I was over at John Buxtons yesterday to pick up some C.D.G. stuff. Whilst there He showed Me some old caving books that He had, and pointed out that the odd looking gear worn by Him in one photo. was some of the first cave diving kit ever made, and that it was gathering dust in His shed. I remarked that what caving needed was a proper Museum to keep, and show this historic stuff.
Later I got to thinking , this might not be such a bad idea. Obviously, a whole building would be a bit impractical, and no doubt its location, wherever that was would bound to be a bone of contention with someone or other, but, I ask You all, is this something worthy of consideration.
Most of the 20th Century's early pioneers are gone, and those that are left wont be around for too much longer. Should their legacy be reduced to so much "old crap that needs to be taken to the local council tip", by those who neither know what it is or even care ?.

I don't know, maybe the B.C.A. should approach a local museum in or near a caving region with a view to getting some small area to display the History of, and the innovation associated with Our sport.

Have you been to Wells Museum, Wookey Hole Museum and Gough's Cave Museums? - there's plenty of caving stuff in all of them. Then again there's loads of caving museums elsewhere.... White Scar, Dan-yr-Ogof etc..

Where would a National museum be sited? - given caving's track record, the debate would last at least three decades before there was a NCM; given another three decades and the name would probably be changed to BCM. 

I remember seeing a caving area in the Craven Museum at Skipton - I don't know whether it was temporary, or a permanent exhibit.

Given there's only about 5,000 cavers out of a national population of 50,000,000+, who's going to keep this proposed facility economically viable? - surely you'd be lucky to get 500 visitors a year, if that. For one year only.

If it sells ice cream in the shop, I'd visit it.

Attend Hidden Earth and raise these issues.  there was a session last year on preserving our caving heritage including old photos logs equipment etc etc.  finding premises, storage space were all discussed and all the issues such as where to site said museum were aired. No conclusions!  In France they have museums dedicated to cavers such as the Norbert Casteret museum which I seem to recall passing when I visited Fontaine de Vaucluse some years ago.

See page 34 of the current issue of Descent (200).

I remember a few years back Bob Leakey called a meeting (at the Friends Meeting House, i.e. the quaker building) in Settle. He had some ideas along similar lines. There were several switched on people (including various BCRA representatives) at the meeting and the concensus at the time was that what was being asked for was probably not viable, for various reasons.

This is a great pity because the principle is good. Also, if there were to be a repository for such material, it makes it easy for executors of wills to donate stuff rather than skip it, so more of this material of historical value would be retained.

Perhaps it might help if a simple repository could be set up, as opposed to a more expensive museum facility, so that parts of the collection could be safely housed and then just displayed temporarily at "proper" venues, as appropriate (maybe in exchange for donations tio help run the repository)? It'd be nice to think that the caving world could do something along these lines. I guess in the end it comes down to cost. Or are there any cavers who might have large premises with room to house this material on at least a medium term basis? That would at least be better than it going in a landfill!

A national repository is probably the best way forward. The idea behind posing this question was really only to stimulate (intelligent) debate.  As I said, wherever it was situated, someone or other wouldn't like it. But You are right Pitlamp, better stored away, and brought out once in a while, than rotting at the bottom of some landfill somewhere.

Dave Judson has pushing a similar idea for years. The problem is simply one of economics.

graham said:

Dave Judson has pushing a similar idea for years. The problem is simply one of economics.

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I never , for one minute suspected it would be anything else.

The Rheged Centre might be interested. That would be a good location.

Cave Mapper said:

The Rheged Centre might be interested. That would be a good location.

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Would that be the same Rheged Centre that has just closed its mountaineering exhibition due to lack of funding?

Cash crisis axes mountain exhibit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/7169264.stm

Rheged has been unable to find ?250,000 needed to keep it going. "Running museums and exhibitions is always going to be commercially challenging and the brutal reality is that we desperately needed to refresh the exhibition."

Exhibition items, many of which are owned by the Mountain Heritage Trust, are to be returned.

Hmm... Just googled Mountain Heritage Trust:

The key role of the Mountain Heritage Trust (MHT) is to ensure that Britain's unique and fascinating heritage, artefacts, history, traditions and records of the people connected with its mountainous areas are conserved, documented, made accessible and, most importantly, communicated to as wide an audience as possible.

"mountainous areas" -  Could that include caving regions?

martinr said:

"mountainous areas" -  Could that include caving regions?

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Possibly, or there again, possibly not.  :-\

I bet it might if BCA could offer to contribute a bit financially. It could be a mutually beneficial arrangement.

martinr said:

"Running museums and exhibitions is always going to be commercially challenging"

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i.e. running museums and exhibitions is always going to be commercially suicidal.

Pitlamp said:

I bet it might if BCA could offer to contribute a bit financially. It could be a mutually beneficial arrangement.

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Nice idea but BCA has nowhere near the resources needed to contribute meaningfully to something like this, as I'm sure the treasurer would agree.

. . . in which case run a simple repository, at a fraction of the cost.

A shed in someone's garden.

Back to the beginning, then.