"Trouble down south" - Bottisham Airfield Museum

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 252

Sad to report that the Bottisham Airfield Museum has been given notice to leave its current site by April 2012.

The landlord is trying to sell the site for residential development - we will do everything we can to block its redevelopment.

We have a potential temporary home for the museum lined up and hope to have more news on this soon.

We hope to hold an event or two to raise awareness and more details will follow in the coming weeks.

This is not the end for the museum...just a new chapter.

Cheers

Jason
www.bottishamairfieldmuseum.org.uk

Original post

Member for

16 years 3 months

Posts: 2,841

Bottisham

Sorry to hear of your museum's impending closure, Jason. Sounds like you haven't been given much notice so you don't have long to get it all packed away.

These things do happen and, with an understanding landlord and some discussion a solution can usually be found. Even if the museum contents go into store in the meantime, at least it is there ready for relocation to another site.

The difficulties really start when people are, perhaps, not only difficult but they are also determined to damage or destroy what you have achieved. Stuff has to be sold or scrapped and the loss to the museum concerned can be much greater than the loss of their facility.

You seem to have a positive attitude and this will help you no-end in finding another site and the re-birth of the museum. Quite often, good comes from such events. A new home can be better in many ways - and it also means that all those corners full of stuff which you never got round to cleaning and catalogueing, the manky bits of wood and old boxes you kept for use "some time" and the items which you had on loan but didn't really want, can go back to their owners.

It's a New Start. Good Luck.

Anon.

Member for

19 years 3 months

Posts: 5,197

Sorry to hear that Jason, please let us know if there is anything we can do to help

Member for

16 years 6 months

Posts: 6,000

Keep me posted J.

Member for

16 years 11 months

Posts: 2,004

That's very sad. If the development is going to be residential, can you point out some suitable road names to the council?

Jason

Thats sad news. I will be up to see you in the spring, anyway, as agreed.

Ian

I agree. Sadly, at Tangmere, when the developers moved in and built houses they seemed to want to excise all memory of the airfield. Names like Churchwood, Nelson Road, Windmill Way and Chichester Drive were designed to expunge that memory - and, I know for a fact, that was the reasoning.

However, through a third party, the names Hunters Gate and Gamecock Terrace were put in and lobbied for. The developers had no idea as to the Tangmere or aviation connection of those names and they were accepted, and then approved by the local authority.

It still gives me more than a little quiet satisfaction to this day!!!

The developers were later quoted as saying that "a conscious decision had been taken not to represent the history of the airfield since this was done appropriately elsewhere and residents might not be comfortable with the militaristic representation of where they lived."

Gotcha! :diablo:

Member for

16 years 9 months

Posts: 1,011

Sad news, Jason, after all your hard work - but not unforeseen I know. Well done at finding a temporary location - maybe you won't need it!

Count me in too, if I can do anything to help!

Chris

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 7,029

:mad: Sorry Jason.Just let us know what help you need,
All the best

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 252

Thanks for your offers of support -keep an eye for more details of forthcoming events.