Well it's ben a very welcome little dry spell, after a rather moist summer, so we're making the most of it where we can. Garden getting tidied up, walk on the beach last Sunday, fingers crossed for the Deal braderie this Sunday.
It was a bit of a shock, although not entirely unexpected, to see the report on Eastcliff Matters about the Maritime Trust being on the point of closure. What with the threat to the Crampton Tower Museum, that would be a neat removal of each of the town's remaining museums - perhaps we should start bets on which will suffer the first fire, presumably just after the first attempt at change of use planning permission? All I know is what I've read on the blogs and in the local papers, so no searing insights, but not providing management accounts for three years seems like a financial crisis determined to happen (which appears to be the case for the Maritime Trust). Even so, there is absolutely no sense that the council cares, understands or feels it needs any museum provision as part of an overall tourism strategy.
And I suggest keeping a close eye on the local and national auction houses (and eBay) for the next few months - closed museums are easy prey, whether for opportunist thieves, culturally negligent local authorities or hard-pressed management, although of course I'm sure all the local heritage is perfectly safe and secure for the time being (he said, somewhat optimistically).
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