House Magazine Spring 2007
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Collections update
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The period leading up to Christmas
is traditionally a quiet time for
acquisitions, but the end of last year saw an
unusually large amount of material come forward
for our artefact collections.
Numerous items were added to our handling
collection as well as to our main collections. The
artefacts in the handling collection are accepted
specifically to be used or demonstrated; they
are genuine, historic items but are either
duplicates of material we already have, or items
which fall outside our general collecting remit.
The collection continues to grow and is
providing an increasingly important resource for
interpretation in the Museum.
Range
In November we were offered a domestic
range from Peter Carter of Bognor Regis.
Fortuitously, we had previously agreed with
Worthing Museum that a domestic range from our
collections that had been on loan to them for many
years should be returned to us for installation
in Whittaker’s Cottages, where the range
needed to be replaced. They had agreed, but were
very pleased when we were able to offer them a
further loan of the new range from Bognor.
Plough
Fostering close relationships with other
museums has many benefits, not least the
potential for the redistribution of artefacts.
Towards the end of Summer 2006 we accepted the
transfer of a Sussex plough from the Museum of
English Rural Life (MERL) in Reading. The
plough originated in Horsham and had been in
MERL’s possession for many years, but due to
duplication in their collections it was surplus to
requirements. The plough is a wooden bodied
example, probably from the mid-late 19th
century, and is in remarkably good condition
considering its age. Wooden ploughs are rare
compared to their iron counterparts, and we are
fortunate to be able to add this one to our
collections.
Flour cleaner
This was donated to the Museum
during November by Mrs Toomey of Waldron, along
with numerous other interesting items. We were
unsure of its purpose at first, but it is labelled
as ‘Gardner’s Patent Rapid Sifter and
Mixer’, so we believe it is for cleaning
flour. It remains in excellent working condition,
along with its original paintwork and written
decoration.
Julian Bell
Curator
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Timber yard develops
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Following the successful restoration
and re-erection of the timber crane in the Museum timber yard alongside the
working rack-saw, we have recently added other features which bring the
project almost to completion (see photograph above).
The first is a saw pit, which has
deliberately been made shallower than usual in order that visitors will be
more easily able to see both sawyers when the pit is in use. It has been
dugin such a position that it can be serviced by the timber crane: felled
logs can be moved around the yard, from delivery, to storage, to sawpit, to
sawbench, all using the crane. The timber
yard is easily accessible from the track, so that logs can be brought to the
yard using the Museum’s heavy horses and timber-moving vehicles.
A bay of the workshop opposite the
timber yard has been brought into use for the repair of larger horse-drawn
vehicles. Before Christmas one of the wheels of the timber carriage was
repaired and currently the heavily-used boat waggon is undergoing repair to
its chassis and deck.
In May this year the cattle shed from
Coldwaltham, which has stood in the woodland area since 1975, is to be
dismantled for re-erection facing the timber yard, where it will be used for
housing tools, equipment and demonstrations. The shed (pictured above)
currently houses an exhibition on the development of the landscape, written
by Ruth Tittensor and opened in 1982, and we plan to make the information
available by other means. |
Threshing drum to be restored
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 The
successful project to restore our timber crane to full working order
received external funding from PRISM, the fund for Preservation of
Industrial & Scientific Material, and we plan to submit another application
for funding for the conservation and repair of the Museum’s Marshall
threshing drum.
This impressive machine was acquired in the early 1980s, along with numerous
other items from Mr Stevenson, who farmed in the Ashdown Forest. Since then
it has been stored off-site and despite its impressive age (built c.1875)
remains in remarkably good and complete condition.
There are a few structural repairs to be carried out, together with the
replacement of the top boards and kick boards, and a full repaint. The main
expense, however, will be new wheels. At some point its original wheels were
replaced with pneumatic tyres, which damaged the axle ends, so four new
wheels need to be built. We have detailed information on the dimensions of
the original wheels and so can replicate them very accurately.
We hope to begin the project by Easter. The work will be carried out by Paul
Pinnington and Ben Headon, who carried out the conservation of the timber
crane.
