Fun with Photos

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volunteer

We have another photo from the archives of Mrs Fawcett (she of the cape – see 20 February). It is interesting to ‘do an Alan’ with this one (Alan Clarke is a Volunteer who works with our photographic archive and frequently contributes photos for the interest of our blog readers, guiding us through a forensic observation of these).

It is obviously a posed photograph, taken, presumably, in a photographer’s studio. Mr Fawcett (and we must assume it is he – far too intimate a pose for it to be anyone else) is wearing a remarkable tie! What at first appear to be pince nez (spectacles that perched on the nose, without ear pieces) may, in fact, be glasses with small lenses. Is one lens blacked out?

We can learn a lot about costume from photographs of course, and often date a photo by dating the clothes. Mr Fawcett’s jacket, with its wide lapels and cuff effect on the sleeves is typical of the 1870s. Wing collars were still worn on shirts, but so were the more modern type seen here. No turn-ups on the trousers, lace-up boots – both bang on trend. Even his hair, medium-long at the sides and back but with ears showing, is just right for that decade.

For the ladies, the crinoline (effectively a wide cage worn under the skirt of a dress to make it stand out in an exaggerated fashion) had gone out of fashion by 1870 and Mrs Fawcett appears to be wearing a bustle under her dress in this photograph. This was a more limited framework designed to support the fullness of the back of the dress, giving an interesting shape but, more practically, making sure that the material was lifted clear of the ground. One source suggests that as the bustle became fashionable, so “the hair got higher”. No explanation, but it certainly appears so from this photo. Zigzag, lacy or scalloped edges were all the rage, as were decorations achieved with arrangements of buttons – all of which we can see on the dress here. There appears to be a crotcheted shawl on her lap.

Mrs Fawcett is wearing a very dark dress, suggesting she might be in mourning.

The pose would hit the wrong note in the 21st century. The wife is seated obediently (and below!) the husband, supposedly reading dutifully to him.

If you have early family photos at home, you can have the same fun with them. All of the costume information is available on the internet of course (or a good book!).

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Finishing Touches

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Collections, Museum, volunteer, Volunteering

All the nice girls love a soldier

Spot the mannequin

 

April is here and the Big Clean is over for another year. Katherine Searle-Barnes (left – on student placement) and Heather Balston (right – a Volunteer usually seen behind a computer) add final polish in the Costume Gallery.

Perhaps we should have a captions competition for some of these photos? Allow your cursor to linger over these  (above) and see what captions we did choose here…

Quirky Photographs. More from Volunteer Alan Clarke…

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Collections, Museum, volunteer

Alan Clarke is a Volunteer at Salisbury Museum who works with the museum’s photographic archive. Readers here enjoy Alan’s regular blog contributions.

Austin Underwood used to capture images that no-one else thought interesting.

The Pitt-Rivers museum (at Farnham, Dorset), now closed, was a very large, specially designed building consisting of many well-lit galleries. Salisbury museum has quite a number of images of these galleries and their contents.

There is one image of the billiard table being used to display hundreds of artefacts – a valuable display space, rather than an opportunity to play billiards or snooker! There is an image of the plan of the building with its galleries which dwarf the small attached living quarters.

The grounds (now the Larmer Tree Gardens) were quite extensive as well; full of buildings Pitt-Rivers had brought from India* and had re-erected. One building was a Yak House, so he acquired some yaks to live in it!

He not only acquired yaks but quite a number of other exotic animal species. Salisbury museum has photographs of these, too, including a white peacock; not so dramatic with only black and white photography.

Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers even had a large statue made of a Roman soldier, which used to stand outside his museum but can now be seen on the grass behind Salisbury Museum.

This is where Austin Underwood’s skill is useful to add something else to the understanding of the Pitt Rivers museum.  Austin’s photograph, above, shows how even the Dorset signpost at Thickthorn Cross (Grid ref 965130) was carefully modified, using the correct font, to give directions to the museum.  Note the crescent piece added to the sign end to give a smooth super curve.  Only Austin would have stopped and photographed this signpost.  The whole signpost has long since gone and even the cross roads rebuilt as staggered junctions.

*Editor’s note: in fact these buildings may have been brought from the Great Exhibition in London – remarkable enough! An extract from Historic England’s Heritage Explorer site says:

“Pitt-Rivers aimed to make the museum an attraction for a very large audience and to offer something different from other museums. The museum existed until the 1960s. A part of the collection can still be seen in Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. He gave his main collection to Oxford University and the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford was opened in 1884.”

