Below is an e.mail Stuart Tomlins chair of the Shropshire
Mines Trust has sent to the Scottish Mining Museum.
Like Stuart I have no doubt many of you would agree with
his sentiment, I know that many of you from mailbase wrote to Salford Council re
the Closure of that Museum, although it is now closing the Council was swamped
with mail and was persuaded to re consider its proposals, delayed the closure
and are making better arrangements to relocate its collections.
Please will you support Stuart by writing to this
museum as well.
I was with Stuart on his visit and have to agree with
everything he says
Mike Moore
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 23 June 2000 01:42
Subject: REF POSSIBLE CLOSURE.
I visited your museum last month with
colleagues and we were all shocked to see a newspaper cutting about
possible closure of your museum.
I would like you all to know that we all
thought the museum was excellent. Also the guide we had was
excellent.
I have visited mining museums all over Britain and
found yours one of the best.
It so happened that i was in Scotland specifically
to visit the underground workings of Longannet Colliery, which we had been to
the day before our visit to you.
It would be a great loss to the people of Scotland
and the rest of the country if your fine museum was to close.
It seems such a shame that mining, an industry that
put the Great into Britain does not seem to get the historic recognition it
deserves from the powers that be.
It is one thing for the mines to close and see an
industry devastated for political motives, the structures demolished and all
traces removed. But to close a lasting memorial to this once proud industry
and those who woked in it would in my opinion be a disgrace to those who
instigated it.
I wish all of you the best of luck, and hope you
will still be open when i visit Scotland again later on in the
year.
I have been to nearly every Colliery {in England
& Wales} that has closed in the last 9 years. Specifically to photograph
them before demolition. I have also obtained many artefacts both large and
small, including a 55 ton winding engine for the Shropshire Mines Trust. A group
of us set the Trust up to save mine sites in shropshire and luckily it worked
mainly due to a sympathetic local council who were keen to see local heritage
preserved.
At the moment there are still a few collieries
operational. But they have been closing at an alarming rate. If sites such as
yours are closed how will the next generation know what a pit was.
I visited your museum to take pictures of the
headgear and winding engine. I knew that to do this we would have to do the
tourist trip with a guide and pay the entrance fee something of a bussmans
holiday to us. However i must state that i was surprised by the quality of the
displays the way everything was set out and especially by the guide. We told him
we were mining historians and he accepted that and altered our tour according to
our knowledge of the industry. To me this showed true commitment to the job as
at most museums the guide can only do a set itinery. It also showed what a vast
wealth of knowledge he had on the subject.
You have an excellent museum and a fine workforce,
i hope you will be appreciated by those who make the big decisions as much as
you were by me and my colleagues.
If you wish to circulate this letter to staff or
anyone else i have no objection to it. I hope it helps your cause.
If i can ever be of assistance don't hesitate to
contact me.
STUART
TOMLINS. CHAIRMAN , SHROPSHIRE MINES TRUST.