Granny Cousins

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a knocker up, Granny Cousins, Poole, Poole Museum

As part of our partnership with Wessex Museums (made up of Dorchester, Poole, Devizes – Wiltshire – and ourselves) we have this from Poole Museum.

Granny Cousins was a Poole lady whose job it was, in the days before watches and clocks became common, to go about the town of Poole and wake up the rope-workers and others by hammering on their windows with a long pole. The most fascinating part of the story is that she is said to have started at three in the morning – pretty grim hours for her, but who was the poor workman who was first on her list and had to be up so much earlier than the others? Perhaps it was a case of last in, first to get up?

Granny Cousins died in 1927 – within living memory, almost anyway, for many – and it is interesting to think that her work was still necessary as late as the last part of the nineteenth century when she must have been in her prime. She is often referred to as the last of the ‘knocker-ups’, a role which must reach back centuries.

More about Granny Cousins next time….

The Ooser is Coming!

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Dorset, Museum, News, Poole, Pottery

More about him later.  Meanwhile….

Pottery

After the success of the first Spotlight Loan tour from the Wessex Partnership we have decided to continue with our own spotlight tours. This second series of Spotlight Loans between the four leading museums (Dorset County Museum, The Salisbury Museum, Poole Museum and Wiltshire Museum) will focus on ‘Made in Wessex’.  Wessex has been a centre of making for thousands of years. The downland, heathland, rivers and coast of Wessex have shaped the making and use of artefacts, from ancient flints to contemporary ceramics. The new tours will tell the stories of Dorset and Wiltshire focusing on this tradition of making, and reveals some surprising and fascinating objects to illustrate the theme.

Our first spotlight loan will be four examples of Crown Dorset Pottery. The Crown Dorset Art Pottery was established by Charles Collard in Poole in 1905. The pottery produced was very similar to that of the Devon potteries where Collard had previously worked, although Collard also developed new styles.

The pieces you see in the image below are examples of Cottage Ware, produced for the tourist and cheaper end of the market in a range of shapes and sizes. These were usually decorated with country scenes and a motto in Dorset dialect, often quoting the Dorset poet William Barnes.

Between November 2017 and November 2018 you will see the following objects:

Crown Dorset Pottery (Poole Museum)

Dorset Ooser (It’s a mask! Dorset County Museum)

Wiltshire Moonrakers Plate (Wiltshire Museum)