‘History of PA’ Collection has a new home
The Yaxley Heritage Collection has moved to a new home at the Broadcast Engineering Museum in Hemswell Cliff, Lincolnshire. The museum, itself fairly new, is making plans for a permanent display of the collection.
The late Ken Yaxley, a pioneering public address contractor, put the collection together over many years and built a dedicated museum for it next to his home in Norfolk. Ken was a long-standing member of the [then] Association of Public Address Engineers. He wrote about his museum in the March 2013 issue (pp4-5) of the ISCE magazine, as it was then called. There was even a royal connection with a Marconi Reisz microphone from the collection used by King George V at a Royal Event held at Stody Estate Norfolk in 1932.
Finding a home for the collection has been a complex process. Some time after Ken died in 2015, the renamed ISCE approached the late Ron Walker to help with re-homing , as Ken’s family was selling the property. In turn, Ron asked me if I had any ideas.
My first thought was to approach the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum, in Dulwich, south London, with which I have been involved for many years. Unfortunately, there was no spare accommodation, nor any future likelihood of any space becoming available.
However, a fellow enthusiast, Lucien Nunes, was in the early stages of re-housing his own enormous collection of equipment and creating a charitable organisation, to be known as the Museum of Electrical and Electronic Technology [MEET]. It was agreed that the Yaxley collection would become an integral part of the MEET project.
Eventually, all of the Yaxley apparatus was boxed-up and moved to a temporary storage site. There was no prospect of any progress during the pandemic.
Post-Covid, work started again on the formation of the charity and locating a permanent home for MEET. Lucien formed a small committee of potential trustees, including me. We continued to search for permanent premises, unfortunately without success.
Sadly, in autumn 2021, Lucien informed the committee that he had been diagnosed with incurable cancer, with a prognosis of only a year or so. He immediately commenced an intensive course of chemotherapy and went into remission for a while.
Earlier this year, his health worsened. He immediately set about trying to find a home for his complete vast collection. These efforts were not successful and it became clear that the collection would have to be dispersed. Lucien died in June this year.
I contacted Jeffrey Borinsky, a long-standing friend of both Lucien and myself. He is a trustee of the Broadcast Engineering Conservation Group [BECG], a charity that in 2021 bought large premises, the former sergeants’ mess at RAF Hemswell.
Although primarily concerned with broadcast equipment, the trustees of BECG felt that the PA collection would be an appropriate addition to their artefacts. Title has been transferred and most of the equipment is now in store at the charity’s Broadcast Engineering Museum. The BECG is creating a dedicated space where it will display items from the Yaxley Collection.
The Broadcast Engineering Museum is open by appointment and will be open for Heritage Open Days 2023 on 9/10 September from 11am to 4pm.
This article was written by Tony Clayden MInstSCVE with additional material by Jeffrey Borinsky.
In Memoriam Lucien Nunes [1972 -2023]
Writer’s Note:
It is quite possible that many ISCVE members have old, retired PA equipment which they are reluctant to send to landfill.
Suitable items would be acceptable to the BECG Museum as additions to the Yaxley Collection, especially if they are of particular historical interest.
As I hope to be acting in a curatorial role, please contact me directly via email at tony@amc-comms.co.uk
Thank you.
Tony Clayden
