Derby County Museum

[Inverurie Ram]

A Derby County Museum has been mentioned a few times. With big support from fans including the Rams Heritage etc @loweman2 @Quangy @C-stand, to tell the story of Derby County Football Club, to capture our history and be an attraction for current and future supporters of the club and all other visiting supporters and visitors to Derby.

Great books have been written, websites, forums, blogs and all the rest, have captured the history of Derby County Football Club.

But a building can capture everything in one place and tell the whole story of Derby County Football Club from the very start and be a place to show off all our memorabilia, club shop, cafe etc and all the future magic moments this wonderful football is going to create for everyone.

We started this season with a friendly at Glasgow Rangers Football Club and our history of previous friendly games and Ted McMinn's Testimonial game might feature in their museum being built, but wouldn't it be far better to be in a Derby County Museum?

 

[Inverurie Ram]

Time flies when you get older.........we started a previous season with the friendly away at Glasgow Rangers.

I can't believe it was 7 years ago when I took my four year old boy to the Quad Pride & Passion Exhibition.

 

[BaaLocks]

37 minutes ago, Inverurie Ram said:

We started this season with a friendly at Glasgow Rangers Football Club and our history of previous friendly games and Ted McMinn's Testimonial game might feature in their museum being built, but wouldn't it be far better to be in a Derby County Museum?

I'm gonna guess that the pre-season friendly with Derby County will be quite a way down the list of things Rangers will be looking to celebrate in that building. Whatever wonders will be safe for when our own musuem is opened - remember for us it is our record attendance in our new home.

[loweman2]

Thats why we set up the Rams heritage trust, to get a group of like minded individuls into one collective, it was clear from the club that it was not in their brief to incur costs into something that didnt have the footfall to bring in enough income to cover costs of heating, lighting, security, exhibits, insurances against damage, theft and public liability, it is now our intention going forward to preserve the clubs history at our own expense, we were just starting to make headway before covid struck. 

For instance we had sponsorship from Littleover Brewery and we came up with the BBG125 ale that sold well, we had an exhibition at the old bell all set up with a presentation or rather a production based on Steve Bloomer and we had displays to set up around Derby, this was going to help us guage the public intrest, from the display that we did at the Horizons school in the Market Hall it was obvious that there is an intrest but what you have to take in mind is that whilst we are all Derby as the saying goes not everybody is interested in our past, for example if myself@Quangyor@cstandpost images in the forum how many people show an intrest ? not many, we keep it going for the few that do or the few that recognise our efforts, very soon all of this stuff will have dissapeared, the generations are moving on and getting older, people die and a lot of our heritage just gets tossed out, people of blissfully unaware of what it is or what it represents, that is why we work so hard in trying to get as much of it back to then show to the future generations of Rams fans, but it costs money, in some cases a lot of money, there are some fantastic people out there who have approached myself and seen what i am doing and helped considerably and that will be the same for the other guys but the majority of the shirts, programmes, tickets, photos, ceramics, medals etc etc cost a lot of money.

So we are looking at plans for the future, we are considering using technology to greater effect in perhaps a virtual museum that would be accessed online, we are hoping that the Rams Heritage trust will be able to display ta the new museum of making next year, we are having to adapt to this new world that is happening around us, we have a club that is keeping itself quiet at the moment but who knows the new owners may be more receptive to protecting our great past built over the last 140 years or so or will the be just as blaise and go with the current trend that seems to want to forget that there was any history because everybody is so ashamed of it, we believe that you learn from history not hide from it.

will keep you all posted as things develop. 

[CornwallRam]

We should have a museum.

It would be ideal to have it located either on the site of the BBG or the racecourse. The problem is that both sites would need new buildings and land acquisition. 

I'd suggest that the best site is the militia barracks in Rowditch. It's a brilliant historic site and already owned by Derby Museums. They use the main building for storage, which is a shame because it deserves more. There is even a slight connection to the Rams. I believe it is very close to the old Derby Swifts ground where we played several home games when cricket clashes happened. 

[TigerTedd]

I did some training yesterday, first face to face training for about a year. It was booked into my diary as PFA, I assumed it was some sort of plastics factory, that’s where I normally end up. Turns out it was the professional footballers association. 

their office is like a museum, and this was in the training room:

[Boycie]

I think a museum would be good in the short term, but is it sustainable in the long term? Unfortunately we don’t have the world wide pull that the bigger clubs have regards visitor numbers.

To be honest, most of the stuff has been posted online already, I think a pop up exhibition would be beneficial to the owners of the merchandise or a charity.

I’m sure it would be an attraction

[angieram]

Always felt the best place for this stuff would be in and around the fans. Incorporating into Mel's plaza development would have been ideal. A sort of DCFC cafe, along Rock Cafe lines.

Once it gets into a museum it becomes a niche interest, whereas if it was in public view then the younger fans absorb the culture of it all almost by osmosis.

Anyway, not going to happen now, sadly, so good luck with whatever you are able to come up with. 

[Inverurie Ram]

On 30/05/2021 at 08:26, angieram said:

Always felt the best place for this stuff would be in and around the fans. Incorporating into Mel's plaza development would have been ideal. A sort of DCFC cafe, along Rock Cafe lines.

Once it gets into a museum it becomes a niche interest, whereas if it was in public view then the younger fans absorb the culture of it all almost by osmosis.

Anyway, not going to happen now, sadly, so good luck with whatever you are able to come up with. 

It will happen in the future. We have to be more optimistic with our football club. And as a collective, as a team, us fans play a massive part to our football club. We have a loyal fanbase in Derby and all over the world, with potential of growth, and if our team becomes successful on the pitch.

Our history is an indication of what we have achieved, we can still achieve a lot more. Unfortunately many of our fans on here, have already written off our chances before a ball has been kicked for next season. I believe we are going to achieve again. We are still a Championship football club with international football players with a fantastic football ground and facilities and our club has dropped to the lower leagues in the past and fought it's way back to the highest league.

I know right now financially the club is not in a good place, but like the football, bad can be turned into good, just like the bad times we all have in life.

The fans that turned up at Pride Park in the pouring rain against Sheffield Wednesday, some of them probably watched their team win at Wembley against WBA and watched their team under Jim Smith destroy teams in the Premiership and some might have been lucky enough to enjoy our team be Champions of England Two times, whereas some might have only seen us lose at Wembley, or not even that, some might have only seen us lose lots of games this season, but the stories that their friends, their mothers and fathers, their grandma's and grandad's might have shared with them, that have created the loyalty, the love, the connection with this football club matter to them, and they matter to all of us Derby County supporters.

Whatever happens in the future, we will support Derby County Football Club and we all hope that someone or a collective of somebody's will invest and believe in Derby County and bring the good times to this football club so we all collectively enjoy supporting and believing in our football club, and we have additional facilities including a Museum, which will educate and attract many more people to our wonderful football club.

Enjoy Derby County Football Club and believe in it.