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Refurbishment: - Week 20
The next band concert, on Sunday 28 June, is being given by Chard Concert Brass. It will start at 2.00 pm. Refreshments will be provided by the Museum Friends. Sunny weather is forecast. Geraniums have been planted in one of the borders in the Museum garden.
More over-painting of the dark brown colour was done in the new Friends' room. Further clearing-up of the room is about to reveal another window. Touch-up work on the Hall walls and bannister rails has continued. A flower arrangement now graces a newly-purchased late-Victorian table in the hall. A new bell-push has been fitted to the outside door.
Contact has been made with South Somerset Museum about the removal of a quantity of rope-making machinery that has been stored for them in the Mill for a number of years. The space is required for the scaffolding needed to repair the roof. Contact has also been made with the Environment Agency to arrange for the clearance of rubbish accumulated in the wheel-race. This is an essential preliminary to reinstating a mill pond upstream in connexion with the Blake Street Heritage Regeneration Project.
Delivery is awaited of the kit of exhibition panels for use in the Meeting room. This is expected next week, and the first temporary exhibition will be about the life and work of John Chubb. Bookings are being made for future exhibitions.
More work has been done sorting Museum files in the office. A trifold leaflet has been produced about the Town Mill. A foray has been made into the Museum Store in order to establish more information about the unaccessioned items we have inherited - there are quite a few including many cannon-balls!
The archive team is active filing photographs into archive boxes. These include a collection of large-format mounted prints from the Douglas Allen and Don Smith collections. A collection of large-format printed broadsides, many from the eighteenth century has been set aside for professional scanning. The sheets are a rich source of information about names and professions likely to be of considerable interest to family historians.
Further work has been continuing in the background in rebuilding the museum electronic catalogue. New policy statements are in preparation for adoption by the Town Council Museum sub-Committee as part of the continuing process of validation of the Accredited status of the Museum and to provide properly for future visits by school groups in the new school year.

Advance notice of our next talk.
The Friends of Blake Museum are pleased to be presenting a talk by Val Bannister entitled ‘Easter Island’ at the Blake Museum, Blake St, Bridgwater, TA6 3NB, on Tuesday 14th July at 7.30 pm.
Val visited this remote island in 2002 and found that the iconic statues were only a small part of its fascinating history – and that, contrary to popular myth, rather than looking despairingly out to sea they in fact overlook (and guard?) the crop-growing fields and villages. This should be a well illustrated and interesting presentation. Entrance is £3.00 for non members and all are very welcome.
To become a Friend to the Museum for a modest annual membership fee, you can enjoy free admission to all Talks throughout the year. A full programme of forthcoming talks is now available. For further details telephone Maggie Sampson on 01278 451612.

Refurbishment: - Week 19
The high spot this week was the concert on Sunday by the Frome Town Youth Band in Blake Gardens. About 100 people attended and the Museum Friends served refreshments in the Museum garden. The next concert, in a week's time, is is being given by Chard Concert Brass. It will start at 2.00 pm.
Also on Sunday a set of panels about the Museum was displayed at the Water Festival at the Docks.
The Archaeological Society held a successful & well attended meeting on Saturday afternoon which involved, amongst other things, a study of the building stones of the Blake House.
The heating boiler has been fitted up in the store behind the shop and awaits connecting to the radiators and also wiring to the mains. A fan-assisted heater has been fitted above the door to the lobby of the hall. This will provide a wash of warm air downwards, helping prevent drafts from outside reaching the custodian in the Hall. More painting of the window and clearing was done in the Friends room.
More work was done arranging the office filing, and a history undergraduate has joined the volunteers to help in the Library by transferring the Don Smith Photograph Collection into proper archival storage boxes so the filing cabinets there can be removed and recycled elsewhere.
A draft trifold leaflet has been written describing the photographic collection and the charges for copying and reproduction. It is planned to have this available when the Library reopens to the public, next month.
Another visit to the commercial auction rooms will be made next week with the aim of purchasing more furniture for the Museum, in particular more respectable plan chests and more book cases.

Refurbishment: - Week 18
An order has been placed for the supply of a kit of display panels, stands and lighting equipment for temporary exhibitions in the Museum. An order has also been placed for the supply of an A2 format laminator. This will allow the production of decent sized posters for display outside the Museum.
Painting work continued with the door of the store cupboard in the Hallway, the window frames of the Friends' room and the re-plastered wall of the upstairs landing. More of the Friends' room was cleared of rubbish.
The new stacking chairs were used for the first time at the Friends' talk held this week.
A start has been made at removing the panelling of the case holding the Battle of Sedgemoor model in advance of moving it upstairs.
The secure lockers for volunteers' belongings has been fixed to the wall of the cloakroom area. A solar-powered light has been fitted outside, over the rear fire-exit door.
Four of the Chubb landscape watercolours were sent for re-framing in advance of their being placed on display in the Hall. A leaflet has been produced about the Chubb collection for the information of visitors.
The many working files removed to store when the old office was cleared for the Library have been sorted and weeded, and what remains have been filed in the downstairs office. Desk-top-publishing software has been installed on the computer.
More work has been done sorting and refiling the collection in the library, including a number of the drawers in the plan chest.
A planning meeting was held to discuss the items to be included in Friends' application for a Heritage Lottery Fund Small Grant to be submitted in early July.

