SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS: 2006

From Cross-Stitch to Computers

This, the first Special Exhibition in our new downstairs gallery, was about Cranford House School in Moulsford which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2006.

It told the unusual story of the founding of the School in her own home by a local resident, Miss Laurence, and the richly illustrated history of its growth to the present day. The rest of the room was transformed into a mid-20th century schoolroom complete with desks, blackboard and memorabilia.

Miss Laurence (whose mother gave the Laurence Hall in Cholsey) originally lived and began the school in the riverside property called Cranford House which is now Moulsford Prep School. Later she bought Moulsford House opposite with its outbuildings, known as Willow Court (formerly the factory of the original Danish Bacon Company started by a Danish pig-farmer, Mr Hansen of Blackalls Farm, Cholsey. The school, much enhanced and enlarged, still stands on this site.

The exhibition also highlighted the significant changes in education throughout the second half of the last century.

 

Wallingford Underground

This brand new downstairs exhibition brought together photographs, drawings, results and a map of the surprisingly large number of excavations which have taken place in Wallingford in the past forty years. It presents many previously unpublished photographs, such as some from the Castle excavations in the 1960s which reveal part of the medieval town gateway and 13th century buildings (below), and others from the graveyard of the Saxon church of St Martin now reburied under the new Waitrose site.

In addition to the displays there was (and still is!) a comprehensive file of reports of excavations which can be consulted – the archaeological equivalent to the documentary Sources for Wallingford History

There was also a remarkable collection of fieldwalking finds from the Benson & Ewelme areas, such as this group of 18/19th century lead cloth or wool seals (below).

1155 & All That!

In 2005, Wallingford marked the 850th anniversary of the granting of its Royal Charter by Henry II. This exhibition was mounted as part of the celebrations - it was so popular that we decided to retain it for a further year.

In it our cartoon character CHARTERMAN (see left) guided the visitor through the background to Wallingford’s historic Charter. He showed you WHAT it all means, WHY the Charter was granted, WHEN & WHERE it all happened and WHO was involved.

It was all told in short, easy to understand captions and colourful pictures, including a huge floor-to-ceiling version of the Charter in modern English (in a new translation by a local expert) with every tricky word and phrase explained. Within half-an-hour, you too could be an expert...!

And you still can! The book 1155 & All That! is available price £4.95 from the Museum Bookshop, Wallingford Bookshop or Toby English or direct from the publishers, Pie Powder Press (see their website at www.piepowder.co.uk)

The Borough Seal from a document dated 1299