LATEST NEWS

Special for 2008 - now: "In Touch with Our Ancestors"

From now to the end of October we will be In Touch with Our Ancestors. No, not a séance, but a chance for the whole family to touch, see and even smell the past. This year we’re taking you back further, 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’s an exhibition that is 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’s also a chance to get ‘hands on’ and experience history. The ‘touchy, feely, smelly’ drawers allow everyone to get hold of the past and the children can 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 can find out about the latest discoveries of the exciting Burh to Borough Project that is actively excavating the town’s past this year, browse the original documents on display and marvel at the building techniques of our ancestors. We hope there is something to catch everyone’s interest and to satisfy both those who have time for only a short visit, and those who want to get some real depth of knowledge.

Special for 2008 - this November: "Wallingford's Artistic Legacy"

For the whole of November, our second exhibition is something of a first – an exhibition of works of art, not for sale but to enjoy and admire, called Wallingford’s Artistic Legacy: the Victorian Painters, their Pupils & Descendants. On show will be rarely-seen examples of the work of the major Victorian painters who lived in Wallingford: the Hayllar and Leslie families and Claude Rowbotham, plus a wide selection of the paintings of their local pupils, especially featuring Kate Latter (see her painting of a malthouse in St Martin's Street - below). Also on show will be reproductions from South Africa and New Zealand of the works of Hayllar & Leslie’s descendants.

The exhibition is being supported by two local societies, coincidentally both based in Goring. GADFAS (The Goring Decorative & Fine Arts Society) is marking the its twentieth anniversary year in 2007 by generously donating £500 towards the cost of mounting the exhibition and the Goring & Streatley Local History Society has kindly agreed to pay for mounting and framing four Kate Latter paintings which were recently given to the Museum to join this one.

We have established the whereabouts locally of a number of other Latter paintings, as well as those by Rowbotham and the Hayllars, but we would be very interested to be contacted by anyone else who might be prepared to loan work by any of these or any 20th century painter active in Wallingford up to the late 1920s to add to the exhibition. Please ring Stuart Dewey on 01491 651127 or e-mail to museum@piepowder.co.uk.

2008 Special Events

The 2008 Family Archaeology Day will be from 10.00am to 4.00pm on Sunday 20 July 2008 and will again coincide with Wallingford Funday (click here for Funday website). We hope it will be another big success, with lots of children trying their hands at wielding a trowel. Pictured here is a moment during last year's event with Wallingford Mayor, Betty Atkins, showing the children how to do it! (photo by Stu Darby).

The next FINDS & FOSSILS DAY will be held on Saturday 13 September. Once again, experts will be on hand to help you identify your archaeological or fossil finds.

There'll also be some more of the popular Historic Guided Walks with our local historians pointing out aspects of your town you've never noticed before! The walks will coincide with the Finds & Fossils Day so on Saturday 13 September there'll be a Castle History Walk starting from the Museum at 11.00am and a Town History Walk starting from the Museum at 2.30pm.

New Joint Publicity Venture

Wallingford Museum has joined four other local attractions to create a new publicity partnership - Days Out around Wallingford & the Wittenhams. The other organisations are: Pendon Museum, Project Timescape, Dorchester Abbey Museum and the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway. Each organisation helps promote the others so tourists - both local and from afar - will be encouraged to "make a day of it" by visiting two or three of the attractions on the same day. Each attraction has a link to the special "Days Out" website which includes a map - click here - and we have produced a joint leaflet.

'Burh to Borough' Project

For three years from January this year, the Museum and TWHAS (see last item) are taking part in the next and most exciting phase of this major research programme which is being led by archaeologists from the Universities of Exeter and Leicester. It involves archival research, geophysics surveys and practical archaeology, all based in and around Wallingford. As the results emerge, they will be presented in the Museum in a special section of In Touch with Our Ancestors. Because your ticket entitles you to unlimited visits, you'll be able to follow progress as often as you like! The geophysics undertaken in the Spring yielded some fascinating results and this will be followed by three weeks of excavation in July/August. To find out more about the project, click here.

Recent Acquisition: The Tony Morris Collection

Recently the Museum was delighted to be presented by Tony Morris with his entire collection of Wallingford ephemera. This is a very large body of photographs, memorabilia, bills, stationery and all sorts of fascinating local items - everything from a Post Office sign to a desk calendar! Many of them were saved from oblivion by Tony in his occupation doing house clearances. At the moment only a few items are on show as we are still steadily working through cataloguing everything but gradually more and more will make an appearance. At the same time, the Museum purchased Tony's wonderful collection of Wallingford china, like this miniature Town Hall which is what started him collecting over 30 years ago. One of our shop windows features a selection of the china - come and see these remarkable pieces close-up!

Recent Acquisition: Cake Cutter

We recently received the gift of this lovingly maintained piece of local agricultural history - a Wilder's Cake Cutter. Used for grinding up cakes of animal feed, this ferocious machine is still in full working order. It was made by John Wilder & Co at Yield Hall Foundry in Reading but this firm had close connections with our town as it was started by James Wilder, brother of the Richard who began the Wallingford foundry. The two firms later combined.

Come & see it - but don't put your fingers in it!

Last year - a Great Success Story

The Museum's 2007 season was one of the most successful ever, with record visitor numbers. In all we had a total of just under 3,000 visitors (including over 400 children) most of whom came in to see the highly acclaimed exhibition "I Remember That..!" which proved very popular with all age-groups. If you missed the exhibition, you can click here to see some photos.

TWHAS Information

This website also hosts pages about our sister organisation, The Wallingford Historical and Archaeological Society. The meetings programme for 2008 can be found here.