SPECIAL EXHIBITION: 2008

In Touch with Our Ancestors

For most of 2008 we were In Touch with Our Ancestors. No, not a séance, but a chance for the whole family to touch, see and even smell the past and to get a view of the daily life of our ancestors over many centuries – what they ate and drank, what their homes were like, how they kept clean (or didn’t!) and even how they communicated - without the use of mobiles, emails or even a postal system!

It was an exhibition based entirely on the evidence our ancestors left behind from their everyday living – the things they used, what they wrote and what they left buried in the ground for us to discover by digging it up. It was also a chance to get ‘hands on’ and experience history. The ‘touchy, feely, smelly’ drawers allowed everyone to get hold of the past and the children could have a go at being a Time Detective - digging up the past in our ‘discover it’ sandpit, creating their own Roman mosaic, colouring in the costume sheets or looking for the 35 answers to our special Fun Quiz.

Meanwhile, the adults could find out about the latest discoveries of the exciting Burh to Borough Project that is actively excavating the town’s past, browse the original documents on display and marvel at the building techniques of our ancestors. There was something to catch everyone’s interest and to satisfy both those who had time for only a short visit, and those who wanted to get some real depth of knowledge.