Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Recreation & Heritage Item 3

18 July 2002

Museums Strategy

Report of the Director of Recreation & Heritage

Contact: Stephen Locke 01962 846304

1. Introduction

1.1 The purpose of this strategy paper is to summarize how and why the County Council supports museums; and to:

_ contribute to a wider cultural strategy for Hampshire

_ help decision making in the short-term

_ support Best Value reviews

1.2 The approach of the strategy is to:

_ show how support for museums is related to wider County Council corporate policies

_ clarify from which budgets and under the aegis of which committees, support has been provided (this will contribute to the modernization process)

_ clarify the main categories of museum supported by the County Council

_ suggest how policy should be developed

1.3 This strategy paper is intended to be thoroughly practical and address issues at a level that directly relates to County Council decisions in a short to medium term timescale as well as contribute to the cultural strategy. It has a particular aim to bring clarity to museum policy at a time when the County Council is undergoing a rapid process of corporate change.

1.4 Insofar as the paper suggests the continuation of existing policy or the

development of policy, the following precepts are followed:

_ policy must be clearly related to corporate objectives,

_ Museum development will be achieved through seizing opportunities, partnership, and maximizing external funding. This has always been the pattern and there is a lot of evidence that this will continue, but direct expenditure on museums by the County Council will not grow substantially in real terms.

_ that the preservation, care and provision of access to valuable heritage assets will remain a high priority for the County Council, which will continue to provide leadership to achieve this.

1.5 The Museums Service and Archives Service have recently been brought together. This strategy paper was drafted before this development. Although the benefits of uniting museums and archives are well recognized, this strategy paper concentrates on museum provision. The integration with Archives, and indeed all the services of the Recreation & Heritage Department, will strengthen the opportunities to implement a museums strategy.

2. Summary of museum provision in Hampshire and the role of the County Museums Service

2.1 Providing or supporting museums is a discretionary and concurrent power of the County Council. Districts make an important contribution in Hampshire, but parish councils also have power to fund museums. Most local authorities support museums, but to a widely differing extent, and in very diverse ways. Hampshire County Council has taken responsibility for museums, and developed new museums, for over fifty years. Hampshire County Council has one of the best developed museum services in the country.

2.2 Museums are provided by many other organizations and individuals other than local authorities. These include the Government (chiefly through DCMS and MoD), universities, charitable trusts, companies (both not-for-profit and commercial) and private individuals.

2.3 Amidst this diversity, there is a well established national definition of museums associated with a specified standard of operation. These are Registered museums. Virtually all of the museums with which Hampshire County Council is concerned are, or aim to be, Registered.

2.4 We can consider museums in Hampshire in the following categories:

_ museums operated by Hampshire County Council

_ museums not operated by Hampshire County Council, but receiving support (to a varying extent):

- community museums

- defence heritage museums

- non-military `special interest' museums

2.5 Recently, the Museums Service has been nominated to lead the South East Region Museum Hub under the proposals of the report Renaissance in the Regions, produced by the Council for Museums, Libraries and Archives. This is an important recognition of the potential of Hampshire County Council's Museum Service to lead the co-ordination of new resources to museums in the region, until it is hoped, the Government will provide to support the regional museums structure.

3. Museums operated by Hampshire County Council

3.1 Hampshire County Council directly manages nineteen museums.

3.2 This involves:

_ employing the staff who run them

_ responsibility for the standards of professional practices

_ responsibility for day to day public services, security and health and safety

_ owning most of the collections on display

_ maintaining the buildings (in most cases)

3.3 The full list of museums in this category is:

Aldershot Military Museum

Andover Museum and Museum of the Iron Age (2 Registered museums)

Basing House, Basingstoke

Bursledon Windmill

Curtis Museum

Allen Gallery, Alton

Eastleigh Museum

Flora Twort Gallery, Petersfleld

Gosport Museum

Havant Museum

Milestones, Basingstoke

Red House Museum, Christchurch

Rockbourne Roman Villa

SEARCH, Gosport

Treadgolds of Portsea, Portsmouth

Westbury Manor Museum, Fareham

Willis Museum, Basingstoke

(HQ at Chilcomb House is Registered as a museum)

3.4 Many of these are operated through Joint Management Agreements with district councils and some with trusts.

3.5 The general position is that the County Council is the lead authority for local authority museums in Hampshire. The County Council provides most of their funding and takes responsibility for their professional management.

