Like all charities, the Romney Marsh Wartime Collection & Aero Museum is enduring daunting financial prospects as a result of Covid-19 and government-imposed guidelines.
The promise of summer visitors bringing vital income to this small, but significant, local museum, disappeared with a nationwide ‘lockdown’ and the museum’s board made a difficult decision not to open for the 2020 season.
A replica Spitfire, Vampire jet and a rare Percival Prentice, all in various states of disrepair, stand guardian to the former Women’s Land Army buildings on the edge of what, in 1943, became Brenzett Advanced Landing Ground (ALG), one of twelve such temporary airfields from which aircraft of the RAF rose to meet the threat of Germany’s unmanned V1 bombs.
With a season that stretches April through to October and relying almost entirely on revenue received from summer visitors and out of area tourists, the enforced closure effectively means no income for 18 months.
“Our opening weekend would have been Easter, with our biggest money-earner, a wartime re-enactment festival,” said secretary Keith Plum.
The £10,000 government lockdown grant has eased the worries considerably, and with a very benevolent landlord allowing a virtually rent-free lease on the property, Mr. Plum is optimistic that the museum will survive this virus blitz.
“It won’t be easy,” he added. “All our members are putting in a tremendous amount of time and effort through this period to upgrade and improve the museum. The closure is giving us time to refurbish the display areas inside the building, make changes to displays, and commence the major restoration work necessary on the static aircraft exhibits outside”.
These rather sad and sorry-looking exhibits have suffered badly from the excessive winter rains and gales this year, but by next April, they will be the proud gatekeepers to a new-look museum.
Plans to re-open at Easter 2021 are well underway, with a three-day wartime re-enactment festival already taking shape. All the money from shows is re-invested directly into the museum. The 2019 show went a long way to financing a new cafeteria, but the museum directors are acutely aware of the long term effects of an extended closure.
“We are working hard to improve both our social media profile and our website,” said Mr. Plum. “We’re extending our links with other museums in the south east to increase public awareness, but this all costs money and we have to budget accordingly. We rely so much on our volunteers, our annual members, and the supporters of our museum, many of whom live overseas and maintain a connection established by family members who served here during the second world war.”
Today, there is precious little to show there was once a battle-ready airfield close to Brenzett.
Gone are the blister hangars and ‘Summerfield Tracking’ (steel mesh that made up the runways) that bore witness to a historic summer over 75 years ago.
But the members and supporters of Brenzett Aero Museum, part of the Romney Marsh Wartime Collection, will continue, despite “many long months of toil and struggle” ahead of them, to maintain and improve this living memorial to the pilots and ground crews who served on Romney Marsh.
This may be their ‘finest hour’.
Image Credits: Chris Lawson .