It takes a turn for the interesting

As you all may have seen or heard, Lancashire's County Councillors met today at County Hall in Preston and approved the funding proposals for the next financial year.

This means that our plea for one more year's funding to find a viable option has been ignored, for now. We will keep pushing the council to reconsider this decision and keep our mill museums for the extra year we have asked for, but I must admit it's not looking good.

However, I have been in touch with lots of amazing people who are all keen to keep the museums. Everyone from Councillors to the Museums Association, to arts consultants to other museums who have gone through similar struggles has offered help and advice.

I'm not sure where we go from here to be perfectly honest. However, I have ideas and am pretty sure that some of them could work.

What I do know is that whatever happens next, fundraising will be a major part of it. Start thinking of any local businesses of funders who might be interested and if you know them, tell them to get in touch.

This is not the end, it's just the beginning. We will #savethemills

CALL TO ACTION

YOUR MILLS NEED YOU

Right chaps, it's time. Councillors will meet on Thursday to vote on the proposals to cut funding to the museums service.

Realistically, they will vote yes to cutting funding to this service.

However, you fantastic people have all asked them to revise the cuts outlined in the proposals to give us one more year to come up with an alternative model to run the museums at Helmshore and Queen Street without council funding. I need to submit this tomorrow so they can consider it when they discuss the cuts. Don't worry, I will look after this bit.

However, I NEED YOUR HELP. A Councillor has told me that despite having 3000 signatures, this only counts as one document because it just means I have made a point that you all agree with. If you really want to help you need to email Councillor Jennifer Mein, Councillor Margaret Brindle (Queen Street is under her remit) and  and ask her the same thing that I have.

If you need ideas, here is a step-by-step guide:

1. Open a new email and type 'Jennifer.Mein@lancashire.gov.uk' (if you live in Lancashire) and margaret.brindle@lancashire.gov.uk (if you live in Burnley) and dave.stansfield@lancashire.gov.uk (if you live in Helmshore) in the address bar
2. Dear Councillor Mein, Councillor Brindle or Councillor Stansfield,
3. I do not want the council to cut funding to the Mill Museums at Helmshore and Queen Street because:

• I am entitled to my heritage
• They are a nationally important part of British history
• The Mills are an important part of where I live
• The Mill Museums bring tourists to the area which my business depends on
• I bring my children there to help them learn
• They are an essential part of our history
• Filming goes on there which makes our local area interesting

If any of these things apply to you, INCLUDE THEM TOO:

• I would be interested in helping as a volunteer if they stay open
• I am a local history enthusiast with skills I could volunteer, such as maintaining the steam engine at Queen Street
• I work as a teacher and I rely on these museums to teach my lessons
• I bring my community group to visit

• Or something else that you love about these mills

4. Please at consider giving us longer to find an alternative way of running these museums, by funding them until April 2017.


5.  Yours sincerely,
6. WRITE YOUR NAME AND YOUR ADDRESS (including your postcode)

Please encourage as many people to do this as possible. It will strengthen the cause and make the council take our appeal seriously.

It will take you two minutes and you could save our history forever.

Busy busy busy!

Good afternoon mill savers.

There's been a lot going on very visibly for campaign over the last 24 hours. Everyone has been amazing at sharing the Facebook page and the petition and showing that they care. It's incredibly important that we continue to raise awareness and that people care about these museums. I no one cares, we can't save them.

The petition has now reached 1,300 signatures which have come from Lancashire to London and Australia to India. It's amazing how many people from all different walks of life love our mills as much as we do. The message is KEEP SHARING AND SIGNING. Time is off the essence and we must get more time for the council to allow us to come up with another way of running these mills.

We've also now got Twitter and Instagram @SaveTheMills. CALL FOR HELP: send your fave Helmshore and Queen Street pics and a 140 character description to savethemills@outlook.com and we can post them from the main account.

Behind the scenes, we're getting somewhere. We have made contact with The Cromwell Museum in Cambridge, Birmingham Museums Trust and Derby Museums who have all been through similar cuts and restructures. It will be so great to get ideas from these inspirational museums as to how we can steer our campaign and what the alternatives to council funding are and how we set this up. Bear with us in this front, it's a bureaucratic minefield but we will get a plan together ASAP (then probably start asking you all for money- yeyyyy!) 

