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Weeks 1-28 November are now archived.

News - Week ending Saturday 6 February 2010

The undoubted high-spot of the week was the was presentation, on Thursday evening, by the Mayor, Councillor Ken Richards, of the Bridgwater Cup to Dr Peter Cattermole, the Museum Coordinator. In his remarks the Mayor praised Peter for his selfless volunteer work, not only in helping to the Museum, but for his work for the Bridgwater Civic Society and in encouraging the involvement of college students and thanked him on behalf of the town. In his reply, Peter said that he was honoured by the trust that others had placed in him and was glad to be of service to the community.

After the official photo-call, with two press photographers, all the Friends and members of the Civic Society present were photographed with Peter and the Mayor. Photographs of the event will in due course be displayed in the museum as a permanent record.

Then Peter presented some thoughts about the crest on the cup and on the ceremony of the Loving Cup, for this is what the Bridgwater Cup is, aided by 'willing' helpers Eleanor Dixon and Derek Gibson, MBE. "Propino tibi domine, et omnibus de Brugie : I drink to thee , master, and to all of Bridgwater".

In winding up the evening Derek Gibson spoke about the recent evolution of the town and the role of the civic amenity societies, such as ours, in Bridgwater's betterment.

Soon after opening the Museum on Friday morning, Brian Withers arrived with a splendid coloured photograph of Peter and the cup. This is on a board in the Hall.

Work around the Museum has continued: the need to locate the surface water drains has resulted in a number of trial pits being dug during the week. A well-drawn survey of the former steam engine pit carried out in 1992/3 was available to us. A 6 inch salt-glazed drain was found exactly at the spot shewn on the survey, but when uncovered, was found to have been broken off and filled with concrete (which was a tad annoying). However, the survey is evidently accurate, so further investigations will take place next week. It's interesting that much rubbish has been buried beneath our garden. Finds have included Victorian & Edwardian ceramics, a few broken clay pipes, bones and some oyster shells. None is of particular significance, but our expects from the Archaeological Society have been keeping a watchful eye on it all.

In the Mill Store, a window has been replaced and glazed, and a suitable door found for the south opening. Fixing of plasterboard and insulation continues. The aim is to have a wind and watertight warm store available by the end of this month.

Electrical work is rapidly nearly completion for this refurbishment, with switches having been re-positioned in Room 4 and a new emergency lamp installed. Sockets have been repositioned in Room 6 (the Friends' Sales Area). The second radiator has been sited next to the Sales Counter. It operates as a by-pass, so will keep running when all the other radiator thermostats are shut - just for the benefit of the Sales Volunteers!

Painting continues on the Gallery (now much brighter in Marble White), and in Room 3 (Meeting and Exhibition Room), where the second coat of emulsion is being applied. A volunteer is needed now to start work on the redecorating of the Sales Area in a light Linen White, if we are to meet the deadline for delivery of our new sales dressers over the half-term week.

Work is to begin shortly replacing all the lockable doors under the display cases upstairs with new, better-fitting doors and single pattern locks so one or at most two keys are needed to open them, so the multitude of different ones we now have can be scrapped.

We shall be receiving estimates next week for a new metal fence along the line of the brook in the garden, to replace the very tatty chain-link one there. Our garden volunteers made a presentation to the Committee this week with a plan for the gravelled part of the garden. This will involve rose beds round the boundary and plants in tubs elsewhere.

One of our students is busy constructing a geological section through Bridgwater for display in Room 4, and collections of Geological Specimens, including typical fossils from the area, have been identified as being in the Colley Lane Store. These probably have not been exhibited previously.

This week, we saw the last of our regular Wednesday afternoon students helping the community as part of their studies for their International Baccalaureate. Examinations are looming, Cambridge places await, and so revision is urgent! We hope the young ladies will visit us again, and we thank them for their work on the Baird Collection

Curatorial work continues, with the cataloguing of the archive boxes, listing of First World War newspaper cuttings and preparations for the exhibition about electoral corruption in nineteenth century Bridgwater.

