By Gerrard Rootes,
Barnet Council closed Church Farmhouse Museum in 2011. The closure of the
Museum had nothing to do with the cuts imposed by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition
government. Barnet proposed reducing the Museum’s staffing and opening hours
(which would have made it unviable) when Mike Freer was still Leader of the
Council.
The government’s- admittedly appalling- cuts were simply cited in an
attempt to justify something the local Tories had wanted to do for years-
though, naturally, no mention was made of it in their last manifesto. Protests
against the closure were made by staff, the Friends of the Museum, visitors
young and old, local societies, national museum and heritage organizations,
trade unions, and the general public, both within and without the Borough. The
results of a ludicrously brief ‘public consultation’ (held over the Christmas
holidays!) showed that virtually all respondents wanted to keep the Museum. A
petition against the closure was signed by people, from all over the country,
with an understanding of the importance of history. A proposal by local
societies to form a trust to run the Museum was given little encouragement.
Labour and Lib Dem councillors proposed motions against the closure, but,
despite the reservations privately expressed by some Tory councillors, their
consciences proved robust enough to allow them to vote with the leadership and
the Museum was shut.
Video of Gerrard Roots on the day of the closure of Church Farm Museum
The savings made by shutting Church Farm have been paltry (even given the
inflated and inaccurate figures of running costs issued by Barnet last year).
Barnet’s hopes of making a quick buck out of selling a Grade II* Listed 17th
century building in the middle of a conservation area have proved illusory (as
anyone outside the intellectual wasteland of Barnet’s Cabinet could have
foreseen). Nevertheless, Barnet decided that the Museum collection must be
disposed of. Some(mainly local) material was kept for the Borough’s Local
Studies Collection, some given to other museums (including Barnet Museum, itself
under threat), and the rest sent to auction. In response to protests about the
sale Cllr Robert Rams made a bad situation (of his own creation) even worse by
announcing that those who had given objects to Church Farm could claim them
back: confusion was compounded. The material sold was not ‘of no value’ or mere
‘decoration’, as those distinguished social historians Cllrs Cornelius and Rams
opined, but an interesting collection on the history of domestic life, built up
over many years, which illuminated the story of Church Farm and, which, in turn
was enhanced by being displayed in the most important historic building in its
area. The building was always the Museum’s most important exhibit. Frankly, it
makes no difference whether the collection was sold or given away to other
institutions. The essential thing, for Rams and his chums, was that the
collection should be dispersed in such a way that no future administration- or
any other outside organization- could reunite it with the building. Barnet’s
barbarians would rather keep Church Farm empty and rotting (at a cost of more
than £2500.00 a month) than reinstate a much-loved institution, which over the
years gave pleasure and instruction to hundreds of thousands of visitors. The
empty building now, whether their conceit allows them to see it or not, stands
as monument to the philistinism and incompetence of Barnet’s
Conservatives.
A plan decided in advance, but not announced in any manifesto. A plan
claimed to be a necessary response to cuts in government funding, but in reality
the product of a market-obsessed ideology. A plan opposed by most of those whom
it will affect. A plan to which there are reasonable alternatives, all ignored.
A plan that even its proponents, at the eleventh hour, seem uncertain of how
to implement. A plan designed to make it virtually impossible for any future,
more enlightened administration to significantly change. It sounds familiar.
With One Barnet, the Tories are about to do to the whole Borough what they did
with Church Farm: ruin it. There was a chance, on 6 November, to have stopped
the One Barnet juggernaut, had all councillors supported the Labour motion of no
confidence in the Conservative administration. Those rank-and-file Tories who
couldn’t bring themselves to oppose the closure of Church Farm out of
conscience, might have voted against One Barnet out of sheer self-interest, as,
under One Barnet, those councillors outside the Cabinet will have even less
influence than they do now. They might have, but, of course, they didn’t. (Even
Cllr Brian Coleman, who recently published an- admittedly, barely coherent-
attack on One Barnet, merely abstained.) Now, all the rest of us in Barnet must
again suffer the consequences.
Gerrard Roots
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Born in Ebbw Vale in 1952, Gerrard attended the universities of Cambridge and
Exeter, and William & Mary College in Virginia USA. After working at Exeter
Museum, Gerrard was Curator of Church Farmhouse Museum from 1979 until its closure in
March 2011. He is married with two children, and live in Hendon.
Guest blogs are always welcome at the Barnet Eye