HIGH STREET CONNECTION WITH STONEHENGE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY by Volunteer Alan Clarke

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Collections, Salisbury, Stonehenge, volunteer

Alan Clarke brings us more interesting photographs and a fascinating story of the connection between High Street, Salisbury and the Stonehenge Woollen Industry which we heard about last week.

A standing live ram held by a hoisting belt was the emblem adopted by the Duke of Burgundy when he founded the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1430.  He obtained great wealth from the wool trade in Flanders.  This emblem, the golden fleece, was adopted as the traditional sign of a woollen draper’s shop.  Hence the carved sheep above the former SPCK shop at 51 High Street, Salisbury.

Charles Scammell, an antique dealer, sold 51 High Street to Catherine Lovibond in about 1919.  Catherine was the youngest of three daughters of Joseph Lovibond (1833-1918), a former Mayor of Salisbury (1878-1890), who lived at Lake House, up the Woodford valley.  He was chairman of John Lovibond & Sons, Ltd, and of The Tintometer Ltd.

Catherine trained as a designer and took an interest in spinning and weaving. Encouraged by her father who had no sons, she started to teach the local women the processes involved, setting up looms and spinning wheels in Lake House. At first things did not go well but gradually the scheme caught on, so that by 1900 some of the products were being exhibited at the Albert Hall.  A company called the Stonehenge Woollen Industries was formed and despite a fire which almost destroyed Lake House in 1912, expansion continued, moving to Stratford sub Castle after the death of her father in 1918. Retail outlets were established in four places including 51 High Street, Salisbury.  This is when the carved sheep was placed over the High Street door to denote her trade.

51 High Street, sheep in view to the left

Catherine married Major Radcliffe James Lindsay Bashford in 1919 but he died soon afterwards on 20 August 1921.  Then in 1929 she became the third wife of Rowland George Allanson Allanson-Winn; Lord Hedley.  In his youth he had been editor of the Salisbury Journal for two years.  He died 22 June 1935.

After the death of Catherine (Lady Headley) the business carried on for some years and it was not until 1959 that the shop was sold to the SPCK who at the time occupied 56 High Street, Salisbury.  The sheep trade sign was retained and remains to the present day.

A lady who lived close by me was 99 years old when she gave me an interview.  She told me she used to work in the High Street shop as a young girl.  She still had a Stonehenge Woollen Industries’ scarf.  The shop used to supply patterns and wool for people to knit orders, often to be fulfilled in 2 or 3 days.  Catherine used to travel to London by train to sell the items and to take orders.  Another neighbour remembers her mother knitting frantically last thing at night to finish off a garment.  Catherine originally set up the industry to provide employment for those in the countryside however its greatest use was to give employment to those returning from the First World War.

A Stonehenge Woollen Industries scarf

 

 

Stonehenge Woollen Industry

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volunteer

A question was raised about this industry recently,  at a Volunteers’ gathering. Alan Clarke has found these photos in our archives…

The industry was started by Catherine Lovibond (whose family owned Lake House) for women out-workers on the estate.

Women with their spindle wheels outside the Stonehenge Woollen Industry shop in Wilsford-cum-Lake near Amesbury in 1898.

The Weaving Room

Alan says he has more on this topic, which is something to look forward to. This mode of production was already outdated, of course, by the late 1800s, but cottage industries (literally production in cottages, usually, but not always, by the women at home) were not unusual.

 

SOUNDWAVES! TOWARDS MUSIC – BRIAN GRAHAM by Volunteer Alan Crooks

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Archaeology, Stonehenge, volunteer

When I first heard, some months ago now, that Brian Graham was going to exhibit a set which integrated archaeology, music and art, I immediately thought of Stonehenge, as I recalled reading something not too long ago of a theory concerning the acoustic properties of Stonehenge.

Coincidentally, this cropped up in my Facebook ‘Memories’ feed last week (‘Memories’ is one of my favourite features of Facebook). It was a 2012 paper by a doctoral researcher at Rock Arts Acoustics USA, one Steven Waller, who specialises in the sound properties of ancient sites, – the science of archaeoacoustics.

