Magazine Spring 2009

House Magazine Spring 2009

The Access Project - a new heart for the Museum

The Museum is approaching a watershed as next year will be our 40th anniversary – we opened for the first time on 5 September 1970 – and in that time we have welcomed well over five million visitors.

There are many achievements to celebrate: an international reputation; a high and sustainable number of visitors (around 150,000 a year, including 25,000 schoolchildren); Designated collections and an award-winning modern building; an adult learning programme that is unique in the UK; 500 volunteers and 5,000 Friends.

A world-class museum with a great future – but we urgently need to improve our visitor facilities. Our car parks are appealing but highly inconvenient – and on special event days, which account for a quarter of our visitors, we sell tickets from a makeshift facility in the open air. Our café food is delicious – but the small indoor space available is inadequate for modern needs. And we know from our recent surveys that visitors thirst for more information and better orientation.

For the last five years Museum staff and trustees have been working on plans to address these problems. The first steps were taken in 2003-4, culminating in a feasibility study undertaken by Edward Cullinan Architects (ECA). In 2007 we ‘tested the water’ with an outline planning application, which was passed by the Planning Committee but then referred to the Planning Applications Referral Committee. In the meantime we had discussions with English Heritage which led to the Landscape Conservation Management Plan for West Dean Park (see Museum Magazine Autumn 2008) which will underpin all our proposals.

In July 2008 we began the latest step in this process, to commission a group of specialist consultants, led by ECA, to follow the recommendations of the Management Plan and carry out a sketch design and feasibility study project for a scheme that would meet our needs, and this was delivered in November last year.

Two key proposals

There are two key proposals. To enhance access to information, we are developing ideas for a series of small interpretive ‘pavilions’ dispersed around the site, each one focused on a specific theme at the Museum – for instance, the development of vernacular houses. This idea springs partly from the fact that when West Dean Park was established in the early 19th century, gazebos were provided for visitors to sit and enjoy the view. At the time of writing we are developing the proposals for the pavilions in order to make an application to the DCMS/Wolfson Galleries Improvement Fund.

The other main proposal in the sketch design is for completely new parking, ticketing, retail, café and orientation facilities for visitors – a tall order in these times of financial uncertainty, but one which we feel is essential to guarantee the Museum’s continued success. At its core is the idea that Greenways, the beautiful field in the middle of the Museum site, will be the first thing that visitors see when they enter – sheep in a parkland setting, with glimpses of the exhibit buildings around the perimeter. The main entry route will be up Gonville Drive, and the first major exhibit visitors encounter will be Bayleaf, with its hugely evocative furnishing and farmstead. From there a circuit will take in every exhibit, or visitors can choose their own route – which we know many of them like to do.

New facilities for visitors

In common with every other visitor attraction, we need high quality facilities toilets, ticketing, shop, café, above all orientation to help visitors plan and start their visit. So we need a new building, and the beauty of our site and its historical importance as part of West Dean Park present a great challenge. ECA, our architects, have proposed a single-storey building arranged around a courtyard, on a north-west/south-east axis. Inspired by the character of the parkland and estate, the front of the building will be a long curved flint wall reflecting the curves of Greenways field – a south-facing sun trap where visitors can sit and eat, or picnic, and enjoy the wonderful landscape.

The Museum receives anything from a dozen visitors on a quiet winter day up to 5,000 at the Rare Breeds Show in July, and designing car parking that can accommodate both ends of that spectrum is a challenge. What is proposed in the sketch design is that all visitors in cars will enter through the existing main gate, and then drive behind the millpond on the existing back road that already handles overflow traffic on major event days. Car parking will be in three zones in the northern area of the site: a year round zone with car parking for up to about 400 visitors; an intermediate zone of reinforced grass that can handle another 400; and open field grass parking for our biggest events. Both of the main zones will be heavily planted to create a visual screen, and this will also reinforce the existing tree belt that was planted 120 years ago to create an extension to West Dean Park, but which is now in poor condition.

Having parked, all visitors will enter the Museum through the new building in the north-west corner of Greenways field, adjacent to Gonville Drive. Bus travellers, pedestrians and cyclists will be able to enter through Gonville Gate, very close to the new facilities. Another important feature of the scheme is that it will potentially provide a pedestrian link between the Museum and West Dean.

What do our visitors want?

