BOURNE HALL MUSEUM AT RISK

We hear that Epsom and Ewell Council officers have said they will not be appointing another curator for Bourne Hall Museum. This means that when Jeremy Harte the present curator leaves in March 2025, the Museum will be left to run down without anyone providing a public service.

 

The Museum holds the history of Epsom and Ewell. With 17,000 items and 50,000 images, it has been built up over five decades to reflect local life from prehistoric times to the Covid era. It owes these collections to the generosity of hundreds of local donors and supporters who entrusted them to the Council in good faith.

 

By turning its back on the Museum, the Council is rejecting our heritage and missing opportunities to celebrate the deep-rooted history of Epsom and Ewell. The Museum holds archaeology from the Romans and Nonsuch Palace and the largest set of Derby Day ephemera in the country. It preserves the names of mental hospital patients who the world forgot. Every old building, every club, every business in the Borough has a place in its archive. None of this will be accessible to you or me without a professional to make the history known. Without a custodian, the collections will soon be lost.

 

The Museum works for the community. It supports schools, charities, trades and associations throughout the Borough, and has reached out to hundreds of families. It is the last repository of all our memories.

 

We are told that the Council wishes to keep the Museum, and we welcome this. But by refusing to appoint a curator they are effectively destroying what they claim to support. Now is the time for action. Next year is too late. They need to appoint a fresh, talented professional to develop the service as soon as Jeremy leaves.

 

Please write to your local councillor – you can find them at https://democracy.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&VW=LIST&PIC=0.

 

Decisions about the Museum are made by the Community and Wellbeing Committee. The councillors on this committee are:

Clive Woodbridge (Chair) cwoodbridge@epsom-ewell.gov.uk, 

Bernice Froud   bfroud@epsom-ewell.gov.uk

Rob Geleit  rgeleit@epsom-ewell.gov.uk

Graham Jones  grahamjones@epsom-ewell.gov.uk 

Alison Kelly  aKelly@epsom-ewell.gov.uk 

Rachel King   rKing@epsom-ewell.gov.uk 

Humphrey Reynolds  hreynolds@epsom-ewell.gov.uk 

Kim Spickett   kSpickett@epsom-ewell.gov.uk