3.6 The operation of these museums is the primary work of the Museums Service of the County Council.

3.7 In the Hampshire County Council area, Winchester City Council is the only local authority that provides museums outside of the County Museums Service. In the `ceremonial' county of Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton provide museums, and have done so for very many years.

3.8 With the exception of Treadgolds at Portsmouth (and the now defunct museum of the dockyard apprentices), the County Council has never provided museums in Portsmouth or Southampton, and no transfer of museum assets or responsibilities took place at LGR in 1974.

3.9 The County Council took responsibility for The Curtis Museum, Alton, Willis Museum, Basingstoke and Red House Museum, Christchurch prior to 1974.

3.10 The remaining museums have been developed since 1974, but in all cases except one, utilizing pre-existing assets (a historic building or archaeological site) with a much longer history.

3.11 Only Milestones is a purpose-designed museum, built from scratch, but it displays collections originating from the inception of the County Museums Service.

3.12 The County Museums Service HQ, at Chilcomb House, Winchester, has been gradually developed since 1968 when the site was acquired. It is the place where all collections are cared for if they are not on display elsewhere (including reserve, reference and study collections) and the base for the central support services of conservation, collections management, museums education, special exhibitions, and the department's administration and senior management.

3.13 The Museums Service HQ is developing an increasing public role, focused on improved access to study and reference collections and associated information, especially Hampshire history, archaeology, natural science and art.

3.14 Of the 17 public museum sites operated by the County Council, 10 are the core local museums located in the boroughs and large towns of Hampshire, providing a base level of museum service to their districts.

3.15 There is only one district, Hart, within which there is no local museum providing these core services.

3.16 The remaining museums, excepting Milestones and SEARCH, preserve and provide access to historic sites and buildings.

3.17 Milestones is the only large museum (by national standards) operated by the County Council. It is a regional museum with collections, drawn from the whole of Hampshire, but especially the north of the county, which are sufficiently comprehensive and well chosen to be of national significance.

3.18 SEARCH at Gosport, is a hands-on centre for history and natural science specially designed for schools use, with developing services for families and special needs groups. It has a national reputation for producing a practice manual for interactive education using collections (Going Interactive).

4. Policy aims - museums operated by the County Council

4.1 All of these museums except Milestones were created before the modern articulation of the County Council's corporate aims. However, the corporate aims represent long established policy aims and objectives of the County Council, and the Museums Service has always been developed and managed in the context of these policies, and indeed contributed to their development.

4.2 In particular, the principles of lifelong learning, access and inclusion, while they may be described in these currently fashionable terms, have provided much of the intellectual underpinning of Hampshire County Council museums, as they have most museums.

4.3 Museums relate to these corporate aims:

_ lifelong learning

_ access and inclusion

_ community development

_ stewardship of the environment

_ economic development

4.4 The overarching policy aim of the Museums Service is to ensure that the directly managed museums support the corporate aims of the County Council and partner district councils.

4.5 The key objectives will be defined within the context of the County Council's cultural strategy, and will focus on these issues:

_ the review, development and management of physical assets (collections, buildings and sites) to ensure the most cost-effective and sustainable stewardship for the long term.

_ continually reviewing the use of, and access to, these assets, in the context of the needs of users and non-users, and the County Council's corporate aims, in order to widen and deepen access. This will certainly embrace the following priorities:

- lifelong learning and personal development

- access by the rural population

- community identity

- services to younger people

- the role of new technology

_ contributing to cultural tourism and the attractiveness of Hampshire

_ maintaining the scope and quality of the expertise of staff to ensure the Museums Service is in the upper quartile of performance

4.6 The proposal to develop integrated centres for the widest possible access to cultural, recreational and related public services, (the `Discovery Centre' concept)' which is a key aim of the Recreation & Heritage Department, provides a clear focus for the development of the Museums and Archives Service and the benefits of an integrated approach with the other Recreation & Heritage Services.

