Following last year’s sell-out Behind the Scenes Tours, we are now running the tours on the first Saturday of every month, starting at 2.30pm.
Led by the museum Director or another member of the team, this 90-minute tour is a unique opportunity to explore areas of the museum not seen by the public and view some of the many fascinating items in hidden away in the King’s House. Limited to 10 places, pre-booking advised.
Salisbury Museum has a large number of postcards in its collection.
In the “olden days” people’s photographs were made into postcards. There are many examples of these from before WW1. We know the dates because of the clear postmarks on them. Thus we have many photographs of everyday scenes represented in this collection of images. All the postcards have been scanned, both front and reverse.
With these photographic postcard images we might know the date but usually little else. As they were not mass produced, there is seldom any information about the scene. But is is amazing what one can achieve with a little detective work and Google.
Here is a street scene of a grand house and a shop. There are a number of people in the scene including three small girls. From the reverse we have the date as March 31st 1909. The postmark says it was posted at Donhead. The address is just a name followed by the village; namely Master T Hewitson at Ludwell. The postman was expected to know every villager by name in those “olden days”! Can you locate the scene?
By using Google street view I have found a match. To my amazement, the village shop today looks much the same as it did over 100 years ago. It has lost some of its frontage to road. The grand house has the same three bedroom windows and two chimney stacks. The front door has been moved, and all the decorative ironwork, from both house and shop, has gone! The scene is Ludwell, still recognisable 115 years later.
Wonderful photos, as always, from Alan. Thank you.
If you haven’t visited the Fashioning Our World exhibition yet, there is still time. And my experience has been that one visit isn’t enough. It is full of surprises, interesting ideas and an enjoyable mix of History and fashion.
My favourite exhibit is below, though choosing just one was difficult..
It was, of course, the eye-catching garment on the right which drew me to this display, but it is war which is the link between them. On the right is a dressing gown from the Second World War, now more than eighty years old. Made from scraps garnered from anywhere and anything, including a piece of parachute, this became, at a time of strict rationing, someone’s pride and joy.
On the left is an overall worn by female workers in munitions factories. I think the one on display is also eighty years old but it is very similar to those also worn twenty-five years before, in the First World War.
Both, very different, items of clothing seem to me to say so much about the resilience, determination, ingenuity and make-do and get on with it attitude of women of that generation.
I first learnt about ‘Walking Pictures’ a few months ago (see older blog). Thus when I was looking through the museum’s image archive of people, I recognised another walking pictures image.
This time the reverse has some detail on it: “Tom Rattue outside W H Smith taken 1920 or 1930”. Note that W H Smiths was on the corner of High Street and New Canal then, where Waterstones. now is. The reverse also gives “COLEMAN’S Photograph’s Service, Boscombe Beach, 10 Royal Arcade, Boscombe”. Great information for the image detective to get stuck into.
However I noticed the “Wear a Flanders Poppy” poster, and did a search for this with great success! It was issued in 1925 and is out of copyright. I thus downloaded the image and added it to image collection with the suffix ‘c’. The front of the image has suffix ‘a’ and the reverse ‘b’.
If anyone wants to research Tom Rattue or Coleman’s, I will add their finds to the image archive. Also, if anyone can make out the Children’s book on display outside W H Smiths or any other details, I shall be very interested.
This month, usual host Katy England was busy organising our latest temporary exhibition, ‘Fashioning Our World,’ so Owain Hughes took over Conversation Club, leading with a brief but fascinating talk about the Amesbury Archer.
We were able handle artefacts from the era and discuss questions prepared by Katy. Although most of us had seen the Archer in his case in the Wessex Gallery, a more in-depth discussion of his importance as a bringer of new technologies to a Stone Age world was revealing and relatable to the impact of new technologies today.
We went in to the Wessex Gallery and found ourselves looking at the Archer and the objects with new respect and wonder.
Under Fives Friday
Hopefully the last session to be held in the hall at Harnham…. although a very satisfactory venue, everyone is looking forward to be being back in the museum.
This event was a music session hosted by Liv and was as popular as ever with both children and parents.
Hopefully, our regulars and newer participants will all eventually become museum Members – at least one regular renewed at this session. We run through the benefits at each meeting.
The May meeting will be run by regular Volunteers Mary and Sally, introducing the new Natural History Gallery…back in the museum!
Salisbury Museum still has quite a collection of former Director, Frank Stevens’ personal “clutter”.
Back in 2011 someone at the museum (a volunteer?) went through many of these items, placed them in plastic wallets and gave them MODES references.
We have just got round to scanning the images (photographs).
In one scan, I recognised the metal lattice work, This was the original bridge over the river Avon built near the Clock Tower in Fisherton Street. And, yes, there is the clock tower in the background on the far left of the image. The building in the centre background is also still there. I knew it as the Bull Hotel, 11 Fisherton Street, Salisbury.
Now for the image date. Frank Stevens had the image in his possession, so it dates from before his demise in1949. The car is around 1920s. The ladies dress styles* are around 1920s Who is the lady – a relative of Mr Stevens? Are the three ladies and two children behind also related? On the back of the photograph are the words “LUMENART FILMS” ; a change from Kodak!
