; it gives me a much more rounded picture of Crich each time you visit. And finally, what about all those years you were the front man of the TMS by being the magazine editor? Were you so wrong in each magazine that was published?
Keep it up!
264---You along with Roger Mercer were "264" I just cannot get my head round how you have even been cut out of this issue.
HJM
Actually, I disagree on the Exhibition Hall COMPLETELY. It's not finished yet (nowhere near, thus there being no official ceremony) thus the sparseness. However, already it is doing something that the old one didn't - giving people an insight into the trams and stories behind them - remember, not everyone is an enthusiast! I was very critical of the old one and i'm not of the new one. I'll reserve final judgement until it's done, but it's a damn sight better than it was. If you take time to look up as well, you'll see the placements make sense. Well, except 1147...
ReplyDeleteIts a pity Anonymous doesn't have the courage to give some form of identification before launching such a tirade. Sounds like someone with an axe to grind.
ReplyDeleteI am no particular fan of the Board but the exhibition did need changing and it's not really fair to comment until it's finished.
Free107 questions being anonymous and having an axe to grind! So many people have stood up and said their views like Richard Lomas, and look what's happened to him! Others before him have embarked on the same path and are now banished to the wilderness! Unfortunately the truth hurts but there are decisions taken at Crich (still) and people forget either democracy, free speech and refuse to accept the people in prime positions may and often are wrong. It is almost as if individuals do have their own agenda and react adversely to the views of others, and in the aftermath, anyone seen to not go with the flow is brushed aside. Richard is far from perfect but more a man than may who represent the aims of the museum, its heritage and its future. You say "an axe to grind", there is no axe and no grind, merely what I believe is the truth, and the need not just to accept the "steam-roller" effect of events.
ReplyDeleteHJM
Thought!, As the museum grew, and continued to grow within the ever tighter imposed legislative frameworks; now to perhaps being the major local employer. It was then and is now even more critical for internal stuctures to be in place to manage the complex business that the museum has become and to counter any personal positioning; `empire building'.
ReplyDeleteMaybe?, in the past periods of uncertainty, driven by change, some misread intent?, and the early days teamwork and fun were sadly lost!