Smiles and sadness as museum closes its doors

THOUSANDS of people visited the River & Rowing Museum in Henley last weekend before it closed permanently.

More than 2,000 came through its doors last weekend as it gave free entry as part of the nationwide Open Heritage Days.

The museum, which was founded in 1994, announced it would be closing in July following years of financial difficulties.

Since 1998, it has occupied the building at Mill Meadows, which includes six galleries and several public spaces.

However, the cost of maintaining the building proved to be unsustainable, leading to consecutive yearly losses of £1m.

The museum’s trustees have said they are already exploring options for new users and owners for the building.

They are also exploring the future of its four core collections — Henley, River, Rowing and John Piper, which comprises more than 35,000 artefacts.

It is hoped that there might be opportunities for the foundation to support a new, much smaller, museum in Henley in the future.

Dozens of staff members who had worked at the museum over its 30 years reunited at the museum on Sunday and shared memories from its early beginnings.

Among them was Jane Bowen, 69, who was the first paid staff member when she joined in 1994 and became head of curatorial services.

She said: “There were two of us and we started in one room overlooking the river in Mill Meadows. We were there for three months before moving behind a betting shop in Station Road.

“Where the museum is now was just a patch of scrubby land. We saw the building going up while we were creating the collection.”

Alicia Gurney, 50, also joined the museum in 1994 after completing a master’s at Reading University.

She said: “This was my first job, so it was a big deal. I was really interested in local history and I would walk around for lunch on the same streets that we were displaying and talking about the history of.

“I would wander around with copies of the photographs and it was just so fascinating to connect all of those pieces together.

“I felt incredibly privileged to be a part of that and be a part of history and to have met all of the people that I met while working here.

“We were telling the story of the history of Henley but actually, being part of this, we’re now part of that story.”

Maddy Farmer, a tutor in the museum’s education programme, will stay on as part of its continuing education provision with local schools.

She said: “It feels very surreal, it’s like the whole of your working life flashing before your eyes because so many people from the past have come back today.

“Strangely we’ve still got schools in next week, even though it’s closing to the public. It’s odd, because it’s finishing but it’s not finishing. We are continuing with museum education. We’ve got some ideas and we’re looking forward to moving forward in a slightly different way but still welcoming all the schools that are wanting to come.”

Nick and Sally Barron have been bringing their children, Peter, nine, and Anna, 10, to the museum since they were about two years old.

Mr Barron said: “We’ve just taken another picture of them in the caravan downstairs and we have lots of pictures of them at different ages of them in the caravan.

“It’s a lovely museum and it’s a shame. I don’t know what will happen to everything but hopefully it will all find a home somewhere.

“I don’t think we’ve come here a huge amount in recent years, or certainly post-covid, so we weren’t surprised that it is closing.”

Anna said: “I used to try to force my mum to come here every day. My favourite bit is the caravan bit and all of the little holes and bits in the walls.

“I was surprised, I thought everyone would want to come here every single day.”

Georgina McMinn said she bought a membership to the museum after moving to Henley in December.

She said she will miss bringing her son, Casper, in the afternoons.

She said: “I’m really shocked and really sad. My husband didn’t want to come on the last day because he said it was going to make him really sad.

“Today, because it’s the last day, everybody seems to have come out for the last hurrah.

“It’s nice to come and have a last memory but it will be sad to see, in particular all of these amazing creations, it’s going to be a definite loss.

“I’ve got another little boy now and he won’t get to enjoy it so that’s quite sad.”

Members of the Henley Archaeological and Historical Group answered questions for visitors.

Dr Michael Redley, who chairs the group, said he was gathering feedback about the potential for a future home for the contents of the Henley gallery.

He said: “Our hope is that with the help of the town council and the trustees of the museum something can emerge from the present crisis. It is also the opportunity for a new start.

“It’s so important that a town like Henley has a local history museum, a heritage centre of some kind because it just gives everybody in the town a sort of sense of where the whole thing has come from and a sense of its own past.

“A new museum must know its audience and it must be sensitive to the changes in that as well.

“One of the things looking at galleries is that they adopt a purpose of approach to turning their material over, so there is always something new for people to see.

“You need to think about how to refresh it all the time and make sure that people have got something new to look at and you need museum space that is flexible to be able to do that.”

Interim director Kevin Sandhu, who took over in February, said: “It has been great to see the place so busy. I have slightly mixed feelings to see all of the people so interested.

“You can sense the energy and you can’t help but think, had this not been going on for a lot longer, maybe there would have been a different outcome but I suppose we’ve moved past that now.

“It’s bittersweet. There’s slight sadness of the situation, obviously, as after this there are impacts on volunteers and people who work here but, at the same time, we want to celebrate it.

“We are still continuing as an organisation so I don’t want to take away the focus on today, which is very much about the community coming together for one final time with the ex-employees as well.

“From my perspective, I am still focused on the future. The education programme continues next week, although we’re closed to the public.

“We don’t quite know yet exactly where we could host them but we are exploring other venues in Henley and the surrounding area.”