Next Friends talk- Tuesday 9 February

The Friends of Blake Museum are pleased to be presenting a talk by David Canham entitled ‘The Mill Workers Tale’ at the Blake Museum, Blake St, Bridgwater, TA6 3NB, on Tuesday 9th February at 7.30 pm.

Discover how woollen and worsted cloth was manufactured, from spinning the yarn to weaving the finished cloth. The talk includes fascinating audio clips of mill workers recalling what it was like to work in the textile industry in Somerset and Devon. Entrance is £3.00 for non members and all are very welcome.

News - Week ending Saturday January 30 2010

Refurbishment work has continued this week. In the Vestibule some defects were made good following installation of new fire alarm and then re-painted. In the office the walls were touched up and sundry trunking was tidied up - painting to follow next week. In the shop the lights were re-switched, and a self-testing Briteway emergency lamp installed,and reconnected. More flagstones re-laid.

The Room 4 painting was completed, except for various touchings up and the steel-framed board taken off the old exit to the garden for assessment, and glazed doors found behind (very 1970s!). A contract let for replacement doors to be made. The paint-work of the Meeting Room was touched up and made good prior to second coat of paint throughout. The timber-work and partition walls of the chair store was painted with the first coat. A special pole was made with which to lower the projection screen.

More work was done in the Gallery. The hole in lath & plaster ceiling was repaired using a clever method, and preparation was done to the walls and priming/first coat applied to emulsioned surfaces. Work on the archaeology store has progressed well with the partition panelling prepared for painting. The Archaeology Society now has its own website., so the archaeology pages on this site have been taken down, leaving a link to the new one.

A Discovery Box has been made for the Museum by a volunteer. This will have an inert filling in which will be buried archaeological artefacts for the children to find at the 'Take One Hour ....' presentation in Angel Place towards the end of February. This was an idea put forward last year by Kerry Wheeler, one of our student volunteers. It will be available for Museum use afterwards. A set of three handsome portable banners advertising the Museum Friends has been commissioned by the County Council for the event. These become our property afterwards.

Exploratory trial pits have been dug in the mill and the Museum garden to ascertain the nature of the ground and drains, so that rainwater discharging on the ground outside Room 4 may be led away so as to reduce rising damp in the walls.

An elm window from a reclamation yard is being refurbished for insertion into the opening in Mill Store. Work is now needed to level the floor and lay paving slabs, line the insides of the walls, line the underside of the roof, and make and fit new doors so it can be used to store mostly archaeological remains from the District Council's store in Colley Lane.

On the curatorial side there has been further good progress on scanning the coin collection. A volunteer has now checked and put in proper reference number order all the museum's Object History Files - several thousand of them!. These contain all the paper-work relating to the accession of each object and are a valuable adjunct to the the bare details in the Museum's catalogue. Work can now begin on accessioning the back-log!

More administrative files about the Museum and its history have been returned by the District Council's Museums officer. More work was done at home by volunteers preparing material for the forthcoming 'The Way we Used to Vote' exhibition, and on editing material to be posted soon on the teachers' web site about Irene.

Several intersting research enquiries have been dealt with. One was about about Hamp Green House Bridgwater which has turned up new information from Suffolk about Francis J. Thompson, his family, and the former Manor House.

The visit by two students studying the history, use and maintenance of Blake Gardens has enabled a number of resources to be drawn together, and has led to a tentative connection with the Waldegrave family, who once owned the land upon which Binford House was built and where the Library now stands. The Waldegraves owned the Manors of Stawell, Stogursey and Edington in late mediaeval times. Did they build a mansion for their use nearby in the 16th C?

The Museum has been commissioned to look into the material it has about a nineteenth century Bridgwater sea captain and the vessels she sailed in. This is for a forthcoming programme in the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' series.

On Friday afternoon the Museum hosted a visit from eleven students studying a construction diploma at Bridgwater College. The students, who were between 14 - 18 years old, were looking at building conservation techniques and stone restoration. A slide-presentation was made about the work in the Museum and a floorboard was taken up in the Meeting room to show state of the the joists before the repairs. Before this they had spent part of the morning learning about the restoration of Bridgwater Town Hall.