Last year we spent much time and effort asking our users what they like about the Museum and how their visits can be improved. Out of thousands of comments, surveys and focus groups, a clear message has emerged: keep it simple, and keep it human!

People love the quiet, unstressed atmosphere of the site. They don’t want to walk around with headphones or wands listening to a commentary, and they want as few signs and notices as possible. Almost everybody mentions how nice it is to be able to talk to real people – our volunteer stewards, guides and interpreters are our greatest asset, and we put many resources into supporting them through our Interpretation Department.

But many people also comment that they would like to know more about the Museum and its exhibits, and they would like more help in planning their visit. The ‘pavilions’ and visitor centre are our response to this, but we have more immediate plans as well. This season we are installing small signs giving basic information about every exhibit, and we will be developing new forms of guided tour, such as the ‘10-minute talks’ that we trialled last year.

Aerial view of the Museum looking west towards West Dean, showing the main
components of the ‘Access project’: the interpretation pavilions, visitor centre
and parking areas. Parking area A is sufficient for about 240 days in the year,
and B gives additional space needed on a further 100 days. Both areas would
be heavily planted to form a thickening of the tree belt along the northern
boundary of the site.

Investing in the future

Much of the groundwork has already been done. Physical changes and improvements have been made to the site that will make the process of moving to the new arrangements very much easier. We have carried out research, tested new ideas, and commissioned audience development studies. In the coming months the proposals will be taken forward with an application for outline planning permission based on the sketch design. And we will undertake cost studies, plan fundraising, and develop a business plan for the project.

These proposals will cost a great deal of money and most of it will have to be raised from our friends and supporters. The key is quality: if the proposals have merit, which we believe they do, then people who support the Museum will help us achieve them.

Richard Harris

Tindalls Cottage - a husbandman's cottage from Ticehurst, East Sussex

Re-erection of Tindalls Cottage

Tindalls Cottage is to be the next major building project for the Museum. The process of detailed examination of the timbers has begun, enabling us to work out a schedule of repairs, an essential preliminary to the conservation and re-erection of the building. The cottage was dismantled in 1974 by the Robertsbridge & District Archaeological Society in advance of the
construction of the Bewl Bridge Reservoir, and recorded by David Martin. Its site now lies under the reservoir.

It complements existing Museum exhibits very well, as it parallels the 18th century development of Poplar Cottage, in which a stone chimney was built inside the original smoke bay, and an outshot was added to the rear wall. Tindalls has an original stone chimney and an outshot, but also the additional feature of an original attic room. The main windows were originally glazed with leaded lights, and its original winding stairs survived, next to the fireplace – the same position as in Poplar Cottage. Most of its original timber framing was complete, and it contained many re-used timbers.

The Museum has planning permission for a site for the building just below the woodland due south of Gonville Drive, where it will be easy to compare it with nearby Poplar Cottage as its predecessor and Gonville Cottage as its successor – three rural cottages from comparable social strata.

Tindalls Cottage, from Ticehurst in East Sussex, is a timber framed building which has been dated on stylistic grounds to the period 1675-1725. Its name, ‘Tindalls’, derives from the surname of the occupants from 1748 to 1806.

In terms of its structure Tindalls is of the same general type as Poplar Cottage. It has a gable-end chimney with a hipped terminal at the opposite end. In plan, Tindalls had two rooms within the main range downstairs – only one with a fireplace – together with two service rooms located within an outshut at the back. There were two rooms on the first floor, one with a fireplace. A staircase, to the north of the terminal chimney, gave access to a further room or garret above the first floor. Almost all the timber in the cottage had been re-used from an earlier structure, which, together with the style of the building, initially led to it being identified as of mid-17th or even 16th century date. The cottage had been little altered since its original construction: the outshut had been rebuilt in brick and the remaining walls had been weather-boarded.

Tindalls was dismantled and moved to the Museum’s store in 1974, and a full study of its timbers will shortly take place prior to its re-erection. Tindalls was a copyhold tenement held of the manor of Hammerden. A map of 1619 shows an earlier cottage abutting onto the highway and on an enclosed piece of ground taken out of a larger field. At this date the tenement included a barn and just over 16 acres of land. In 1654 the cottage and land were acquired by a yeoman called William Peckham who lived in the neighbouring parish of Salehurst and in 1661 the original copyhold was enlarged, bringing the total acreage to 25 or 26 acres. The occupants of the property which later became known as Tindalls were tenants of the Peckhams, paying an annual rent of between £8 and £9 10s.

