By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
A Nottinghamshire museum run by a 94-year-old volunteer is still looking for a new home nearly two years after losing its previous venue.
The Duke’s Wood Oil Museum was set up by Kevin Topham, from Edingley, in 1995.
It commemorates a group of American men who secretly drilled oil at Duke’s Wood, Eakring, during the Second World War.
The team, who were nicknamed the Roughnecks of Sherwood Forest, came from Oklahoma and were based at Kelham Hall during their stay.
During their drilling period, they added more than one million barrels of oil to wartime production, providing vital help to the Allied powers.
Mr Topham began working at Duke’s Wood after the war in 1956 until it closed in 1958, before working on offshore oilfields.
He was a crew member on board the oil rig Sea Gem, which collapsed off the coast of Lincolnshire on December 27, 1965, killing 13 of his colleagues.
The museum curator set up Duke’s Wood 30 years later to keep their memory alive and to remember the work of the American drillers.
He then relocated the museum to Kelham Hall in 2017 after previous premises became unsuitable.
However, the museum was forced to close its doors in June 2021 after the historic hall – which was once the headquarters of Newark and Sherwood District Council – went into liquidation.
New owners The Renaissance at Kelham Hall took over the site in December 2021.
The organisation says it was “agreed upon mutually by both parties that the museum would close”, rather than re-open in its old space, inside a room in the main hall building.
But Mr Topham, who will celebrate his 95th birthday in the coming weeks, has so far been unable to find a new base and many of its artefacts remain in storage at the Grade-I listed site.
Now his daughter has issued a fresh plea for any access to any buildings near Kelham, Newark or Southwell which may be able to house the museum.
Karen Mason, 65, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We’re still trying to find a venue for him.
“It’s very sad, he’s kept the museum and people’s memory from the oil rig alive for years but nobody will help him.
“He’s got some items at home, some are still boxed up in Kelham Hall which has actually been very good by storing it.
“I said to him the hall could have been funny but they weren’t. At the moment, it’s not a working museum.
“Rufford Park had promised him a space but that never happened, and we don’t want him to be driving distances.
“So it’s no good it being out in the Sherwood Forest area, we need it to be local. Somewhere like Newark or Southwell, but any further would be too far.
“He wouldn’t be able to run it on a daily basis, though he didn’t in the first place.”
Mr Topham recently appeared on the April 2 episode of BBC’s Countryfile, where he discussed the ‘secrets of Sherwood Forest’.
Any venues that could help him to relocate the museum can contact Ms Mason on 07940 771211.
When confirming the museum’s closure in October 2021, The Renaissance at Kelham Hall supported an appeal led by Ms Mason and Mr Topham to find a new site.
The organisation also confirmed it is storing some artefacts for the museum while it finds a new home.
Speaking this week, Rachael Hamilton, Renaissance’s marketing manager, added: “Unfortunately, it was agreed upon mutually by both parties that the museum would close.
“However, Kelham Hall has safely stored all of the Duke’s Wood Oil Museum artefacts within the hall, until a new location can house them.
“We are happy to share his appeal to try and find somewhere else that does have public access.”
