AS someone who lived in Redditch for almost all my life until a few months ago, I have been greatly dismayed to hear of the threatened closure of Forge Mill Museum and Bordesley Visitor Centre.

While I can appreciate Mr Foxall's enthusiasm for many other aspects of Redditch's history besides those catered for at Bordesley, and his anxiety for a town museum to show Redditch's past, I do not think the establishment of such a centre should be accompanied by closure at Bordesley.

Over the past 10 years, I had the pleasure of working as an occasional volunteer at Forge Mill and Bordesley Abbey, conducting parties of visitors around the Needle Museum and, to a lesser extent, over the remains of the Abbey, and I learned how much both were appreciated.

Parties of schoolchildren would arrive for a tour of Forge Mill with their teachers and helpers and I was always impressed with the dedication of the teachers and the enthusiasm for the history of needle-making, which they had inspired in their pupils.

Very often the children thoroughly enjoyed learning more from a fascinating museum.

To take a party of adults round was equally stimulating; the visitors never failed to express surprise over the complexity of the needle-making process. These visitors came from far and wide - including Turkish orthopaedic surgeons and French schoolchildren.

Bordesley Abbey also proved fascinating as a slice of English history. The Abbey precincts represent, I believe, the largest medieval monastic enclosure in Britain and happily for historians, the ground is largely undisturbed.

The admission charges and the absence of catering facilities work against the museum being as popular as it should be. The dedicated, enthusiastic staff need much more support, financially and otherwise, from the town, to give Redditch a museum it deserves.

As the focus from which the town originated, Bordesley is of prime importance to Redditch. The closure of the museum facilities would be a cultural disaster for Redditch.

Iain C Dow

Charmouth

Dorset