Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. (MRT) Policy Directive

Reference: MUS/1 (9/14)

Subject: Museum Collection Development

For the attention of: All Council Members, The MRT’s Museum Mentor.

For the information of: officers of the Arts Council concerned with museum accreditation. This Directive does not form part of the Safety Management System.

Revision History

Previous versions of this Directive were as follows. Reference 10/09/1 was the initial version.

Reference 9/14/1 replaced it, to reflect the changes that had been made to the external requirements for accredited museums.

This version implemented the revised numbering scheme for directives, but made no other changes to the content.

Content Summary

This Directive contains the following sections: Introduction

Publication and Review of This Policy Aim and Purpose as a Museum

Fundamental Museum Collection Principles History of the Collections

The Museum Collections

Themes and Priorities for Future Collecting

Themes and Priorities for Rationalisation and Disposal

Legal and Ethical Framework for Acquisition and Disposal of Items Collecting Policies of Other Museums

Archival Holdings Acquisitions Exceptions Human Remains

Biological, Geological and Archaeological Material Spoliation

Disposal Procedures Disposal by Exchange Disposal by Destruction

Introduction

1. This Directive specifies the policies governing the museum collection of the MRT, in its capacity as an accredited museum, and in particular governing the acquisition or disposal of items forming part of that collection. As such, it applies to all objects or material that the MRT owns (or to which it intends to acquire legal title) which either have been accessioned as part of its museum collection (as this is defined below), or could be eligible to be so accessioned.

• This Directive is a revision of the MRT’s Policy Directive 10/09/1, and it is made in accordance with clause 51 of that Directive. The scope of that Directive was specifically to set the MRT’s policies for the acquisition and disposal of items that form part of its museum collection. One of the main drivers for this revision is, however, that the Arts Council (who have taken over responsibility for managing the accreditation of museums

from the former Museums Libraries and Archives Council) have extended the scope of the former model acquisitions and disposals policy, so as to become a model collection development policy. Since an accredited museum such as the MRT is required to adhere to this model policy, its corresponding policy therefore also needs to have a similarly extended scope.

• This Directive is therefore based on the template collection development policy (available online at

<http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/FINAL_CDP_Template2014.docx>) which was published by the Arts Council in June 2014, and on the MRT’s Policy Directive 10/09/1, which this Directive replaces. Because this Directive is written for the attention of external organisations as well as officers of the MRT, it includes background material that would not normally be considered necessary for inclusion in a Policy Directive.

• Following this model, many of the provisions of this Directive are expressed in terms of actions that have been taken or will be taken or will not taken by the MRT. In all cases these should be understood as placing obligations on what the Arts Council’s Accreditation Standard for museums and galleries in the United Kingdom (published in October 2011, referred to as the Museum Accreditation Standard from now on, and available online at <http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/pdf/Accreditation_standard_print_friendly.pdf>) defines as the MRT’s “governing body”, namely its Council.

Publication and Review of This Policy

• This Directive, and the Collections Development Policy that it defines, will be published in accordance with the MRT’s normal procedures for publishing policy directives, as set out in its Policy Directive GEN/1. In accordance with the procedures in that Directive it will be reviewed at least once every five years. This Directive and the policy defined in it are therefore next due for review in 2019, unless circumstances should arise that make it appropriate to review it earlier than that.

• The Council will notify Arts Council England of any changes that may be made in future to the Collections Development Policy defined in this Directive, and will notify them of the implications of any such changes for the future of existing collections.

Aim and Purpose as a Museum

• The development of the MRT’s museum collection is based on its aims and objectives as set out in its Memorandum of Association. The historical background to this is that the construction of the Middleton Railway was first proposed in 1755, and the railway was actually established in 1758 by a private act of parliament. It operated commercially thereafter until 1960, when it was threatened with closure, and so a society was set up to attempt to preserve it. This society was successful in its aim, and it became the MRT in 1971, when it was incorporated as a company with limited liability, and shortly thereafter the MRT was also registered as a charity.

