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Boscastle flooding: Museum of Witchcraft Appeal

  
 
SteppersFan
11:58 / 17.08.04
URGENT APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE MUSEUM OF WITCHCRAFT

On 16th August 20004 the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall, UK, which holds one of the most significant Pagan and Witchcraft collections in the world, was seriously damaged by flash floods which have devasted Boscastle.

Graham King and all the Museum staff are safe. The building is still standing, but there is serious damage to the collection. We will not know the extent of this for a while yet.

The Museum is appealing for help from the Pagan community. They would like to assure all their friends and supporters that the Museum will be back.

The friends Of The Museum and the Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall are co-ordinating the appeal for help. Two kinds of help are needed:

Donations; If you are able to send donations, please make them payable to:Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall and send them to: PO Box 314, Exeter, EX4 6YR, UK. Please send cheques, postal orders or IMOs (not cash) and mark the envelope "Museum Of Witchcraft". All donations will be acknowledged (eventually!).

Practical help: All kinds of volunteer help will be needed to clean up, save the collection and re-build the Museum. This help will not be needed for a few days yet, but if you can help, please email your details to either: thecrowman@houseof the oldways.fsworld.co.uk or: levannah@aol.com.

Someone will contact you when we know what is needed. We will also email updates as we get them.

Many thanks and Goddess Bless to everyone who has already been in touch to offer help and support. The Museum will not be beaten by this.

Please circulate this information as widely as you can.

Blessings of the Old Ones

Levannah Morgan and Adrian Bryn-Evans
(Friends of the Museum Of Witchcraft and Pagan Federation Devon and Cornwall).

Further information from Wicca UK:

From one of the staff at the museum:
All the people that we know are safe and well - although some homeless for a while.

The Museum has suffered extensive damage and all the downstairs exhibits have been ruined. The front window has been blown out, but the upstairs, including the library seems to have escaped the worse of the damage.

No-one is allowed entry to Boscastle until all buildings have been declared safe to enter. This could take some days and the whole village is cut off as part of the road has been washed away.

Many, many thanks to all who worked magically last night. Although there are 15 people unaccounted for at the moment, there appears to be no loss of life... so far.

Graham is very tired after all his Coastguard work yesterday and through the night. He sends his grattitude to all and will definitely be needing help soon in a clear-up operation, but this can't happen for a few days at least.

Please use the contacts I have mentioned and leave the phone lines clear for Boscastle for emergency calls. There are a lot of shocked and traumatised people and the whole situation needs to be handled with sensitivity.

ENDS
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
09:51 / 18.08.04
The website is here.
 
 
_Boboss
10:47 / 18.08.04
apparently the christian charity shop across the road has been totally swamped, so those evil cloud-seeders weren't just after the hippies
 
 
SteppersFan
19:20 / 18.08.04
According to the Guardian, the locals are joking that the devil looks after his own
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
11:07 / 19.08.04
Is it true the charity shop was running a campaign against the Witchcraft museum?
 
 
illmatic
11:45 / 19.08.04
Absolute tradegy. Will be sending a donation.
 
 
_Boboss
12:04 / 19.08.04
lots of good stuff on the fortean times message board about this, lots of folk who've been there in the past for various reasons and links to theories surrounding the 1952 lymington disaster (which was due to have a docco broadcast about it on r4 on sunday, pulled shortly before broadcast due to 'new information coming to light', less than 48 hurs before the rains came again. shit just gets my mystery-sense a twitchin'*).
am a bit skint, but it's okay prince charles says some of his donation is meant from me.
 
 
illmatic
14:00 / 19.08.04
I read an old interview with Cecil Williamson, the founder of the museum, a few years ago and he sounded like the most charming old bloke imaginable. Like your favourite great-uncle, if your favourite great uncle happened to be a witch and occultist who'd hung around with Aliester Crowley.
 
 
SteppersFan
15:05 / 19.08.04
Yeah, Cecil Williamson seems like a cool guy -- though neither he nor Gerald Gardner covered themselves in glory with the way they talked about each other inb later life.

Not aware of any feud with the Christian shop. The people running the museum have helped all their neighbours and vice versa. Wiccans offering help to clean up the museum are also offering help to clean up the rest of the village, regardless of religion.

The waterfall up the gorge from the village where lots of handfastings have been done is pretty fucked up too.
 
 
SteppersFan
15:09 / 19.08.04
From thisiscornwall -

PERSONAL INTERESTS ARE SACRIFICED FOR THE SAFETY OF OTHERS

09:30 - 19 August 2004
One of the many buildings ravaged by Monday's flash flood at Boscastle was the world-famous Museum of Witchcraft. The museum, housing a unique collection of witchcraft artefacts, has been owned by Graham King, aged 50, for the past eight years.

Mr King is also part of the village's coastguard team - and any desire he had to save his personal treasures was overtaken by the need to safeguard life.

"We were in the museum when we heard this noise outside, this roaring noise," he said on Tuesday. "I realised that the river was running really high.

"I looked out and saw some children playing near the slipway, so I put on my coastguard jacket and ran across to move them out of the way."

Recognising that the Valency River was about to burst its banks he alerted the emergency services and moved the coastguard vehicle to the bridge before its hut was deluged.

"There were a lot of people around, people were trying to wade across the bridge in waist-deep, fast running water," he added.

"We recruited what help we could and tried to keep the crowds back. But there was very little to do other than that.

"Within half-an-hour it had burst its banks and the water was filling underneath the bridge. Then cars from the car park and camper vans were being tossed around in the water like cardboard boxes. It was terrifying.

"The biggest problem was that the bridge was being jammed by trees and cars. Clovelly Clothing shop was just demolished in front of us."

Mr King said he didn't have time to think about seeing friends appearing on the roofs of flooded buildings but had switched into "coastguard mode".

"I was just trying to be as effective as possible as a coastguard," he said, "and not think about personal things."

"It has just started to hit me now," he said on Tuesday morning. "When I went down towards the museum I started shaking and didn't want to look in the window. I know it has been trashed.

"I've spoken to some of the lads who did the search through the museum and luckily my book collection is safe but the rest of it has just gone.

"It's awful because it is a famous museum which was started in the 1960s and attracts an enormous number of visitors.

"I really can't take it all in."
 
 
SteppersFan
15:38 / 19.08.04
You can contribute to the Museum of Witchcraft fund bia Paypal.

Go to this page http://www31.brinkster.com/yewtree/mow.htm
and scroll down to near the bottom.

All money will go to the museum -- the Wicca UK forum is covering PayPal charges.
 
  
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