Historic artefacts will be mothballed if Walsall Museum closed
Historic artefacts and collections will be mothballed into storage if an under threat museum is closed to save up to £70,000.
Walsall Museum has been earmarked to shut under a raft of measures to save the cash-strapped council up to £29m in the next 12 months.
There are long-term plans to create a £6m heritage centre in Walsall which will combine the museum with the Local History Centre and Walsall Leather Museum.
Once the museum in Lichfield Street closes the likes of the Hodson Shop collection of working clothes starting from the 1920s face being kept in storage.
The same as the Bayards Colts, a collection of clubs which were carried behind the Mayor in ceremonial processions and civic occasions which are at least 300 years old.
A report from the council, as part of the draft budget, states: "This proposal to save £70,000 will mean the closure of Walsall Museum to the public and the mothballing of its collections in storage.
"All access to the artefacts and informal learning opportunities offered from the museum will cease.
"Walsall Museum offers access to the historical and material evidence of the development of Walsall as a borough and how the lives of people and communities have shaped that development.
"This access and collecting of historical materials will cease if the museum closes, meaning that the public will no longer have access to the museum or be able to view its collections.
"This will include several collections of specific interest: the Hodson Shop collection of working clothes, the Old Hall and Crabtree collections and the Bayards Colts.
"The council is currently undertaking a feasibility study into the provision of an integrated Heritage Centre which, if delivered, could incorporate the museum collection. In the meantime this collections will be placed into secure storage."
Three jobs will be lost although the council says staff will be put on the redeployment list. Initial plans to close the museum were dropped last year by the then Conservative and Liberal Democrats-led authority.
The council said it was to push ahead with the multi-million pound heritage centre, by finding cash from outside sources.
The now controlling Labour group has earmarked it for investment in 2016/17, with an initial estimate it would cost a total of £6.2m.
The creation of a single site has been in the pipeline for years but the preferred location is still to be confirmed.