• As a consequence of this, a fundamental feature of the Middleton Railway is that it is primarily a transport system of huge historic importance, and supports a museum collection that in principle can cover any part of this system that is of relevant historical interest, rather than just being concerned with some of the objects that the MRT owns. This then means that the MRT’s museum activities are intimately bound up with the fact that the railway is an operating one, so that from a museum perspective the operation of trains on the railway has to be fundamental.

• The MRT’s Memorandum of Association defines a large number of quite general objectives, which include the following five (where some of these have been abbreviated here for clarity):
  • To preserve, maintain, keep in repair and working condition the historic Middleton Colliery Railway, Leeds for the benefit of the public.
  • To establish and maintain for the benefit of the nation a Railway museum and for the like purpose to promote the permanent preservation of railway engines, rolling stock, coaches, trucks and other equipment ... .
  • To exhibit to the public any such engines, vehicles, equipment and items as aforesaid by means of temporary or permanent exhibitions ... .

• To demonstrate and assist in demonstrating to the public the working and operations of any such engines, vehicles, equipment and items ... .
  • To promote and further the study of and research into engines, vehicles and rolling stock and the building and operation thereof ... .

1. Based on these, the principal aim of the MRT’s museum activities can be summarised as being to collect, preserve, interpret, research and display artefacts, archives and associated physical evidence that relate to the history of the Middleton Railway, the site, the founding company and its successor bodies up to and including the MRT, for the benefit of the general public. A second aim that is related to this is that the MRT will also collect, preserve, research and display artefacts, archives and associated material that relate to the history of industrial railway locomotive building in Leeds.

1. These museum aims are therefore expressed in the following “vision statement”, which acts as what the Museum Accreditation Standard describes as the “statement of purpose” for the MRT’s museum activities. This was approved by the MRT Council for inclusion in its museum forward plan on 20th October 2009, and has not needed to be updated subsequently, so that it is as follows. “To keep alive for future generations the world's oldest working railway and the spirit of industrial railways, by preserving, restoring, operating, displaying and interpreting locomotives and rolling stock and related artefacts of the Middleton Railway.”

Fundamental Museum Collection Principles

1. The MRT Council will ensure that both acquisition and disposal of items for or from its museum collection are carried out openly and with transparency.

1. By definition, the MRT has a long-term museum purpose and holds collections in trust for the benefit of the public in relation to its stated objectives. The Council therefore accepts the principle that sound curatorial reasons must be established before consideration is given to any acquisition to the MRT’s collection, or the disposal of any items in the MRT’s collection.

1. Acquisitions outside the policy stated below will only be made in exceptional circumstances, and then only after proper consideration by the MRT Council.

1. The MRT recognises its responsibility, when acquiring additions to its collections, to ensure that care of collections, documentation arrangements and use of collections will meet the requirements of the Museum Accreditation Standard. This includes using SPECTRUM primary procedures for collections management. The MRT will take into account limitations on collecting imposed by such factors as staffing, storage and care of collection arrangements.

1. The MRT will exercise due diligence and will make every effort not to acquire, whether by purchase, gift, bequest or exchange, any object or specimen unless the Council or a responsible officer appointed by the Council is satisfied that the MRT can acquire a valid title to the item in question.

1. Disposal of an item in the MRT’s collection should normally only be motivated by curatorial reasons.

1. In exceptional cases, the disposal of an item in the MRT’s collection may be motivated principally by financial reasons. In such cases, the method of disposal will therefore be by sale and the procedures defined below will be followed. In cases where disposal is motivated by financial reasons, the Council will not undertake disposal unless it can be demonstrated that all the following exceptional circumstances are met in full:
   1. the disposal will significantly improve the long-term public benefit derived from the remaining collection;
   1. the disposal will not be undertaken to generate short-term revenue (for example to meet a budget deficit);
   1. the disposal will be undertaken as a last resort after other sources of funding have been thoroughly explored;
   1. extensive prior consultation with other relevant bodies, including the Heritage Railway Association, has been undertaken; and
   1. the item under consideration lies outside the MRT’s established core collection, as defined in clause 25 below.

