Newsletter extract December 2007

Extract from Newsletter - December 2007

Water at the Weald

Over the last year or so the Museum’s water raising equipment has been receiving a bit of a face-lift. The hand pumps are being reconditioned with new innards which are being cast in bronze with the help of Amberley Chalk Pits Museum. Volunteer Harry Elliot has kindly offered to finish and fit the new parts, which includes the turning of new formers to make the traditional leather cup washers which create the seal in the pump to draw the water up the well. The hand pump by Watersfield stable has already been done, and has been frost proofed by a traditional method of using Hessian sacking stuffed with straw or hay, which will prevent the water in the pump freezing and cracking the cast iron barrel. The Whittaker’s pump is nearing completion and should be operational by the spring. This will make our pumps operable again and hopefully bombproof as they do receive a lot of use by enthusiastic visitors. The wind pump on the lake has already received the same treatment and although drained at present to avoid winter frost damage, was pumping water successfully for most of the summer (when there was sufficient wind).

On the same watery theme Knatts Lane Horse Whim is now a regular demonstration during the August Wonderful Wednesdays. The small space in which to work the whim excludes the use of the Museum’s shires but the presence of the South Eastern Working Donkey Group headed by Norman Roger has meant that operation by an animal was possible. Up until last year the whim had never been worked by an animal since its re-erection at the Museum. Norman’s willingness to “have a go” has meant that the intricacies of the winding gear can be demonstratedto their full potential with the help of Bobby (Normans donkey), much to the delight of spectators. Who would have thought that watching a bucket on a rope descending into a hole then reappearing again could be so entertaining!

From field to Bayleaf – our ongoing flax to linen project

Flax is a member of the linseed family, and is the same plant with longer stems and fibres. The fibres when extracted from the plant are called line, the raw material for linen. Releasing the fibres is a long and smelly process. Firstly the plant is pulled from the ground, not cut because the fibres run the full length of the plant. They are then tied into bundles or beets, secured by string. The beets are then put into a retting pond to rot, which takes ten to fifteen days. Soaking the stems helps release the fibres from the other plant matter. When the retting is complete the beets are removed from the pond, the string cut and the plants are spread out on grass or stubble to dry.

They must be constantly turned to dry. If they are not regularly turned they continue to ret which results in discoloured fibres. Once dry they are gathered and tied again into bundles and stored in a barn until required. To extract the fibres firstly the plant has to be broken up to remove as much of the woody plant material as possible. The tool used for this is similar to a wooden ‘guillotine’ with one or two blades and a hand bat used afterwards. Together they remove about 80% of the unwanted material.

The fibres, although separated from the plant are still clumped together in plant lengths, so individual fibres need separating. This is done by pulling handfuls of the fibres over sharp spikes or hackles. These start out quite large but work down to sharp needles to tease out the finest fibre. Then the fibre is ready for spinning! – which is the next process we are exploring.

Two years ago we grew our first crop of flax, retted it, and practised the processes involved. This year we have successfully produced fibre that has been spun into linen yarn – and fibre production will continue through the winter. Next season we intend to produce enough yarn to pilot a weaving project and – who knows? Eventually we aim to make an item of clothing with our own yarn from our own crop.

One of next year’s new “Focus Days” organised by the Interpretation Department is called ‘Grow Your Own Clothes’ and will demonstrate the processes involved in the production of clothing from both wool and linen. The “Focus Days” for 2008 are as follows:

	Twelfth Night Sunday 6 January
	Grow Your Own Clothes Sunday 13 April
	Small Beer & the Upper Crust Sunday 14 September
	Stir-up Sunday Sunday 23 November

Collections update

We continue to have a full programme of conservation and repair, mostly dealing with the larger items in our collection.

Paul Pinnington and Ben Headon, following their great success in restoring the Threshing Machine which was so impressively demonstrated at the Autumn Countryside Show, are now working to restore a Hop Wagon. This is one of the rarer items we have and was originally used on the Whitbread Estate in Kent to transport to full pockets of hops from the oast houses. During the conservation work being carried out in the Woodyard, it became evident that the wagon had started life as a timber wagon and was later converted for use carrying hops.

Meanwhile, Mike Piggott and John Hurd are busy returning a manual Potato Sorter to full working order so that it can be used on site with school groups. The sorter originally came from Aldwick Farm in Bognor.

An interesting and largely complete Earth Closet is being conserved and stabilised by Tony Roberts who is relatively new to the collections team but who has been volunteering at the museum for some time. The earth closet was uncovered by Joe Thompson when carrying out work to his house in Amberley and will provide an excellent comparison with other items in the Museum plumbing collection. Work to the timbers of Ockley Hay Barn continues in between other activities in the Downland Gridshell. Repairs to the roof have been completed and the dismantled timbers are now stored in Upper Gonville field where the barn will eventually be re-erected.

Besides the Threshing Train, which will be displayed in the barn, we also aim to include other, smaller items of relevance to the threshing process. To this end we are fully restoring a Sack Lifter, again from Aldwick Farm, so that it may be used as part of our demonstrations; work to this item has been carefully carried out by collections volunteers Debbie Channor and Judy Herbert.

As well as actual work to larger, individual items as mentioned above, we also have to plan for treatment to the main body of the collection stored in the Downland Gridshell. Carol Edwards is undertaking a Conservation Audit on our stored collections, which will give us an excellent overview on the condition of our artefacts and what and where problems are occurring. This will enable me to plan conservation work to the collection planned to take place over the winter and spring periods.

Coldwaltham Barn, which was moved from its original location in the woodland area to the Woodyard as part of one of Joe Thompson’s courses earlier in the year, has finally been completed and made ready for use following the recent tiling project. I am aiming to include a permanent display of timber processing items and information, a workshop area for the treatment of larger collection artefacts and another area for use by demonstrators.

The Long Vehicle Shed, superbly constructed by Steve Curtis, is nearing completion. Located in the area of waste ground behind West Wittering School, it will house a whole variety of carts, wagons and agricultural equipment, both standing and hung from the roof beams.

The smaller lean-to building which Steve has constructed at the rear of the Witley Joiners’ Shop will house our two tallest vehicles; the Gypsy Caravan which is currently undergoing repair in the Lower Gridshell Carpark, and the Reynolds Removal Wagon presently stored in a small bay along the back road of the Museum.

One extremely interesting donation, which we accepted a few weeks ago is a wooden Hop Press in extremely good and complete condition. Originally from an oast house in Kent, it is now on display in the Gridshell Artefact Store, adjacent to our existing cast iron example from Bepton. Come and see it!

Finally, the DCF video project finishes at the end of March, and Ollie, James and Tim are working hard to complete the planned set of videos. So far, they have completed three – Land Preparation, Horse Gin and Harvesting, and are still working on Livestock Management and Woodland Work. They also have to complete the wheelwrighting film for which they captured footage earlier this year, which is part of the “parallel” DCF project being carried out by MERL (the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading).

Julian Bell - Curator

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