The Friends provided coffee and biscuits to the party, and two knowledgeable Friends then accompanied them to Saint Mary's Church where they looked at the building and saw an exhibition about the Victorian re-building work. Also in the party were Sedgemoor District Council's Conservation Officer and a representative of the Society of Protection of Ancient Buildings SPAB.These have good links with Saint Mary's Church, Bridgwater in regard to the forthcoming re-ordering work

News - week ending Saturday 23 January 2010

Two events took place this week of great importance to the Museum. On Thursday we hosted a symposium for teachers, taking as the theme our painting of the Ketch Irene. This was a trial, (one of two in Somerset) funded by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council to encourage regional museums to adopt the approach of the long -running Take one Picture ... project. In this, a picture from the National Gallery is taken as the theme and applied by schools across the country. The trial is to see if more local art can be used by small museums like ours.

Nine teachers attended from local schools, and education providers from the County Council. Eight museum volunteers were involved - five in talking to them and three in helping behind the scenes with aspects of the catering and other jobs. A Bridgwater catering firm provided a splendid lunch - soup, filled jacket potatoes and salad and a choice of sweets.

The meeting room was set up with four computers as well as the big projection screen, and panels were displayed about aspects of the Irene and her life. These have been prepared in advance of the exhibition we shall be holding about her in May. Teachers were encouraged to think about aspects of the Irene - Where was she built and by whom? What did she carry and where? Where is she now? - with view of developing lesson plans in history, geography, art, English, design and technology, etc, etc.

Special 'Notes for Teachers' were prepared drawing together most of the historical notes in a compact form. In addition numerous web links were assembled on all aspects of maritime life. All the material can be accessed by the above link, and the teachers at the symposium made good use of it. It is now available on-line so teachers who did not attend can access it as well. Though it's a teaching aid for primary and junior schools it has been designed to be of use by students of all ages from eight to eighty.

Displays were in both the Meeting and the Blake Rooms and the visitors were encouraged to see the maritime room, where a display of 20 small-scale waterline models of Bristol Channel sailing ships was brought out of store specially for the occasion.This was made thirty years ago by a previous curator.

It is planned to host later in the summer displays of pupils' art work created as part of the project.

As this was the first time such an ambitious project had been undertaken by the Museum, there were a number of busy days beforehand, but all went well, and we were heartened by the interest and response of the people who were there.

Today (Saturday) a number of Museum volunteers attended the launch of the exhibition of Hidden gems of Somerset at Glastonbury. This is linked to the publication last year of the Heritage Touring Map. The museum object lent was the recently-donated eighteenth-century engraving of Robert Blake and formed part of a real 'Cabinet of Curiosities' from museums around the county - well worth visiting. It is on for the next eight weeks.

The usual work of the Museum continued this week. The painting is finished in the old Blake room, and work must now begin to install the planned displays there. New picture rails have been fitted and painted in the Blake and Meeting rooms, and in the latter a fire-proof curtain has been hung to provide privacy. An added bonus was that it deadened sound as well.

A sunken door mat has been fitted outside the office, and the laying of flagstones in the kitchen continues. The access to the kitchen from the shop has now been ramped for wheelchair access.

Carpentry work has been done in the archaeology room. Painting has started in the Gallery, and the bust of Robert Blake has been moved to the Blake room pending the move of the bust of Queen Victoria to its place at the top of the stairs. The move of Queen Victoria will allow more light in the Gallery.

On the curatorial side, work has continued cataloguing the contents of the picture store, and drawing up a list of pictures recommended for disposal. A significant number have no relation whatever with Bridgwater or the collecting area, and storage space it too small to permit the storage of items of this kind. The cataloguing of the contents of the archive boxes continues.

News - Week ending 16 January 2010

The wireless fire detection system was completed and handed over by the contractor and the redundant cables removed by volunteers.

New electric cables drawn into underfloor ducts to kitchen & connected, allowing remaining cables to be removed from ugly surface trunking in Rooms 2, 3 & 6. Trunking detached and walls made good ready for decoration. Picture rail reinstated in Room 3 to match existing pattern, and made ready to receive display of framed oil paintings. Significant improvement in visual appearance to room, accentuating the historic features.

