Dear Sir,

We, The faithful Durhams, would appreciate it if you would print this reply to Cllr. John D. Clare’s Twitter comments referring to the DLI Museum as a “rotten, unvisited concrete box”.

Well, this “Concrete Box” is surrounded by veterans ashes, as well as other members of the public.

This “Concrete Box” was home to some very historical, emotive, important, sentimental items, one of which was Adam Wakenshaws Gun.

Yes, Cllr Clare, have you heard of him? He was the man who saved many lives whilst being critically injured himself and died at that gun!

What about the Victoria Crosses? This “Concrete Box” was home to them for a very long time.

The building was well visited, was enjoyed both inside and out by the public, and was never, never advertised correctly by DCC.

The closure of the Museum was done very disrespectfully both by DCC and The Trustees of the Museum and the fight still goes on to have the Collection displayed in the correct manner, back under one roof, and not spread around the County.

Cllr. Clare, you should be ashamed of yourself and your council should be ashamed that one of its employees would stoop to this sort of disrespectful talk . . . and you a history teacher?

The DLI Collection needs to be back together, not shown in corners of libraries; not having to book appointments to view; not having to join libraries to see medals and not have to know what you want to see.

The whole idea of bringing the collection to the public goes out of the window straight away when the public cannot view their history when they want to.

 

Reply from Cllr John D. Clare

Actually, I care very much about the DLI and its legacy. Not only do many residents have precious family ties to the DLI, the regiment is in absolute terms an integral part of the heritage of County Durham.

THE BUILDING OR THE MUSEUM

Until recently, that heritage was preserved in a museum at Aykley Heads. My point has always been that the ‘Museum’ was never the building, but was the fantastic collection and the excellent museum officers.

By 2015, moreover, the building was beginning to let the Museum down. Footfall was less than hoped and, to be honest, many residents of County Durham would have struggled to tell you how to get there. In terms of maintenance, the building was beginning to show its age and, particularly, the storage facilities were dated, and failing to preserve the collection in the way we would have wished.

THE RESCUE PLAN

Therefore, in 2015, the Trustees of the Museum, together with Durham County Council and the Ogilby Trust (the body which oversees all Army Museums in the UK), formulated a plan to revitalise the DLI Museum. By that plan:

• The Museum grounds, where the ashes of a number of former DLI soldiers are scattered, will always be preserved as a place of memorial and respect.

• The display (currently ‘Courage, Comrades, Community’) was moved to a new location in the Library on Palace Green in Durham City, where it is accessible to the half-a-million visitors who go there every year. Last week, a second display (‘When the Bugle Calls’) was opened in Bishop Auckland Town Hall, and will be there until 16 March.

• The rest of the collection was relocated, for people to research and study, to Sevenhills in Spennymoor, where a great deal of money has been spent to preserve it properly.

• The system of outreach workshops was developed (and indeed the Aycliffe County Councillors have offered to pay for any community group in Aycliffe which wishes to book a presentation).

I was not personally part of the group which formulated the rescue plan, but I agree that it preserves and presents the DLI collection far better than previously.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE DLI MUSEUM

I appreciate that some people are still very angry about these decisions. However, whilst I thank the Newton News for allowing me to reply to this letter, I would point out that this debate all happened in 2015/16, and that the former museum building has now closed for ever. I would therefore encourage people to get behind the Museum in its new form, to visit the displays at Palace Green and Bishop Auckland and – if they are connected to a community group – to contact me with a view to organising a presentation to their group by Museum officers.

I value the DLI as an historian, but as a former teacher I would wish many more people to know and learn about it.

John D Clare

As sent to the Editor of the Newton News. If you have a story that we may be interested in, please send to syd@newtonnews.co.uk