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New storage for
archives
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The
Museum’s archives are to be housed in a new environmentally-safe structure
within the Mitford Foulerton Studio in the Downland Gridshell. The Museum
holds substantial paper and photographic archives. While it is not our
policy to keep valuable archives that should be lodged with an appropriate
Records Office, there are many documents and photographs that are quite
properly in our custody. Our Founder, Roy Armstrong, left a fully catalogued
collection of about 75,000 transparencies, and we have received several
other donations of material from people associated with the Museum, whose
interests focused on our core collections, vernacular buildings of the Weald
& Downland region – most recently, the research notes of another founding
trustee, Marjorie Hallam. In addition, volunteers are working on a project
to ensure that the Museum’s own documents, files and publications are
properly archived and catalogued.
In
2002 all these archives were moved out of the library on the ground floor of
Crawley Hall and into the Mitford Foulerton Studio in the newly opened
Downland Gridshell. This gave the library space to expand, while bringing
the archives into a space where they could be accessed more easily. Computer
databases were created and improved and now we estimate that over 90% of our
archives are properly stored and catalogued.
However, the Mitford Foulerton Studio, while ideal for the collections team
to look after our artefact collections, is not ideal for archives: the
temperature is too high and conservation activities frequently generate
dust. We therefore decided to build an internal enclosure in which the
archives will be stored in more appropriate conditions. Volunteer Alan Wood
has prepared the designs and Curator Julian Bell and his team will undertake
the construction. Our policy is to achieve the standards of the Standing
Conference on Archives in Museums’ Code of practice on archives for museums
and galleries in the United Kingdom, and this new enclosure will help us to
achieve that.
Richard
Harris
Museum Director |
Keeping evil at bay
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One
of the most evocative moments in the dismantling or restoration of a
historic building is the discovery of shoes or other items deliberately
concealed in fireplaces or voids in the structure.
The
Museum has discovered a number of these items – often shoes – in the
dismantling of buildings later re-erected on site. Our collection of
concealed items was recently visited by Dinah Eastop and Charlotte Dew of
the AHRB (Arts and Humanities Research Board Research Centre for Textile
Conservation and Textile Studies, University of Southampton at Winchester.
They
are currently leading a project to locate, document and research garments
and associated objects found concealed in buildings. The aim is to increase
the number of finds reported by raising awareness of the practice. Finds can
represent significant items of historic dress, such as the 16th century
doublet found in Reigate, Surrey. The garments and practice of concealment
is important to those interested in dress and textile history, folklore,
building history and archaeology.
The
practice of concealing garments and other objects seems to have been
widespread across Europe, North America and Australia. It still continues
today, though this is not widely realised. Many reasons are given for
concealments: one motive seems to have been for protection against perceived
malevolent forces such as witchcraft, especially during the 17th century.
Concealed garments are often found in caches, and may include, in addition
to shoes and other garments, bottles, metal tools, fabric and leather
scraps, toys, printed paper, coins, seeds and other organic matter, animal
bones and pipes. Caches are commonly located at entry or exit points to a
building, such as fireplaces, or in voids, such as a sealed cupboard.
A
website has been developed to provide information about the project. It
includes an online database of garments and associated finds, a guided tour
of garment caches across the UK, interviews from the oral history programme
and case studies.
The
project has been funded by the LJ Skaggs and Mary C Skaggs Foundation and
the Arts and Humanities Board of Southampton University.
Dinah Eastop and Charlotte Dew are keen to hear about concealed objects
that have been found. If you know of an object or
a cache please let them know using the ‘Report a Find’ form on the website,
www.concealedgarments.org. Alternatively contact them by email at mail@concealedgarments.org,
or at AHRB Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies,
Winchester School of Art, Winchester Campus, Park Avenue, Winchester SO23
8DL (Tel 023 8059 7100). For further information about The Textile
Conservation Centre and AHRB Research Centre for Textile Conservation and
Textile Studies visit
www.textileconservationcentre.soton.ac.uk.
The Museum’s shoe hoard
from ‘The Barracks’, Nutley, East Sussex
Four
of 80 concealed objects
The Barracks, Nutley,
photographed in 1890, where
the Museum’s huge hoard of shoes dating from
1880-1910 was found.
