Museum Deal to Unlock Regeneration Project

16 March 2009

A NEW deal to hand over running of Kendal Museum to Kendal College is designed to be used as a springboard for a major regeneration of the north end of Kendal town centre.

On April 1 a ten year agreement takes effect between South Lakeland District Council and Kendal College, with the college looking after the collections and managing the staff and buildings.

The collections will remain the property of SLDC and Kendal town council will still own the building. A Kendal Museum advisory board has been set up with the aim of working together to benefit all learners and visitors in creative and cultural heritage, arts and natural history.

The museum is considered by experts to have collections of national importance but its future has been the subject of debate for some years and 80 per cent of the collections are currently in storage.

It is the intention of the partners to increase the number of exhibits on display and use new technology to make them accessible to all.
An open day to explain the plans for the museum was held on Saturday (March 14). The deal was being signed by college principal Graham Wilkinson and leader of South Lakeland District Council, Brendan Jameson, today (Thursday, March 19).

College principal Graham Wilkinson said: "The museum refurbishment enables us to have educational programmes up to level 4 in cultural heritage, which we are developing with the University of Cumbria. This will mean students will be able to learn about their own history in a national context, in a real work environment in their journey to become qualified curators."

Students will be able to get involved in cataloguing exhibits and use web-site technology to produce high quality and interactive virtual learning resources.

Councillor Jameson, said: “This could be the start of a long and successful partnership with the college, the council and the civic society to develop our local gems.

“The museum has so much to offer. At the moment it is difficult to market it, but with the college on board and the contributions of students, this is an opportunity we cannot fail to grasp.”
Coun. Jameson believes that a programme of events for all youngsters in the area could be built around the museum, especially based on local history.

He said that although expansion depended on outside funding organisations, they could not fail to be impressed by what the museum and college have to offer.

But a refurbishment of Kendal museum building due to start in Spring 2010, whichh is being managed and funded by South Lakeland District Council along with a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, is in addition to a planned £8 million investment into the Wildman Street area by Kendal College.

Stage 2 of the College's development includes buying almost an acre of land, with an entrance between Castle Dairy and the County Hotel. The Castle Dairy, a grade one listed building also owned by South Lakeland District Council, would become a patisserie and art gallery to highlight students' work, with any revenue being ploughed back into the building, which is in need of repair.

Behind would be a performing arts theatre, music and arts studios, technology workshops for lighting and sound and stage sets manufacture.

This would mean new facilities for the creative and performing arts students currently housed in the Allen Building. This building would also be upgraded as part of the development plans.
All the new facilities would be open for use by local schools and designed to support current and future developments at the Brewery Arts Centre.

Apart from revitalising Wildman Street and making use of buildings in an area of Kendal that have fallen into disrepair, planners are also expected to be attracted by the prospect of improving the entrance to the town from the railway station by SLDC, giving the town a new gateway.
The new developments, together with the refurbishment of the Allen building and other plans for four new sports sites and an engineering facility, mean the total cost of Kendal College Stage 2 would be £17m.
This is being considered by the Learning and Skills Council, the government agency which deals with funding of all further education projects.

Coun Jameson said: “I am really excited by the prospect of rejuvenating that area. By using cultural and educational facilities, there is an excellent opportunity for Kendal to develop its attractions.

“By enabling people to see something they have never seen before and getting involved in things they have never got involved in before, we can make them feel better about themselves and the area. These are exciting times and Kendal is a great place to live.”   

Kendal College stage one redevelopment, which cost £12.9 million, included a new reception block at its Milnthorpe Road site, along with new hair-dressing salons, a 250-seat restaurant with balcony, a new heritage construction block, including carpentry, joinery, brickwork, plumbing and electrical installation, and refurbishment throughout. A grand opening is planned for May 15.

Mr Wilkinson is hoping to obtain government backing, support from the College's bankers and planning permissions in time for works to start on Phase 2 by the end of this year.

Background on Kendal Museum
One of the oldest museums in the country Kendal's first museum was formed in 1796 by William Todhunter who exhibited a collection of fossils, plants, minerals, animals and antiques. In 1835 the Kendal Literary and Scientific Society took over the museum. The society included among its members Dr Thomas Gough, Professor Adam Sedgwick, John Ruthven and Dr John Dalton. As the collection grew, the Museum had to be re-housed several times.

In the early 1900s money problems forced the sale of some exhibits; the rest were offered to the town. In 1913 the current building - formerly a wool warehouse - was offered to the Town Council for the purposes of housing the museum. After World War One the collections were moved to the site and the museum was run by a series of honorary curators on behalf of the Town Council. One of these curators included Alfred Wainwright, the famous guide book author and fell-walker, who gave up his spare time for 30 years to look after the collections.

An SLDC briefing document says the collections at the Museum are nationally significant but at present storage facilities are simply inadequate both in terms of collections care and public access. 
Many stores are located in cramped and unregulated environments in different areas of the Museum, meaning that access is difficult and current conditions inappropriate.   If nothing is done, in time, the collections will suffer and Kendal will lose valuable heritage and cultural assets.

Kendal Museum needs to attend to visitors’ practical needs as a degree of comfort significantly influences the value of the museum experience.  Comfort includes: the facility layout, orientation of displays, provision of amenities, clarification of the Museum’s agenda and a focus on making interactions between the content of the Museum and the visitor as positive as possible.

In order to upgrade facilities and improve the quality of the visitor experience, Kendal Museum requires the following actions:

• Repairs and maintenance of the Museum building, Lodge and Annex

• Optimisation and reconfiguration of space to best showcase the collection

• Upgrade the Museum building to include a lift, second staircase and fire safety provisions

• Improved and updated displays and exhibits

• New storage and conservation equipment

The Museum is currently divided into three galleries:

The Lake District Natural History Gallery provides a glimpse of Lakeland habitats and displays ranges from geology, mountain formation, climate and habitat of the surrounding area.  The Hamer Mineral Collection was painstakingly assembled over 90 years by John Hamer and includes over 2000 mineral specimens.

The World Wildlife Gallery houses the Harrison Collection of animal trophies as well as other animals, birds and insects donated from other sources.

The Wainwright Gallery charts the influence of man in Cumbria from prehistoric to modern times.  It houses Roman, Greek and Egyptian artefacts, a multi-media display of Kendal Castle as well as the recreated office of Alfred Wainwright.

The Museum also has a number of stores, which include bird, insect and plant collections.  Special guided tours of these stores can be arranged and the Herbaria Collection includes dried plants, ferns and mosses.  The temporary displays are housed in the basement and range from exhibitions of local artist to collections currently in storage such as the ‘Rare and Beautiful’ display that provided valuable insight into the social history of taxidermy.

The Kendal Museum collection is a significant natural history anthology and the importance of the collection has been expressed by Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and Head of Natural Science at Manchester Museum.  Manchester Museum has emphatically concluded that the collection is well worth preserving and identified the following areas as important:

• Rare or Extinct Animals
• Quality of Taxidermy
• Herbaria (collection of dried plants)
• Insects
• Mineral Specimens
• Example of Victoria/Edwardian Collecting
• Personalities i.e. Dalton, Wainwright and Sedgwick

The significance of the collection not only has relevance to the local community, specialist groups and societies, it also has a regional and national relevance and as such may warrant national designation status.

National designation status is awarded by the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council and identifies pre-eminent collections of national and international importance held in England’s non-national museums based on their quality and significance.