Historic Home Musem Plans
Thursday, 25th July 2002.
HAVERHILL’S most historic building, Ann of Cleves House, could become a museum for the town.
Haverhill Town Council’s Leisure Committee has written to St Edmunds bury Borough Council suggesting that it should buy the Grade 2 Listing building, if it came on to the market, to create a museum.
Haverhill and District Local History Group, which is currently based at the Arts Centre, has recently been awarded museum status and chairman Roy Brazier welcomed the idea
Enthusiastically.
He said the group had been wanting to open a museum and looking for a suitable location since their formation 24 year ago.
He said: “It would be ideal foe a museum and we would be happy to move in tomorrow. We have fun more material then we have room to display here.
“With the different rooms there we could have and Archie Backler room to house his collection and an RC Poole room.
“Now that we have registered museum status for our work there could be a lot more grant aid open to us”
Cleves House is currently the headquarters of the HID Corporation, who move out next month to move into new offices in Haverhill. It is owned by Barry and Neil Williams, who said is they had no plans to sell it, but were considering their option no re-renting it.
“The idea of a museum has never even occurred to me, but it is an interesting idea. We don’t really want to sell it and we don’t want it to be turned into something just like everything else.
“our first priority is to keep it occupied and in good condition. I would be more than happy to sit down and discuss the idea of a museum,” Neil Williams said
Steve Palframan, director of Leisure Services for St Edmunds bury Borough Council was unlikely to want to purchase the building on its own, but would be happy to support to town council and other groups wanting to do so. The creation of a discovery center of some kind in Haverhill was part of their leisure strategy.
“The building is superb and in a good location. It must be retained for the town, but there are problems with fitting a function like a museum into a building like this, so I would urge caution,” Mr Palframan said.
Haverhill Town Council’s Leisure Committee has written to St Edmunds bury Borough Council suggesting that it should buy the Grade 2 Listing building, if it came on to the market, to create a museum.
Haverhill and District Local History Group, which is currently based at the Arts Centre, has recently been awarded museum status and chairman Roy Brazier welcomed the idea
Enthusiastically.
He said the group had been wanting to open a museum and looking for a suitable location since their formation 24 year ago.
He said: “It would be ideal foe a museum and we would be happy to move in tomorrow. We have fun more material then we have room to display here.
“With the different rooms there we could have and Archie Backler room to house his collection and an RC Poole room.
“Now that we have registered museum status for our work there could be a lot more grant aid open to us”
Cleves House is currently the headquarters of the HID Corporation, who move out next month to move into new offices in Haverhill. It is owned by Barry and Neil Williams, who said is they had no plans to sell it, but were considering their option no re-renting it.
“The idea of a museum has never even occurred to me, but it is an interesting idea. We don’t really want to sell it and we don’t want it to be turned into something just like everything else.
“our first priority is to keep it occupied and in good condition. I would be more than happy to sit down and discuss the idea of a museum,” Neil Williams said
Steve Palframan, director of Leisure Services for St Edmunds bury Borough Council was unlikely to want to purchase the building on its own, but would be happy to support to town council and other groups wanting to do so. The creation of a discovery center of some kind in Haverhill was part of their leisure strategy.
“The building is superb and in a good location. It must be retained for the town, but there are problems with fitting a function like a museum into a building like this, so I would urge caution,” Mr Palframan said.
E-Mail Link: jodeeks@haverhillweeklynews.co.uk
Comment on this story
[board listing] [login] [register]
You must be logged in to post messages. (login now)