BBC NEWS | UK | Cash plea for Captain Scott hut

Nov 9, 2006

—

Campaigners want ministers to help raise £3m to restore the Antarctic hut used by Captain Scott on his final expedition to the South Pole.

Sir David Attenborough said: “The huts are monuments to the great age of heroic exploration and it would be a scandal if Britain failed to provide the money to make sure that this astonishing place is protected for future generations.”

Can’t help feeling that someone needs to take a look at their priorities – £3m to preserve a hut could rather better be spent on, ooh, I don’t know, preserving the environment perhaps?

It’s where it is

Home Ed Inspiration, Ideas, and Activities

Click the links below and scroll through my collection of ideas, workshops, excursions, and more to discover practical everyday activities you can do together in and around your home classroom.

Home Education Inspiration

Home Ed: Ideas and Activities

Home Ed: Topics and Discussion

Exploring Neurodivergence in Children

Comments

14 responses to “BBC NEWS | UK | Cash plea for Captain Scott hut”

Merry
9 November 2006
FFS, who gets to see it?!!?!??!?!!?
Reply
Chris
9 November 2006
I’d much rather see lottery funding go into this sort of thing than ornate windows at York Minster. One is symbolic of human spirit and endeavour and the other is a place for worshipping a non-existent god ;-)I don’t think it matters how much of a tourist attraction the thing is to be honest.
And we shouldn’t preserve history until we have preserved the environment? Don’t agree. The two things should not be mutually exclusive. Spending Â£3m on the environment is not actually going to make any difference at all.
Anyway a great opportunity to plug Shackleton with Kenneth Branagh. Inspirational stuff. To me at least. And why I think it is right that these monuments be preserved.
Reply
Tim
9 November 2006
I am preserving the hut in our garden for posterity Chris, it is symbolic of human spirit and endeavour (we erected it ourselves), and we have never, ever used it as a place of worship. Therefore we look forward to receiving your contribution toward our hut preservation fund, which we will put towards the upkeep of the hut (treating it with Ronseal Doeswotitsezonthetin next summer) and towards the installation of stained glass windows (I sometimes smoke in there when it rains heavily, so they are gradually staining organically and in a very symbolic way). Of course we have no plans to share the glory that is our hut with anyone, but I can assure you that it is an astonishing place.
Reply
Claire
9 November 2006
What a load of bowlocks. This kind of thing really annoys me Â£3m just to save a building that wasn’t ever built to last this long? And I suppose its just going to sit empty or will it be the latest tourist destination? Of course, someone will have to be paid to maintain the building which I suppose will require funding too?
Reply
Chris
9 November 2006
Whilst your erection Tim is no doubt the result of considerable endeavour I am not sure there are people that would argue it should be retained as a monument in perpetuity. To be honest it’s pretty average and run of the mill. Do you have problems maintaining it? Will that need funding?
Reply
Tim
9 November 2006
I definitely would argue it should be retained in perpetuity.
Scott’s huts seem to me to be pretty average too. No, I have no problems maintaining my hut, but it seems to me if Scott wanted his hut maintained then he ought to have made arrangements.
If they are so damned exciting why not dismantle them and bring them back to the UK, that would probably only cost a couple of hundred quid and people could get to see them, I can’t see much point in having them cluttering up Antarctica anyway.
A sub towards the Ronseal Doeswotitsezonthetin or a packet of fags would never go amiss. I was brought up never to turn down money and you’d only be wasting it on expensive photo equipment otherwise…
Reply
Alison
9 November 2006
Try Steve instead for chucking money about 😉
Have to say though, I don’t see the problem here? The story is about how the hut is NOT going to get public funding. Which you (Jax and Tim) seem to agree with. Not really up to your usual standards of controversy!
Reply
Tim
9 November 2006
Here, don’t bring me into no controversy, I am just looking for handouts to paint my shed.
Reply
Jax
9 November 2006
It was the comment from Sir David that I was blogging and disagreeing with.
Reply
Chris
9 November 2006
That Sir David, he’s really well know for being anti environmental and having mad priorities……there was that propaganda film the other night he made all about the poles….fundraising for hut preservation in a very thin disguise.
Reply
Bob
9 November 2006
His memoirs are interesting – when I was showing birds of paradise on TV for the first time, when I was showing gorillas on TV for the first time, when I was head of BBC2, when I was looking after a mini-zoo of animals in my own house, when I was visiting a jungle tribe for the first time and the crew and I all had to wear just loin cloths… I suppose you don’t have to read it now 🙂
Tim: you need to start a global IT business from your shed, then the company would buy it from you and actually paint the Ronseal Doeswotitsezonthetin on it for you, not just give you the cash. If you have good enough lawyers you might be able to arrange a legal right for you to smoke in there too.
Reply
Tim
9 November 2006
They would have to be bloody good lawyers though, wouldn’t they, I think that is the flaw in the whole plan. It is one thing to build up a pan-national IT business from your shed, dominate world markets etc, but quite another to getting legal permission to smoke on company premises. So I will pass up on that thanks.
Reply
Alison
10 November 2006
Yeah, you don’t want to jeopardise your smoking shelter 🙂 Perhaps wait until you move out and then have it declared a listed building, and make the Govt paint it with Ronseal bought with Lottery money.
Reply
Alison
10 November 2006
I think if you did some kind of mural in there it would add to its appeal …
Reply