University launches petition to save unique historic collection

The University has today launched an online petition as part of a campaign to persuade the Law Society of England and Wales not to break up a unique historic collection of several thousand manuscripts, early and rare ecclesiastical books and pamphlets. There is already been a groundswell of support on Twitter for the campaign which has also received media coverage.

The University, together with Canterbury Cathedral, is asking the Law Society to reconsider its intention to break up the Mendham Collection which contains about 5,000 invaluable items. The Collection is owned by the Society but has been held under the custodianship of the University and Cathedral for nearly thirty years. During this time, it has been an invaluable academic resource not just for students and staff at the University, but it has also attracted researchers from across the globe as well as in the UK.

Despite an agreement that Cathedral and the University will retain the custodianship of the Collection until December 2013, the Law Society has already removed the most valuable items from the collection with a view to putting them up for auction later this year.

Dr Alixe Bovey, Director of the University's Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, said: 'We implore the Law Society to work with us to preserve this invaluable collection. The University of Kent ranks among the best for mediaeval and early modern studies and as such we firmly believe that to dismantle the collection will destroy an irreplaceable national, and international, resource.’

Anyone wishing to support the campaign can sign the petition at https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-law-society-of-england-and-wales-stop-the-break-up-and-sale-of-the-mendham-collection

Contact: pressoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 5:03pm 19 July 2012