This article has been contributed by Steve Woods, our P.R. Committee Member, who recently moved to Eastbourne but remains a valued committee member and continues to handle our P.R. matters.

This other Eden

Edenbridge is a small town (8000) in west Kent,with many of the features of old English towns of this size. But while it may lack most of the obvious metropolitan facilities, one attraction it can boast is a local history museum. And this being MM, it will come as no great surprise to learn that it is another volunteer enterprise.

In 1995 an exhibition was mounted in the town to mark the centenary of Edenbridge Parish Council. A considerable quantity of material was gathered together, and many of the exhibition's visitors remarked how surprising it was that there was no permanent home for these and other historic artefacts. Thus was conceived the idea of an Eden Valley Museum Trust. With much encouragement from the Edenbridge and District Historical Society, a group of local enthusiasts began sounding out the possibilities of a home in the town. By great good fortune, the Town Council was responsible for the upkeep of an unused 14th century building in the High Street - Church House. In due course the Council agreed to rent the property to the Trust, and the task of finding the necessary funding began.

The upshot, some years on, is that a combination of Lottery funding (a major grant to get the project off the ground) and around 30 sponsors, including local businesses, charitable trusts (LTSB among them), Sevenoaks District Council, and its own fundraising efforts, have generated an annual income in excess of £20,000.This has enabled the Trust to employ a professional part-time curator, assisted by over 50(!) volunteers. Individual membership of the Trust costs £10 pa, and at present there is no entry charge to the museum which, in 2007,attracted 4500 visitors.

The Lottery funding has enabled the museum to negotiate some of the problems arising from the disabled access legislation. Wheelchair access is only possible to the ground floor of this medieval house, where a special disability loo has now been installed. But touch-screen computers display the upstairs rooms and their contents. Throughout the house, wall panels and artefacts tell the story of the district from prehistory to the present. The museum is open most afternoons and there is an archive of maps and documents, together with a small sales area. There is also a meeting-room for hire, equipped with screen, projectors and tea-making facilities.A ccredited Museum status has recently been awarded by MLA.

Are there any useful pointers in this story for Sleaford? One inescapable lesson is surely that SMT needs commercial sponsorship, ideally of an ongoing nature. If something like the Carre Street situation arises again, for example in the shape of the Sessions House - or some part of it - (I don't know the very latest on this), we need to be in a position to explain to local benefactors what our rental needs are. And this would not be simply a cap-in-hand relationship. NKDC, like other councils, has been given a remit by the Government to draw up a Local Plan for the character of the District, economic and cultural, in 2026. And almost all councils now recognise the vital function of the heritage sector in the rejuvenation of local economies. When our new leaflet is ready, some overtures to Sleaford Chamber of Commerce and Business In The Community might be a good place to start.