Artefacts relating to Haxey Hood - Find a freedom of information request

The Haxey Parish Culture and History Group is submitting a Freedom of Information request in relation to Lincolnshire Life Museum and a 'donation/loan' of artefacts relating to Haxey Hood.

We are aware that a former 'Hood', jacket and hat were provided to Lincolnshire Life Museum by a resident of the parish and former 'character' of the Haxey Hood, namely Stan Boor. We understand that this would have been in the mid to late 1970's. Unfortunately, Stan Boor passed away last year.

We have enquired with Sara Basquill to borrow these items for a series of presentations and public talks but due to the restrictions on loaning (particularly the costs to do so at £69.50 per hour for an 'escort' plus travel costs which would take the cost well over £300 each time!) we are unable to access these.

We are establishing our own heritage facility in the village and have made an initial approach to the Lincolnshire Life Museum to secure these items to return to the village. We were advised that these had been 'bought' by the museum in the 1970s and may be available to 'loan' to us.

Our Freedom of Information request is therefore to ask for evidence of the conditions that the items were 'donated' to the Lincolnshire Life Museum and we would be obliged if the following questions could be answered:

1. Does Lincolnshire County Council or Lincolnshire Life Museum have any evidence of the Haxey Hood items, namely the Hood, Hat and Jacket being donated or sold to them by Mr Stan Boor?

2. Was there any conditions of the items being donated eg 'given full ownership' or 'loaned' to the museum and is there any documentary evidence of this?

3. If these items were purchased by the museum as stated in a telephone conversation between Sara Basquill of Lincolnshire Life Museum/Lincolnshire County Council and Ian Dawes from our Group, on Monday 26th February 2024, what evidence is there that monies passed to Mr Boor and on what conditions and date?

4. Please provide any documentary evidence you have appertaining to these three items in question - whether this be with Mr Boor or internally within Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Life Museum including emails, letters, photographs, records of conversations, etc?

5. How often have these items been on display since the Lincolnshire Life Museum acquired them and for what period of time?

6. Please provide any evidence or mention of the Haxey Hood and these items on your website or information boards/literature held within the museum between January 1975 and January 2024?

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

1. The Hood, hat and jacket were gifted to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life by Mr Stan Boor in the late 1970s. These items are evidenced as a gift to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life from Mr Boor in the museum's accession register and collections database in 1997. The hood and sway hood are recorded as gifted field collections which is documented via a formal handover and gifting of the hood for the museum in 1980.

2. No conditions are attached to the material and a gift or purchase is 'full legal title of ownership'.

3.This is detailed within correspondence held by the Museum between the curator and Mr Boor, Jan 1973 & Jan 1975.

4.This information contains personal contact information which cannot be published. If required these sections can be redacted for this evidence to be made available for viewing in person at the museum.

5. a) Permanent display in the Gatehouse Gallery, Folklife, from the late 1970s to late 1990s

b) Object of the Month, Dec 2003/Jan 2004

c) Grayson Perry exhibition at Lincoln Museum (formerly The Collection) February to July 2006 the exhibition was then displayed at the Victoria Miro gallery in London, 7th July to 12 August 2006.

d) Collections Discovery Day at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, 29th July 2007

e) Outreach event - 20th Jan 2011, used at reminiscence session at Limelands Care Home

f) MLL 50th Anniversary July 2019 to March 2020

g) Exhibition at Lincoln Museum, Emps Piece : Stories of Lincolnshire, 28th April - 19th June 2022

6.The museum does not have a website as such, it has a page of basic information (opening times, facilities, events etc.) on the Lincolnshire County Council website, however the following text panel and web/social media posts have been created:

* Images and information relating to the Haxey Hood were included in the permanent 'Folklife' display in the Gatehouse gallery - late 1970s to late 1990s

* Facebook post on Haxey Hood - January 2022

* The hood features on Lincoln Museum's (formerly The Collection) website, advertising its exhibition 'Emps Piece: Stories of Lincolnshire' 28th April - 19th June 2022, inspired by Grayson Perry's 2006 exhibition (at the same venue - The Charms of Lincolnshire' also featured the Haxey Hood wand) 'The Charms of Lincolnshire'. Like Perry's exhibition, the content featured student artworks inspired by material held in the Lincolnshire Museums' collections and included the decorated hat and hood from the Haxey collection.

* A Tik Tok reel on the Haxey Hood items at the museum was filmed and released in May 2022 - www.tiktok.com/@lincsmuseums/video/7061261635947646214