Refurbishment : – Week 17
The principal focus is on serving the needs of our visitors - averaging twenty plus per day. On Friday, one unexpected visitor was the Bridgwater MP, Mr Ian Liddell Grainger, who complimented us on all that had been achieved. The display of a few of the digitised photographs on the 40 inch monitor in the meeting room has attracted great interest from many visitors.
Significant work is still going on in the background, both in preparation for the winter programme and in improving accessibility and display of the collections.
During the very hot weather, one volunteer spent three full days recompiling a museum catalogue from the legacy files and electronic data we inherited. The information held about items in the Museum can now be accessed more readily, though many months further of dedicated & patient efforts will be needed before the information can be considered sufficiently reliable for proper use.
In the Library, the storage cabinets bought at auction were installed. New conservation boxes and other archival materials were purchased and delivered with admirable promptness. At the end of the week, work began in filing material in the new archive boxes. These will mainly be used to improve the quality of storage of photographic print collection, which were previously stored in filing cabinets. A temporary exhibition of then-and-now photographs of Bridgwater has been re-installed in the Gallery.
More work has been done on the displays in the Blake room, including fitting up the lighting behind the stained glass panel depicting Blake’s funeral. Two model figures have been bought by the Friends: these have been dressed in appropriate costume to depict the young Robert Blake being taught & flogged at school. The Battle Room now has a cannon on display.
A selection has been made for placing more of the Chubb landscape paintings in the entrance hall. It is planned to complete this shortly.
We took delivery this week of a new electric central heating boiler, a digital projector, an LCD screen for our remaining PC, and a 1 terabyte back-up hard drive for the computer. Work has begun in the archive store behind the shop to make space for the boiler installation, to move the Battle of Sedgemoor model upstairs and convert the space it occupied as storage for the stacking chairs and the folding tables
Handrails have been installed to enable better access to the toilet. The Museum Friends and the Museum Co-ordinator have been compiling a list of building work to be done, mostly in the next shut-down, for which Listed Building consent is expected to be required. This includes new and additional toilets, a new kitchen, and partitioning work. A preliminary meeting has taken place with the Conservation Officer.
The clearing of rubbish from the Mill has continued as has the clearing of the Friends' Room. Estimates have been sought for the erection of scaffolding round the mill so the remaining roof can be repaired and ivy cleared from the part over the Durleigh Brook. The building can then be used as a proper workshop and store

HELP WANTED. We are trying to identify people who helped enter data on the Museum's collection catalogue from the 1990s onwards. They were always initialled, and while a number are identifiable museum staff (and not included here) a number are not. We think these might have been people who worked in the Museum on various Government schemes, or who were Museum Friends of the time. If you can help, please email details to us:

"KJ",,"2002"
"CS",,"2001"
"ASS",,"2001"
"AR",,"2000"
"BJP",,"2000"
"KLD",,"2000"
"TG",,"2000"
"AK",,"1999"
"GRW",,"1999"
"MP",,"1998"
"KC",,"1997"
"SJH",,"1997"
"MEC",,"1997"
"CBA",,"1997"
"MYT",,"1996"
"MT",,"1996"
"AJP",,"1996"
"MG",,"1996"
"JA",,"1996"
"WMT",,"1995"
"PMW",,"1994"
"REB",,"1994"
"LMS",,"1993"
"MK",,"1992"
"LB",,"1992"
"PW",,"1991"
"WS",,"1991"
"SPH",,"1990"
"BR",,"1988"

Blake Gardens Music Festival
The first concert will be on Sunday June 14 at 2.00 pm. It will be given by Frome Town Youth Band, and the Friends will be providing refreshments in the Museum garden.
The concerts will be fortnightly until mid-August with performances by the Chard Concert Brass, Wincanton Silver Band, Taunton Concert Band and Tiverton Town Band.

Refurbishment week : – Week 16
The main event this week was the formal exchange of the legal documents transferring the Museum to the Town Council from Sedgemoor District Council which were signed by outgoing Mayor Cllr Graham Granter two weeks ago. At a ceremony at the Museum on Thursday, Sedgemoor chairman Cllr Jane Moreton gave the documents to Mayor Ken Richards.
There has been an encouraging number of visitors to the Museum since it opened last week. Up to Friday at 4.00 pm over 100 signatures appeared in the visitors’ book, and more people than that in fact came round. On one day alone there were more than fifty. This increase in numbers has resulted in a gratifying rise in donations and shop turnover has been very encouraging indeed.
The commercial auctioneers at Dunkeswell were visited again and bookcases for the library, two filing cabinets, six brand new folding tables and unused stacking chairs with storage trolleys, for the meeting room, were purchased. The bidding was weak and the goods were bought very economically indeed. The 52 cantilever interlocking chairs were made in America, normally each priced there at $145 (£91 approx) were bought for just under £17. The cantilever base will be kind to the future carpet in the meeting room as well as aiding stability. The chair base moves to aid posture.
Planning will now have to be done in earnest about moving the Battle of Sedgemoor model from the meeting room to the Battle room upstairs, to free up space to store the stacking chairs and folding tables.
A start was made at moving the new book cases to the Library, and by the end of the week all the sets of local history ring binders were housed on open shelves. These contain data about all the villages in our collecting area, and aspects of Bridgwater’s local history and biography. The rest of the book cases will be installed next week, and the many piles of books, sorted by classification will be housed at last, restoring some kind of normality to the room.
A quantity of scrap wood was moved from the Mill, and next week more tidying will done there. The Friends’ room will be cleared as a preliminary for some decoration and planning for future use.
In the evenings, a volunteer continues to work at home at his computer re-assembling a coherent database from that inherited from the former MODES catalogue. This is a lengthy and demanding job which is essential if we are to know and understand the collection.

Advance notice of our next talk.
The Friends of Blake Museum are pleased to be presenting a talk by John Page entitled ‘Hannah More and her Mendip Schools’ at the Blake Museum, Blake St, Bridgwater, TA6 3NB, on Tuesday 9th June at 7.30 pm.
John Page is Chairman of numerous Historical Societies in Axbridge. The illustrated talk will cover Hannahs’ life, and how in 1789, encouraged by William Wilberforce, she set up a Sunday school in Cheddar, where poor children could be taught to read. Soon she and her sisters had set up similar schools throughout the Mendip villages. Entrance is £3.00 for non members and all are very welcome.
To become a Friend to the Museum for a modest annual membership fee, you can enjoy free admission to all Talks throughout the year. A full programme of forthcoming talks is now available. For further details telephone Maggie Sampson on 01278 451612.