History of the Collections

1. Prior to the registration of the MRT as a museum in 2003, constraints on both finance and available storage space meant that items in its collection had been acquired either on the basis of their utility for an operating railway, or because they were available (either cheaply or freely, often as an alternative to them being scrapped) and were not so bulky as to create problems with storage. In preparing for museum registration, however, the early versions of this policy were developed, so as to help in organising the sets of objects that had been acquired.

• Following registration as a museum, the other major development affecting the collection was the re- development of the MRT’s Moor Road site during 2005, with the aid of a substantial grant from the heritage Lottery Fund, and in particular the construction of the “Engine House” building. This was completed in 2006, and for the first time provided the MRT with the facilities to display and interpret its collection properly. Subsequently, efforts have been directed primarily at displaying, cataloguing and interpreting the collection.

• As a consequence of this process, there has been some development of the collection, notably by securing grants to acquire significant locomotives (one which had not previously been part of the collection, and others that were already on loan), and by the donation of a locomotive that was already on loan. There has also been some rationalisation of the collection, in the form of the sale of two locomotives to other owners who were guaranteeing to provide them with a better long-term future than the MRT could foresee that it would be able to do.

The Museum Collections

• A railway is fundamentally a complex organisation, and while the MRT has a museum collection this does not automatically mean that every object owned by the MRT forms part of this museum collection. This collection therefore consists of those objects or archives that fall within the four categories described in clauses 23 and 24 below. These categories are treated as forming four separate collections.

• The first category reflects the principal aim and purpose, and it forms the Middleton Collection. This covers items that have some direct connection with the historic period of the Middleton Railway from 1755 to 1960 (ie when it was preserved), and particularly the following kinds of items:
  • Rolling Stock: any vehicles which operated on the railway during this historic period;
  • Track & Infrastructure: stone sleepers, rails, or other artefacts from the historic railway;
  • Equipment: machinery, or tools etc that were used on the railway during this historic period;
  • Ephemera and Small Objects: other material or objects relating to the railway, or to other industries that were directly connected with the railway, during this historic period; and
  • Archives: documents or other archive material relating to the railway, both during this historic period and also from the period subsequent to preservation in 1960.

• The other categories reflect the second aim and purpose, and form three collections, all focusing mainly but not exclusively on locomotives and other rolling stock. These three collections are:
  • The Leeds Industrial Locomotive Building Industry Collection, which focuses on industrial locomotives that were built in Leeds, and on the industry that built them, and also on other items of railway rolling stock that were built in Leeds (including rail-mounted cranes), and on the industry that built them;
  • The UK Industrial Railways Collection, which covers other industrial locomotives that were built in the UK, and the industry that built them, and also on other items of industrial railway rolling stock, and on the industry that built them; and
  • The General Railway Collection, which covers industrial locomotives from outside the UK, and the industry that built them, and also other railway artefacts that have some specific connection with the Leeds area. In particular, the UK Industrial Railways Collection and the General Railway Collection recognise that some locomotives and other items of rolling stock which were obtained by the MRT during the early years of the preservation society have now been connected with the Middleton Railway for a majority of their history.

• The Middleton Collection and the Leeds Industrial Locomotive Building Industry Collection together constitute what is described as the “core collection” in clause 18(v) above.

• While the three collections described in clause 24 above focus mainly on locomotives and other rolling stock, they may also include other kinds of items, namely Equipment, Ephemera and Small Objects, and Archives.

• For locomotives and other items of railway rolling stock that may be included in the collections as these are defined in clauses 23 and 24 above, there are fundamental tensions between the MRT’s role as an operating railway and the scope of its museum activities. This is because the role as an operating railway emphasises the importance of operating locomotives and rolling stock, with the consequent wear and tear and the resultant needs for maintenance work to remedy this, while the scope of its museum activities emphasises the importance of keeping items in the collections in the best possible condition, and hence minimising the risks of any wear and tear and minimising the need to do anything that would affect the condition of those items. The approach that the MRT takes to resolving these tensions is to regard those collections that may contain locomotives or other items of railway rolling stock as consisting of two distinct parts, as follows.
  • One part is the accessioned collection, which contains those items that have been formally accessioned as part of the MRT’s museum collection.
  • The other part is the indexed collection, which contains those items that have been deposited with the MRT and catalogued and that could be eligible for accessioning, but that have not been so accessioned because they are being treated as part of the operating railway.

