The engine at Beamish is testimony to the pettiness or incompetence of those in charge of Regional Museum Store. Men that formed the Doxford Engine Friends Association to support and work on the engine, voluntarily, are now not allowed on site. These were all highly experienced Doxford engineers who have already donated massive amounts of their own time to restore the engine. It has taken a few of the dedicated DEFA team a while, but with the outstanding help of Sunderland Maritime Heritage, a wooden replica was made and taken to Beamish, but the management there will not allow it to be fitted. If they were demonstrating the skill of making toffee apples or some other quaint practice, there would be no shortage of enthusiasm from the management. The funding for the whole Doxford engine was to preserve it and make it available fro the public to view and it is a scandal that the museums between them are refusing to cooperate with each other and allow the engine to be worked on. Perhaps the funding should be returned.
It's similar In T&W Archives. If you are seeking family tree information, they will bend over backwards. Once you express an interest in shipbuilding and Marine engineering, it sends shivers down the spines of the search room staff whose default mode is to switch off and offer the least amount of help, primarily because they haven't got a clue about it and don't want to know. I used to visit there regularly in years gone by but wouldn't dream of going there now. I have encountered some appalling responses from the staff there.
Sunderland Museum and local studies are no better. I salvaged two large van loads of Doxford material from Kincaids when, after being appointed to supply marine engine parts for Doxford (and other) engines, were themselves closed down. After sorting it and taking some of it to Sunderland Local Studies, I was met with a sarcastic, "Do you know how much Doxford stuff we have downstairs." Resources are extremely limited for archiving masses of material but knowledge and enthusiasm are rarer still.
Outstanding, experienced and professional men who have met regularly at T&W for several years to sort material are now not allowed. When they pass away, there will be no one left that knows or understands the material. it will be useless and disposed of, but if it was a relic from a Roman site it would be regarded with the utmost respect.
It is quite clear that unless we get a dedicated shipbuilding and Marine Engineering museum , we simply will never be able to make the thousands of records, photographs, models and other artefacts that have been donated in good faith, available to the public for whom they were intended. and enquirers in future years will have to rely on hear say and imagination.
The Doxford 760J9 model that was made in Sunderland, by the tool room staff, is now at the discovery museum. It was taken from Sunderland and the discovery have been allowed to keep it. This should be returned to Sunderland, where it belongs. but the otherwise indifferent and uncooperative management would break their necks to prevent its return.The first obstacle they throw in the way is the cost of removing and insuring it for removal. It didn't stop them taking it in the first place.
We ourselves are partly to blame because we don't even raise a whimper to object to the malpractices of museum management.