In February 1992 I launched another pamphlet.

Proposal for the Regeneration of Chesterfield as Heavy Industry and Coal Mining Decline.

During the Middle Ages when the English were called the songbirds of Europe, Chesterfield was renowned for its music. Glumangate was then called Gleemengate, the street of the gleesingers, who were hired for an occasion by the towns and castles in the district. And minstrals, appointed by the manorial lords, played the gittern, harp, violin and bagpipes. And later, chapel choirs arose and arts and crafts flourished....Halfway between Edinburgh and London, the very centre of England, I would like to see Chesterfield build upon its traditions and become the Midland Festival town....Stately Homes, the Pennine Range, old mineworks in the valleys - what a centre it is! What a jewel it could become! The natives would enjoy a new cultural lifestyle - and the tourists would have everything at once.

I followed up this pamphlet with a long letter to the Town Clerk:
" From coal to culture - proclaiming a New Order, a shift in ideas and energies, condemning again the destruction of our heritage by a raucous 'blip' culture and voicing the desires which dance before us as we leap into the New Age."

On March 1st, I accepted the Town Clerk's offer to take the pictures into safe storage and, proposing that the Queen be asked to open the new art gallery, wrote:
"She lives surrounded by art and has great knowledge of art. If she were told that Chesterfield with its crude background of coal and industry, is now establishing an art gallery and museum - I am sure she would respond."

On March 4th 1992, at a full Council meeting, the proposal to establish a Museum and Art Gallery in the Stephenson Memorial Hall was ratified.

I telephoned Jim Murrell. He was delighted with the news and in May, travelled up to Chesterfield and was shown around the Stephenson Hall by the architect and then taken to the Mayor's parlour to meet the mayor and mayoress.

Afterwards I wrote to the Town Clerk:
"Jim Murrell is no longer a phantom but a live and enthusiastic friend to Chesterfield...He thinks the Stephenson Hall an ideal building, its position in the town excellent, its potential unlimited."

I had always intended to donate the pictures to an art gallery or institution that I could trust to observe my two conditions - not to sell them and always to display a proper proportion. I did not want possession in perpetuity.

It was after the Buxton affair that my solicitor, Mrs Melanie Cataquet, advised me that no ordinary will would ensure this, and that I must set up a Trust, backed by the Charity Commissioners, and retain control. She sent a new will or Trust Deed to Mrs Davies, the Council solicitor, appointing me, jointly with Jim Murrell, as a Trustee. To this Mr Cass agreed and wrote on November 20th 1992:
" The Trustee Body should be the owners of the Collection, whilst the Borough Council should be responsible for the day to day arrangements...undertake to maintain the Trusts Collection...the cost of any conservation work, environmentally controlled storage and display...would organise exhibitions in the Stephenson Hall...make the Collection available to other galleries...the Trustees to appoint an Art Advisor."

I acknowledged this important letter and, on March 31st 1993, wrote to Mr Cass:
"Jim wonders, concerning the curatorship, whether during the coming year of waiting, Anne-Marie could not go as an intern to gain experience - especially on the fine art side - for three months or for several short periods...He is also thinking about the composition and importance of the Advisory Panel...subjects you will discuss when you meet again..."

The diagnosis of cancer delayed this meeting. I circulated another pamphlet, 'Taking Stock', designed to warn the councillors against the appointment of someone with fervour and many skills, but no curatorial experience and needing the support of an Advisory Panel.

The work went ahead but Anne-Marie did not go as an intern and on September 13th 1993 going back on everything that he had agreed to and written Mr Cass was now reluctant to agree to the Trust Deed. The East Midland Museum Service, he wrote, 'had now looked at the Trust Deed and the Director was of the opinion that a Charitable Trust of this type was not appropriate without substantial funding...' The Council would prefer he went on, 'a simple Deed of Gift which specifies that the Collection is being given to Chesterfield for the benefit of the public, and in particular, its education through increasing the knowledge of the life and work of Louie Burrell..."

"We would love and cherish the pictures" said Mrs Davies, the Council solicitor.

On September 17th, I wrote to Melanie to say that I would accept a 'simple Deed of Gift' if my two conditions were guaranteed by the Charity Commissioners.

On September 17th, I wrote again:
"I have read Mr Cass' letter to Jim Murrell over the telephone and discussed it, and received his deeply concerned reaction - as follow, 'It was wills, or bequests, which failed to safeguard the Buxton pictures from being sold. It was a 'simple will' which enabled the Tate Gallery to consign to the cellar and eventually sell, a collection of Turners bequeathed on condition that they were displayed and not sold. 'Simple Deeds of Gift' are useless to protect pictures from the whims and depredations of gallery managers..."

On September 28th, Melanie wrote to the Town Clerk saying that I would be agreeable to a Deed of Gift if it includes the provisions that a proper proportion of the pictures are always on display and that the Deed is registered with the Charity Commissioners. And she asked Mrs Davies to draw up a new Trust Deed.

