1st General Assembly of the VMH Association !
In September 2018 a museum was opened in the former directorate building of the Vieille Montagne Zinc Company and combined railway station in the town of Kelmis, Belgium.
The building, which has been thoroughly renovated, complete with a new zinc roof, houses a large collection of displays of local interest imaginatively and attractively set out.
Called the MVM (Museum Vieille Montagne), it is dedicated to the ‘Société Anonyme des Mines et Fonderies de Zinc de la Vieille Montagne’, or ‘VM’ for short, and to the small unique territory of Neutral Moresnet.
The event was held during the weekend of 14th to the 16th September, it was significant enough to receive television coverage, press coverage and a large number of visitors.
The weekend also saw the first General Meeting of the recently-formed Vieille Montagne Heritage Association in one of the conference rooms of the museum. The Association is a mini-United Nations, members came not only from the home country of Belgium, but from France, Germany, Sweden and England, with an expression of interest from Italy. Members have a variety of backgrounds, for example there were representatives from ‘VM Building Solutions’, a former zinc rolling mill manager, a mine manager, at least three authors, archivists, and representatives from industrial history museums, etc.
One of the English representatives presented the MVM with an album of photo’s of the company’s days in Nenthead, Cumbria, as a gift from Alston Moor Historical Society, a sample of sphalerite (the zinc ore-bearing mineral) as a gift from the Nenthead Mines Conservation Society, and samples of the zinc roof cladding salvaged from the former VM ore-dressing mill in Nenthead. By coincidence, this VM building, possibly the last of its kind anywhere, was in the process of being demolished at precisely the same time that the museum in Kelmis was being opened in another VM building.
It was then that a small but exciting discovery was made. Roger Baltus, Chairman of the VMHA, looked for and found on one sample of sheeting a stamp mark that showed the zinc to have been rolled in Angleur and taken to Nenthead to be put on the roof there !
For the business of the meeting, Chairman Roger Baltus took members of the association through the agenda, which covered issues such as the official registration of the association, which requires royal assent, ideas for a logo for the Association (a variation on the old VM company logo), the setting up of a working group to establish a website, and the cataloguing of the VM archives. Then, to round off, Alexander Kierdorf of the LVR group of museums in Germany gave a talk about mining in the Bensberg area of Germany.
An agenda item of particular interest and concern to members was the cataloguing of the VM archive – all 700 linear shelf metres of it. Daniel Van Overstraeten of the AVAE (Association pour la Valorisation des Archives d’entreprises) explained that funding has been obtained to pay for this work, which will involve two archivists for an estimated period of four years.
Access to VM archives has always been problematic, and now prospective researchers will have to be patient while this heroic task is under way. However, it is anticipated that hard-cover and bound reports, etc., the easiest items to identify, treat and catalogue, could be available after one year.
The day was rounded off by a meal at a restaurant in Liege. The next meeting will be held once the registration formalities have been completed.
The day was rounded off by a meal at a restaurant in Liege. The next meeting will be held once the registration formalities have been completed.