The
Museum has in its collections one cache which is unusual due to its enormous
size: 11 pairs and 44 individual shoes and boots were saved for the Museum
from a larger collection of around 80 items in total.
They
were found in The Barracks, Nutley. Virtually all date from the period
1880-1910, with the majority being completely worn out, and some worn
through to the bare foot; others have been repaired with thread or twine.
Most are adult work boots or shoes designed for heavy labour. Some are
probably ex-military, and the collection includes several children’s shoes.
The
footwear was presumably cached by the occupants of the building. The shoes
must have belonged to relatively poor, probably agricultural labourers, but
there is some doubt as to whether the occupants owned them all: their date
range is too narrow and their number too great to have been owned by a
single poor family. So it seems possible that the shoes were deliberately
collected for concealment.
The
cache was discovered in a void next to the chimney on the ground floor, the
only access being from the attic area where the footwear must have been
dropped in. |
Museum
films now available as podcasts
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What on earth is a ‘podcast’?! The word derives from
Apple’s ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’. It is a system that allows contributors to
place their work on an internet site – in this case, Apple’s ‘iTunes store’
– and users to download the files onto their computers and thence, if they
wish, onto their iPod, usually at no charge. Users can choose to become
subscribers, so that the iTunes Store will automatically download all new
files in your chosen category whenever you connect to it.
Still with me? At first it was used largely for audio
files, and they are still in the majority, but podcast videos quickly gained
popularity. In July 2006 the BBC started podcasting the Ten O’Clock News and
Newsnight television programmes, and Angela Merkel started a regular weekly
video podcast about current political issues.
The Museum’s video team has made a range of films about
the Museum available as podcasts, which anyone in the world can access
anytime, anywhere, free of charge – and if you want to, you can choose to
receive automatically new videos posted by the Museum.
The Museum’s podcasts already include five titles, and
more will have been added by the time you read this. The most ambitious
production is called The Founding Years which traces the story of the Museum
from its earliest days – the complete video lasts for 40 minutes, but has
been posted as four episodes in order to reduce download times. In addition,
there are short videos about the construction of the Downland Gridshell, the
Museum artefact store, our Romani Roots weekend held last September, and our
Timber Framing from Scratch courses. The videos enable the Museum to extend
its reach to new viewers, and allow easier access for schools and
educational purposes.
In order to access the videos you will need a PC or Mac
with a broadband Internet connection, and a copy of iTunes. To help you, we
have put a link on our website – go to www.wealddown.co.uk, click on ‘Latest
News’ and then the link to ‘WDOAM Podcasts’. If you are not an iTunes user
already you will have to install it on your computer (it’s a free download),
then in the ‘iTunes Store’ use the search box to find the Museum’s podcasts
(use ‘weald’ as the search term). Click on the little arrow in a grey circle
to the right of the Museum’s name, then select whichever podcast you want to
watch – it’s as simple as that, and free! If you encounter any problems with
the podcasting, or if you are a Mac user, the video team will try to help:
email
videoprojects@wealddown.co.uk.
Victoria Reed
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Filming agricultural machinery in action
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Drilling is one of the
agricultural tasks filmed by the Museum’s video team.
The Collections Film Project funded by the Designation
Challenge Fund (DCF) has been running since September last year when we were
joined by three recent graduates from Portsmouth University who form the
Museum’s video team for the duration of the project.
They have captured footage of a wide range of Museum
activities as well as the horse-drawn agricultural machinery which is the
primary aim of the project. To date we have a nearly complete ploughing
film, footage of seed drilling and the horse gin in action, and a record of
various Museum events.
With a view to maximising future availability of the
videos, the team has established the Museum’s presence in the ‘iTunes
Store’, to which a link is available on the Museum’s website. We plan to use
the site to host versions of the agricultural films produced by the team,
together with other Museum videos produced under previous DCF projects.
Our funding application to the DCF was made jointly with
the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), who are running a parallel filming
project to record traditional rural crafts. MERL is contracting an external
company to produce their films, but we hope that our team will also be able
to produce one of MERL’s films. This is likely to take place during the
spring and will probably record the work of a wheelwright.
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