At the beginning of February 1994, she completed her Trust document and sent copies to the Charity Commissioners and to Miss Malia - the solicitor who had succeeded Melanie.

On February 18th, Miss Malia asked the Charity Commissioners if this Deed was registerable with them, and to what extent the paintings would be safeguarded from any future sale.

On February 19th, I wrote to Miss Malia saying that if it is not registerable I shall have to withdraw the Collection and place it elsewhere. I also made it clear that it was only in safekeeping under a bailment order and could not be moved for hanging in the new gallery without permission and a new bailment order.

On February 22nd, I wrote again to Miss Malia:
"We have had the good news that Jim is cleared of the cancer and back at work in the Museum. I have spoken to him and he confirms that the two conditions must be met by the Charity Commissioners and the Council. If there is no commitment there will be no Deed of Gift."

On April 7th, Miss Malia wrote to the Council and to me, pointing out that in Mrs Davies' document there is no mention of 'proper proportion of the gifted items being displayed' - only the words, 'endeavour to place and display'.

On April 20th, the Town Clerk wrote, asking for my consent to exhibit the pictures in the new gallery and saying that he does not think another bailment order necessary. The official opening, he added, is on May 12th.

Miss Malia replied that the Town Clerk's request for my consent does not offer the same degree of protection as a bailment order.

On April 29th, I received an invitation to the opening, and on May 3rd, I wrote to the Town Clerk:
"If the new bailment display document, Deed of Exhibit, is signed this week, there will just be time for Anne-Marie to move the pictures from storage and hang them in the new gallery."

I then learnt that she had already moved them and they were already hanging.

Not the Queen, but Henry Sandon, presenter of the Antiques Roadshow, was invited to open the Museum, and I invited Jim Murrell to open the Art Gallery.

We were all kept standing in the road, in a biting wind, while Mr Sandon stood before the door of the Museum and made his speech, telling stories about himself and Jim grew white with cold and his wife grew more and more anxious.

When the interminable performance ended and the jolly little man pulled the cord and drew away the curtain covering the plaque and the door opened, we all trooped in and meandered round the artefacts, eventually climbing the stairs to the Art Gallery, where I spoke briefly and Jim at some length.

I could not see the pictures for the crowd and suspected nothing when Anne-Marie, in great agitation, rushed up to him. In due course we went downstairs for refreshments, Jim and his wife were taken to the station and a month later, the cancer recurring, he was dead.

The next morning, I understood Anne-Marie's agitation. Light reflected in the glass, causing dazzle, made the pictures impossible to see. Although shocked, I supposed this would be remedied and I worried more about security. There were no attendants and no likelihood of having any, for the next day Anne-Marie left for a fortnight's holiday. I said I would sit in the gallery until she returned and attendants were engaged - and I began my troubled watch.

Art to the people - and the people came. Even through the dazzle my mother's work entranced them. My struggle had been worthwhile and John Ruskin would have been gratified.

"These pictures are so vulnerable and valuable" an art historian said "they should be guarded all the time".

"You should have a video camera. The art thieves will be here as soon as they know about them", a policeman said.

On May 24th, Miss Malia wrote to the Town Clerk:
"We have been advised by our client that the standard of security and supervision of the Collection is sadly lacking and not in accord with the requirements of Clause I of the Deed of Exhibit. There is no security alarm system and no attendants - our client is having to attend herself on a voluntary basis".

When Anne-Marie returned she engaged two untrained part-time attendants and attempts were made to eliminate the dazzle. They had squeezed in a mezzanine floor with only a 9ft ceiling when the minimum ceiling height for an art gallery should be 12ft. The lovely gallery which was to have housed my mother's pictures, given art to the people, and brought art lovers from all over the world - was a disaster!

Miss Malia's Deed of Exhibit which the Town Clerk had said was not needed, laid down severe display conditions which, if not adhered to, gave me the right to withdraw the pictures at a month's notice.

On July 14th, I wrote to her:
"As nothing more can be done and I will not allow the pictures to be shown permanently under the present unfavourable conditions - I must withdraw them".
And she wrote to the Town Clerk:
"In view of the insoluble conditions in the art gallery, our client feels no alternative but to withdraw all the pictures. We therefore enclose the requisite notices."

On the 15th August, I withdrew 67 pictures from the storage room in the Museum, and on September 7th the remaining 33, from display. And dispersed them between the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, Bushey Museum and Hull and Nottingham Universities.

After opening the Saratoga Trunk, the struggle to save my mother's work from oblivion was hard and discouraging and only half successful in that, immured in Museum Print Rooms and University archives, her pictures are safe and preserved for posterity but still virtually lost and a website on the Internet is where the indifference of the art establishment may be turned into approbation.