The next refurbishment phase
The Museum will be closed again for the next phase of major refurbishment between Thursday 12 November 2009 and Tuesday 31 March 2010, this time working on the upper floor. It is planned the Museum will remain open for our planned talks and for researchers, but by appointment only. More details will be posted later on the News Page.

Refurbishment : – Week 15
The Museum was opened for the public on Wednesday 20 May, following a detailed inspection at the beginning of the week by the Museum sub-Committee of the Town Council, who made a detailed list of small matters that needed urgent attention before Wednesday. On the same day the Museum was cleaned by contract cleaners.
At the end of the week we said goodbye to Ross Perkins, who has taken up a job: he has been involved for almost the whole of the time the Museum was closed. On Friday, the volunteers were treated to scones, strawberries and clotted cream to help put back some weight they had lost during sixteen weeks of hard labour.
The end wall of the Meeting room was given a second coat of paint, as was the wall of the short passage leading to the old Blake Room, which is now barred for access to the public. Work has begun clearing it, readying it for use as the Friends’ room.
Upstairs, the Gallery was cleared, ready for the Alford, Chubb and Symes displays, and the Bridgwater-made clock, presented to the Library when it opened in 1906 was positioned on the wall at the top of the stairs, where it will be set going. It has been in store for many years.
The shop was made ready for customers, and the computerised till arrangement was installed. In due course this will allow purchases to be made on-line. Two sets of coat pegs were fitted in the shop – one at low level for youngsters
The cabinets containing the Object History files were moved from the gallery to the store at the end of the archaeology room. Whilst doing this a forgotten box of various office files was discovered. This has now been weeded and a number of ring binders and other files, as well as a mass of office supplies such as pencils, was taken to the downstairs office for further attention.
On the day of the opening many Custodians and other volunteers came in to be briefed on the new arrangements, and the first of the descriptive leaflets to show visitors the new arrangement was printed. The comments in the Museum visitors book have been very favourable.
A batch of over 600 photographs was returned from scanning, together with 8 CDs containing the images. A large TV -type projection screen was purchased and fitted up in the meeting room, on which images, running as a loop, will shortly be able to seen by visitors, once we've all mastered the remote control...! The main collection is of nearly 400 nineteenth – century images, probably by Robert Gillo, the greater-part of which have never been seen before in recent times, let alone ever published before.
More photographs and negatives will be looked-out for scanning, and next week work will start on archiving them – comparing the details with the entries in the catalogue, and in writing new entries where none exist. The images so far scanned need titling and then sorting by theme, to make the collection more accessible.
It is planned that the images will be put on-line in low resolution, and better quality prints can be purchased by credit or debit card They will be watermarked so the prints cannot be reproduced in books,CDs and on websites without the Town Council receiving a reproduction fee for the privilege.
The book cases for the Library will be bought soon, but until that is done and the books shelved it is inaccessible to the public. We are working to get this done at the end of June, by which time a scale of copying and other charges will have been set down and published as a leaflet.

Refurbishment : - Week 14
The most important news this week is that the deed transferring the Blake House, Old Mill, Mill Cottage, gardens & the Museum has been signed, part and counterpart, between Sedgemoor District Council and Bridgwater Town Council. The signing of the deed was pretty well Mayor Graham Granter's last act before handing his chain of office to Councillor Ken Richards on Friday. We are all very grateful to Mayor Granter for his careful stewardship over the past year which culminated in the legal transfer of the Blake Museum.
The deed is made to take effect from 1 April 2009, and a funding package for the next four years is assured within it. The Town Council's Museum sub-Committee is to meet in the Museum on Monday and will tour the facilities to satisfy themselves that the Museum will be in a fit state to open to the public on the following Wednesday.
Also on Monday a contract cleaning company will make a deep clean throughout the building.
On Tuesday the Meeting room was used twice by visitors, first for the AGM of the SouthWest Social History Curators' Group, and in the evening for the regular monthly talk organised by the Museum Friends, this time on the Kennet and Avon Canal.
Much effort has been spent in working through the snagging list, clearing up the mass of small jobs that need doing. This has included fitting the LED luminares for the emergency lighting, connecting up the radiator in the Meeting Room, and numerous small completions. More work has been done on painting the entrance lobby, and the first coat on the meeting room walls and woodwork and in touching-up.
The old Blake room is now designated the Friends' Room, and will be their base for committee meetings and other small functions. Work has started stripping out the partitioning the old Blake display, and uncovering one of the blocked windows that looks out onto the Museum garden. With natural light now present, the room no longer looks gloomy.
The two oil paintings of late 18th C. Bridgwater owned by the Town Council and previously displayed in the Chubb Room are now hung in the hallway. The large canvas from the former Monmouth Room, presumed to be of the naval battle of Lowestoft, is now hung in the landing between, appropriately, the Maritime and Battle Rooms. The latter (formerly Education) has been repainted in a rich blue and is being set out with refreshed displays illustrating the Battle of Sedgemoor and the Monmouth Rebellion.
The opening that once housed the stained glass panel of Blake's funeral procession on the Thames (now on display in the Blake room downstairs) has been glazed with fire-resistant glass to allow visitors to see the illuminated timber work of the roof above.
Preparations are in hand to produce various descriptive leaflets for visitors.
Upstairs, the three filing cabinets containing the photographic collection have been moved to the Library, as have all the binders containing data about the villages and other topics, that were stored in the Maritime room. These are now awaiting the purchase of shelving to house them. The 300+ books have been catalogued as a preliminary to classifying them before re-shelving them.
The latest batch of some 500 historic photographs has been scanned and awaits return to the Museum. Another batch will be looked-out for scanning in due course.
Next week the Gallery will be tidied up and the two filing cabinets there containing the Museum's object history files will be moved to store. A wall clock (of Bridgwater make previously in store for many years) will be mounted to keep time upstairs.

