New guardians for Marlborough’s history

A major part of Marlborough’s heritage assets have changed hands.

The move was made official on Tuesday as the Marlborough Historical Society and the Marlborough Heritage Trust signed a deed shifting the assets, which included the Marlborough Museum building, the Beaverton buildings at Brayshaw Park and Blenheim’s Cob Cottage, over to the trust.

The trust’s incoming chairman Dale Webb said the historical artefacts and collections would be held in ‘‘guardianship’’ by the trust as they were owned by the community. The trust was formed in early 2014 as an umbrella organisation to ensure the region’s historical treasures, artefacts and records were well-managed into the future.

The trust was ‘‘available’’ to historical societies and groups struggling to keep going, Webb said.

‘‘No-one is forced to fall under the trust, it is totally voluntary.’’Many societies struggled to find enough committee members to operate, threatening the future of the historical assets they cared for.

The trust would act as a way to ensure the heritage of the region was managed in a professional way, he said. ‘‘Our role is to collect, preserve, manage, research, interpret, promote, enhance and provide historical resource material relating to the natural and human heritage of Marlborough.’’

In 2015, the Edwin Fox Society transferred its assets, which included the Edwin Fox ship, ‘‘lock and stock’’ to the trust. The society then ceased to exist. The Marlborough Historical Society was different in that it would continue to exist, but would become ‘‘ membership focused’’, Webb said.

‘‘The society did a lot of fundraising work and had a turnover of around $500,000 a year. That will now fall to the trust.’’ The trust was made up of a chair, vice-chair and eight elected trustees; three from Marlborough heritage organisations, two from the community, two from the Marlborough District Council and one iwi representative.

Their mandate would be to work with paid museum staff at the Edwin Fox Maritime Museum and Marlborough Museum as well as other heritage organisations to better promote and preserve the heritage of the region, Webb said.

Marlborough Museum chief executive Steve Austin said it was exciting to see a ‘‘forward thinking’’ approach to heritage in the region.

PHOTO: SVEN HERSELMAN/FAIRFAX NZ Marlborough Heritage trustee Peter Scott, left, incoming Marlborough Historical Society president Ren Wagenvoort, trust chairman Dale Webb and trustee Graeme Gilmore sign the deed transferring the assets of the society to the trust.