• Because of the importance of this distinction between the indexed and accessioned collections for items of rolling stock, all decisions about the accessioning into the collection of locomotives or other items of railway rolling stock must be made by the Council. Beyond that, this collections development policy will apply uniformly to both the accessioned collections and the indexed collections, whereas policies related to other aspects of the MRT’s museum activities may make distinctions between these two sets of collections.

• In addition to the above collections, there are two other categories of items that may be in the ownership of the MRT, as follows.
  • One category consists of locomotives or other items of railway rolling stock, and other items of operating railway equipment such as workshop machinery or maintenance tools, which are treated purely as part of the operating railway and so would not be considered as eligible for accessioning into any of the collections.
  • The other category consists of a small number of items that have been acquired or made for display for educational purposes, which form what is sometimes described as a handling collection.

This collections development policy will not apply to items in either of these two categories.

Themes and Priorities for Future Collecting

• The scope for any future collecting of locomotives or other items of rolling is significantly constrained by limitations on siding space, so that while there are some such items that could be regarded as desirable should they become available, it is not realistic to formally prioritise them for the purposes of this policy.

• The highest priority for any future collecting is therefore objects, ephemera and archives that relate to the site, history and use of the Middleton Railway.

• The next priority for any future collecting is objects, ephemera and archives that relate to the history of industrial railway locomotive building in Leeds.

• The other priority for any future collecting is objects, ephemera and archives that relate to the history of industrial railways in the UK.

Themes and Priorities for Rationalisation and Disposal

• The MRT recognises that the principles on which priorities for rationalisation and disposal are determined will be through a formal review process that identifies which collections are included and excluded from the review, as was operated in the course of the rationalisation that is referred to in clause 21 above. The outcome of any such review and any subsequent rationalisation will not reduce the quality or significance of the collection and will result in a more useable, well managed collection.

• The procedures used for any such process of review and rationalisation will meet professional standards. The process will be documented, open and transparent. There will be clear communication with key stakeholders about the outcomes and the process.

Legal and Ethical Framework for Acquisition and Disposal of Items

• The MRT recognises its responsibility to work within the parameters of the Museum Association Code of Ethics when considering acquisition and disposal.

Collecting Policies of Other Museums

• The MRT will take account of the collecting policies of other museums and other organisations collecting in the same or related areas or subject fields. Specifically, the MRT is aware of the collecting activities of other museums within its area that have interests in industrial railways, and in particular:
  • the Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills, Leeds;
  • the Yorkshire Dales Railway Museum at Embsay, near Skipton;
  • the Elsecar Heritage Railway at Elsecar, near Barnsley; and
  • the National Railway Museum at York.

It will consult with these organisations where conflicts of interest may arise or to define areas of specialism, in order to avoid unnecessary duplication and waste of resources.

Archival Holdings

• As the MRT holds some archives, including photographs and printed ephemera, its Council will be guided in the management of these by the Code of Practice on Archives for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom (3rd edition, 2002, available online at <http://www.archivesandmuseums.org.uk/scam/code.pdf>).

• Since the MRT has limited facilities for the proper long-term storage of archive material, it will in general arrange for such material to be digitised so that access to it can be provided readily, and will then arrange for the original material to be deposited with the appropriate local government archives.

Acquisitions

• Because of the potential financial implications, all decisions about the acquisition of items for any of the museum collections must be made by the Council. For the acquisition of any item of railway rolling stock the procedures defined in MRT’s policy directive FIN/3 (on the acquisition, disposal and hiring of rolling stock) must also be observed in full.

