SEEBOARD was set up in 1948, at the time of the nationalisation of the Electricity Supply Industries, in order to take over some of the tasks of 50 small generating and supply companies dotted about the south east of England. Its brief was to control the supply of electricity throughout this large area.
The original creation of the Milne Museum stemmed from an initiative by the Electricity Council in the late 1960’s. The then “area-boards” were asked to appoint “museum Surveyors” to ascertain whether there were
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The Disused power station at
The Slade, Tonbridge, Kent
The Slade, Tonbridge, Kent
artefacts and archival material worthy of preservation, with a view to the ultimate establishment of a national electricity museum.
In Seeboard the task was undertaken by Bob Gordon (1911 - 2006), a former senior commercial manager, who quickly tracked down and earmarked for preservation a wide range of material. When it became clear that the establishment of a national museum would be long delayed, Seeboard’s Deputy Chairman (and later Chairman) Archibald Milne gave the go-ahead for the items and archives that Bob had collected to be housed in an old power station at The Slade, Tonbridge, Kent. Thus was established The Milne Museum which opened in 1975.
The collection remained on view to the public at Tonbridge until 1989, when, amid the general changes resulting from privatisation of the Supply Industry, it became apparent that the collection might, more appropriately, be displayed elsewhere. Talks were begun with the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum (as it was then called) regarding the safeguarding of the collection and it’s long term future. Following agreement with The Museum, a purpose designed building was erected in the Grey Pit at the site. The Milne Library was the first part of the collection to be housed at Amberley, the new library building
Bob Gordon at The Electricity Council Warehouse, holding a Power Swtchboard electric arc extinguisher dating from about 1910. The picture dates from the early 1980’s
being erected in 1992 with the aid of a generous grant from the Museums and Galleries Commission. The Seeboard Electricity Hall, sponsored by SEEBOARD to house the exhibits, followed and was formally opened at the end of June 1993 by Stanley Maunder Wide the Administration Director and Company Secretary of the, by now privatised, Regional Electricity Company SEEBOARD Plc.
The collection passed into the ownership of EDF Energy, on the merger of SEEBOARD and EDF ENERGY in 2003. It now resides in the long term care of Amberley Working Museum, where it has been complimented by several exhibits owned by the museum and many new donations which have been added.
SEEBOARD depot at Bexhill showing a collection of artifacts before removal to Tonbridge c1971
Archie Milne never saw the collection rehoused at Amberley having passed away some years earlier. The curator’s baton passed on, at the retirement of Bob Gordon, to John Norris in 1981. John oversaw the removal of the exhibits and the construction of the new exhibit areas at Amberley.
In 1996 John Norris retired, to spend more time with his family and also his second love, narrow-boating. The Curator’s baton was taken up in 1997 by John Narborough, who has known the collection since joining the industry in 1977. John has been both an employee of SEEBOARD and a volunteer at The Slade, Tonbridge.
John has taken the collection forwards with new exhibit areas, displays and educational events, a policy which continues to this day, with constant updating and improvement being the watchwords
of the Curator assisted by a growing team of skilled and enthusiastic volunteers.
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