FOBM News Weeks 21-25

Website for Friends of Blake Museum

News - Week 25

The Summer 2009 edition of Blake News was published this week. Printed copies will be distributed shortly to members of the Friends who are not on the internet.

Sunday's concert by Taunton Concert Band was washed out by rain half-way through. The final concert, at 2.00pm next Sunday, will be given by Tiverton Town Band. As always, the Friends are providing refreshments.

The Civic Society's presentation in the Town Hall was attended by a good audience including a number of County, District and Town Councillors. After the screening of the Civic Trust's 35 year-old film that had been the catalyst for the formation of the Bridgwater Society, and which still bears important messages for today, there was most interesting presentation of illustrations of Bridgwater old and new. The old were a number of street scenes from the 1860s from the Museum's collection, which had been scanned very recently some probably never seen before in public. The new were photographs taken the weekend before the presentation of the same streets from the same viewpoints. Many of the buildings had been little changed, and bear witness to the quality of their construction and the efforts that have succeeded in conserving them.

A volunteer has connected a Wireless Access Point (WAP) to the network in the Museum. Such has been the recent improvements in technology that connexion to the networks by wireless can be made now from most locations in the Museum, despite the thick walls. The WAP connexion will be especially useful during cataloguing the collections (using the little netbook), at the Custodians Desk, and for future developments involving remote CCTV monitoring and access to the upper floors for the physically frail.

In the autumn there will be temporary exhibitions - one about calligraphy and another about the Bridgwater Choral Society. Plans are also being made for a special exhibition to be mounted 25 May - 6 June 2010 to celebrate 103 years since the launch of the Irene, the last Bridgwater-built ship. Now rescued from loss, she is sailing the seas once again. If any of our readers have memories or associations with the Irene, we'd like to hear from you.

Small building works continued with the permanent fitting of the wheel-chair ramps between the garden and the shop, the fixing of a faulty gutter above the archaeology room store and the fitting of a Bridgwater-made clock in the cloakroom. More rubbish was cleared away At the end of the week, the mechanism and dial of yet another Bridgwater-made clock was found boxed in the store. This dates from probably the eighteenth century, but a new case will be needed before it can be properly displayed.

Members of the curatorial team have been very busy during the week sorting more material for scanning, and tidying up the store before the contents of numerous boxes can be checked. The learning team have made a start at planning for the work the Museum will be undertaking in this field. Pretty well the final batch of museum images were received electronically from the District Council.

The post consultation version of the Museum's three year Forward Plan will be considered by the Museum sub-Committee of the Town Council in mid-August, and if approved will form part of the evidence for Museum Accreditation. More than 30 individuals were invited to comment. The next stage is to devise a fully worked-out Action Plan to make sure it all happens!

Refurbishment:- Week 24

This week has seen an important development in the work of re-affirming our Museum Accreditation. The first draft of the Blake Museum Forward Plan 2009-2012 has been written and is published for further consultation. The Home Page has details (scroll down). Please respond with any comments by 18.00 hours on Friday 31 July.

Several Bridgwater-made clocks were found in store, and are in the process of put on display in the shop and cloakroom area. A volunteer with expertise in clocks is caring for them with a view to making them keep correct time and sound the hours.

Work has begun by members of the curatorial team to appraise the material held in store beyond the archaeology room. Two small filing cabinets were removed for disposal, and replaced by one four drawer one. This will permit the Object History Files to be expanded as we locate and catalogue more material. As a preliminary to this, a window obscured by a display panel was re-glazed and made usable again, allowing natural light to fall into the store.

Two shallow ramps were constructed to allow wheel chairs to access the shop and cloakroom area. These will be secured next week.

A collection of printed electoral lists, plans for a Ship Canal, and a few other documents were sent for digitisation.

A large family tree was found for the Blake Family. A volunteer is needed to key it into a genealogy data-base so the information may be made more widely available.

A poster has been designed to advertise the Museum, and copies are being put up in suitable places in the neighbourhood.

Further sections of panelling in the hallway have been given the very effective specialist treatment to improve their appearance by one of our skilled volunteers, and the banister rail is now cleaned as well.

