Re: VMs: Museum of Witchcraft...

[Clay Holden <cholden@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/19/04 7:37 AM, "Nick Pelling" <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> I've mentioned the place on-list before, but the Museum of Witchcraft -
> located right by Boscastle Harbour - has unfortunately been badly hit by
> the recent flash floods in Cornwall (though thankfully the library and
> archive (upstairs) were both spared). It has long been one of my
> must-visit-there-sometime destinations (keeping one Voynichese eye open,
> naturally), and I hope it reopens soon:-
> http://www.museumofwitchcraft.com/
> 
> A Radio4 interview with its owner, Graham King, who is also a coastguard:-
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_witch_20040818.ram
> 
> Fingers crossed the protection amulets all worked OK, and the damage is
> only superficial. :-)
> 
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the post. While some might find it off-topic for the Voynich
list, I think one thing we all share in common here is an interest in the
preservation of historical documents.

As a follow-up, here is a slightly edited email from another e-list I
subscribe to, forwarded with permission of the original sender, from an
individual who is close to the Museum. As mentioned in the letter, any
donations to help them rebuild and recover from this disaster would be very
welcome.

Clay

-------------------

> Message du 18/08/04 13:55
> De : "Dave Evans" [...]
> A : marco.pasi[...]
> Objet : Re: Museum flood
>
> Hi Marco
>
> It seems that the media reportage only gives a hint as to how bad things are
> in the village. I have spoken on the phone (yesterday) to Graham, who is
> understandably in great shock. He is also still working as a coastguard in
> the disaster, saving people being a priority, but in any case they are not
> allowed back into the building until structural engineers have surveyed the
> village and declared it safe, since some buildings collapsed in the flood
> (some due to being hit by 'bundles' of cars carried down the street at speed
> by the torrents of water); i believe you stayed in The Riverside Hotel when
> you visited? That has been severely hit, as have the pubs and restaurants in
> the main street. The bridge in the village centre has been damaged and may
> need to be demolished and rebuilt.
>
> It seems at this juncture that the lower floor of the museum has been
> flooded almost to ceiling height, with considerable quantities of mud being
> left behind, and damaging or destroying much of what was housed there, and
> since the windows were blown out by the force of the water, some items will
> have been washed out to sea; the force of the water took many cars into the
> harbour, so the chances of finding small exhibits if they were washed out of
> the premises are very slim.
>
> But the upstairs exhibits and the library are safe (phew). Thankfully it
> seems the worst injury in the entire village was a fractured hand, with no
> deaths, which given the massive property damage is miraculous.
> Reconstruction of the entire community will take many months, and the
> village is closed to visitors for now (the roads are washed away too, which
> is hampering assistance apart from off-road military vehicles, and full
> electricity, water and sanitation are not yet restored, with many homeless,
> so visitors right now would be a hindrance). In the longer term, much
> financial, technical and practical assistance in cleaning up, restoring the
> walls, redecorating,  rebuilding display cases, conserving damaged items etc
> will be needed. I'm going to go over to help as soon as i am asked (i live
> fifty miles away, 80 kilometres i think?)
>
> There is an online donation page (on right hand side of the page) at
> http://www.witchcraft.org/ please spread the word to anyone who might wish
> to contribute
>
> The museum website is still online (and has latest news), since the server
> is housed in another town, and the person running the post-flood assistance
> is Adrian Bryn-Evans, who i have copied this email too. The museum phone may
> ring if you dial them, but no-one is yet allowed into the building; messages
> to Graham can be sent via Adrian for the time being.
>
> Best wishes
> dave
>

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