Wincanton Museum and History Society

 The Shed was packed with the best turn out the Museum and History Society had ever had. No doubt this was helped by the presence of our visiting speaker, Fr Louis Beasley Suffolk.Still, the well organised AGM was important with the report by our chairman Dr Terry Stanford that the negotiations with the Library are going well and that now the Museum has been closed, our artefacts and records have been safely stored and are being exhibited in King Arthur’s and Wincanton Primary schools. This is work which has taken a great deal of time and effort by both our chairman and our Curator, John Atkins.

Roman Catholicism here in Wincanton has an interesting history involving not only the turmoil of the Reformation but also the contribution of French Napoleonic prisoners and later the building of the Church and the adjoining Carmelite monastery where missionaries were trained.

Biscuits, cheese, wine, tea, coffee and much socialising followed, making for an interesting and enjoyable meeting, so don’t forget our next meeting and put our programme in your diary.

This is also a good time for members and potential members of the History Society to pay their annual subsciption of £10 per person.  This then covers the cost of talks for members.

Forthcoming Events 2012

24th February  “Death, Destruction and the Cat and Mouse Act” Some aspects of the Suffragette Movement in the Early Twentieth Century.  Dr Terry Stanford.

30th March. A Contemporary Archive. Highlights in words and pictures from the last two years in the Wincanton Window.  John Baxter.

27th April. Ravenna, The Magic of Mosaics. Hendrika Foster.

25th May. A Talk and a Walk Around Wincanton.  Frank Foster.

8th June. Riot, Riot, Riot.  Jeff Kingaby.

Wincanton and District Museum and History Society.

In recent months after a lot of discussion and searching for alternatives the Museum closed finally on 25 July and the bulk of the artefacts have been moved to storage . This has been made available to us by the council and currently we are working on the storage of the items in such a way that they will be available for future use as needed.

In the meantime we have arranged for small exhibitions to be placed in Wincanton Primary School, and King Arthurs Secondary school.  It is anticipated that in the near future we will be undertaking a similar project with Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Primary School.  These exhibitions are designed to tie in with areas of the curriculum currently being taught at the schools.    In addition we have arranged with the management of The Dolphin Hotel to display exhibits in the new restaurant and these seem to fit in very well.

It is our hope to be able to use part of the library, the old Tourist Office, as a small museum and currently we are waiting to hear from the library service as to the viability of this idea.  As this and other activities develop they will be advertised in the normal way.

There was a good turnout of Museum and History Society members together with other invited guests to a celebratory cream tea in the sun filled gardens of the Quaker Meeting House in Wincanton on Saturday 25^th June. The presence of our MP David Heath was particularly appreciated bearing in mind how pressured he is as a Government Minister. Many remembered the support he gave the Museum when he came to Wincanton specially to speak about it.

The occasion was to honour and thank Chris Kemp. The Museum and History Society President, Frank Foster spoke about Chris’s work as committee member of the Society for eight years and chairman for five. He described how during that time support and interest in the society has grown steadily despite the problems which have now arisen concerning the need to close the building which has been the home of the Museum for more than twenty years. To no small measure the growth in support is recognised as being due to Chris’s persistence and enthusiasm in finding speakers and organising interesting talks.

He has now retired from the committee and was presented with a framed certificate of Life Membership as a symbol of the respect and gratitude felt by members for his service to the community.

V

From: Jeff Kingaby <su2195@eclipse.co.uk>
Date: 8 June 2011 10:42:20 GMT+01:00

WINCANTON AND DISTRICT MUSEUM AND HISTORY SOCIETY

Closure of Museum We are now able to report that we have had some success at last regarding the display of some of the artefacts to various locations in the town

Wincanton Primary School have now agreed that the museum can display some of our artefacts in a showcase in the school starting in September The staff at the school have always been keen to encourage the children to learn something of their heritage and almost every year classes have visited our museum.

King Arthur School have agreed that some of our artefacts will be on display in the school starting in September.

We would like to thank the staff in both schools for their co-operation in providing these facilities.

