Dawlish News
Museum Faces Closure
Unless cash can be found quickly Dawlish Museum could be forced to close.
The museum which is home to the late Bill Millin's famous D-Day bagpipes made a loss of £5,000 last year, bad weather was to blame also the increase of utility and insurance bills.
The heating bill for the start of this year is in excess of £2,000. The building is more than 200 years old and in poor condition, if the building is not heated correctly there is a possibility of damp getting into the fabric.
The museum has never regulary been grant aided and running cost last year came to £11,000 of which utilities, insurance and rent totalled £8,743.
Source: Dawlish Gazette
With finances tight and no sign of things improving in the near future perhaps under the circumstances described above the building needs to be sold.
Perhaps with the help of some fund raising and maybe some grant money a wooden structure could be built on the warren to house the museum. As its likely that the greatest number of visitors are holiday maker tourists then the Warren would seem a more suitable place for a museum.
Just some observations.
Before I lived here but came here on holiday I had no idea that the museum existed.
I've lived here very nearly 7 years now and still haven't visited it.
Now, given that museums are places that I would be likely to visit as a holiday maker on a rainy day I've asked myself why I've never gone to the one in Dawlish.
Some thoughts:
It's not in the town centre. Therefore lack of passing footfall.
Is it well advertised? I've just typed in 'places to visit in Dawlish' and pressed the search button - couldn't find any reference to Dawlish museum.
As I haven't been inside it I don't know how much it caters, if at all, for the younger generation - hands on interactive electronic type stuff. Does it have anything like that?
How much is the entrance charge? I know it doesn't get any government funding but entrance charges, especially when money is tight, might be another another reason for discouraging visitors.
Who owns the building?
Have thought for a long time that it needed to be relocated. P'raps FredB is right - it should go where the vast majority of the visitors are, at the Warren, OR, become more town centre based (Brunswick or the Strand although that said I accept that may not be possible).
Isn't part of the plan for the future of Dawlish that there should be a visitor centre built up on one of the fields adjacent to Warren Road? Perhaps the museums artefacts could find a home there (assuming of course that the visitor centre does indeed get built).
Wasn't there talk sometime ago to relocate the museum? The old Woolworth's store was mentioned before the Co-op moved in.
Would have been great. Teignmouth museum is brilliant, not sure how they managed to raise the money.
Found this on Wikipedia about T'mouth museum's funding.
"The town's newest public building is the Teignmouth and Shaldon museum completed in 2011. It comprises an architecturally iconic extension of the existing 18th century museum building, with new roof terrace looking over the town, glass tower and community facility. Some of the exhibits include a restored bathing machine; artefacts from the Church Rock wreck, such as cannons; exhibits from the nearby Haldon aerodrome, plus film footage including the Beatles' visit to the town and the 2009 homecoming concerts by Muse. The new build cost almost £1.1m and was enabled by a major community fund-raising effort, in combination with Lottery and UK government funding and other sources such as local grant funders and Devon County Council."
@Lynne.go to devonmuseums.net and you should find dawlish musuem.or google dawlish museum and you should find it there.it will come up as devon museums.net.
Dawlish town centre makes more sense than the Warren to me ,we need to find ways of getting people to spend more time (and money) in the town.On dull days, a modern , child friendly museum with sensible opening times would be a great alternative to the amusement arcades. Surely we deserve a museum comparable to the one at Teignmouth.
Personally, I like the manor house idea but should the site be nearer to the centre ?
One of the reasons Teignmouth Museum does so well is because they engage with the local community. They have people go out to local schools and pre-schools to do talks on various subjects and schools do visits to the Museum too. They also have the new space on the first floor that is used by various local groups during the week (evenings) and at weekends, hosting various events that not only make people aware that there is a museum there but it also brings in funds in the way of room rental.
Maybe these are things Dawlish Museum could do more of to encourage more visitors. These days it is no good just opening the doors and hoping people come in, you have to be far more proactive but unfortunately for things like that you need volunteers to help do it all.