ARTEFACTS IN RUINS

An auction was held at Elvaston Castle (Saturday 29, 2007) to sell off about 120 artefacts which used to be on display at the estate's museum, which was open from 1980 to 2001. Derbyshire County Council, which owns the castle, will put the cash raised in the auction towards paying off a grant from the Fund for the Preservation of Industrial and Scientific Materials, which the council was given to buy carriages for the museum.

Among the bidders was Patrick Bosworth, who paid £400 for a Fordson Standard N tractor dating from the early 1940s. Mr Bosworth, of Holme Farm, Stanley, has been collecting tractors since he was a child and hopes to restore the old vehicle using spares from another tractor he bought at the auction. He said, "I'm really pleased. This is what I came for and I got it. I've now got 10 tractors in my collection. Once I've restored it, I'll take it on the rally circuit. It'll probably be back here for the Elvaston Steam Rally in the next couple of years."

Tractors were the main money-raisers at the sale, with bidders paying up to £600 for the machines. James Lewis, of Bamfords Auctioneers, which ran the sale, said, "It was amazing how much these tractors went for. You could buy a mint condition tractor for about £900 and we've had one sell here for £600. When I first came to look at the lots a year ago, you couldn't even see the tractors because the nettles were so overgrown. I hear that many of them are going to be restored and will stay in Derbyshire."

Stephen Peake, of West Hallam, bought two horse-drawn ploughs for £10 and £15. He said, "I'm going to paint them and put them in the garden. I've been looking for something like this for ages. These are early 20th-century ploughs and they'll look really good in the garden once they've had a lick of paint." Philip Ufton, of Crown Hill Farm, Stanley Common, picked up a 1940s threshing machine for just £10. He said, "I've got no idea how I'll get it home. I didn't come here with this in mind but it was cheap and I'll restore it. I could get it working again but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it after that!" (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Oct/07)

To further prove that they are untroubled by any questions of scruples, morals, or decent behaviour of any description when it comes to Elvaston Castle and Country Park, Derbyshire County Council are now obstructing the people who have come forward to try and buy back the farming equipment that they sold or donated to the Working Farm Museum that was once such a source of local pride, before the shysters from Matlock used the foot and mouth crisis as an excuse to close it down.

Let us get something straight. The County Council claim that falling attendance figures caused the museum to close in 2001. Everywhere in the British countryside had falling attendance figures in 2001 due to the foot and mouth crisis. Derbyshire County Council cynically exploited the situation, using it as an excuse to close down the Museum. This fell in line with their plans to clear the Estate so that they could develop it.

Let us make no mistake here, we will not stand idly by and allow the County Council's thieving ways to go unnoticed and unannounced. Take the County Council spokeswoman who told the Derby Evening Telegraph that: "Some items have fallen into a poor state of repair due to lack of space to properly store them indoors and the nature of the Working Museum, which encouraged their continued use. We have been working to put the situation right by properly logging and storing more than 12000 objects."

This shallow, pathetic and lying attempt at a cover-up cannot go unchallenged. If the items fell into a poor state of repair due to lack of space to store them indoors, why are the few items that have been stored under cover fallen into similar dereliction? Lance Hunt's father's gypsy caravan has been stored indoors hasn't it? Look at the state of that. A little bird also tells us that the artefacts stored inside the Castle are in a similar state of neglect, batttered, broken, rotting, and covered in thick layers of dust. Obviously more examples of our 'caring' County Council.

The nature of the Working Museum encouraged their continued use just underscores what we all know - that they were once working. If the County Council was sincere with regard to properly logging and storing the objects from the museum then they would surely start with those that they have rendered into scrap metal and which are the most vulnerable BECAUSE they have been left to rot, out in the open. This they have so far failed to do.

The answer is plainly obvious. Look at the photographs in the gallery. The people who have not only allowed these things to happen are also the ones responsible for it. They reside in the People's Palace in Matlock, where they have obviously resided for far too long. Look at the piles of scrap metal in the gallery photographs. The County Council are now refusing to allow people whose family members sold or donated equipment to have them back unless the individuals concerned have retained the paperwork, even where the County Council themselves hold evidence of who sold or donated it.

Let us stop these same people from stealing anything else from us. Let them hear this message, loud and clear, in the People's Palace in Matlock. We will not allow you to give away OUR PARK, WHICH BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE NATION AND IS ONLY IN YOUR (PATHETIC) CARE. Keep your golf course and your floodlit driving range (are you reading this in the houses across the road?). Keep your development plans, your hotel and conferencing extensions, swimming pools, saunas and tennis courts. Keep your ugly faces away from OUR PARK! Badger

Lance Hunt's father, Norman, an agricultural engineer who died 14 years ago, collected machinery and agricultural equipment which he exhibited in a country life museum at his farm in Turnditch. When he decided to close it, due to ill health in the late 1970s, he sold and donated his collection to various worthy causes, including Elvaston Castle.

In 1980, a working estate museum was opened at Elvaston but it closed in 2001 because of falling attendance figures. Mr Hunt visited the stately home and country park recently and was shocked by what he found. Among the items that had belonged to his father were two gypsy show caravans that are now sitting out in the open, on ground next to the church. There are also many carts and other pieces of historic farm machinery on land at the estate's Home Farm.

Mr Hunt contacted Derbyshire County Council to ask how he could get his father's items back. A DCC spokeswoman said that, where possible, artefacts from the estate are being returned to their original owners. A spokeswoman said that the items were being identified and logged properly, with a view to finding new homes for them at museums, but former owners or heirs, such as Mr Hunt, will only be approached if the museum search fails.

And they will not be allowed to take the machines back, unless they can provide copies of documentation they would have signed when the objects were given to the museum, even if the county council's own records show that the person making the request was the donor. Councillors will also consider selling the items at auction, the spokeswoman said.

A county council spokeswoman said, "Some items have fallen into a poor state of repair due to lack of space to properly store them indoors and the nature of the working museum, which encouraged their continued use. We have been working to put the situation right by properly logging and storing more than 12,000 objects." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

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