Wincanton Public Library have not been able to give us a reply as to whether we can use the small room in the library as this will depend on the number of mobile libraries operating in the area.

Some other locations in the town have expressed an interest in displaying our artefacts.

Old faithful. The propeller and other engine parts of “Old faithful” from the Flying Fortress bomber that crashed at Snags Farm in 1944 have now been removed to that farm hopefully as a final resting place where a plaque is about to be erected in memory of those unfortunate men.

In the last year a lot of work has gone into sorting our some of the artefacts from the museum prior to the society vacating number 32 High Street at the end of July this year and moving to a new store.   This has been a mammoth task returning some items to their owners, offering some artefacts to other museums in the area.  The society owes a debt of gratitude to our Chairman, Terry Stanford and our Curator, John Atkins and others for all this work.

ILLUSTRATED TALKS

The committee were delighted with the number of members who have attended the last two or three talks all of which have been described as excellent.

FUTURE TALKS

30^th September - Arnolfini Portrait, Van Eyck,in 1434, etc,  by Jonathan Weeks

28^th October The history of Brewham Coal Mine in 1800. By Brian Shingler

John Baxter write: Brian Shingler has lived at Gant’s Mill since 1949 and is fascinated by the history of this former silk mill and has followed this up with research in the County Archive. There he discovered a forgotton story of one of the mill’s former owners, Theophilus Percival, who in the early 1800s was well know in social and business circles and an enthusiastic entrepeneur.

On seeing others around Bath Avon and Radstock making a killing by opening up coal-mines, he thought – on the basis of very little evidence – that under the clay of South Brewham lay – if you dug deep enough – coal.

Despite the negative evaluation of William Smith who visited the site and was one of the first geologists and published the first map of the geology of the country, Theophilus pressed ahead, set up a company and got 100 local worthies to stump up £20 each, at least £1000 by today’s values. With this they founded a mining company and employed a foreman and teams of miners to start digging. Over three years they went down 625 feet, but found no coal. At that point suddenly water came flooding in at such a rate that the whole enterprise had to be abandoned and all the share-holders lost almost all the money they had invested.

Told with maps and diagrams and pictures it was a fascinating account of an incident in local history which was big at the time but which, because it failed and the land was cleared up afterwards, has been almost forgotten.

Brian spoke with humour, sympathy and considerable knowledge of the people involved and of the time, illuminating the tough lives of the majority and the grand lives of the gentry – who discounted Smith because he was not one of them. It was also a time when the population doubled in a few decades and energy and transport links were in short supply.

It was also the time when a canal was planned to run from Bath to Poole to carry all the hoped for manufactured goods and coal. It would have run through Wincanton and Bruton, but because enough coal was never found it was never built.

Many questions were asked and there was an excellent turnout with everyone staying to chat afterwards over a glass of wine in the Balsam Centre.

(Brian owns Gants Mill in Bruton)

Jeff Kingaby                                    e-mail: westaish@eclipse.co.uk

01963 824786

The fascinating story of one of England’s darketst periods which includes the trials for witchcraft in this area.  Our speaker is Andrew Pickering, Senior lecturer in History and Archaeology at Strode College and Programme Manager for local University of Plymouth students reading History and Archaeology. Together with David Pickering he has just completed a book, Witch-Hunting in England.

With its local focus and relevance to students likely to go on to Strode College this should be a lecture that will attract a lot of interest.

27th May, Friday in the Balsam Centre 7.30 pm. £6 for adults  – special rate to be decided for school students, refreshments included.

