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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2007-04 > 1176891991


From: "C P Biggam" <>
Subject: Re: [Ess] Museum in crisis
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:26:31 +0100
References: <007101c78194$1cd236b0$033ca8c0@dell>


With many thanks to Gill for sharing her personal knowledge of the situation
in Waltham Forest. I should make it clear that the email I forwarded to the
list didn't originate with me, but came from Britarch, the British
Archaeology discussion list. Having read what the link had to say, I was
outraged.

Gill asks if we have any ideas. Have the newspapers and TV become involved -
in particular, the national papers and major TV channels?

Carole

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gill" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 9:32 AM
Subject: Re: [Ess] Museum in crisis


> It isn't just the William Morris Museum that is in crisis. What is even
> more worrying to a genealogist is that the same treatment is being meted
> out to Walthamstow's Vestry House Museum and Archives (as briefly
> mentioned in Carole's original email), where all the local records are
> kept. The plan, as I understand it, is to severely cut opening hours to
> weekends only, and Thursday and Friday afternoons. The Archives are
> busiest during the week, and you already have to book to get in due to the
> restricted space. This of course also affects the two dedicated and very
> knowledgeable members of staff who work there - and who probably won't
> work there any longer if this idiotic proposal is carried forward (and the
> council are determined that it will be).
>
> I also heard a couple of months ago that Essex Record Office are going to
> send back, to boroughs concerned, all records in their possession relating
> to those boroughs which used to be in Essex and are now in London. This
> includes Waltham Forest. Where the council are thinking of storing those
> records, goodness knows! One suggestion was to keep them in the main
> Walthamstow Library, available on open access to the public. The said
> library has already had a lot of staff cut, and they have no control over
> the high rate of theft going on there. Can you imagine what would happen
> to those precious records if they were available on open shelves to the
> public?!
>
> We have tried protest meetings, petitions, and letters to the council -
> whose response is to send the same photocopied letter from whichever
> councillor was written to. The council just aren't listening, and neither
> do they care. Any ideas, anyone?
>
> Gill
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