The Royal Pump Room Museum in Harrogate has sent more than 700 of its finest historical artefacts to Swansea University in a collaboration which should provide deep insights into ancient Egyptian history. 

The collection, which has not been fully researched for over a decade, is on loan for three years and will now be studied by experts at Swansea’s award-winning Egypt Centre. Swansea University is one of only a handful of UK universities to offer degrees in Egyptology. 

May Catt, visitor and cultural services manager at Destination Harrogate, said:

“This is a fantastic chance for us to be able to learn important information about our Egyptian collection and where it came from. We look forward to being able to share this with visitors of all ages, both digitally and through new exhibitions and displays. 

“We are fortunate to have such rare and exciting antiquities at the Royal Pump Room Museum and our project with Swansea University offers us a wonderful opportunity to showcase our museum’s cultural significance on an international platform. 

“We are particularly pleased to be involved with this exciting project this year, which marks the 70th birthday of the museum in Harrogate.” 

Harrogate’s Egyptian collection includes a spectacular coffin from the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1000-700 BC); stone stelae; a large collection of pottery; amulets and shabtis (figurines used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices), as well as a renowned Anubis mask, which is the only one of its kind in the world. There are also several Etruscan mirrors and a large collection of cuneiform tablets, bricks, and cylinder seals.

Ken Griffin of Swansea University’s Egypt Centre inspects a spectacular coffin from Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1000-700 BC).

The loan also offers an opportunity to learn more about the origins of Harrogate’s Egyptian antiquities, whilst raising the profile of the Royal Pump Room Museum. The objects were donated by two local collectors, Benjamin Kent and Harrogate jeweller James Roberts Ogden, whose great-great-grandsons still run Ogden of Harrogate on James Street. 

While Kent purchased his at auction, Ogden appears to have obtained his items straight from the source – he acted as an adviser to Howard Carter, who famously discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, creating a worldwide sensation. 

Egypt Centre curator Ken Griffin said the project, called Rediscovering Egypt, would provide an ideal opportunity for the collection to become better known to researchers. 

Dr Griffin said:  

“The Harrogate loan is a major coup and reflects Swansea University’s position as a leading institution for Egyptological research. Having the collection here will allow us to refresh the Egypt Centre’s displays, while also making the objects available to researchers from across the globe.

“And, in the year that the Egypt Centre celebrates its 25th anniversary, it is rather fitting that this loan is taking place now.”

Three shabtis (funerary figurines) of Seti I, including a faience example believed to be among the finest ever produced, are included in the artefacts on loan.

The collection held permanently by Swansea University’s Egypt Centre is currently on public display online, and Harrogate’s Egyptian collection will be added to the site later this year, with photos and 3D models of the objects, to enable visitors, university students and staff to view the rare Egyptian items, while discoveries about the relics are made and shared.

Read more:

• Harrogate’s Royal Pump Room Museum closes for refurbishment
• Ripon museums secure more than £400,000 from Arts Council
• Harrogate’s link to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, 100 years ago

Harrogate Islamic Association has said it is confident of raising enough money to buy the former Home Guard Club and convert it into the town’s first mosque.

A price of £500,000 was agreed to buy the building, which is on the corner of Tower Street and Belford Road, before the association obtained planning permission.

The current owner set a deadline of Monday next week to complete the sale.

The group already has several hundred thousand pounds set aside to buy the building but does not yet have enough to pay the full asking price.

After planning permission was granted last month by Harrogate Borough Council, the association launched a crowdfunding campaign to help raise the extra money needed to buy the building as well as for much-needed repairs, setting a target of £200,000.

With days to go until the owner’s deadline, the crowdfunder is currently on just £18,000.

However, Zahed Amanullah, a member of the association, said there was no risk the deal could fall through because it had loans in place to cover any shortfall.

Mr Amanullah said:

“We are on our way to getting the money. It’s not all reflected in the crowdfunding campaign, which we’re extending to the end of April, which is the month of Ramadan, and will be used to pay back loans.

“We’ve been raising money from other sources, such as pledges from the community directly.

“Where there might be a shortfall, we have people to loan us the difference, so we can pay them back. Our intention is to make the payment in time with a combination of loans and crowdfunding.”

Read more:

• ‘Community goodwill’ helped to overcome anti-mosque campaign, says Harrogate Islamic Association

• Plans for Harrogate’s first mosque approved

• Malcolm Neesam History: the colourful past of what could become Harrogate’s first mosque

The association, which was set up in 2011, has been looking for a permanent home for several years, with previous attempts at securing a site falling through. Around 100 Muslim worshippers currently meet in the Quakers’ Friends Meeting House on Queen Parade.

The association also organises prayer sessions at Chain Lane Community Hub in Knaresborough.

Mr Amanullah said once the group has the keys to the building, the immediate focus will be on repairs and restoring original features.

All being well, it could open to the public by the end of the summer.

A loan given by North Yorkshire County Council to tourism body Welcome to Yorkshire will be extended for another six months.

The £500,000 agreement was taken out in September 2019 to help cashflow and was originally due to be repaid by November last year.

However, the council agreed to extend the term by a year to November 2021, and has now added a further six months to the term. NYCC’s executive today voted unanimously to support the deadline of April 2022 for the loan to be repaid.

Cllr Gareth Dadd, deputy leader of NYCC, said:

“This is done for a technical reason – it’s not offering any more funding to Welcome to Yorkshire in any shape or form. It’s merely a technical extension to that loan repayment period in order for them to cover their accounting year.”

The loan was secured on a property owned by WtY on Tadcaster Road in York, and will continue at an interest rate of seven per cent. Cllr Dadd added:

“Financially, we do OK out of this loan to Welcome to Yorkshire, and that wants emphasising. And I would suggest, given the value of the property, it’s absolutely secure.”

Read more:

• Welcome to Yorkshire requests extension to £500,000 council loan
• Welcome to Yorkshire posts losses of £200,000

WtY posted losses of £198,997 in the last two years, according to its latest accounts. It published two sets of accounts last month, which covered the six months to March 31, 2020, and the 18 months to September 30, 2019.

The organisation, which is a limited company, was bailed out last year by Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council, plus other local authorities across the region.

Both authorities approved funding totalling more than £300,000 after WtY warned it faced a £1.4 million funding gap amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A spokesperson for the organisation told the Stray Ferret previously that it had been a “difficult time” but added the organisation had undergone “significant operational, staffing, cultural and strategic changes” since the periods covered by the two sets of accounts.

The spokesperson said:

“The accounts were filed after an extended period as a result of issues relating to the coronavirus crisis, including subsequent uncertainty of funding which had previously been assigned from the North and West Yorkshire Business Rates Committee.

“The organisation is focusing on the future, moving forward and supporting the economic recovery of the tourism sector in Yorkshire through the coronavirus crisis and post-pandemic to reopen, recover and rebuild as part of Welcome to Yorkshire’s tourism recovery plan, working closely with the county’s businesses and local authorities.”