4.7 Improved access to the collections and related information is at the heart of the Museums Service which has worked to an access policy for many years. This includes physical and intellectual access. This policy is being integrated with the equalities policy to create a unified access and equalities policy and action plan.

4.8 A number of improvements and developments in collections management, interpretation and access have been targeted to increase the use and enjoyment of collections by people with disabilities and `hard to reach groups'.

5. Community Museums

5.1 The provision of museums in the larger towns has done nothing to reduce the demand and perceived need for museums in the smaller towns of Hampshire. From time-to- time there is a call to establish a museum in a village or suburb of a larger town.

5.2 The County Council has never framed its museum policy in doctrinaire or prescriptive terms: rather it has endeavoured to respond to demand wherever possible, using its professional and financial resources flexibly and invariably in partnership with another prime mover.

5.3 Although never formally stated, it became clear from about 1990 onwards, that a policy of continuing to provide fully funded local museums for smaller communities was simply not sustainable. The general constraints on local authority spending, particularly discretionary services, prevented this, and continuing to satisfy demand would create pressures which could only result in the reduction of standards in existing museums.

5.4 Generally speaking, the pressure on revenue expenditure was the most

important factor; limited capital expenditure has continued.

5.5 It was also possible to use the Museums Service staff to provide professional support, technical assistance and collections in support of further museum development.

5.6 Four museums have been successfully developed in the smaller towns of Hampshire with varying degrees of County Council support:

- St Barbe Museum, Lymington

- Petersfield Museum

- Romsey Heritage Centre

- Fordingbridge Museum

5.7 These museums vary in the scale and scope of their development and the nature and degree of County Council support, but the following is true in all cases:

_ probably none of them would have proceeded without County Council support (which is NOT to say the County Council was the prime mover)

_ all of them were developed after a long history of public demand for some kind of museum provision in the community they serve

_ the County Council has been a major influence on the design of these museums

_ the County Council has a continuing commitment to these museums of some kind

_ through the involvement of the County Council, a high degree of integration with the County Museums Service has been achieved, and a more coherent pattern of museum provision established, than is usually the case. This not only benefits Hampshire, but also has increased the chances of support from regional and national sources.

5.8 St. Barbe Museum, Lymington, has made an outstanding contribution to the cultural life of Lymington and more widely in Hampshire. The special exhibition galleries are among the best along the south coast and are actually superior to the special exhibition spaces in the County Council's own museums. External fundraising has been very successful, (although hard-earned) and a further Heritage Lottery Fund grant for educational development levered in. Attendances at the museum are 25,000 per annum and to the Tourist Information Centre, with which it shares a building, 90,000.

6. Policy aims - Community museums

6.1 Future policy needs to determine whether the County Council can or should encourage the further development of museums in smaller towns and communities.

6.2 There is a strong case for resisting the establishment of further small museums based on single-use buildings and permanent collections.

6.3 The response to the continuing demand for local museum services (broadly integrated) should be made in the context of broader cultural services, and seek to maximize flexibility of provision, reduce permanent on-costs, make the best use of existing museums and collections, and explore new forms of access.

6.4 Improved revenue support for St. Barbe Museum, Lymington, is an important objective. This will enhance the capacity of the Museum and provide professional and technical support to other museums in the area.

7. Defence heritage museums

7.1 It can sometimes seem as if the very term `defence heritage' was coined in Hampshire! It is certainly true that Hampshire County Council has developed successful policies to encourage the beneficial use of historical assets, which were originally created by the needs of national defence.

7.2 This reflects the importance of major defence-related resources and employment, sites and buildings, historic assets, collections, and information that are concentrated in Hampshire.

7.3 The defence heritage policy is above all an economic policy, with a particular concern to manage to best advantage defence heritage assets that become redundant as a result of changes in national defence policy.