Refurbishment: – Week 13
The main event of the week was the highly enjoyable party given for the volunteers by the Mayor, Graham Granter and the Mayoress. It was held in the Mayor's Parlour; nearly everyone who had been involved over the last three months attended. The highlight was being able to see and handle the Mayoral chains of office, and the Civic maces that date from the time of the Commonwealth in the seventeenth century. At the end of the week we said goodbye to Chris Leigh, who had been involved from the very beginning.
Work continued finishing the floor of the meeting room, and good progress was made in painting the walls and woodwork. It is hoped this will be completed in time for a couple of meetings to be held there on 12 May. Much work was done in the room on the electrical circuits and in fitting a ramp to the level of the Hall floor, for easy access for wheelchairs. The boards are to be left bare during the summer, and once they have stabilised the floor will be carpeted.
Access was made through the wall between the meeting room and the old Blake room for the insertion of hidden cabling there for lighting and power and for the alarm system. This does away with the some of the trunking fixed to the walls and the historic ceiling beams of the meeting room.
Using a hole already drilled through the middle ceiling beam, an elegant modern 5-light chandelier was fitted in the entrance hall. It is switched on and off by means of a wireless system, so avoiding cables being visible on the hall walls. During the installation three generations of earlier wiring were discovered under the floorboards of the first floor.
More work has been done readying the Blake Room, with oil paintings and descriptive panels being hung. And the windows of the shop had their final coat of paint.
Upstairs, the bust of Robert Blake was returned to its usual place at the top of the stairs. The book cases were positioned in the Library and the books returned to them. The plan chests were moved there from the gallery and the new Sedgemoor room respectively, and next week the three filing cabinets of photographs will be moved there from the store at the end of the archaeology room. Two tall bookcases will be purchased for the series of binders of information about local history, (temporarily stored in the Shipping room) and for more books. A check of the inventory shows a number of significant gaps in the the titles the Museum holds so these will need purchasing in due course.
The ceiling of the big display case in the Gallery has been replaced, so now it is nearly ready for the display of the Alford and Symes families. The rest of the Gallery will have some of the Chubb pictures, so completing a display about the eighteenth century life of the town.
Work has been done in the displays in the new Sedgemoor room. It was discovered that a number of the series of painted models of soldiers were disintegrating due to irreversible 'lead-rot' – a corrosion of the metal often caused by unsuitable storage. They will need to be scrapped in due course and replaced by newly-painted casts.
The article about the Museum in Wikipedia has been updated to reflect the change of ownership.
At the end of the week a short 'snagging list' was made of all the tiny finishing touches that need attention before the public enter on 20 May. Custodians and other volunteers have been contacted so the rotas can drawn up to make sure the Museum can be opened on a regular basis. A newsletter for Museum Friends will be issued shortly.

Advance notice of our next talk.
The Friends of Blake Museum are pleased to be presenting a talk by Michael Horseman entitled ‘The Kennet and Avon Canal’ at the Blake Museum, Blake St, Bridgwater, TA6 3NB, on Tuesday 12th May at 7.30 pm.
This is an introduction to canals generally and the Kennet and Avon in particular, followed by an illustrated journey along the canal from Reading to Bristol. Michael has been a member of the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust since the 1970s. Entrance is £3.00 for non members and all are very welcome.
To become a Friend to the Museum for a modest annual membership fee, you can enjoy free admission to all Talks throughout the year. A full programme of forthcoming talks is now available. For further details telephone Maggie Sampson on 01278 451612.

Refurbishment :– Week 12
IMPORTANT NEWS: The Museum will reopen to the public from 10.00 am on Wednesday 20 May. Most rooms will be open and facilities be available, though a rolling programme of minor refurbishment will be continuing, so parts might close for short periods.

This week we welcomed Laura Juzenaite a student from Bridgwater College on a work placement, to learn how the museum operates and to discover about the way it is marketed through the shop and the forthcoming web site. On May Day we welcomed the Mayor and Mayoress who saw the progress of the work.
More painting has been done of the hall and staircase, (including the balusters of the upper landing, and the wall behind the Blake Bust) and finishing touches done to the paint-work of the Blake Room including the door of the electricity cupboard and the door-cases. More work was done on the Blake display cases there.
The laying of the floorboards in the Meeting room is pretty-well complete, as is the laying under the floor of the electrical, IT and heating services. The next job is the painting and decorating but the room will be able to be used for two meetings on the 12 May.
A start has been made at moving to the Mill a quantity of constructional timber and other supplies from the old Blake Room. This is in preparation for its conversion in due course into a small exhibition gallery and storage space for the Museum, probably during the next winter shut-down.
Some more painting of the shop has been done, and sorting continued of various items in the store room behind.
Upstairs, a start has been made at clearing the office of furniture and installing there the furniture for the Library. This will be continued next week. The paint work of the room is in good order, so re-decorating will be deferred for a few years, in one of the winter shut-downs.
Work has started refurbishing the ceiling of the big exhibition case in the upper gallery in advance of it housing a display about the Alford and Symes families. The opportunity was taken to photograph the massive Tudor timbers in the roof space over that part of the Museum. It is hoped that a photographic display can be made of them nearby.
Work continued preparing the new Sedgemoor display in the old Education Room, but this was held back a little pending the removal of book cases to the Library.
Very good progress has been made on the design of the Museum’s website, which will have pages about the Museum, the service we offer, and links to other sites. It is hoped this will go live on the day we open to the public.
All the scans of the Chubb paintings and drawings made by District Council staff a few years ago have been transferred to the Museum’s computers. This is a much wider selection than could be shown on the walls of the old Chubb Room. The Museum’s collection of nineteenth-century Somerset bank notes was scanned on the Museum’s own hi-tech scanner, and the images placed on the computer for the public to see.
A consignment of about 600 images were collected by Linescan for scanning. These included more than 300 photographs from album containing the Town Council’s collection, over 200 negatives of the Squibbs collection, and a small collection of late Victorian or Edwardian glass-plate negatives showing a number of unidentified people. The Squibbs negatives were in urgent need of scanning as security, since they are on unstable acetate film and liable to combust spontaneously and be ruined. A number have curled badly and it is not known how successful the scanning of these will be. The Museum possesses around 6,500 photographs, from the 1860s to the present, so the scanning program will take some while to complete.
On Saturday 2 May a sale of plants was held in the Museum garden and raised £25 in aid of Museum funds.