A meeting took place between Somerset Highways, the County Conservation Officer (Highways) and the Museum Co-ordinator to begin planning for street improvement in Blake Street as part of the overall regeneration plans for the area.

This week the Museum was given a cup, saucer, bowl and jug, all with the Borough crest and made by Fentons They may date from before the 1930s. This will augment the small collection of similar crested china-ware. We hope soon to have a display them in the case containing the Bridgwater Cup

A Blake Museum First Two volunteers at the Blake Museum are helping a Canadian initiative to produce open-source /free/ software for Museum Collection Management. It has the advantage over the present software of allowing images of each object to be included.

Evening event 7.00 for 7.30, Wednesday 29 July in the Charter Hall at Bridgwater Town Hall.

The Civic Society is screening a Civic Trust film A Future for the Past: Action now in Conservation Areas. First screened in the early 1970's, this was the catalyst for forming the Bridgwater and District Civic Society. The message are as valid now as they were then.

If you are able to attend please notify Bernice Lashbrook on 01278 459659 or email her ASAP.

Refurbishment:- week 23

The highlight of the week was the meeting of the Bridgwater Town Council Museum sub-Committee (MSC) on Wednesday, where various policies were formally adopted as part of the need to satisfy museum accreditation criteria. These included the statement of Purpose of the Museum, the Acquisitions and Disposals policy, a Governance Statement. Principles were agreed for making charges for certain Museum services such as copying, hire of facilities, searches and for the making available of digitised images on the web. The scale of charges is expected to be agreed at the next meeting of the MSC in mid-August, after which time some of the chargeable facilities may become available.

The sub-Committee received reports from the Friends, and from Dr Peter Cattermole who is the budget holder and co-ordinates work at the Museum on behalf of the Town Council; also in attendance Ms Natalie Watson, the Museum's Curatorial Advisor, and a number of Museum Friends were in the public gallery, and on occasion were invited to speak.

The Acquisition and Disposal Policy contains a revised Statement of Purpose, bringing it into line with the objects established when the Museum was founded in 1926. The statement is set out on the homepage of this website with the invitation to all readers to respond, by next weekend, please, with suggestions for defining the key aims consistent with the Purpose, for the Museum to achieve over the next three years. The Acquisitions and Disposals Policy can be downloaded from here.

More work was done refurbishing a section of the panelling of the hall, and the isolation switch for the heating boiler was fitted in the archive room behind the shop.

Members of the Curating Group were very busy sorting printed electoral lists covering the period 1754 to 1866.These were found as un-accessioned copies in a set of drawers, and seem to compliment similar items which the Museum loaned to the Somerset Record Office some years ago. The lists contain many names and occupations, so are clearly likely to be of considerable interest to family historians. They will be taken for scanning next week and the images written to DVD . The information will then be made available to the public on the web.

The Museum is collaborating with the Bridgwater & District Civic Society and the Town Council in the production of a new Town Trail Guide. Within the new guide, there will be a short description of the working of the Telescope or Black Bridge which once carried railway tracks across the River Parrett to the Docks. The Curating Group managed to locate the Museum's set of drawings made of the bridge for repairs in 1902, and these too will be scanned.

It has not generally been wise or possible for the Museum to add to its collections for some time, as there is much to do with sorting out the existing material. We estimate that less than 50% is properly catalogued. Improved storage and better collection care are priorities. Initial appraisal indicates that this is likely to take at least two years. However, sometimes a significant item or items are brought in. This week, the Acquisitions Policy has been approved, so it has been possible to give consideration to acquiring possible new material.

This week, the Museum was offered a box of papers and records relating to the Bridgwater printer Bigwood and Staple, whose works burnt down a year or two ago. These may complement some material received a few months ago from BWW Printers of Colley Lane, which recently moved premises. Another interesting gift was a collection of photographs of costumed members of the Operatic Society, 90 years ago. As we go to press, we received a Typhoo Tea card, of about 1930, showing Blake House and Robert Blake, from the Homes of Famous Men series.