This is where this small insignificant card photograph suddenly became of far greater importance. I put these two words into Google search and came up with:
Click here, or on the links above and find out more about the story of walking pictures by Simon Robinson. I had not known of “walking pictures” where a series of three photographs were taken in quick succession. So Frank or a friend of his, probably purchased this image with two other images from a professional travelling photographer. We may learn more.
* cloche hats, bar strap shoes, knee length skirts, double breasted coats, round rim glasses, bobbed hair, loose fitting , dropped waist etc.
Thank you, as always, Alan, for a gem from the archives. And I think we have all learned something new!
If you travel north up the east side of the Woodford valley you come to Great Durnford. If you carry on, past the Inn and past the church, the road turns sharp right and down a very steep hill.
I remember when this road was an unsurfaced track as you see here in this photo.
The photograph here was taken whilst climbing up over this hill the other way, coming towards the sharp bend and Great Durnford beyond.
It was called a sunken lane in those days with snowdrops covering the side banks. Beech was the dominant tree species. Although unsurfaced, the track was still used by cars and cyclists, especially for visiting The Black Horse Inn.
The B&W photograph captures the idyllic early spring scene so much enjoyed by country folk of yore.
Certainly enjoyed by us, and Spring is coming. Thank you Alan.
Many years ago, the museum had donated to it some shoe boxes full of photographic glass plates (negatives). In fact 1,598 of them.
These had been stored in a garage for many decades. These negatives had been taken by Wilfred Chaplin, the founder of Salisbury Camera Club.
We had soon scanned them all. There was no documentation with them, and of course you can’t write on the back of a glass plate negative. However, we could recognise the majority of scenes as they were local – Salisbury and its environs. Some images such as the large wrought iron gates at Wilton House and the ornamental well-head in Heale House grounds, did require visits to confirm.
On a recent revisit to the images there was one which I thought I now recognised. The image is reproduced here. A village and its stream. Do you recognise it?
I hadn’t looked at this image in detail before. When you have over a thousand images to deal with, most images are not scrutinised in detail. I hadn’t noticed the gentleman in shorts standing on the left. There is also a person, in perhaps military uniform, on the right of the bridge. I zoomed in on the shorts-clad man, and discovered to my amazement that he is not alone!
Possibly the rest of Wilfred Chaplin’s party?
From the image archive, I retrieved some photographs of Castle Coombe. The image below is more typical and familiar where the photographer has captured the full bridge and church. It is a very good match to Wilfred’s image, confirming my guess at his location. It would appear that the place has been tidied up since Wilfred took his photograph.
Even in this image there are lots of people that I hadn’t noticed.
I could spend hours just zooming in on such images and discovering the myriad of information high resolution scans of negatives contain.
The detail often reveals the really interesting stuff in historical photos. Thank you Alan, for this latest batch.
The Fashioning Our World exhibition will feature fashion items from the past which tell powerful stories of sustainability and is opening soon at The Salisbury Museum.
Alongside a selection of clothes and accessories that have been repurposed, mended and loved, the exhibition will showcase work by well-known and emerging fashion designers, sustainability experts and students displayed on a series of miniature mannequins.
Amongst others, designers whose work is featured in the exhibition include British fashion design icon Dame Zandra Rhodes, subversive fashion designer Jonny Banger, and designer and writer of a bestselling book on sustainable fashion Orsola de Castro.
Included in these is a miniature replica of the famous cape worn on stage by Freddie Mercury from Queen which was designed by Dame Zandra Rhodes. The miniature version has been made for the exhibition by Dame Zandra Rhodes using an off cut of fabric from her studio.
The exhibition has been co-curated with young people who have helped chose the objects on display, plan the themes, and design the information panels. The exhibition is part of a recent project at The Salisbury Museum called Fashioning Our World (www.fashioningourworld.co.uk) which is engaging young people with stories of sustainability in the past and supporting them to inspire the community to make positive sustainable choices in the future.
“We are really excited about this exhibition. It has been amazing to work with the young people on this exhibition – they have so many amazing ideas! We have discovered so many stories of sustainability in the collection, we can’t wait for people to be able to see them. We also really appreciate the enthusiasm from the fantastic fashion designers who have contributed to this exhibition. It is brilliant to be able to include their work,” said Katy England Fashioning Our World Project Manager.
The exhibition will be officially opened by clothing designer and TV personality Patrick Grant, at the launch event for the whole family on Saturday 10th February.
The Fashioning Our World project was made possible by a grant of £87,828 awarded from The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund – delivered by the Museums Association. It was also supported by Wessex Museums.
The project is aiming to inspire other heritage organisations to work in a similar way with their fashion collections. Dorset Museum have run a series of Fashioning Our World sessions for young people linked to their own collection of clothing and accessories.
The Salisbury Museum fashion collection contains over 3,500 items dating from the last 300 years. The garments are from all aspects of life including weddings and christenings, formal occasions, and occupations such as farming and the military. Accessories also form a large part of the collection, and these include fans, brooches, parasols, buttons, gloves, hats and shoes.
The Fashioning Our World project follows on from the previous success of the Look Again project (2018-2021), in which the museum worked alongside young people, volunteers and experts to reinterpret and redisplay the fashion collection. The Look Again project was funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund – delivered by the Museums Association.
“There’s an incredible amount of detail in Howard Phipps wood engravings – I assumed they were much, much larger than they actually are. He must have very good eyesight and a very, very steady hand.”