Curtain poles and flame-proof draught-limiting curtains for doorways to Room 3 ordered for fitting next week.

Repairs were made to flag-stoned floor in Room 6. Some additional lias slabs obtained from a local reclamation yard in order to make appropriate repairs. Alterations to services made to accommodate new shop layout. A new doormat was purchased for installation by rear fire exit.

The topographic panel (the relief map) mounted on wall in Room 4 and most of the painting completed. We now need to get preparations under way for new displays of geology and archaeology there.

The new heating system and insulation was working efficiently in the cold weather, making the Museum a comfortable place in which to work, and improving the conditions under which the collections are being kept.

On the curatorial side the maps stored in the picture gallery have been catalogued, and work has continued listing and numbering the contents of archive boxes in the archaeology room store.

Work has continued making preparations for the teachers' symposium next week about Irene. A Power-point display has been devised, and a number of exhibition panels about her have been designed, typeset and laminated ready for mounting on the day.

News - week ending Saturday 9 January 2010

IMPORTANT - NEXT TUESDAY'S TALK BY JOHN BEASANT HAS HAD TO BE CANCELLED DUE TO THE WEATHER. IF YOU KNOW ANY FRIEND WHO DOES NOT SEE THIS WEB-SITE, PLEASE PASS THE WORD BY PHONE.

Despite numbers of volunteers not being able to get in this week due to the weather, those that did managed to get a lot done.

The hot-water radiators in room 2 and the office are now plumbed in and working, and the heating in room 3 is now working fully.

Flagstones were taken up in the shop and the corridor by the fire exit to allow the placing of cable ducts. Cables were drawn-in to the office from the meter cupboard and a new lighting circuit fitted.

More painting was done in Room 4, a rotten skirting board was replaced, and the new dado to support the relief map was prepared ready for fixing.

In the meeting room a number of screw holes used for fixing now stripped-out trunking were filled ready for painting, and trunking was taken down in room 2.

The plaster-board lining the back of the chair-store was prepared ready for painting. Services were put in place there to enable connexion of the inductive hearing-aid loop and panelling fixed in place.

On the curatorial side, more archive boxes were catalogued, and the catalogue of the contents of the picture store is now complete. A researcher was working on the Port Books and a volunteer has continued her work on the World War 1 newspaper cuttings. A volunteer has done sterling work tidying up the office stores.

A volunteer has been working at home preparing materials for the forthcoming Irene teachers' symposium, and another has begun working at home preparing our first public exhibition when we re-open about how we have voted in Bridgwater in the past - all about eighteenth and nineteenth century bribery and corruption.

The Friends of Purton are sending copies of quantity of images of Bridgwater vessels from their archive. We are very grateful for this gift, as it will add materially to our collection of maritime photographs. A number of vessels were hulked along the Sharpness Canal near Gloucester, including some from here, and this group is dedicated to preserving and recording them.

Planning continues for the Take One Hour ... presentation in February - scroll down to the very bottom to discover more. More volunteers are needed for this, please. Contact Bryan if you can help

We are delighted at the news that Derek Gibson has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours

ADVANCE NOTICE OF OUR NEXT TALK

The Friends of Blake Museum are pleased to be presenting a talk by John Beasant entitled ‘To there and Back Again’ at the Blake Museum, Blake St, Bridgwater, TA6 3NB, on Tuesday 12th January at 7.30 pm.

John is an internationally published author who for many years worked as a secretary to two Prime Ministers, an Islamic Head of State and a Prince. The talk is a highly personal account of a journey from an English downland farm to the far flung islands of the fabled South Seas via Africas’ Savanna and the deserts of Arabia. 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 please telephone the Museum on 01278 456127, or for more information about the Museum and The Friends please visit www.blakemuseum.org.uk.

From Monday 4 January we are back on re-furbishment work - Many volunteers for practical work are needed, please, particularly painting, carpentry and general jobs.

News - Week ending 2 January 2010

Before we closed on the Wednesday before Christmas the hot-water heating system was commissioned. Arrangements were made for a key-holder to drop in each day for a few moments to check that everything was in order.