Refurbishment: – Week 11
A great deal of progress has occurred this week. After the stresses of getting ready for the Launch day, a very relaxed atmosphere was evident during the week and a list of about ten small jobs was polished-off in a day!
The damp-proof layer of LECA has been laid under the joists of the meeting room and some electrical cabling drawn in. After carefully levelling the joists over half the room, the new floor boards have begun to be laid. Provision has been made for a three-phase supply cable to a future electric boiler in the store from where central heating pipes will run to skirting-level central heating radiators in the meeting room.
Brendan O'Reilly, a highly skilled specialist in conservation and repair of ornamental plasterwork, was engaged to make repairs to cracks in the ceiling and cornices of the Blake Room, and also the cracks in the wall at the top of the stairs where the Blake bust usually sits. Traditional lime plastering techniques were used, in keeping with the age of the building.
The removal of loose plaster at the top of the stairs exposed the edge of the vertical elm post of the raised cruck which still supports the very fine (but largely obscured) roof timbers and may date from the 16th century. The new plastering has left part of this exposed as a feature. In addition, the large patch of plaster on the upper landing, removed in the winter because of damp penetration from a defective gutter, has been replaced, and now awaits a finishing skim.
The hall skirtings have been painted, as have the balusters & stiles. Plans have been made for the finishing treatment of the wooden panelling of the hall and stairs. A steady supply of patient volunteers will be needed to achieve the best finish to the re-used Jacobean panelling in the hallway and up the stairs.
The window frame in the shop has been painted, but more painting of walls and woodwork remains to be done. The now-empty gun cabinet in the store has been removed for disposal for space to be made alongside the case of the Sedgemoor model, as access to fit the pipe runs from the new boiler to the meeting room radiators. [We hope this will result in warm toes and cool heads during the Friends' Autumn meetings!]
The Museum files were finally weeded and all the papers needed for the future running of the Museum were taken to the downstairs office. Work on creating the Museum library will start next week. A quantity of essential office equipment was purchased.
More technical work has been done on extracting data from the Museum’s Collections database. 29 Squibbs images have been returned after digitisation by Linescan, so that about half the collection has now been scanned. A batch of about 100 glass plate and cut film negatives from the Don Smith collection were delivered to them for digitisation. A big batch of photographs comprising the remainder of the Squibbs collection and the Town Council's collection will be collected next week for digitisation. This work has been given a high priority in the Town Council's Museum budget so as to give significant benefit to the public through better access to the photographic collection.
Outside, the mound of earth against the office wall was removed, to stop damp penetration which has damaged the office floor joists. This has involved removing a laurel bush and its root. Next week, some rubble stone will be taken from the stock in the Mill and used to build a retaining wall to hold the rest of the garden bed back. The stump of the Buddleia in the Mill has been cut down, but the root needs digging out.

Refurbishment: - Week 10
A number of volunteers have taken a well-earned break this week, so the amount of work done has been scaled-back.
The timber for the meeting-room floor was delivered, and by the end of the week the joists were positioned. Next week a damp retarding layer will be spread on the sub-floor, then the electrical cabling and heating services will be installed below the joists before the planks are cut to length and laid.
The foundations of the central hearth under the meeting room floor were gently excavated by members of the Archaeological Society. Finds included remnants of haired plaster with striations, suggestive of having being attached to laths, a few pieces of shiny coal, a pottery shard, and one small rib bone with evidence of rodent marks. From the finds collected, it has been concluded that the hearth is not a mediaeval structure. The interpretation is that an inserted lath-and-plaster wall ran east-west across the room, probably constructed when the south end of the room was split off from the remainder in the18th century. or later. A fireplace was constructed within the truncated room which otherwise would not have been heated. Probably when Mr Kitch vacated the premises in 1926, the wall and the fireplace were removed. Further evidence for a chimney will be sought at the higher levels of the building. The hearth has been left in place below the floor.
A temporary network connection was made between the office and the library above allowing the computer there to be linked to the internet and the other computers in the room below. More Museum files were weeded by SDC staff. The copier was enabled by staff from the suppliers to allow scanning to be controlled from the computers. The store cupboard in the office was cleared of shop stock and other stores and a start was made to move there office stores from the floor above.
Now that access to the Town Mill has been gained, a start has been made at clearing the place of rubbish, mainly a growth of Buddleia and weeds, to allow better access round it. This will be shredded before removal.