To understand this, one needs to appreciate that sound propagates through a medium (solid, liquid or gas) by means of waves. As a Science teacher, I used to demonstrate the properties of waves by means of a ripple tank. If standing water is disturbed on one side of a barrier containing a small gap, the waves are seen to fan out on the other side. This effect can be seen in real life at Lulworth Cove in Dorset (Fig.1).

Fig 1. Diffraction of waves at Lulworth Cove

When the barrier contains two gaps, the waves fanning out from each interfere with one another, causing the wave heights to be amplified in some places, and cancel out at others, creating ‘interference patterns’. This same effect occurs with sound. Thus Stephen Waller experimented by asking blindfolded volunteers to walk into a field as two pipers played. He then mapped where the volunteers said they could hear reduced or even no sound – so called ‘dead spots’.  The volunteers experienced quiet patches created by acoustic interference, leading to the ‘auditory illusion’ that massive objects stood between the listener and the instruments being played. Waller said that the volunteers “drew structures, archways and openings that are very similar to Stonehenge”. He speculated that the people who built Stonehenge may have become aware of this sound-cancelling effect during ceremonies involving musicians and would have thought it mystical – even magical, thus motivating them to build a stone circle whose design mimicked this acoustic illusion.

Interestingly, one of the legends concerning the ‘Merry Maidens’ neolithic stone circle, near St Buryan in Cornwall, says that some nineteen maidens, accompanied by two pipers, were dancing and making merry on a Sunday, and, as punishment for this sacrilege, they were all turned to stone –  petrified in a perfect circle – with the two pipers standing by themselves a little way off. This legend is reflected in the local name for the stone circle, Dans maen, meaning ‘dancing stones’.

There are also two other stones associated with the Merry Maidens, ‘The Fiddler’ to the west and the ‘Blind Fiddler’ to the north.

Such petrification legends concerning dancers and pipers (or at least, musicians) are frequently associated with stone circles throughout Britain, another example being ‘The Pipers Stones’ or Athgreany Stone Circle in County Wicklow. The Merry Maidens stone circle was depicted several times in Salisbury Museum’s 2017 exhibition, ‘British Art: Ancient Landscapes’, for example, in Ithell Colquhoun’s painting ‘Landscapes with Antiques, Lamorna’ (1955) (Fig 2).

Fig 2. ‘Landscape with Antiques, Lamorna’, showing the Merry Maidens stone circle and ‘The Pipers’ (Ithell Colquhoun, 1955).

In view of this I find myself slightly disappointed that Brian Graham’s exhibition does not explicitly feature Stonehenge.

I shall return to the subject of waves in a future blog.

 

THE BELLS! THE BELLS…..! by Volunteer Alan Clarke

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Collections, Museum, Salisbury, volunteer

We have another gem from Alan Clarke who works with our photographic archive.

In early November 1972, that is 46 years ago, at least one bell arrived at the museum.

The museum has many fascinating objects.  One or two are what I would call extremely heavy, defined as my not being able to lift them unaided.  How did they get to the museum and to their place on display?

People love to speculate and invent theories as to how these heavy objects arrived and were moved around.  Just look at the large number of theories as to how the very large stones at Stonehenge were moved around.  This is where photography can help provide the answers.

 

Ed: this photo includes Hugh Shortt (right), Curator of Salisbury and S Wilts Museum in the 1970s.

 

In our project to scan all the Salisbury Journal negatives we have so far achieved twenty years’ worth – from 1953 to the end of 1972 (yes, that is 20 years, not 19).  In the collection of images for November 1972, there were three photographs which referenced Salisbury Museum.  These three images show a large bell arriving at the museum, and how it was moved within the museum.  No Sampson, no great crane, just the skill of several workers cheered on by the management.  However, careful examination of one image does show that the van, with its tailboard down, has an arm mechanism for swinging the bell out from the van’s floor, and lowering it down to the museum floor.  As you can observe in the images, great use was made of lengths of 4 inch by 2 inch wood to protect the floor.  Also, in the image with the bell arriving, there is a second bell already in the museum.  Salisbury was famous for bell making in Culver Street and Guilder Lane until around 1730, and hence the museum has some displays illustrating this lost industry.  However, I must admit that I thought the museum only had one large bell.  I couldn’t even find this bell on the museum website.  ‘Must have been overlooked.  I should go and look around the museum more carefully.*

 