The Tindalls holding as shown on a map of 1619, when it comprised 16 acres of land. 473 = house & lands late Brissendens; 474 = workhouse meadow; 475 =the barn field; 476 = The upper Tomlins; 477 = The lower Tomlins. The tenement and land was in the tenure of John Skinner, gent.

Below, detail of the 1619 map showing the house, the predecessor of the Museum’s cottage, just above the field number 473.

18th century Ticehurst

The parish of Ticehurst is situated in the Rape of Hastings, the most eastern of the six rapes of Sussex. It lies within the geological region of the High Weald, consisting of a mixture of heavy clay and relatively well-drained sands called the Hastings Beds. Ticehurst was a large parish containing 8,250 acres of land. In 1724 there were 150 resident families suggesting a population of about 750.

The High Weald is primarily a wood pasture region with an emphasis on cattle farming. By the early 18th century hops had become a significant part of the rural economy: about one third of all farms within the Rape of Hastings were growing hops and oasthouses were the most common farm buildings after barns. Successful hop cultivation gave higher returns per acre than other crops. However, it was always risky because of its unreliable yield and was also expensive both in terms of the initial investment required and the annual costs of cultivation. Approximately 10 times more labour was required for hop cultivation than for arable farming and since hops had to be picked by hand a large casual labour force was used during the hop harvest. Unlike other forms of agriculture, hop cultivation employed large numbers of women and girls because their smaller hands and manual dexterity were good for hop tying and hop picking. Boys and girls as young as seven and eight were also employed during winter for hop pole shaving: up to 3000-4000 hop poles were required per acre and about 500-600 of these had to be replaced every year.

References to equipment and materials in Ticehurst probate inventories indicate that the spinning, knitting and weaving of wool, flax and tow formed a significant domestic industry as well as comprising the main form of employment for the parish poor. The poor laws required the able-bodied poor to be set to work and parishes had to provide stocks of material for them to work on. Overseers’ accounts for Ticehurst record regular payments to the poor for spinning and weaving flax and tow, for spinning linsey-woolsey and wool and for knitting stockings. Spinning and knitting were done by women; weaving was done by men. The cloth was then given to the parish poor to make themselves clothes with, including shirts, shifts, breeches and aprons.

The occupants

The occupants of Tindalls Cottage can be identified through Land Tax returns from 1692 onwards. The main occupants were Sarah Haselden, the widow of John Haselden, who was living in the cottage from at least 1692 until her death in 1721, John Tindall (1) and his family, who were living in the cottage from 1748, and John Tindall (2) and his family who were living in the cottage from 1780. No wills or probate inventories survive for any of the cottage’s occupants.

During the course of their marriage Sarah and John Haselden had eight children born between 1665 and 1681. Their first child, Ann, died within a few days of birth and another daughter, Frances, died in 1681 aged five. John Haselden died in 1687 and it is possible that Sarah Haselden moved to Tindalls on her widowhood, accompanied by some of her children. No other biographical information about John and Sarah Haselden is available. John Tindall moved to the cottage in 1748 along with his wife, Ann. They had five children, including a still-born baby born in 1758 and a son, Stephen, who died in 1767 aged six. In 1750 and 1751 the parish was paying John Tindall to keep two pauper children, a girl called Anne Pettit and a boy called Nathaniel Burgess. These children would have provided cheap domestic and agricultural labour. John Tindall died in 1766 and his widow continued to occupy the cottage until her own death in 1780.

After her death the cottage was occupied by her son, John Tindall, his wife, Mary, and their seven children, including twin girls, Mary and Hannah, born in 1793. He died in 1806. Like his father, John employed parish children, Sarah Sayer from 1783-1784 and Grace Swift from 1800-1801. Because of the birth sequence of the Haselden and Tindall children it is unlikely that household size in Tindalls Cottage was ever much above five, even with the addition of the parish children. Girls and boys of this status generally left home in their early teens to become domestic or farm servants or enter some kind of apprenticeship.

Both John Tindalls were literate and there are examples of their signatures in the overseers’ account books. By the 18th century perhaps half of the sons and one third of the daughters of poorer families received some kind of formal education, although their schooling was likely to have been intermittent, interrupted by the demands of the agricultural year. For this reason rural schools were more widely attended in winter than in summer.