• The MRT will not acquire any object or specimen unless it is satisfied that the object or specimen has not been acquired in, or exported from, its country of origin (or any intermediate country in which it may have been legally owned) in violation of that country’s laws. (For the purposes of this clause “country of origin” includes the United Kingdom).

• In accordance with the provisions of the UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which the UK ratified with

effect from November 1 2002, and the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003, the MRT will reject any items that have been illicitly traded. The MRT Council will be guided in this by the national guidance on the responsible acquisition of cultural property issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2005.

Exceptions

• Any exceptions to clauses 41 or 42 will only be because the MRT is either:
  • acting as an externally approved repository of last resort for material of local (UK) origin; or
  • acting with the permission of authorities with the requisite jurisdiction in the country of origin.

In these cases the MRT will be open and transparent in the way it makes decisions and will act only with the express consent of an appropriate outside authority. The MRT will document when these exceptions occur.

Human Remains

• The MRT does not hold and will not acquire any human remains.

Biological, Geological and Archaeological Material

• The MRT does not hold and will not acquire any biological, geological or archaeological material.

Spoliation

• Where applicable the MRT will use the statement of principles “Spoliation of Works of Art during the Nazi, Holocaust and World War II period”, issued for non-national museums in 1999 by the Museums and Galleries Commission.

Disposal Procedures

• If any item in the MRT’s collection is to be considered for disposal, the Council will ensure that the disposal process is carried out openly and with transparency. Because of the potential financial implications, all decisions about the disposal of any items from any of the museum collections must be made by the Council.

• When disposal of a museum object is being considered, the Council must ensure and confirm that it is legally free to dispose of that item and that any agreements on disposal made with donors will be taken into account. In particular, the Council must establish if the item was acquired with the aid of an external funding organisation, and in such cases, any conditions attached to the original grant will be followed, which may include repayment of the original grant, and payment of a proportion of the proceeds if the item is disposed of by sale.

• All disposals will be undertaken with reference to the SPECTRUM Primary Procedures on disposal, and in accordance with the MRT’s implementation of these proper arrangements will be made for the preservation and/or transfer, as appropriate, of the documentation relating to the items concerned, including photographic records where practicable. Also, for the disposal of any item of railway rolling stock the procedures defined in the MRT’s policy directive 1/05/1 (on the acquisition, disposal and hiring of rolling stock) must also be observed in full.

• When disposal is motivated by curatorial reasons the procedures outlined in clauses 51 to 69 below will be followed and the method of disposal may be by gift, sale, exchange or, as a last resort, destruction.

• The decision to dispose of material from the collections will be taken by the Council only after full consideration of the reasons for disposal. Other factors including the public benefit, the implications for the museum’s collections and collections held by museums and other organisations collecting the same material or in related fields will be considered. External expert advice will be obtained and the views of stakeholders such as donors, researchers, local and source communities and others served by the museum will also be sought.

• A decision to dispose of a specimen or object, whether by gift, exchange, sale or destruction (in the case of an item too badly damaged or deteriorated to be of any use for the purposes of the collections or for reasons of health and safety), will be the responsibility of the whole Council acting on the advice of its professional museum mentor, and not of any individual officer of the MRT acting alone.

• Once a decision to dispose of material in the collection has been taken, priority will be given to retaining it within the public domain, unless it is to be destroyed. It will therefore be offered in the first instance, by gift or sale, directly to other Accredited Museums likely to be interested in its acquisition.

• If the material is not acquired by any Accredited Museums to which it was offered directly as a gift or for sale, then the museum community at large will be advised of the intention to dispose of the material, normally through a notice on the Museums Association’s “Find an Object” web listing service, an announcement in the Museums Association’s Museums Journal and in other specialist publications and websites as appropriate.

• Any announcement relating to gift or sale will indicate the number and nature of specimens or objects involved, and the basis on which the material will be transferred to another institution. In considering responses to an announcement relating to the gift or sale of an item, the Council will give preference to expressions of interest from other Accredited Museums. A period of at least two months will be allowed for an interest in acquiring the material to be expressed.

