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Computing museum at risk of being thing of the past
History seeks new home…

By Nick Heath

Published: Tuesday 01 April 2008

The UK's first museum dedicated to the history of the computer is facing homelessness after receiving no firm offers to save it.

The Museum of Computing in Swindon will lose its base at the University of Bath in Swindon when the Oakdale campus shuts in July.

The collection features more than 2,000 hardware exhibits and 1,500 books, manuals and specialist magazines and runs the gamut from mechanical computers and slide rules, to the first PCs and modern games consoles.

Curator Simon Webb told silicon.com appeals for a new home for the not-for-profit, volunteer-run company have so far not produced any "hard and fast" offers.

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But he added that to lose the collection, which attracts about 5,000 people annually and has Sir Clive Sinclair as a fan, would be unthinkable.

He said: "I can't entertain the thought of disposing of the collection. That's not an option, we will find somewhere. We have a very significant collection and the history of computing is so vitally important as, today, computers are in everything. The museum is a fantastic educational resource for people to see how much has changed."

The museum is considering a couple of options for a new short-term relocation but Webb said it ideally wanted a permanent base and was appealing to the owners of its building, Swindon Borough Council, to be allowed to stay on after the university leaves.

The computing collection is sponsored by Intel and Blue Click PR.

The plea coincides with an appeal from the UK's other computing museum at Bletchley Park, which houses a rebuilt version of the Colossus World War II codebreaking computer, for sponsorship and funding. For an exclusive peek at Bletchley Park's National Museum of Computing and an interview with former-spy Tony Sale, click here.