Andrew Pickering’s Talk
Tue May 31, 2011, 19:25:57

Andrew Pickering, together with his brother, is author of Somerset Witches, the result of his researches on the subject. As Senior Lecturere in History at Strode College he often finds himself teaching students from KA who have gone on to study History at A or AS levels or to begin a university course. After hearing his presentation I think they are really lucky to have a historian of such distinction and a teacher of such enthusiasm for we all saw he is someone who can really bring his subject to life and yet does it without oversimplifying or giving easy answers.Andrew started by reading excerpts from the account written by Joseph Glanville in 1670 of the terrible story of Jane Brooks of Shepton Mallet. This very ordinary village woman on the evidence of a young boy was accused of witchcraft and finally hanged in 1657. It was a horrible story for from our modern perspective the case against her sounds unbelievably thin and speculative and those concerned frighteningly gullible. The poor woman had done no more than stroke the boy’s arm and give him an apple. The point Andrew made initially, with his dramatic reading, was that it is very difficult indeed for us to get inside the heads of people living in the seventeenth century for then acceptance of the supernatural and of magic and witchcraft as real phenomena was not only part of the mindset of ordinary working people of little or no education, but also of the educated gentry and in the case of Joseph Glanville, someone who was a member of the Royal Society and regarded as a serious scientist.

Andrew went on to tell us how in England between 1562 and 1685 between 500 and 1000 women were executed for witchcraft. These numbers were small compared to the executions carried out in Europe, particularly in Bavaria, Franconia and Alsace-Lorraine.
While there was never a case of a witch being accused in Wincanton, both Stoke Trister and Brewham produced cases.

Overwhelmingly it was women who were picked on, usually old maids or widows, some with odd habits or as we would say “Mental Health issues.” Others could find themselves picked on by family enemies or people who might have an eye on their homes or their land. The move from Catholicism to Protestantism also made many people uncertain and fearful. Add to this the massacre and mayhem suffered across the country by the Civil War which raged between 1642 and 1648.

Andrew brought the whole period vividly to life and his talk stimulated the large and attentive audience to ask a good number of interesting questions. In all it was an excellent evening.

John Baxter

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The Next Committee meeting will now take place on 12^th May, 7.30p.m. at Balsam Centre.

The date for our planned Summer Garden Party is 23 June

Wincanton and District Museum and History Society is presenting what should be a fascinating talk by the well known lecturer Dr Geoffrey Tapper who has specialised in Thomas Hardy, his novels and his life. He has entitled his talk, “Thomas Hardy Tales.” The Balsam Centre on Friday 25th March at 7.30pm. £6 for non members. Members free.

26th March. Dr Tapper’s talk was very well received. We had an excellent turnout of over fifty, many clearly devoted readers of the work of Thomas Hardy. Geoffrey Tapper, as a member of the Hardy Society and keen researcher into all things related to Hardy was particularly enlightening in what he told us about Hardy’s local links to Dorchester and the Blackmore Vale and how he had faithfully introduced accurate descriptions of local landmarks, paths and buildings into his novels. He also described Hardy’s ties to local grand families and the sad story of his first marriage that he felt he had made such a mess of.

Geoffrey Tapper had clearly gone to a lot of trouble providing us all with a variety of fascinating photocopies of key articles about Hardy and he delivered his talk in a gentle and amusing way which kept everyone completely engaged. Lively conversations continued at the end over coffee and biscuits summing up what had been another really good evening, so do not miss our next offering on the 27th of May.

John Baxter

The Art of Venice

Those who have heard her before know an illustrated lecture by Hendrika Foster is not to be missed. Put the date in your diary. Friday February 25th at the Balsam Centre at 7.30pm.

Well known lecturer in Art History Hendrika Foster will be giving a lecture on the Art of Venice in aid of Wincanton Museum on the 25^th of February in the Balsam Centre at 7.30pm. Entertaining, fascinating and informative her richly illustrated talks are not to be missed. Charge £6.  Free for members. Introducing her lecture , Hendrika says:

La Serenissima da Venezia – The Most Serene Republic of Venice also claimed the title of ‘Queen of the Adriatic’.  Venetian propaganda expressed in its art and architecture, the myth of the Republic as a perfect state.  It is certainly a spectacular and unique city, perfectly situated for trade at the crossroads of the East and the West, with a powerful, modern and efficient mercantile fleet founded in the beginning of the 12th century.