A number of volunteers put time in during the break on painting jobs and also working on the archaeology room partition, fixing radiators, stripping out redundant cabling following the installation of the wireless fire detection system on the ground floor, trying out the new CCTV cameras (with pan-tilt-zoom so as to enable those visitors with impeded mobility to see the exhibits in the upstairs galleries) and wiring up the central heating zone controls and programmer. Many thanks for this.

Much work was done during the break by volunteers working at home for the teachers' symposium on the Irene, to be held towards the end of the month. This has including purchasing books and photographs for the project, making scans of text and pictures for use in the displays, and finding useful web links. A start has been made on putting together the Irene web pages, which will carry Museum images and links to other sites that teachers might find of use.

The Museum has been gifted a collection of over 100 35mm colour slides of Bridgwater scenes taken in the 1970s and 80s showing building developments such as the construction of the Sainsbury's Bridge over the river, and the demolition of the properties before Angel Place was built. Evidently more are to come.

We were also gifted a fine seventeenth century engraving of a portrait of Robert Blake. This will be the Museum's exhibit at a display about the Museum at the eight-week exhibition at the Somerset Rural Life Museum (SRLM) from January-March 2010. This is part of the County Council's Somerset Routes project.

News update - Week ending Saturday 19 December.

The main event of the week was the removal of the scaffolding from the mill, but before that volunteers braved the weather to finish painting the newly-glazed window, and also the fascia board. The scaffolding by the fire door was also taken away.

On Wednesday the Museum hosted a day-long seminar for the Environment Agency. Before this a wholesale tidy up was done, and the meeting room set out. One outcome was the realisation that the room was draughty at this time of the year, so steps have been taken to get some curtains for the doors. Its hoped these will be fitted in the New Year.

Work of refurbishment continued on the heating system, painting Room 4 and a start was made to take down the now-redundant electrical trunking from the meeting room and room 4. Insulation was fitted to the rafters of the Mill in advance of the boarding of the roof. More work was done to the store area of the archaeology room.

The rope making machinery was collected from the Mill and transported to its new home.

On the curatorial side work continued scanning Roman coins and cataloguing the contents of the picture store. We took delivery of another Mac computer, and work has now begun to list the contents of each of the archive boxes in the archaeology store. This is a preliminary to getting the computer catalogue up to date.

More work was also done, not only in the Museum but by volunteers at home, planning for the Irene day in January.

Next week the Museum closes from 4.00pm on Wednesday,and does not re-open until Monday 4 January 2010.

Very many thanks to all volunteers who have been involved in shut-down and Merry Christmas everyone!!

News update:- Week-ending Saturday 12 December 2009

We are pleased to announce that the Christmas Fayre last Saturday was a great success. We raised £320 - an increase of £100 on last year. Table rents brought in £46, Kay's tombola £29, Nick Wallace collected £6 in donations plus four memberships (which are not included in these figures). Paul Besley's plant stall made £36 and Maggie Sampson made the same with refreshments, Brian sold £5 worth of books, while Joyce Hurford sold an amazing £45 worth of cards and confectionery. Sue Berryman made £33 on the bric-a-brac. Jane Woolrich made £46 from her cake and bread sales plus her guess-the-weight-of-a Christmas-cake competition. It was won by Ute Smeed. More was raised by Charlotte Edmonds with the sale of shop-stock, but that sum is not detailed here as it reverts to the main shop account.

We would like to thank everyone who helped out from the stall-holders, cake-makers, those who donated the sales items and tables etc, those who helped with the printing and leafleting and Graham Granter for coming to open the event for us.

And on Tuesday afternoon there was a Friends' social get-together. By all accounts this was successful, for it not only allowed Friends to gather with a mince-pie and a cuppa and have a natter, but more importantly showed them what else needs doing about the place. It is hoped some new volunteers might appear.

Much heavy physical work was done this week, often outside in atrocious cold, wet and windy weather. A priority at the start of the week was to remove the ivy from the east wall of the mill to enable the window there to be re-painted and glazed. This was because it could only be reached safely off the scaffolding which is scheduled for removal at the end of the coming week. A substantial lead flashing was also fitted over the window lintel as was a new gutter to the south fascia.