Other people I've spoken to are the lovely chairman of trustees of The Higher Mill Trust and Councillor Jennifer Mein, again some work being done on trying to come up with a long term plan. Very much lots of me badgering people but hopefully something to report on this soon.

More glamorously, our campaign will be ALL OVER local press next week. We spoke to 2BR and Roseendale Free Press this week so see and hear those next week. Very exciting!

On Saturday 28th November it is the HELMSHORE CHRISTMAS FAIR. We will have a stand and be collecting signatures. Come and say hello and come and see Helmshore (might be your last chance if this campaign goes tits up!)

One last point is that I am not an expert on this kind of thing and am not pretending to be. I have previously worked at Helmshore and still work in the museums industry, but I have never taken on a council or come up with a plan to run two museums without any confirmed funding. I need as much help as possible! Please do put local businesses, campaigners, charities and educational professionals in touch with me so we can come up with a plan that will actually work. 

Have a great mill saving day today lovely people 

19th November

Today, we launched the petition and campaign and got an official looking logo. There's no stopping us now.

We are campaigning for LCC to give us one more year for Helmshore and Queen Street, during which time we will find an alternative. We want LCC to give us until April 2017, rather than April 2016 to find an alternative to closure.

£500,000 has been added to the budget for museums for next year. Use it to keep Helmshore and Queen Street (even if they close with fewer staff for this time) until we can set up a trust and  a viable business plan to make these museums work as local attractions.

Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/councillor-jennifer-mein-save-lancashire-s-mill-museums?recruiter=430344566&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg&fb_ref=Default

Obviously it is a terrible time for the council and keeping a museum service may not be a financially viable option for LCC, but we deserve more time to find an alternative way of keeping out heritage.

Jennifer Mein has been in touch to say: 

Dear Sarah

Thank you so much for emailing me and your offer of help, I'll speak to the CE and arrange for someone to get back to you as soon as possible.

These are really difficult times but we will do our best to try to enable the museums to remain viable,

Regards

Jennifer

There is hope.

In the news so far

http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/18112015-lancashire-looks-to-shut-five-museums

Theplan: http://council.lancashire.gov.uk/documents/s76693/043%20CULTURAL%20SERVICES%20MUSEUMS.pdf

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/revealed-40-libraries-five-museums-and-two-adult-education-centres-among-massive-cuts-announced-by-lancashire-county-council-1-7574160

http://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/community/breaking-huge-cuts-to-lancashire-county-council-services-announced-1-7573610

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-34836499

Helmshore Mill Textile Museum and Queen Street Mill in Lancashire together make up the last surviving example in the world of spinning and weaving of the Industrial Revolution.

Recognised by Arts Council England, through their designation scheme as 'world class collections' which 'are a lasting source of inspiration and enjoyment for generations of users'1 our museums are now under threat of closure as Lancashire County Council plans to close them in a bid to save £262M by 2020.

This is a completely short sighted view. Of the overall cuts which need to be made, the closure of five Lancashire Museums will achieve only a saving of around £5M in this timeframe2. That's only 1.9% of the savings that need to be made. One percent over 5 years and we lose over two hundred year's of Lancashire's unique Industrial heritage.

Helmshore and Queen Street keep alive the otherwise extinct process of cotton spinning and weaving in Lancashire- once the industrial heart of the country. In these museums you can 'trace the history of weaving and spinning through the displays of handlooms, power looms, flying shuttles, dobbies, jacquards, water frames, drop spindles and powerful spinning mules. Many contain original machines, and a number are still in working order and demonstrated on a regular basis. Queen Street Mill contains a unique collection of machinery which has been preserved in situ, including the original Lancashire boiler, the 500 horse power tandem compound steam engine ‘Peace, the line shafting throughout the mill and the 19th century looms connected to it.'3

By 1860 there were 2650 cotton mills in Lancashire, employing 440 000 people and producing half of the world’s cotton4.

We now have two left. We can't afford to lose them.

Save the Mills is a blog to track the progress as we work together to #SaveTheMills