7.4 It has often been the case however, that for more purely conceived intellectual and heritage purposes, the County Council has encouraged the preservation of what amounts to an important part of the national heritage. In doing so, it has to an extent taken on national responsibilities, and only a county with the economic strength of Hampshire, as well as the underpinning policy motivation, could have attempted this.

7.5 All three armed services have had a nationally important involvement in Hampshire and have long been an integral part of Hampshire's history and economy.

7.6 The most important clusters of activity and associated historic sites, buildings and collections are:

Portsmouth, Gosport and The Royal Navy and associated

Fareham defences and research establishments

Southampton and the Solent Early aviation development

Aldershot and Farnborough The Army and advanced aviation

development

Winchester Regimental bases and barracks

Middle Wallop Army aviation

7.7 This is a simplified overview: there are many sites and buildings throughout Hampshire and the balance between historical remains and continuing operational activity varies greatly between the main locations. Nevertheless, this picture is a helpful way of visualizing the main centres of interest, particularly representing the past three centuries.

7.8 The defence Heritage policy is supported by the County Council Policy Unit within the chief Executive's Department, and there has been close collaboration with the Museums Service.

7.9 The Museums Service supports the defence heritage policy in three principal ways:

_ by providing much of the underpinning historical and curatorial expertise required by the defence heritage policy,

_ improving educational services and encouraging audience development,

_ managing museums with a defence heritage focus, (e.g. Aldershot Miltary Museum).

7.10 There could beneficially be a clearer discrimination of roles in the context of modernization, and this should be based on a renewed and clearer defence heritage policy.

8. Policy aims - Defence heritage museums

8.2 The criteria for supporting defence heritage museums and the preservation of collections etc. should ensure that they are clearly relevant to County Council corporate priorities.

8.3 Key criteria are:

_ is the heritage particularly relevant to Hampshire?

- some defence heritage is transient within Hampshire, and may not have deep historical or other roots in the County.

_ is the heritage sustainable by Hampshire?

- some defence heritage is thoroughly rooted in Hampshire, but is of national significance. There may be a presumption that national organizations should support this heritage.

_ is it clear that the heritage cannot continue to be supported by the organization or agency that created it?

- in some circumstances, heritage is best protected and promoted within the institution which created it (e.g. a research or operational establishment, HQ etc.)

- seeking to create a public museum will always be the most expensive option and not necessarily the best option to achieve key aims.

_ Will the heritage contribute to the County Council's corporate priorities?

- defence heritage may make an important contribution to tourism, employment and education,

- the diverse nature of defence heritage may appeal to new users, whereas collections with a very specialized `interest' will have a narrower appeal.

9. Non military special interest museums

9.1 There are several independent museums that represent people or history of special interest to Hampshire. These museums are important because they contribute to defining the character and status of Hampshire. They attract significant numbers of visitors, but their importance goes beyond this in contributing to the image of Hampshire as interesting, diverse and important.

9.2 Four museums fall into this category:

_ Gilbert White's House and Oates Memorial Library and Museum, The Wakes, Selbourne

_ Jane Austen's House, Chawton

_ Whitchurch Silk Mill

_ New Forest Museum, Lyndhurst

9.3 Gilbert White's House, Oates Memorial Library and Museum (more easily referred to as `The Wakes') commemorates Gilbert White (1720-93) the internationally important pioneer naturalist and author of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, one of the most published books in the world, continually in print since 1789, and Capt. Lawrence Oates, who died with Capt. Scott in the Antarctic.

Of equal importance to Hampshire, are the field study centre and the beautiful, historic and important garden and grounds which are all embraced by The Wakes.

The Wakes have initiated a major and ambitious development plan which has provided a new field study centre, re-generated the historic interest of the grounds, and will secure the condition of the main house and provide improved exhibitions and interpretation. This is being largely funded by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £800,000, which the County Council (through the Museums Service and Department of Property, Business and Regulatory Services) helped secure and for which PBR is acting as project manager.