• At the end of this period, if no expressions of interest have been received in response from the museum community, then members of the Heritage Railway Association will be advised of the intention to dispose of the material, normally through an announcement in their publication “Sidelines”. Again, the announcement relating to gift or sale will indicate the number and nature of specimens or objects involved, and the basis on which the material will be transferred to another heritage railway.

• A further period of at least two months will be allowed for an interest in acquiring the material to be expressed by any heritage railway, but if at the end of this period no expressions of interest have been received in response from any heritage railway then the MRT may consider disposing of the material to other interested individuals and organisations, giving priority to organisations in the public domain.

• Any monies received by the MRT from the disposal of items from its collection will be applied by the Council for the benefit of the collections. This will normally mean the purchase of further acquisitions. In exceptional cases, improvements relating to the care of collections in order to meet or exceed accreditation requirements relating to the risk of damage to and deterioration of the collections may be justifiable. Any monies received in compensation for the damage, loss or destruction of items will be applied in the same way. Advice on those cases where the monies are intended to be used for the care of collections will be sought from the Arts Council England.

• The proceeds of any sale of an item from the MRT’s collection will therefore be treated as a restricted fund, so that it can be demonstrated that these proceeds will be spent in a manner compatible with the requirements of the Museum Accreditation Standard. Such proceeds must be restricted to the long-term sustainability, use and development of the collection.

Disposal by Exchange

• The nature of disposal by exchange means that the MRT will not necessarily be in a position to exchange the material with another accredited museum. For any such disposal, the Council will therefore ensure that issues relating to accountability and impartiality are carefully considered to avoid undue influence on its decision- making process.

• In cases where the Council wishes for sound curatorial reasons to exchange material directly with accredited or non-accredited museums, with other organisations or with individuals, the procedures in clauses 47 to 51 above must be followed, as must the procedures in clauses 62 to 64 below.

• If the exchange is proposed to be made with a specific accredited museum, other accredited museums which collect in the same or related areas will be directly notified of the proposal for the exchange and their comments will be requested.

• If the exchange is proposed to be made with a non-accredited museum, with another type of organisation or with an individual, the MRT will place a notice on the Museums Association’s “Find an Object” web listing service, or make an announcement in the Museums Association’s Museums Journal or in other specialist publications and websites where appropriate, including in particular the Heritage Railway Association’s publication “Sidelines”.

• Both any notification as described in clause 62 and any announcement as described in clause 63 must provide information on the number and nature of the specimens or objects involved, both in the MRT’s collection and those intended to be acquired in exchange. A period of at least two months must be allowed for comments to be received. At the end of this period, the Council must consider the comments before a final decision on the exchange is made.

Disposal by Destruction

• If it is not possible to dispose of an object through transfer or sale, then the Council may decide to destroy it, subject to the restrictions and procedures in clauses 66 to 69 below.

• It is acceptable to destroy material of low intrinsic significance (such as duplicate mass-produced articles or common specimens which lack significant provenance) where no alternative method of disposal can be found.

• Destruction is also an acceptable method of disposal in cases where an object is in extremely poor condition, or has high associated health and safety risks. In the event that the MRT should in the future introduce a policy for research into objects in its collection which would permit requests to be made for destructive testing of objects as part of the research, then an approved request for such destructive testing would also be an acceptable justification for destruction of the object concerned.

• Where necessary, specialist advice will be sought to establish the appropriate method of destruction. If health and safety risk assessments are required then they will be carried out initially by the MRT’s senior engineers, but these engineers should seek specialist external advice on these assessments if they consider this to be necessary.

• The destruction of objects should be witnessed by an appropriate member of the museum workforce. In circumstances where this is not possible (such as the destruction of controlled substances or objects by the police), a certificate should be obtained from the organisation carrying out the destruction, and this should be kept in the relevant object history file.

Drafted by A. J. Cowling (MRT Museums Officer) and D. Martin (MRT’s Museum Mentor), and approved on 6th October 2014.