CAWTHORNE'S regimental museum is poised to undergo the biggest shake-up in its 45-year history.
Some of the relics of Charge! The Museum of the 13th/18th (QMO) and The Light Dragoons will move from Cannon Hall to Experience Barnsley at the Town Hall in October 2015.
It is planned to run an exhibition about the regiment's roles during World War One. Discussions are at their early stages and it is unclear about the regimental museum's future at Cawthorne once the Great War commemorations end in 2018.
The Experience Barnsley exhibition is expected to tell the World War One story through the eyes of locally-recruited soldiers.One option being considered is to show regimental relics in display cases on the balcony outside the council chamber.
Regimental museum curator Mel Tazey blamed defence cuts for the proposed changes. He said an advantage of moving to Experience Barnsley would be more people would see exhibits. The Cawthorne regimental museum is closed between October and Easter.
"The regimental museum will be re-developed and moved," he said. "But we are not deserting the people of South Yorkshire."The regimental museum opened in summer 1969 and many exhibits were loaned from families of soldiers. One of its strengths is the Charge of the Light Brigade, one of the regiment's biggest disasters."
The action in the 1854 Crimean War left 69 men killed or missing.