John Tindall’s signature in the overseers’ disbursement book – a record of what they spent on the poor. His signature indicates his agreement to take a parish child

Inside the husbandman’s cottage

There are only 28 probate inventories for Ticehurst dating from 1710 to 1767 of which only four are of husbandmen. Of these four, only the inventory of Richard Neale who died in 1718, itemizes goods by room. The rooms named in his inventory suggest that he was living in a similar-sized cottage to Tindalls, with two rooms downstairs (the hall and buttery) and two rooms upstairs (the hall chamber and the buttery chamber). He also had a milkhouse which is likely to have been in an outshut. Neale had one cow, one sheep and two pigs but no crops or agricultural equipment (e.g. harrows, carts etc) indicating limited agricultural activity.

A broader sample of husbandmen’s inventories from parishes across East Sussex confirms that Neale’s cottage was fairly typical of husbandmen’s houses. In the majority of these the kitchen (sometimes called the hall), as well as its conventional use as a place to cook and eat food, was the only room in which the occupants could sit down and socialise. All other downstairs rooms were service rooms, with brewhouses, milkhouses and butteries being most numerous, reflecting the significance of brewing and dairying as by-employment within the rural economy. Upstairs chambers were usually reserved for sleeping and garrets were usually used for storage of agricultural goods although a few contained beds.

Plan of the ground floor of Tindall’s Cottage. The
brewhouse and milkhouse are in the outshot.

Very few of the inventories record objects that could be specifically associated with social display or much evidence of ‘new’ consumer goods like tea and coffee-making utensils, china or knives and forks. Where such objects occur (for example clocks and mirrors) they are usually in the kitchen, reflecting its use as the sole ‘social’ space within the cottage. Only one husbandman’s inventory includes a coffee pot: James Phillips of East Grinstead, whose estate was valued at a modest £44 3s 6d, also had six knives and forks, a cribbage board, a bible and five other books, a folding board, a looking glass and two glasses in his kitchen. On the whole, early 18th century husbandmen’s homes had a greater number and variety of household goods than their 17th century predecessors but their consumption patterns remained traditional and utilitarian.

The social status of husbandmen in Ticehurst

With a smallholding of 26 acres the occupants of Tindalls Cottage were typical of what we would expect of early modern husbandmen: economically independent, farming their own land and producing a small marketable surplus each year. Unfortunately, we know very little about the economic activities of the Haseldens or the Tindalls. A map of 1836 records that at that date the smallholding comprised 12 acres of arable, seven acres of pasture, 33 perches of woodland and one rod four perches of garden. John Tindall (1) was growing hops since he was assessed to pay tithe on one rod and 33 perches of hops in the 1750s. With seven acres of pasture he is likely to have had at least two cows (based on four acres per cow) and would have engaged in small-scale commercial dairying. In 1752 the parish paid him a shilling for milk for the care of a sick pauper with smallpox. His wife and daughters may have supplemented the household income by spinning and knitting.

The economic fortunes of families like the Haseldens and the Tindalls would have risen and fallen depending on their position within the life cycle, with ‘high’ points likely to be before the birth of the couple’s children and when the children were old enough to work and ‘low’ points when the children were young and when the couple themselves were old. The large families of John and Sarah Haselden and the Tindalls must have put a strain on their finances, even when things were going well. As widows, both Sarah Haselden and Ann Tindall were economically vulnerable, particularly as they got older. This is reflected in the fact that Ann Tindall was a recipient of poor relief in the final year of her life. In February 1778 she was among the poor householders chosen by the parish vestry to receive charitable doles and was given 7s 3d.

Poor rate assessments based on annual property rental values allow for an evaluation of the distribution of wealth within Ticehurst. In 1694 the highest land value was £100; the lowest £1. The occupant of Tindalls, Sarah Haselden, was assessed on property valued at £6. Those with property valued at £14 or lower constituted 78% of the assessed population, with those within a £5-£9 band and those within the £1-£5 band making up 28% each. Despite their numeric weight husbandmen and craftsmen in Ticehurst were excluded from parish government which was dominated by a small group of wealthy men, many of whom were styled ‘gentlemen’ in the parish records. This group comprised a self-selected oligarchy of about 30 men who rotated vestry membership and the parish offices of churchwarden and overseer amongst themselves. In effect, therefore, smallholding husbandmen like the Tindalls were voiceless within the affairs of the parish, overshadowed by the greater social, economic and political weight of the ‘principal inhabitants’.