Refurbishment : - Week 9
The most important event of the week was the ceremony on Saturday 11 April, led by the Mayor, Graham Granter, who cut the ribbon to mark the hand-over of the Museum to the Town Council from Sedgemoor District Council. The Vicar of Saint Mary’s, the Revd Charles Chadwick, Eleanor Dixon, Unitarian lay minister and the Baptist minister, the Revd Rosemary Eaton led a brief service of re-dedication for the Museum and those responsible for getting the work of refurbishment done.
Guests then toured the building to see the progress of the work, and a buffet lunch was held in the school-room of the Unitarian Chapel in Dampiet Street, which had been the first Presbyterian chapel in Bridgwater and where Robert Blake’s family worshipped. Ladies from Saint Mary’s church acted as hosts to the visitors – and washed up afterwards! A splendid celebratory cake was cut.
The end of the week had seen energetic activity getting ready for the ceremony, and out of disorder eventually came order.
The new Museum signboard, visible from the end of Blake Street and beyond, was hung on the new ornamental wrought-iron bracket.
The Blake room was fitted out with various paintings, antique and reproduction furniture and the cases were furnished with artefacts.
Work will continue next week on finishing the painting of the woodwork of the hall and soon after work will begin on fixing various paintings to the walls and installing appropriate lighting.
More flooring of the Meeting room was taken up, exposing the remains of a medieval fire-place, to be assessed by the archaeologists next week. Timber and fixings were ordered to replace the entire floor, and these are due for delivery next week. The surface of the sub-floor will be covered with a layer of Limecrete to help stop damp.
The shop was fitted out with display racks and a counter, but more work remains to be done on the repair and painting of the walls and woodwork. The electrical work is largely finished. Good progress has been made in setting up an e-commerce web-site for the sale of goods from the shop. This will also allow debit cards to be used in the shop, and permit on-line stocktaking and ordering to be easily done.
Upstairs, the Archaeology gallery is pretty well complete, apart from some tidying up of exhibits and the provision of some captions. In the Library more works remains to be done to sort and weed Museum files and returning the confidential ones to the District Council; it is hoped this can be done next week in preparation for clearing the room of all furniture in advance of re-painting.
Considerable difficulty was experienced in accessing the Museum’s computer catalogue of objects supplied by the District Council. It was resolved by re-loading both the program and data files onto a fresh computer. Work continues on downloading various computer programs, and work will shortly begin designing the basic structure of the Museum’s new web site. This will allow access to the Museum’s photographic and art collections, permitting copies to be purchased online, so boosting museum funds.Corporate library card acquired to enable Museum Library users who do not have their own Somerset Library cards to access the County Library's on-line reference resources.

Refurbishment:– Week 8
Natalie Watson, Community Heritage & Museum Development Officer of the County Museum paid the Museum a visit on Monday, offering help and advice. The Mayor & Mayoress visited on Friday when 13 volunteers were hard at work. They were favourably impressed with progress, the high standards being achieved, and colour-schemes.
The Museum was handed over to the Town Council on Tuesday 31 March. Councillor Dennis Davey, Chairman of Sedgemoor District Council, wished the project well and pledged support. Eleanor Dixon of the Friends and a member of the Blake family herself, thanked the District Council and Council Museum staff, and a formal presentation was made to Alison Mason (who left on that day) and to mark departure of Musetta Lench and Sue Habgood a short while previously. Jessica Vale also received a presentation and was congratulated on her new post within the District Council. In her address, Eleanor also thanked Sandy Buchanan for his long service on the Museum’s Management Committee, which had now been wound up. The day after, a new notice was fixed in the frame outside the front door, signifying the change of responsibility to the Town Council. The design of the Museum logo finalised.
Much intensive work was done at the start of the week changing the fire and burglar alarm contractor, (including removing the hideous red alarm box from the front elevation) and arranging for the transfer of keys from District to Town Council.
In the office, the very heavy safe was moved by two experts, allowing the work unit to be placed in position. Steel plates were removed from the shutters in readiness for painting.
The Blake Room was tidied, with constructional materials removed to a temporary store in the old Blake room. More painting was done of the skirtings, walls, windows and shutters, (after removal of steel plates from them). A second new display case was erected and more work was done furnishing the first one with artefacts. 12 new sockets were tested and now working. These are virtually invisible, as matt black faceplates have been installed to match the skirting. (or, even, the skirting painted to match the sockets!). Redundant electrical cables were removed from the east wall. Access floor boards were secured down with stainless steel countersunk slotted screws bedded on screw cups for easy removal of boards in the future and the gaps between the boards were filled with thin wooden strips. The floor was sanded ready for treatment with Dulux Diamond Glaze.
Redundant wiring was removed from the Hall and new luminaires were fitted for the fire exit and general lighting. Remote control lighting equipment received to enable upstairs landing light to be switched on from hallway by wireless (so no surface wiring needed). The new high-resolution network CCTV camera was installed in the hallway. Nearly all surface cables in hallway now removed. Work begun on painting the walls and ceiling.
Most of the floor of the meeting room was removed exposing elm floor joists, some still with bark intact, much eaten by rats and beetle, but still very sound, and hinting at the previous history of the room. Some clearing of rubbish from the first joist span of the room. The Conservation Officer is to visit on Monday to see progress and to agree a programme of remediation (likely to involve a limecrete sub-floor).
Painting continued in the shop area and cables were drawn into the duct below the hall floor slabs and the meeting room floor, ready for connexion on Monday. Further sockets installed to serve the sales area and adjacent store The old coal cooking-range from the Education room moved down and fitted up as an exhibit in the fireplace.
Upstairs, work continued in the Archaeology room, and the cabinets are now finally positioned and being filled with archaeological specimens.Once the Museum staff left, work began on clearing the upstairs office for conversion into the Museum’s library and research room. After District Council staff removed the computers, several collections of artefacts in the process of being catalogued were removed to store. Amongst these was a collection of photo albums from the 1970s onwards showing changes to the buildings of Bridgwater. Essential office equipment, sundries, reference books and files were moved to temporary store in the Maritime room. Work begun, in conjunction with the District Council’s Museums Officer, in weeding the contents of the filing cabinets of confidential and redundant records. This will continue next week.
Work started at checking websites with links to the Museum, arranging for our website and email details to be changed.Two Henry vacuum cleaners ordered in advance of the clean up for the handover ceremony on 11 April.

