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ISSUE 71, August 2010
Contents
[1] Newsdesk
[2] Museum News
[3] Curator Update
[4] Archive Update
[5] Other News
[6] Ravensbury Update
[7] MAM and Merton Priorynews
[8] Brixton Windmill
[9] Not Used
[10] Not Used
1.
1.
NEWSDESK
Exciting News.
The museum has gained its Accreditation! See Curator's Report below.
Visits to the Museum
Have been good during the summer months including all the visitors that attended the opening of the new Exhibition.
Events-Past
The main event was of course the official opening of the Exhibition 'From Industry to Leisure' on June 12th by the Mayor of Merton Councillor Oonagh Moulton. Many people may have seen the report in the local Guardian newspaper in which Curator Meg Thomas was quoted as saying 'We were delighted to see so many people celebrating the Wandle which over the years has been transformed from a sewer to a source of great enjoyment'. We are always pleased to get some good publicity! Over 50 members and friends enjoyed the festivities and refreshments and a piece of lovely celebration cake designed and baked by Mary Hart.
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Cutting the cake |
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The new gazebo at Wimbledon Village Fair |
The Wimbledon Village Fair Once again we had a stall and a display about the Museum. It was the first public outing of our new gazebo which made its first appearance at the Exhibition, and should prove useful to us at all the Fetes and Fairs we attend. The weather was kind to us this year and the fair was bigger and better than ever.
Events future
Green Day at Morden Hall Park will be on Sunday 5th September from 12 .00 till4.00pm. Extra help would be appreciated on the day as the Museum is open to the public that day so staff will be needed there. Please let us know if you can be of assistance.
Tuesday 21st September Open afternoon with block printing at the Museum from 2pm. This is part of the 'Celebrating Age' Festival for the 'over 50's. Please see the brochure for further details.
Wednesday 6th October at 12.00 noon Volunteers Lunch Meeting. More details later.
The River and Cloth Project Outreach Programme School's visits to the Museum are now complete and a programme of outreach activities are now in progress Mary and the Printing Team are participating in various printing sessions at Merton Abbey Mills, Mitcham Library (23rd September), and other Merton venues. Meg has also been to two outreach sessions at the Merton and Morden Guild and the Colour House Theatre. There will be an Exhibition of work produced as a result of the Project at Merton Abbey Mills from September17th -23rd, so we hope as many members and volunteers will be able to see it.
The Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday November 25th at Raynes Park Library Hall at 7.30pm when the Speaker will be Tony Drakeford local author and Naturalist. Please put this date in your diary.
Finally can I remind all members to bring along their blue charity collection boxes before the AGM if possible so that Helen can work out how much we can claim from HMRC. We do hope to see you at some of our forthcoming events
Sheila Harris
2.
MUSEUM NEWS
- 3.
Curators Report
Accreditation
I am really pleased and relieved to announce that we have gained full Accreditation. The MLA 's Museum Acreditation scheme sets nationally agreed standards for all museums in the UK. Gaining the award is the accumulation of several years hard work, the final piece fell into place when we signed an agreement with Merton which gives us the necessary level of security of tenure. I would like to thank everyone who worked to achieve this award.
This is what Andrew Motion, Chair of MLA(Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) said: "Being awarded Accreditation is an impressive achievement. It recognises the high standard and service that the Wandle Industrial Museum provides and acknowledges the hard work of the volunteers".
Psychedelic Sparrows
I recently gave a talk to the Merton and Morden Guild as part of the River and Cloth Project. What a lively and appreciate group they are. After the talk one of the members, Marie Ward, came up to me and said she had worked in the office at the Liberty site in Merton.
She then told me this delightful story. After the silks had been washed in the R. Wandle small pools of water with remains of the dyes would be left on the river bank. Sparrows would come down and bathe in the pools, the dye would then colour their plumage and for a little while the river bank seemed to be inhabited by some exotic birds. Fortunately the dyes were vegetable dyes so the birds came through their brush with exotica unharmed.
Snuff
The snuffs we have on display in the museum are scented in many different ways, often using herbs and flowers grown in Mitcham, and have recognisable names. One though seems rather odd, 'Jockey Club', what could it be? Well now I know. In the final programme in the series about the Victorian Pharmacy the team were making perfume. Jockey club, it seems, was a popular perfume in Victorian times, apparently a delicate fragance, not that its name suggests that. As we have only one box of it we will have to leave it to our imagination, unless a snuff taker out there has some.
Meg Thomas
Editor's note
An online search reveals, startlingly, many vendors of snuff still selling this brand, its properties described by one user as ' bergamot, violets, roses, cinnamon, sandlewood and cloves. Marzipan and "baby powder" becomes apparent later on'. Baby powder?
4.