Danae Tankard

New Gallery will feature traditional building crafts

Ten years ago we erected a polytunnel in the courtyard behind the Market Square in which Roger Champion repaired the timbers of Poplar Cottage. This was an important step in opening up our work to visitors – a dress rehearsal for bringing all our workshop facilities on site in the Downland Gridshell.

Poplar Cottage was re-erected in 1999 and since then the polytunnel has had many uses. However, it was intended to be a temporary structure, and we now intend to replace it with a permanent building. Last year we were awarded a grant of 66% of the construction costs from the DCMS/Wolfson Gallery Improvement Fund, and this year we will raise the balance of the cost and apply for planning permission. We hope to erect the new building in the summer.

Its primary use will be to house a completely revised version of the exhibition currently displayed in Hambrook barn, showing the processes and products of traditional building crafts. These displays are important and relevant for the Museum, but some are over 30-yearsold, and others originally formed part of a travelling exhibition on traditional building materials. The new building will provide a marvellous opportunity for us to share what we know best – the work of the carpenter, joiner, mason, bricklayer, blacksmith, glazier and thatcher. The scheme also incorporates a covered external area where large timbers from our collections can be displayed.

The building will follow the style of the modern ends of Crawley hall – plain plastered exterior walls and a tiled roof, and the space inside will be very flexible. The displays will largely be on the perimeter walls, so that on weekdays during the school term the central space can be used by school parties, while at half terms and holidays it will be available for demonstrations and activities. Hambrook barn will be used for enhanced reception and orientation, to help people plan their visit to the Museum.

Richard Harris

Frank Gregory's mill heritage moves online

Mill authority Frank Gregory was a frequent visitor to the Museum as part of his lifelong interest in wind and water mills, and his knowledge and experience were drawn on by the Museum for its own mill projects. Now Frank Gregory Online (FGOL) has been launched to enable the public to access his important records.

FGOL is a collaborative digitisation project, hosted by the Mills Archive in partnership with the Sussex Mills Group and the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Frank William Gregory (1917-1998) was the Sussex authority on traditional mills, happily sharing his information and knowledge with anyone who had a similar interest. He painstakingly sketched, photographed and made notes at each mill he visited. Over 65 years, he built up an invaluable record of windmills and watermills, many of which have long since disappeared. Frank left behind detailed records of the part he played in the campaign to preserve mills for the future. His collection contains many thousands of images, documents and ephemeral items.

Frank left his work to the Museum in 1998, and the Frank Gregory Online project ensures that his records can be accessed easily by the public. Frank’s books, which he also left to the Museum, are now fully catalogued and integrated with the Museum’s Armstrong Library.

A Frank Gregory Symposium on 17 September at the Museum will include the first progress report on the results of this exciting project, and will offer a first glimpse of some of the fascinating material in Frank’s collection. Members of the project team, many of whom knew and worked alongside Frank, will describe his involvement with various ambitious and ground-breaking mill repair schemes. Anyone interested in the windmills and watermills of Sussex and further afield, will find much to interest them. To book contact Luke Bonwick at the Mills Archive on 07733 108409.

Frank Gregory demonstrates his handiwork – a detailed scale model of Nutley post mill.

Above, at the beginning of the restoration project in 1979, Frank (left) helps to remove one of the old sweeps at Jill windmill, Clayton.

One of Frank's few published works, Sussex Watermills, with a photograph of the Museum’s Lurgashall Watermill on the cover, contains his lively sketch drawings of many of the county's bygone watermills.

The Lavant building - old photographs and new research

In 1975 demolition had already started on a building in Lavant when local stonemason Ken Child intervened, and the Museum was able to salvage the bricks to reconstruct it as an exhibit.

Ken recently presented us with his file of notes and photographs of the building, and one photo in particular stood out. It shows the doorway on what is now the east side of the building – the long wall facing the lake. As far as we know, no other photograph was taken – or has survived – that shows this doorway. The right hand side of the doorway had been altered when a chimney was built against the house, but the photo shows that not only did the other side survive intact, so did the plaster surround which we now believe to be an original feature of the building. Photos of the other doorway, in the end wall next to the chimney, show an identical area of plaster.

The two doorways in the building from Lavant.
Left, the doorway in the south gable end.
Right, Ken Child’s photograph of the doorway in the east side.