Refurbishment - Week 22

We have greeted several visitors to the Museum from far and wide. A regular rota of volunteer Custodians is becoming established and a sense of calm and purpose is beginning to pervade on most days. Simple procedures to help the Custodians have been committed to paper.

Important work continues to go on in the background. On Monday, when the Museum is closed to the public, practical work is carried out. This Monday morning, a first was achieved in that of the four volunteers present all but one were less than thirty-six years old! So youthful energy achieved much in a very short time: further re-organisation of the downstairs store, with entry of found items on the computerised catalogued using a netbook; setting up a slide-show of all the scanned images of the Chubb Collection of drawings to accompany the new temporary exhibition; sampling of the re-housed photographs so as to gain a better impression of the state of the collection and the putting up of a roller blind in the cloakroom area. We are very fortunate to be attracting enthusiastic and talented young volunteers to help to develop our Museum along modern lines. There's room for more over the university vacation period this summer! Just email us.

Other small works carried out this week have included cleaning the banister rail and re-furbishing the panelling in the hallway. With the latter, we have been employing traditional methods such as Vandyke brown, beeswax and linseed oil to achieve a subtle aged appearance. The results so far have attracted several complimentary comments.

In September, we need to make a return to the Museums, Libraries Archives Council in connexion with the Accreditation status of the Museum. So, there is much thought, talk, and action in the background to review the inherited policy documents associated with the old Blake Museum as it was before the Town Council took over ownership in April. Much has changed, and continues to change, and all needs to be reported carefully and accurately in September.

The Town Council Museum sub-Committee meets next Wednesday to consider a new Acquisitions and Disposal Policy (amongst other things). By the end of this month, a draft Forward Plan will have been drawn up, for which consultation began a few weeks ago. You can view some of the relevant policy documents at the Museum's administrative website and send in your comments by email.

At the end of the week, we bade farewell to Ian Boyer who has been with us on a volunteer job placement scheme. Ian's contributions have been magnificent: steadfast, knowledgeable (especially on all matters to do with IT), charming, unflappable & utterly reliable. Thank you, Ian, and the very best of luck for the future.

Refurbishment:- Week 21

The Museum has been a cool haven of quiet delight during the very humid weather this week. The new heater over the vestibule door blows cool air around the volunteer Custodians' feet in summer - and hot air in winter. Perfect! There has been a steady stream of visitors
throughout. Attendance at the Band Concert on Sunday was excellent,with the Friends providing their customary refreshments.

On Monday, four newly-framed Chubb watercolours of old Bridgwater were mounted on the west wall of the hall, which now looks even more like the entrance to a fine domestic residence. The new display panels arrived on Thursday and were swiftly erected so that an exhibition on the Chubb family could be mounted upon them in the Exhibition Room on the ground floor.Scanned copies of the pictures can also be viewed on the screen there.

The former Blake Room is being converted into an exhibition room for larger objects (such as a mangle cast with the name Thompson Brothers,that has been long in store). An area of the room is being set aside for small conferences and committee meetings.The second window to the room has been uncovered and white emulsion applied to most of the walls and ceiling, all of which has brightened up the room no end.

The photograph collection once in filing cabinets has been transferred to archival boxes. A preliminary survey has revealed that many photographs have not been catalogued, and that there are duplicates scattered throughout the files. It will be a very long task bringing
the photograph collection into a logical arrangement. We currently estimate that there are between 15 and 20 thousand images, representing by far the largest proportion of the whole collection.

Another large component of the collection is the archaeological artefacts, and members of the Bridgwater & District Archaeological Society are meeting regularly every Thursday morning in this connexion. Another volunteer is busy sorting through the downstairs storeroom where she has found many items not yet catalogued - a veritable treasure house!

Upstairs, good progress is being made in a voyage of discovery through the plan drawers. Did you know that the Museum has a substantial collection of Electors' Lists from late Georgian and Victorian times? Very useful for family historians, so these lists are of high priority for digitisation and publishing on the web (next year!).

Out of the heat and at the computer, volunteers have been busy in the evenings putting together revised policies for the management of the collections as part of the biennial review of the Accredited Museum status of the Museum. These will be submitted to the Town Council
Museum sub-Committee shortly for their approval.