SHORT HISTORY OF ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 13
and to decide this and other outstanding differences a sub-com-
mittee was appointed which only completed its labours in
January, 1899.
In 1897 an Annual Club Supper was inaugurated, but it seems
to have lapsed after a single function.
We now reach the time when, after so many vicissitudes,
the long cherished idea of a County Museum was at last realised.
Negotiations had been proceeding for some time during the
autumn of 1897 with the West Ham Corporation, the initial
proposal being that a museum should be established in rooms
forming part of the new Technical Institute which was then in
course of erection in the Romford Road.
But the requisite space was hard to spare from the needs of
the Institute itself and the idea of a separate Museum building was
developed almost of necessity. Mr. Passmore Edwards, the
philanthropic founder of Public Libraries, was approached, and
his sympathies being readily awakened, he offered to contribute
£2,500 (a sum afterwards increased to £3,000) towards the erec-
tion of an independent Museum building to house the Club's
collections. Parliamentary powers were sought and eventually
obtained by the West Ham Corporation Act of 1898, which
enabled the site of the proposed Museum to be acquired by
compulsory purchase.
A formal Agreement between the Club and the Corporation
of the County Borough of West Ham was signed on July 25,
1898. Pending the erection of the new Museum building, rooms
were hired over Parkes' Drug Stores, 9, Woodgrange Road. Forest
Gate, to accommodate the Club's collections removed from
Chelmsford, and on October 25th, Mr. William Cole was
appointed Curator (to date from July 25, 1898) so that the
collections might be got into trim for their new home when it
should be ready to receive them. The Foundation Stone of
the new Museum was laid by Mr. Passmore Edwards on 6th
October, 1898.
The total cost of the new Museum building was £6,000, of
which sum Mr. Passmore Edwards contributed £3,000 ; and in
addition to this he gave a sum of £1,000 towards the equipment
of the museum with cases to display adequately the specimens.
The Museum was formally opened to the public on 18th