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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.
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 attr actions 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 mai ntained
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. |