Ramsgate Maritime Museum is now open

If you are wondering what to do on this rather dismal bank holiday, the maritime museum is now open and well worth a visit, entrance is free.

Looking out for banana skins with this one, I think there may be some problems relating to the amount of time heritage vessels can remain on the heritage pontoon, I think the council have restricted this to two weeks, which may mean that some of the ones run by volunteers may find this time frame difficult.

On the same track I gather The New Britannic that was being restored there has been effectively evicted by the council and at Richborough at the moment, which is a very difficult place to continue the restoration.

There is also considerable restriction on the number of events that the museum can hold this year, although this is combined with the limitation of what they could hold given the time frame.

I think the trust’s decision to open immediately without lots of improvements to the museum is the right one, they also seem to very keen to involve local people, I think if you want to volunteer now is your chance.

Here are a few of the pictures I took yesterday http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/laptop512/id3.htm

Both the mayor of Ramsgate and the soon to elected new mayor of Margate were there.

None of the Conservative councillors in sight and the messages I am getting from the Conservative group seem to be saying that they are still against the lease being signed, strange mutterings about pacts with the devil, the crazy talk of lost parking revenue of £40,000 per year, when the revenue for all the spaces in the car park for the six weekends it is to be used for event couldn’t reach a tenth of this figure.

It makes one wonder if the years of delay were actually due to misplacing the decimal point, what I can’t get from the Conservative group is any sensible reason, in terms of a potential banana skin, so it looks like we have got our museum back at virtually no cost to the council taxpayer.   

More pictures and thoughts to follow on this one, not sure when as I am a bit tied up with the bank holiday weekend.

The Little Ship Sundowner back in the water.

As you can see from the picture Sundowner is back in the water after the disgrace of Dynamo Day see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2010/05/dark-and-dishonourable-day-for-ramsgate.html

With our wonderful open local government of course it will only be a matter moments before the council tell us exactly what happened and why.

Perhaps it will also only be a matter of days before the maritime museum is open and the historic ships returned to The King George IV Maritime Heritage Pontoon.

A few more pictures around the harbour this lunchtime http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/610/id19.htm

A Dark and Dishonourable Day For Ramsgate.

Sundowner’s failure to cross to Dunkirk with the other little ships is nothing short of a national disgrace, a dishonour to the town of Ramsgate and the Dunkirk veterans.

For some time now our local council in Ramsgate has treated our heritage here with what appears to be indifference and now we have reached a situation that is quite unacceptable.

Despite this I really did think there would be some last minute reprieve and she would be allowed to go, well she hasn’t and the council have achieved what Hitler and the Luftwaffe failed to achieve.

When I went down there this morning the crew of volunteers were standing around explaining the situation to people there and frankly it isn’t an easy thing to explain.

I have written to some of the councillors involved and now await some sort of response.

Is Thanet District Council taking up piracy at sea? The sage of Ramsgate Maritime Museum update.

The museum’s artefacts and the vessels Cervia and Sundowner are owned by a charitable trust – The Preston Steam Trust - that already runs another museum.

For the museum to be able to function, obtain the grants necessary to fund it needs security of tenure for the council owned building that houses, “Ramsgate Clock House,” it and my understanding was that the museum wasn’t to open again until that security of tenure was granted by the council.

So I was very pleased when an Isle of Thanet Gazette reporter interviewed a council spokesperson about this and was told that the council were prepared to grant the museum a 25 year lease, this was published in the Gazette three weeks ago.

I was further pleased to hear that the Little Ship “Sundowner” was being prepared to take part in The Operation Dynamo commemorations see http://thanetpress.blogspot.com/2010/05/sundowner-gets-ready.html

Anyway wandering around Ramsgate with my camera I noticed that some of the people restoring The Steam Tug Cervia were onboard, so I mentioned to the how pleased I was to see things finally moving forward.

They were surprised at my comments and pointed out that all was not well, this is one of those only in Thanet stories that one would never have the imagination to make up.

What seems to have happened is that the council, not wishing to face embarrassing questions about why the museum was closed and the Sundowner not taking part in the commemorations, have started to engage in some unusual activities.

The most bizarre of which is taking over the Sundowner without the owner’s permission and preparing her for the commemoration voyage to Dunkirk.

They have also advertised that both the museum will be open over the Operation Dynamo weekend and that The Sundowner will be taking part in the voyage.

My understanding is that this is pretty much the last straw for The Preston Steam Trust and that they will pull out unless the council comes up with a reasonable and workable future for the museum.

This is a strange story and one that I have pieced together as best as I can, so any corrections would be appreciated.

Any of you who aren’t aware of the story so far may wish to read my previous posts about it by clicking on the links below.

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2009/09/ramsgate-maritime-museum-whats-gone.html

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2010/02/ramsgate-maritime-museum-closure-update.html

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2010/04/ramsgate-maritime-museum-will-probably.html