LOSS-MAKING Cogges Manor Farm Museum, in Witney, cannot live on the past, and needs a new vision for the future.

That is the message from one of the country's leading museum experts, Roy Brigden, keeper of the Museum of English Rural Life.

As the owners, Oxfordshire County Council, look for new ways to turn the facility around from its annual £250,000 running losses, Mr Brigden said it needed to embrace a new outlook to get more people through the gates.

He said: "They have gone off the boil and fallen slightly out of favour. The costs remain the same, but the income has been diminishing.

"But it is happening with many of the 50 members of the Rural Museums Network.

"Many of them were formed between the late 1960s and early 1980s, and the motive for establishing them might be described as an attempt to remember a traditional rural way of life . . . to keep its memory alive.

"As original audiences have died out, the original motive for the museums may no longer be sufficient.

"The challenge to museums in this position is to find ways to become more relevant to modern audiences.

"We recognise the challenge for Cogges is now more heightened, and more immediate than elsewhere."

The museum's financial troubles - and possible threat of closure - came to light last October.

The county council has since pledged financial support for three years, reducing each year, while ideas for a way forward, including commercial links, are being explored by a board.

Mr Brigden, who is based at the University of Reading, and Stuart Gillis, of Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, in Norfolk, put forward a joint report to the board.

They have suggested that Cogges is in danger of going stale, and should freshen up by linking its record of the past with modern concerns about sustainability, climate change, and carbon footprints.

"It is conceivable that a visitor attraction based on the traditional rural-idyll concept could be commercially viable," they said, but added more benefits could come from 'reforming the museum and setting it up to realise some contemporary opportunities'.

These could include displays and projects, like . . .

* Waste over the ages and recycling.

* Where food comes from. Is it best to buy local?

* Farming and bio-fuel.

* Use of land for farming and housebuilding.

* Power and fuel through the ages.

Mr Brigden added: "I've seen Cogges many times over the years - it is part of the Rural Museums Network - and it never fails to impress me. It is a wonderful site."

Cogges rising losses have been matched with dwindling visitors - just 25,000 last year. But it has had a good start to the current season, with more than 650 visitors at the opening Easter weekend, and more than 50 volunteers signed up to the museum database.

Martyn Brown, county heritage and arts officer, said: "In my view, Roy Brigden's ideas are excellent, but they will have to be woven into a business plan, which is far more difficult. Everyone on the board agrees with them. The difficulty we face, though, is the financial problem of the county council withdrawing, and having to provide the service at no cost."

Source: Witney Gazette