The Renaissance workshop of the Bellini family marks the advent of a new style pf painting in Venice, much influenced by the meticulous methods of oil painting used in Northern Europe.  16th century Titian was the first truly European artist, receiving the patronage of Venetian Doge, Pope, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.  This century marks the zenith of Venetian power.

The Empire slowly declined, but even during its demise the art of Vivaldi, Palladio, Canaletto and Tiepolo ensured that the Lion of St Mark raged into the dying of the night brought in first by the Turks and then by Napoleon.

The lecture was very well attended. Hendrika presented a fascinatring lecture in which she showed how art in Venice became a powerful way in which this independent and initially very powerful trading republic was able to assert its own unique identity.  In doing so it attracted and developed in its service some of the finest artists Italy has every produced. Illustrated with a spectacular collection of slides this added up to a truly memorable evening.

This week has seen two interesting meetings. The first was Chaired by County Councillor Anna Groskop and attended by Tim Carroll leader of SSDC together with representatives of the Society of Friends, (the landlords) SSDC officers concerned with Museums and Tourism and members of the Museum Committee. The aim was to review the decision of the Museum Committee to close the Museum and great concern was expressed about the negative effects this could have on the town. It was agreed by all to explore the situation further, see what might still be done, and meet again in three months.

The second was a meeting of the Museum Committee which discussed what had happened and the Secretary, Jeff Kingaby, then put out this statement.

WINCANTON MUSEUM

Following the news that Wincanton Museum will be closing, rumours are circulating in the town that some or all the artefacts will be sold off, this is contrary to the constitution of the Wincanton and District Museum and History Society and there is absolutely no truth in this rumour.

The society is arranging for some of the artefacts to be displayed in public buildings throughout the town and some will go into a store, others may go into other local museums, but this operation will take some time bearing in mind that there are probably as many 1000 items in the museum.

In the meantime the museum will be open from 10 – 12.30pm on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays until the end of September or if an organised group wish to visit special arrangements can be made.

Adverts will shortly appear in the press advising people who have kindly loaned items to the museum how they can claim them.

Despite All Efforts, Wincanton Museum Has to Close in September
Wednesday 30 June 2010
by Jeff Kingaby

Jeff Kingaby

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Posted in: Museum

Jeff Kingaby, Museum and History Society Secretary

There has been much previous press coverage concerning the future of Wincanton Museum.

The Quakers are the museum’s landlords and unfortunately they have come to the conclusion that the charitable aims of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) do not cover subsidizing a museum, however worthy the cause. This means that, while not wishing to make a profit from Wincanton Museum, the Society does need to be sure they are not leasing the premises at a loss – as has been the case for as long as the museum has been open. This decision has come at a time when there is to be much competition and pressure on public funds in the form of available operational grants for community-based projects. This means the museum has little chance of being able to raise the capital needed to cover the refurbishment needed. What is more, the number of visitors to the Museum has dwindled quite considerably over recent months.

All this has led the Committee to review the future financial prospects for the museum. Using conservative assumptions the museum is likely to face costs of £4,000 for 2011. Income expectations (even assuming the current grant level from the Authorities will continue) amount to £2,400. This creates a potential operating deficit of £1,600 for the year. Whilst this could be covered from current capital, it has been decided that this is not a commercial and sustainable decision to make.

Accordingly it has been decided to close the museum when the current season finishes in September 2010.

On positive notes the History Division of the Society will continue. There will be another series of well publicised and interesting talks starting in September 2010. The museum also plans to approach local public enterprises with a view to placing some of the more important artefacts into cabinets within their premises, thus continuing to make interesting historic presentations visible.

Furthermore the Committee plans to reorganise its energy and attentions to improving the web site – www.wincantonmuseum.org.uk – and perhaps additionally creating a “virtual museum” by photographing and documenting the majority of the items currently on display or in nearby storage.

In the meantime the museum is to remain open on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday mornings from 10.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. until the 25th September 2010, and access is available to all at no cost.

The trustees of the society are keen to thank all of the members, the stewards, and the committee for their help and support over the last two decades, and the Quakers for their generosity in having supported the museum for so long