Looking at the footwear in the images, I would advise that, when the bells are moved again, steel capped industrial shoes are worn by all in the vicinity, just in case a rolling bell…  (This is an ellipsis in honour of Terry Pratchett.  You did see the exhibition with the ellipsis bell on the mantlepiece, didn’t you? He used to ring it whenever Rob Wilkins wrote “…”)

 

 

 

 

 

Editor’s note: The bell on display in the Salisbury gallery is a fibreglass replica. I wonder if what we see in the image of the bell arriving is the original and the replica together? We shall find out…

LAST MAN STANDING

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Archaeology, Collections, Museum, Stonehenge, volunteer, Volunteering

OR    The Last of the Box Makers by Volunteer Mary Crane

Everyone who worked on the Pitt-Rivers collection (and probably anyone who has attended a coffee morning) will know that some larger museum items, eg model stone Celtic crosses, need to be packed in purpose-made boxes.

Confronted with an instruction sheet, two thicknesses of corrugated card, a metre rule, pencil, craft knife, glue gun and tape,  I think all of us had a go, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, at making boxes.

Once all the Pitt-Rivers artefacts were safely stowed away, most volunteers moved on to other areas of the museum’s collections. However, when Adrian realised he still had a few willing box-makers (and lots of unused card) he introduced four of us to the History Store (up in the ‘gods’ behind a no-entry curtain!). There we found large models of Stonehenge, of barrows, and of flint mines and the like. Sue and Alan Haddock, Roger Collins and I have slowly worked our way through, producing custom-made boxes for these, and packing objects away.

Some boxes had to have little flaps at the side so that hands would be able to reach in and extract the models. Some had to have a front flap and a movable tray so that the object inside could be pulled out. Others have flip down sides. We were constrained by the size, shape and weight of each object, the amount of storage space on shelves, and, increasingly as time went on, by the size of the pieces of cardboard we had left.

Some models, like that of the flint mine, had little model people (and a dog!) attached, and all these had to be carefully swaddled. Packing became quite an art as once in the box, the object had to be immovable and protected from inadvertent knocks. Presumably quite a lot of these objects will be moved to the new storage unit at Old Sarum and we expect them to be able to survive the journey intact.

There are just a few of the very large models left. The Haddocks have moved on to other volunteer work and Roger and I are now the only box makers left. While we await some more large sheets of card, Adrian has found us some clocks to box and pack. What else will he find, we wonder?! It is very satisfying though, to know that we are helping to protect the museum’s collections for future generations.

As for me, I enjoy making boxes. I can’t speak for Roger!

THE CERAMIC AGE. TALK BY ROY WILDE reported by Volunteer Mary Crane

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Archaeology, Collections, Museum, Pottery, volunteer, Wiltshire

 

Neolithic Grooved Ware

At the Volunteer coffee morning on 22 February, Roy Wilde gave a very informative talk on Neolithic pottery from Durrington Walls and Woodhenge.

In one of the drawers in the Wessex Gallery is a collection of late Neolithic pottery from these two sites. Roy referred to this as the “Ceramic Age” and considers the Durrington Walls and Woodhenge assemblage as probably the most significant from the Neolithic period in Europe.

During the excavation of Durrington Walls in 1966, Geoffrey Wainwright found grooved ware  –  the first type of pottery in Britain with a flat, rather than rounded, base. Earlier round-based pots had been tempered (made stronger) with flint and survived well in fires and so could be used for cooking. The grooved flat-bottomed pots were free standing. They had been made with a softer substance with shell or grog (pieces of previously fired clay) temper. These pots were not good conductors of heat and would shatter in fire. They were also porous.

Further investigations showed the grooved pots had been used for fermentation and dairy products. They had a refrigerating effect, being porous, which aided evaporation. Grooves increased the surface area and increased the effect.

In conclusion, Roy said that the emergence of grooved ware was the great leap of the Neolithic Age, the pots having a practical purpose, coupled with artistic design, and this is typified by the Durrington Walls and Woodhenge assemblage.

The Fawcett Family Cape

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Collections, Museum, News, volunteer, Volunteers, Womens' Suffrage

If you can make it for 2pm today you will be able to hear Sue Allenby’s talk on this fabulous item from our costume collection (see blog ‘Join Us’ below):

This beautiful cape was possibly the property of Suffragist Millicent Fawcett

It is a Volunteers’ coffee afternoon (for a change!) and includes a talk from Adrian Green, Director…as well as coffee…and cake.