Archives & Research
At the end of June a visit was made to the museum's temporary Offsite Archival Store to evaluate the condition of the artefacts within, where we were joined by Marguerite DeLisle, our former archivist. We are currently taking advice on the relevance to the museum of some of the larger objects. ( Please do not jam the switchboard with a request for the location of this repository !!)
We are adding to the names file currently held on card in the museum using sources which have an inadequate or non-existent index. It is a laborious process but due to the nature of the literature we are dealing with there are no short cuts.
Work has also resumed on the research into the textile and allied trades workers in the Mitcham area from Census returns for 1841- 1871, to mirror that already done for Merton and Wimbledon.
We have also started to document our collection of illustrations and photographs and have finally matched the latter up with their descriptions in the recommended form.
Overall we are trying to rationalise our collections to reflect our original remit, and to simplify the procedure of answering enquiries.
Jacqui and Alison
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Archivist Alision Cousins with Mary Hart, in the new aprons |
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David Luff, giving his interview during Wandle Valley Festival |
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Archive additional
We are grateful to David Luff for a follow up visit to the tOAS (see above) to review our store of silk screen frames. All but four are not Liberty frames, but frames used by a company called 'Rustichina' which took over some of the space at MAM as Liberty's retracted. Apparently a different type of frame was used by that company, and are distinctive. Of those a large number carry the designs of one particular company which is still in business, which means that, under the protocols which cover these things, that company still has ownership of them. We will be making contact, and will report further. Rustichina itself went bust, so, with the lapse of time, the remainder we can probably claim as our own. It is clear we can not display any of these, even if we had the room, without resolving this.
- 5.
OTHER MUSEUM NEWS
New Curatorial Adviser
As you will recall, one of the requirements for Museum registration for a voluntary body such as ours is to have an appointed Curatorial Adviser, being a person with the qualifications and skills who can act as a resource as well as supervise what we have done and are doing. For many years we have been lucky to have Simon Lace in this role, initially from his days in charge of Richmond Museum, but staying with us when he moved to Maidstone. He has earned his retirement from the role, as well as the distances making it difficult to help us as he would like.
After a long search, we are delighted that Chris Taft of the Postal Museum has accepted the role in his place.
Hopefully Chris will be with us at the AGM, so we can all meet him, if not before. Well done to Meg, for bringing this off.
Wandle Valley Festival
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The new storyboards |
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Mick Taylor, showing a member of the Kelmscott House staff how to block print |
The special item in this year's festival was the display of proposed new storyboards to be erected along the Wandle to supplement those already in place. The idea was to give the casual stroller some context, and things to look out for. It was also the target to address this in a way which did not just appeal to the academically minded, and make the information more accessible.
Tony Drakeford, this year's AGM speaker was a signiicant contributor to these, and we hope to use this an excuse to bring a sample of these boards to the AGM for the interest of those who did not see them at the time.
Mary and the team represented the Museum with their printing displays in the Chapter House, but this year the experience for the visitor was enhanced. Not only were there representatives of Kelmscott House at their own table, but also from the William Morris Society. It was great to be able to foster the synergy that needs to exist between us. The girls from those two groups were able, for the fist time, to sample block printing, and seemed to enjoy their two day stay underground!
Summer Opening
Once again a successful day, which went smoothly as a result of the hard work of Meg and her team in getting the exhibition ready, and Mary and her team with the catering. It was pleasure to welcome our new mayor, Cllr Oonagh Moulton and her family, and we hope we were able to send her on her way to open the Mitcham carnival refreshed in mind and body.
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Meg Thomas, introducing her new exhibition at the Summer Opening |
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Mayor, Cllr Oonagh Moulton, cutting the ribbon to open the Exhibition |
The exhibition demonstrated also the increasing harmonisation of the displays, with only a few now to go. These annual changes in display are hugely important in keeping visitors interested, and we are indebted to Meg for the work she puts in to make them happen.
6.
Ravensbury
The litigation is ongoing, with a recent judge's ruling for a restatement of case by the claimant, Secure Reversions Ltd. Our own evidence has been revieed as a result, and I have added my comments.
Nothing much new has come out of the revised claim, but we will have to wait and see.
7.
MERTON PRIORY
World Heritage Status and Festival of British Archaeology. Some of you will have read in the press about the inclusion of Merton Priory in a list of 38 posible UK sites for designation as having World Heritage Status. Cuttings from the Evening Statndard, the Wimbledon Guardian and the Post are in the Museum. The single most important thing about the Priory for the purpose is this: No other place in the world can claim to be the birthplace of parliamentary democracy. The concept may have germinated at Runnymede, and gestated at Westminster, but it was at Merton that the first statute, being authorised for the first time by the Lords and the Commons as well as the King, was passed. For this alone, linked to the world wide spread of parliamentary democracy, it deserves its listing.
A by product of the publicity has been increased urgency at LBM to get the legal work sorted out so that the Priory Trust can turn from squatters to real caretakers of that site.