The Wakes has succeeded in raising substantial funds from outside Hampshire to provide their contribution to the total costs of the scheme.

The County Council provide professional technical support through the Director of Museums and the core annual revenue grant to the field study centre through the Recreation & Heritage Department.

9.4 Jane Austen's House, Chawton commemorates probably the best-known person connected with Hampshire. The museum is relatively small and located in a highly sensitive environment - there are strong parallels with the Wakes. The promotion of Jane Austen - e.g. a new dramatization on TV or film, invariably boosts visitor numbers, and this museum is very important to the general marketing of Hampshire, and East Hampshire especially.

The County Council provides professional and technical support through the Museums Service, especially related to the conservation of the collections, and have provided capital grants to support particular improvements in public services.

9.5 Whitchurch Silk Mill is a unique site and building which preserves an original silk mill and the craft of silk weaving, and interprets those to the public and for educational purposes. It is important to the tourist economy of north Hampshire and is jointly supported with revenue funding from Hampshire County Council and Basingstoke & Dean Borough Council.

9.6 New Forest Visitor Centre, Lyndhurst was originally created through a partnership between the New Forest Ninth Centenary Trust and a private company. Initially, it was conceived as a profitable enterprise, associated with the tourist information centre, and serving to introduce visitors to the New Forest.

The Trust has now taken full responsibility for the ownership and management of the museum. The Trust's aims are to make the museum more locally relevant, encourage greater community use and participation, and develop its educational role. It is achieving this with a high degree of success, in cooperation with the Museums Service, Hampshire Record Office, and Library Service.

The New Forest is of course a jewel in Hampshire's crown and of international importance for its biodiversity, and of national importance as a proposed `National Park'.

The Museums Service operates no museum in the New Forest, and considers the New Forest Visitor Centre, Lyndhurst, as strategically important; and strongly supports its current policies.

The important policy issues for this museum will relate to potential capital developments (which are realistically in prospect) and its developing role as a community museum, visitor centre, and educational centre. It is already, in effect, a `discovery centre'.

Other agencies are interested stakeholders, including New Forest District Council, English Nature, Forest Enterprise and local New Forest organizations.

10. Policy aims - non-military, special interest museums

10. 1 The key policy aims should be to achieve sustainability for these museums which do so much to define the character of Hampshire and provide important destinations for visitors, of which a large number will have come a considerable distance, some from abroad.

10.2 This will involve support accurately tailored to the circumstances of each museum. A degree of on-going revenue funding is justified where the County Council is anxious to provide a particular service (e.g. education).

10.3 The Wakes, Jane Austen's House and Whitchurch Silk Mill are also preserving important historic buildings (and in the case of The Wakes, a landscape) which will justify capital support from time to time.

10.4 Support for the marketing and audience development of these museums is also highly important, and this is a mutually beneficial policy for all concerned.

10.5 The Wakes, Whitchurch Silk Mill and the New Forest Museum have some scope for visitor and community services such as special exhibitions, and resource rooms (with specialist libraries and records). It would be desirable for relevant County Council departments to be able to provide more practical help and resources in support of these. The current ability to help is limited.

Recommendation

1. That the policy aims stated in the report be welcomed as the basis for developing museum policy with the overall cultural strategy of Hampshire County Council and submitted to the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage for his consideration.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE FILE

NONE *

Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 3.

18^th July 2002

Museums Strategy

Report of the Director of Recreation & Heritage

Contact: Stephen Locke ext: 6300

1. Summary

1.1 The following decision is sought:

That the policy aims stated in the report be welcomed

as the basis for developing museum policy with the overall cultural strategy of Hampshire County Council and submitted to the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage for his consideration.

2. Reasons

2.1 To contribute to the corporate aims of Hampshire County Council and incorporate the cultural strategy by making the best us of museum assets and expertise.

3. Other options considered and rejected

None.

4. Conflicts granted by the Standards Committee

None.

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

None.

6. Reason(s) for the Matter being dealt with if urgent

Not applicable.

Approved by:...........................................Date of decision.........................

Councillor J Waddington