Refurbishment week: - 7
The Museum Sub-Committee of the Town Council and the Committee of the Friends of Blake Museum met to agree areas of responsibility. A number of volunteers were interviewed and photographed by the Western Daily Press for a feature article about the project, published on p 22 of the issue for 28 March 2009.
A quantity of office furniture was bought at auction for use in the refurbishment. Sedgemoor District Council has delivered two Windows computers, one with the Museum’s collection catalogue.
Two second-hand office desks were cannibalised to make one that fits round an angled chimney breast in the office. Two office chairs were added, and the IT network connected to the router, so that the computers and copier are connected. A temporary power supply will remain until the handover on 31 March. Apart from the removal of the office safe next week and the putting of a work unit in its place, followed by painting the floor, the office is ready for use.
The painting of walls of the Blake Room continues, together with the skirtings and window mouldings. Work on the big Blake exhibition case continues with the removal to it of part of the old display in the original Blake room. Various electrical and IT network sockets in the room were connected.
More varnish has been removed from the panelling in the Hall. A row of flagstones was taken up to accommodate ducts for cable communication between the electricity cupboard in the Blake room, and the Meeting room, reception desk, and sales; trunking enabled. Flagstones were replaced and cables will be drawn-in next week.
The meeting room was used for a couple of days as a store for the purchased furniture, and a safety gate (to stop unauthorised visitors from wandering in) was installed in the Hall doorway in advance of the removal of the floor boards next week to inspect the dry rot and damage to joists fully.
The removal of the SDC photocopier on Thursday allowed a start to be made at positioning the various sales units, with a 6-person secure locker in Museum cloakroom area, together with low unit with two lockable cupboards & shelves, to be used for visitors’ and volunteers’ personal belongings. Work on continuing the wiring of the room will begin next week.
Upstairs, work continues in the archaeology room. The walls are nearly fully re-decorated and a start has been made at placing the display cases against them, ready for replacing the artefacts. Work also continues in the old education room, readying it for the Duke of Monmouth and the Battle of Sedgemoor display. Severe woodworm infestation was found in the Battle of Santa Cruz diorama, which has been set out for inspection and assessment.
Outside, in the garden, a number of wooden tubs have been planted with herbs. The Walls of the Old Mill have been limewashed.

Advance notice of our next talk:-

PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF VENUE
The Friends of Blake Museum are pleased to be presenting a talk by Cliff White intriguingly entitled ‘Red Lights and Fans’. Due to the refurbishment at the Museum, this will take place in the Unitarian Chapel, Dampiet Street, Bridgwater, TA6 3LZ, just around the corner from the Museum, on Tuesday 14th April at 7.30 pm.

Cliff is a retired BBC Television Floor Manager and returns with the follow-up to his talk “Behind the Scenes at the BBC Antiques Roadshow..” The theme of this particular talk (the title of which he explains in his introduction!) is his personal view of the Artistry of Television. It is not too technical, and it includes lots of amusing anecdotes from his fifty years of experience behind the scenes when making television programmes. This will enable him to illustrate the skill, the dedication, and the artistry of the work carried out by all the various technicians and other back-room staff involved in bringing popular programmes to your TV screen.

To become a Friend to the Museum for a modest annual membership fee, you can enjoy free admission to all Talks throughout the year. A full programme of forthcoming talks is now available. For further details please telephone Maggie Sampson on 01278 451612.

Refurbishment Week 6 : –
Main walls, ceiling, doors & skirtings in Office now painted. New mains radial circuit, telephones, network in the trunking completed. New main fuse board installed for additional circuit protection. Copier and computers moved to Office and will be commissioned early next week. Broadband activated and a start made at downloading additional software for the computers. Desking, seating and storage cupboards to be sourced at auction next week.
Work started on painting walls in the new Blake Room. Part of the floor varnished where the big display case is to go. More work done to ready the big display case to show Blake working at his sea chest.
Some work done removing varnish from the wood panelling in the Hall.
Big metal-framed glazed exhibition cases donated and moved to the Westonzoyland Pumping Station for use there. Minor repairs to the floor of former Monmouth Room disclosed a number of potentially serious problems: dry rot, death watch beetle and rat damage. Historic elm timbers support some of the floor. Sedgemoor District Council undertake control measures immediately to halt the spread of rats & rot. Decision to best delay opening the Museum to the public for a short period after the ceremony on 11 April to allow repairs or renewal of the floor to be made. Consideration being given to installing pipes for underfloor heating under any re-instated floor. This unintended delay will allow the Friends more time to prepare the rest of the displays. A weekend-long public opening planned once repairs are done.
Work begun to ready the new shop for decorating and installing fixtures next week. Old fence panel taken down near kitchen. SDC instal new wall bracket for outside sign.
Work started in the old Education room preparing a new display about Monmouth and the Battle of Sedgemoor. Local history information binders and book cases there put into temporary storage.
Work installing LED lighting in the archaeology cases is being undertaken by members of Bridgwater & District Archaelogical Society prior to re-display of the collection.
Received the 135 professionally-made digital scans of the Museum's collection of photographs of Victorian Bridgwater, to aid future use in research and presentations as well as better to conserve the originals. Second batch of photographs sent for scanning. Images of the Chubb material purchased in 2004 copied from the SDC computer to CD for use by the Town Council. More images to be transferred next week.