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Modelling a stone coffin |
The picture here shows a visitor testing out one of the stone coffins. The lady is only 4'11" tall, and there were only two inches spare in the coffin. As this is a well crafted coffin, and has no 'drain hole', we can surmise it was specially commissioned for a re-internment of someone important, and built to fit.
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Clay pipe found in the Wandle at Merton Abbey Mills |
MERTON ABBEY MILLS
Clay pipe - the River Wandle keeps eking out its secrets to keep us tantalised. Here is a clay pipe fished out of the river recently in circumstances that link anciant and modern. A customer of the William Morris pub, having drink taken, managed to lose his mobile phone in the river. Wading in after it, and rummaging around in the silt for his phone, he finds this (but not the phone). He has kindly donated it to the Wheelhouse.
The fire blackened bowl can be easily explained if the owner was accustomed to light this from a candle or some other permanent flame - but that doesn't explain the blackened mouthpiece.
Abbeyfest has been a great success again, although almost now finished. However, if any reader has small children to entertain over the bank holiday weekend, Kidsfest on Monday would be great fun, and largely free.
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The new ‘doorstop’ lantern gear |
Visitors to the site will know that the waterwheel is now working again. There was some last minute drama, because, everything else having been striaghtened or rebuilt, it became apparent that the gears were badly worn, and couldn't engage properly. Essentially over many years of misalignment the cogs and teeth had worn asymmetrically, giving rise to the distinctive clanking sound to which we had all become used. The wonderfully named 'lantern' gear was the chief culprit. Nothing daunted, Norman and Steve provided a creative alternative to the frustrated search for replacement inserts. Initially trying out nylon, they eventually settled on rubber door stoppers. Seen here they not only provide great leverage for the teeth of the gear wheel, but, being rubberised, are silent. Having been used to the clanking of that wheel for 20 years, now it is almost silent, and a great example to show any one who worries thatwe will never be able to get the wheels at Ravensbury to be quiet enough to be used in a residential environment.
PETER MCGOW has kindly provided us with another snippet of information, this timeabout Brixton Windmill (also known as Ashby Mill).
Brixton Windmill
8.
BRIXTON WINDMILL
Standing in Windmill Gardens at the end of Blenheim Gardens, off Brixton Hill, Lambeth is a 50 ft high brick tower windmill. This mill has an association with the Wandle mills insofar as it was managed throughout its working life by successive members of the Ashby family who also occupied at various times two of those watermills.
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Brixton Mill in 1864 (Wiki pd image) |
It was built in 1816, and in 1817 it was leased to John Ashby, who worked there until his death in 1845. By 1839 he was also operating the Lower Mill at Carshalton.
He was succeeded in the trade by his sons John, Aaron and Joshua, and it seems that Joshua mainly worked the Brixton mill.
In 1862, the use of the windmill discontinued. The sails were removed, and the building was used as a store. The business was then carried on by John Ashby at Carshalton Lower Mill, and at the Mitcham Grove Mill by Joshua and Aaron.
In 1902, when the lease of the Grove Mill expired, the windmill was renovated and set to work again. The use of the Lower Mill by the family had been discontinued in about 1872, and so the business was wholly transferred to Brixton.
The sails of the mill had not been replaced, and steam power was used, and, later, gas. The old millstones were retained and the stone ground wholemeal flour was claimed to be superior to that produced by rollers, which, by then, were in general use.
The work at Brixton was initially carried on by Ernest and Joshua Ashby, sons of Joshua who had died in 1888. The mill finally ceased working after Joshua's death in 1935 at the age of 75.
The derelict mill was acquired by London County Council in 1957, and, some restoration work began a few years later, but the miller's house, a bakery, and other outbuildings were demolished. In 1964 new fixed sails were fitted, and further restoration work was carried out. In 1971 ownership of the building was handed over to Lambeth Council.
Last March, Lambeth Council received a grant of £400,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to enable the mill's interior to be restored, in order to open it to the public. An educational program is planned, with an audio visual presentation to show the operation of the mill machinery and the milling processes.
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Brixton Mill today (photo Reflexbren on Google Earth) |
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1865 Bacon |
Peter McGow, June 2010.
Editor's note.
It is interesting to juxtapose this story with the story of Brixton itself. When the mill was first built, it would have stood in open country. By 1862, when its use was first discontinued, the areas north of it had transformed into a prosperous middle class suburb, but it itself was now surrounded by the Lambeth waterworks built in 1832, and immediately to the south was the Brixton Prison (first built as 'the Surrey House of Correction' at about the same time as the mill itself and 1862 being the date it was acquired by the government and opened as a women's prison). By the time of the first renovation in the early 20th century the middle classes were moving out, and the area becoming more working class. Coincidences? (NB the Wiki entry and the HM Prisons entry conflict on dates)
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