Saving Red House Museum
For the benefit of people who are unfamiliar with this Museum, I will elucidate.
The Red House was built in 1660, by the Taylor family and is a Listed Building. Among it’s famous visitors were Charlotte Bronte, and the preachers Charles and John Wesley. Charlotte Bronte was a friend of Mary Taylor and the house appears as ‘Briarmains’ in her novel ‘Shirley‘.
The house is currently furnished in the manner that it would have been at the time of the Brontes. The lovely garden is in keeping with the style of the 19th century.
It is a museum, with exhibitions, and talks in the outbuildings. These are often craft related, and a craft bee meets there monthly. School parties make educational visits. So it is a valuable award-winning asset to our area, and has 30,000 visitors a year, from all over the world.
So why am I writing about this today? Because the Council , who are the present owners, have proposed that it be closed and sold as part of their cost-cutting requirements.
When I was at the Craft Bee last week we all made or feelings known, by submitting comment forms to the counil. Letters have been written to the local newspaper, who are excellent at getting behind threats such as this.
We cannot lose this valuable resouce. The council must be persuaded to make cuts elsewhere.
For now, I don’t know what else we can do. Obviously I shall contribute to anything which might help the campaign. Any comments, or news about efforts to pesuade the Council are most welcome.
Later…
Thanks to the comment below I can give you the link to an ipetition –
Silkystitch 