Refurbishment Week 5 : –
Cabling for the twelve new sockets in the new Blake room has been completed. Network provision has been incorporated. A modern fuse-board has been installed ready to receive the new circuits. Ways under the floors used by ancient large-bore heating pipes connecting the Office, Blake & Meeting rooms, and the Shop, and running under the hall flagstones, have proved convenient for new circuits.
The Town Council's re-painting scheme for the downstairs has been published with the aid of a Dulux Paints Colour Consultant.
The floor of the meeting room has been stripped of the floor covering and hundreds of staples removed from the pine boards. This is in advance of re-wiring work there. Flagstone repaired in the entrance hall and step removed: new gentle ramp installed to the meeting room for wheelchair access.
Plan chests moved upstairs from the old archive room (now the office). The painting of the office nears completion. New office equipment and IT system bought by the Town Council is being delivered – the copier was delivered this week and the rest is expected next week. Broadband expected to be activated at the end of next week. Schedule of open-source software for the computers drawn up.
A start made at removing museum images from the District Council’s computer system to CDs so they can be used by the Town Council after the handover. Discussion are ongoing as to the practicalities of enabling a similar transfer of the Museum’s computer catalogue of artefacts.
Much work behind the scenes acquiring stock for the museum shop.
The Archaeological Society has been preparing the display in the old Chubb room. Work has also started in the gallery leading to the Chubb room for a display on the Alford family. Start made on large display case to house Blake at his work at his (original ) sea chest - the first of two major display cases for this gallery.
Archives digitisation scheme started with the first 135 images from the Squibbs collection scanned by Linescan of Yeovil. Funding by Town Council. Scans are expected back by end of the month in time for electronic display at launch.
The District Council contractor finally removed fire-proof safe in the back garden, freeing up a useful space. More work has been done in the garden, with wooden planters and seats prepared for painting. The garden shed has been tidied up.

Refurbishment Week 4 : –
More work done in the office. Perimeter trunking fitted ready for cabling next week. and preparations underway for redecorating. Floor found to be in poor condition, with defective joists and rotten boards, owing to poor underfloor ventilation. Some remedial work carried out, but will require full repairs over next winter.
Work is in hand to move the telephone services to the Town Council's control, ready for broadband connexion in time for the handover on 31 March.
The Town Council has purchased a colour photocopier for delivery next week and two new Apple computers (the updated models released on Monday 3rd March - no one can say the Museum isn't going to be up-to-date with IT and reprographics!); also a six-tread stepladder for use in the Museum and new electrical distribution board ready for fitting next week.
Working party employed in removing hundreds of staples from the floor of the new Blake Room (was Archaeology Room). Floor in good condition, and will be re-varnished. Present T&G boarding and joists probably date from the 1950s. Back boxes fitted in skirting for ten double sockets (none in room previously) ready for cabling next week.
Interesting fireplace structures located behind lath & plaster dry linings over stone walls (the room is actually larger than the present surfaces suggest). Ash pit located below blocked inglenook fireplace. Lime floor below the joists.
More work done in stripping varnish from the oak panelling of the hall and stairs.
A number of heavy objects moved to store in Colley Lane. Bells from the old gaol moved to ground floor, ready for new display in Blake Room. Most of the cases from the archaeology gallery moved upstairs to the Chubb Room, in advance of fitting up the new exhibition there by the Archaeological Society. Replanting started in the garden. Daffodils nearly in bloom.
Launch Committee met to discuss detail of the proceedings on 11 April.

Refurbishment week 3:-
More cupboards removed from the new office in preparation for fixing electrical trunking there. Construction continued of counters for the shop. Work begun to dismantle and move to the Chubb Room some of the Archaeology display, and Archaeology Society’s library moved there.
Three electrical service ducts installed under old archaeology room floor to office. New wiring will therefore be concealed, and future cabling made much easier. Volunteers needed to be on their knees shortly, pulling out several hundred staples from the pine floorboards in the former Archaeology Room. Varnish stripping of a small section of panelling in the hallway, revealing fine polished oak below.
Planning begun for work in the garden for the re-launch. Design work continued of various leaflets and posters for the re-launch. Meeting held to discuss in depth the future work of the Volunteers. David Sebborn interviewed by Somerset Sound about Robert Blake and the Museum. Friends’ website fully operational.

Advance notice of our next lecture:-
The Friends of Blake Museum are pleased to be presenting a talk by popular local historian Chris Sidaway entitled King Arthur and King Alfred - the myth and the reality at the Blake Museum, Blake St, Bridgwater, TA6 3NB, on Tuesday 10th March at 7.30 pm.
Talks by Chris are always very informative as well as entertaining and this should prove to be no exception. Entrance is £3.00 for non members and all are very welcome.
To become a Friend to the Museum for a modest annual membership fee, you can enjoy free admission to all Talks throughout the year. A full programme of forthcoming talks is now available. For further details telephone Maggie Sampson on 01278 451612

Refurbishment Week 2:–
Trunking for the power supply to the shop has been fixed in place. Materials have been assembled for the construction of work units in the office, and for shop fitments. Work has started to move records from the archive room upstairs to a storage area created in the Chubb Room. More work has been done preparing walls for re-decoration in the entrance hall and the shop. The new logo for the Friends of Blake Museum finalised. The Friends are collaborating with the Bridgwater and District Archaeology Society who now use the Museum as their base; they held their first meeting there on Thursday. They are relocating the Archaeology gallery.

Refurbishment Week 1:-
Much work has been done in preparing the entrance and new shop area for re-decoration, including moving the custodians' desk into storage. Preparation is under way for some electrical wiring work in the shop. The Friends are most grateful to the staff at the Museum for their help in accommodating the changes. The Friends appreciate greatly several members of the public who have volunteered over several days to help move cases and erect storage shelving.

8 February:-
Volunteers begin the refurbishment.

4 February:-
The Executive of Sedgemoor District Council agreed the transfer of the Museum to Bridgwater Town Council from 31 March 2009. Management is intended to be passed eventually to a newly constituted Museum Trust. In the interim, the Museum will be managed by the Town Council and operated by volunteers through the good offices of the Friends.

By the end of January:-
Some constructional work undertaken by the Friends as preliminary to the start of the refurbishment.

By beginning of January 2009:-
A great deal of planning had been undertaken by the Friends and others as to the practicality of transferring the Museum and running it.