Meanwhile Danae Tankard has discovered new evidence confirming our dating of the building to the early 17th century. The court book for the manor of Raughmere or Mid Lavant records that in 1614 Mary May, the lady of the manor, granted a ‘newly built tenement’ and an acre of land ‘once Gunnells’ to her daughter, Mary May. This appears to have been a parcel of a larger piece of land which John Gunnell surrendered into the lady’s hands in 1612, suggesting that the Museum’s building was built between 1612 and 1614. In 1771 the court book describes the building as ‘one messuage or tenement (partly destroyed accidentally by fire) and one acre of land with appurtenances called Gunnings’.

So – you wait 33 years, and two pieces of information arrive at once!

Richard Harris

Learning to love weeds

Carlotta Holt reveals her first year as Museum Gardener....

I remember my first day very well – we had torrential rain all day. So much for Bob Holman (my predecessor) showing me round all six period gardens at the Museum. It then turned out to be the wettest summer on record – what a way to start!

I initially came as ‘interim gardener’ through a garden agency, while a decision was made about a replacement for Bob Holman, who retired as Museum Gardener after 20 years. Working in historical gardening was completely new to me, but with the help and support I received from Bob Holman, volunteers and staff, I soon felt part of the Museum team and wanted to learn more about this fascinating subject.

After spending four months working at the Museum I began to realise how much I enjoyed the role of Museum Gardener, so when I was lucky enough to be offered a permanent position I jumped at the opportunity and haven’t looked back since.

There are six delightful period gardens at the

museum that have been recreated to show the transition of gardens from the early 16th century through to the late 19th century. They show the herbs, vegetables and plants that would have met the needs of rural households over the centuries. Each garden represents the period of the house as well as the social status of the householder.

I am assigned to the Interpretation Department, enabling me to work closely with the Museum’s interpretation team. Visitors show a great deal of interest in the period gardens, so quite a lot of time is spent talking to them, explaining the interpretation of the gardens. This is a very important part of my role and we hope to be able to expand on the visitors’ experience of the gardens in the future, perhaps through leaflets, displays, tours and ‘garden focus days’.

I soon learnt that ‘historical gardening’ was quite different to ‘modern gardening’. I have spent most of my gardening career digging up ‘weeds’, only to discover that I now had to specifically grow ‘edible weeds’! A medieval kitchen garden would have had edible weeds such as fat hen, chickweed, dandelion, and sowthistle growing between the sown crops. Maybe with the current economic climate people might go back to eating ‘edible weeds’ or perhaps we should now call them ‘credit munch weeds’!

To help with my training I have attended several courses at the Museum. Christina Stapley, medical herbalist, has been a great help (see below). As well as herbs being used medicinally and for culinary purposes, I discovered that fruiting herbs such as Yarrow and Germander were used to flavour ale, and herbs such as Tansy and Wormwood were strewn over the floor (treading on the herbs releases a pungent smell which helped to deter biting insects and improved the general atmosphere of the home).

Magic and superstition also played an important role. Herbs such as St John’s Wort were taken into the home to protect against evil spirits, a Rosemary bush grown close to the dwelling helped to keep the witches out and Vervain by the doorstep attracted lovers! So it’s very important that we not only grow the herbs that would have been used, but also spend time explaining their significance to visitors.

Vegetables are equally interesting. The Romans were responsible for introducing vegetables such as leeks, onions, and peas. Skirrets (a multi-rooted winter vegetable similar in taste to parsnips) were introduced to Britain from East Asia in the 15th century, but fell out of fashion in the late 17th century. Parsnips are native, but began to be improved as a vegetable during the middle ages.

Left, broad beans growing in Bayleaf garden, with herbs and edible weeds beyond.
Right, onions, beans and potatoes growing in the 18th century Toll Cottage garden.

Broad beans are very ancient, dating back to the Iron Age: they were originally black and smaller than the kind we see today. The beans that were in cultivation in England in the 16th century were paler, larger and probably introduced by the Romans. Potatoes originate from South America, famously introduced during Elizabeth I’s reign, but were treated with some caution, as they are related to deadly nightshade and were initially only used tentatively mixed with sugar and fruit as a pie filling. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that potatoes became the mainstay diet of the poor.

We grow heritage varieties of vegetables where possible, many of which closely resemble the original varieties. However, where necessary we grow more modern varieties that look similar, rather than omit them altogether. Modern varieties tend to be more uniform, reliable and larger, so it can be quite a challenge growing the heritage varieties.