The gutter was re-set above the fire exit, and the flashings repaired. Additional lead flashings were fabricated and fixed so as to reduce the likelihood of further damp penetration.

Very many thanks to the few concerned.

The heavy central heating radiators were fixed to the walls, including a big one that was manhandled upstairs and all were plumbed-in by the end of the week.The system will be tested early next week. We now have hot-water heating in most of the ground floor rooms as well as the archaeology room and store. Later the system will be extended to the office and picture store.

Sheets of plasterboard were got upstairs for cladding the partition in the archaeology room store.

A new fire-panel and wireless detectors were installed on the ground floor. This will enable the removal of the remaining surface wiring and trunking, thereby improving the visual appearance of the historic Rooms 2 & 3. Stripping out the redundant fire-cabling can now take place (under supervision only). There's quite a bit of filling, making good, and rubbing down that can be progressed quickly. Then decorating can follow, - this will include a second coat on the walls concerned.

More painting was done in room 4 as was various carpentry jobs such as making and fitting a new window sill in the archaeology store. A length of elegantly-moulded timber was delivered to make the dado which will be fitted to the west wall of Room 4, to support the weight of the relief map.

The shop will need a sort-out next week in preparation for electrical,heating and decoration work there.

On the curatorial side, work continues on sorting and cataloguing the contents of the picture gallery.

A New Epson V600 photo scanner has been installed in the Library, resulting in much better images being obtained of the recently-acquired Romano-British and later coins. It will be of value also for scanning small-format photographs in-house.

Work is under way preparing for a seminar at the end of January when a number of local teachers will learn how to use one of our paintings as a teaching-aid. We are using the painting of the SV Irene from the Maritime room, and hope it will inspire questions such as Who made her, when and how? Where did she sail and what did she carry? Who owned and sailed on her? Where is she now?

Next week will see the removal of a quantity of rope making-machinery from the Mill. This has been in store for a number of years for South Somerset Museum. Once the scaffolding is away work can start in earnest after Christmas to make the Mill fully weather-tight and fitted out as a store for Museum objects now in the District Council's Colley Lane Depot.

News: Week ending Saturday 5 December.

The chief event of the week was the Christmas Fayre on 5 December. Both the Blake and the Meeting rooms were utilised with stalls selling a wide range of goods. There was no mad rush and at no stage was the place over-full, but there was a steady stream of visitors the whole time. Over £300 was raised. A special printing of a museum greeting card, based on a watercolour by Kay Robins, was a sell-out. A reprint will be done this week. Should you have missed coming, greeting and notelet cards (based on Chubb watercolours), are available from the museum. Just ring in to say you are coming.

Renovation has progressed well. Cables were drawn-in to the electric cupboard for lights in room 5 and heating control. The threshold loop has been installed for Thermaskirt and a new skirting board fixed in chair store and Thermaskirt fixed to it, together with temporary protection against knocks.

A 5-core SWA cable has been installed between the electric cupboard and room 5 to exit outside for a supply to mill. This has included taking up flagstones in the hall & re-instating them. Some radiators were moved into placed for installation in different rooms soon. All floor boards in the meeting room have been re-fixed.

Two substantial second hand timber doors as well as new guttering have been procured for the Mill. The defective gutter and down pipe above the fire door have been replaced

On the the curatorial side, more work has been done sorting the picture store. A list has been made of a collection of newspaper cuttings about the the Museum, more work has been done on the World War 1 newspaper cuttings.

URGENT MESSAGE TO THE FRIENDS! WE NEED YOUR HELP

Event: - Take One Hour

Dates: - 19th & 20th February 2010 9.30AM TO 4.00PM

Venue: - Angel Place, Bridgwater

Purpose: - To recruit more volunteers

WE NEED HELPERS TO BE AVAILABLE PART OF THE TWO DAYS ON A ROTA BASIS TO TALK TO THE PUBLIC, HELP WITH CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES (VERY QUICK) AND HAND OUT LEAFLETS.

Other organisations being represented: -

The Brick & Tile Museum
Westonzoyland Pumping Station
Bridgwater Garrison

CONTACT: - Please E-mail Bryan Gillard or phone the Museum Tel. No. 01278 456127