Dealing with pests and diseases is another challenge, as we do not use modern control methods. We had to re-sow several times as pea and bean seeds were eaten by mice and voles; salad leaves were eaten by rabbits, slugs and snails, and the kale was decimated by pigeons! Although there were problems with pests and diseases in the past, it is thought that some were not as much of a problem as they are now. But perhaps most significantly they would have been ‘living’ gardens. We work on the gardens two days a week, whereas historically they would have been tended on a daily basis; they could not afford crops to fail.

Although the last 18 months have at times been very challenging, I have thoroughly enjoyed working as Museum Gardener and I am very lucky to work in such a wonderful setting with a great team of people. So, with the help of my dedicated volunteers, I’m looking forward to a productive and successful 2009 in the gardens. Here’s hoping for some decent weather and that the pigeons, mice, voles and rabbits don’t decimate our crops!

Re-discovering herbal secrets from the past

My interest in herbs began with research into daily life in the 17th century for a historical novel I planned to write. That was almost 40 years ago. The research revealed such an importance for herbs that it became a fascination and my passion for herbs began. I was soon growing them and experimenting with a wide variety of historical recipes.

After a while I began writing on herbs, lecturing and taking workshops. Many years later a visit to my third of an acre herb garden by a Weald & Downland Museum volunteer led to my involvement with activity days for the Young Friends at the Museum. Adult workshops followed, and a medieval day in 1999 with Bob Holman was very well received. The following year, with input from Bob on the garden history side, five-day workshops were held, each dedicated to herbs over a 200-year period. They provided taste, fragrance and medicinal knowledge of the use of herbs in the past thousand years and proved very popular. They have been followed since by more in-depth days.

Although I teach workshops at a number of museums and historical sites, the Weald & Downland Museum remains closest to my heart. In addition to the ingredients themselves, the furnished period houses and herbs grown in the gardens enable excellent plant recognition for participants and I can take the most authentic approach to following period recipes of all kinds.

The workshops have led to enjoyable challenges: for instance, on the 15th century cookery days we have begun with recipes giving ingredients, but no amounts. With a little guidance on the use of strong seasonings, some delicious dishes have resulted. As a qualified phytotherapist (medical herbalist), I find historical medical recipes both fascinating and informative. My mission is to rescue recipes that may have been abandoned without good reason and I have found some which are proving effective today.
Learning from the primary sources of the past is hugely important to me as I see it as a key to our understanding of how our ancestors improved the quality of their lives, at all levels of society. Some herbs have always been available to all. Sharing this knowledge with as wide an audience as possible is important, for my aim is to ensure that some of the valuable herbal knowledge from the past is carried on into the future, for it still has a part to play.

Christina Stapley in period costume
for one of her workshops at the Museum.

Christina Stapley BSc (Hons) MCPP is a qualified medical herbalist with a degree in phytotherapy (plant therapy) and practises in Wiltshire. She has grown some 300 herbs, studied and used them for over 30 years. Her Hampshire garden has featured on television several times. Her knowledge of herb history is shared in historical herb workshops at Butser Ancient Farm, the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, the Chiltern Open Air Museum and other centres in Somerset and East Anglia. She has written three books and has edited and interpreted a 17th century book of cookery and physic recipes.

Planning the Museum's woodland management

The Museum is drawing up a new woodland management plan, covering all the regular tasks involved in caring for our wooded areas and extracting their products. The woodland on and adjacent to the museum site was originally planted c1840, but the majority was in poor condition and was cleared in the 1970s, so the oldest of the existing trees are only about 40-years-old. The wooded areas and individual trees at the Museum are managed by West Dean Estate, which is responsible for their thinning, trimming and felling, but the Museum manages the coppice. This is currently done by Jon Roberts with help from volunteers and staff. Jon’s work was described in the Spring 2008 Museum Magazine. The management plan will include an explanation of the annual cycle of work and the end uses of materials. We are currently researching the length of time it takes to cut and process wood for use as firewood, fencing, shelter building or charcoal making. Our requirements need to be planned up to a year in advance in order to have the appropriate materials gathered during the short coppicing season. The management plan will benefit staff and volunteers who have an interest in the woodlands but will feed directly into the information we pass on to our visitors through leaflets and panels or guides and demonstrators.

Woodland management - coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of managing woodland where young tree stems are cut at their base to form a stool; new shoots then emerge which can be harvested after a period of years.