Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Feb 29, 2012
Tagged in:
Wiltshire Heritage Museum ,
Taunton ,
St James' Church ,
Sir Thomas Long ,
Perkin Warbeck ,
Knight ,
heraldic ,
helmet ,
gauntlets ,
funeral armour ,
Durham University ,
Draycot ,
Diana McCormack ,
Darrell ,
crest ,
conservation ,
Cerne
My name is Diana McCormack and I have been on work placement with the Wiltshire Conservation Service since September, as the second year of a Masters degree for Durham University, and will continue until June. While on placement, I have been given several projects to work on, involving the assessment, research and treatment of objects in need of conservation.
Conservator at work
One of these projects is to conserve some pieces of funeral armour from St James’ Church in Draycot Cerne, where they hung above the tomb of a knight named Sir Thomas Long. Long was an MP for Westbury and sometime High Sheriff of Wiltshire, who lived from 1449 – 1508, and owned a large estate around South Wraxall and across north Wiltshire. The armour is now in the care of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes, and recently came to the labs at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre for conservation work.
The tomb of Sir Thomas
As part of the research into these objects I was given the opportunity to visit the church of St James at Draycot Cerne, near Chippenham, Wiltshire. The keeper of the keys was kind enough to give me a guided tour and describe to me how the armour had been displayed above Sir Thomas’ tomb, which stands in the sunken chancel next the altar.
Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Feb 21, 2012
The Archaeology team from the History Centre have been involved with excavating two exciting new finds in the last few months.
In October last year a metal detectorist working on farm land in the south west of Wiltshire discovered a bronze spearhead. Realising the significance of what he had a found, and the possibility of more still buried under the surface, he contact Katie Hind, the Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, who is based at Salisbury Museum. Katie, together with staff from the Archaeology team and the finder went back to the site and carefully excavated the spot where the object has first been discovered. At first it was thought there may be a handful of bronze objects buried as a “hoard” or grouped deposit of artefacts buried at some point in the past by someone who intended to come back to it (a prehistoric form of banking!). As the day went on we were amazed and delighted to find a deep deposit of bronze objects place one on top of the other, 114 of them in total! (see photo 1).What was really surprising and unusual was the great diversity of object types . The hoard consisted of tools (axe heads, chisels, sickles, gouges) and weapons (spearheads, daggers, knives, swords and scabbard fittings). They were all made from copper alloy and came out in good condition.
Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Feb 14, 2012
Tagged in:
Valentine of Terni ,
Valentine of Rome ,
valentine ,
Tower of London ,
Roman festival ,
Pyke ,
Peter Harvey Lovell ,
martyr ,
Malmesbury ,
Lupercalia ,
Cole Park ,
Christian ,
Chaucer ,
Charles Duke of Orleans ,
Calire Skinner ,
Broad Somerford ,
Agincourt
The 14th of February is a date which many of us either love or hate, as a time to celebrate romantic love; be bludgeoned over the head with one’s single status; or feel obliged to spend money much too soon after Christmas, depending on your outlook! However it has roots which go back a lot further than the modern commercial jamboree.
The origins of the festival date back to the Roman festival of ‘Lupercalia’ which took place from 13th – 15th February and involved nudity and a good deal of unruly behaviour which I won’t go into here but which was designed to promote fertility for the year ahead!
Then around AD197 a Christian known as Valentine of Terni was martyred in the reign of Emperor Aurelian. He was apparently imprisoned, tortured, and beheaded on the Via Flaminia in Rome – hardly the stuff of romance! According to legend he died on 14th February but this is, in fact, unlikely to be true. Another Christian martyr in the time of Emporar Claudius was Valentine of Rome, a priest or bishop who gave aid to prisoners. There are apocryphal stories that he was carrying out clandestine weddings, and that his execution took place on 14 February.
Posted by:
on Feb 3, 2012
On 21st November, the Conservation teams visited the brand new Museum of Somerset in Taunton. This wasn’t just a jolly, you understand. We were there for a meeting of the South West Conservators’ Group. We had a very useful meeting and heard some very good case studies about the conservation work done in order to get the museum ready. I, a Curator by training and the team’s manager, never fail to be impressed by the miracles conservators work on objects that look beyond redemption to me.
The highlight of the day was a guided tour of the brand new museum. Housed in Taunton Castle, the museum reopened in September last year after a £6.93m redevelopment.
As well the history of Somerset, its nature and archaeology, the museum has a gallery dedicated to Somerset regiments. It’s well designed and encourages interaction but, like most, military museums left me wanting to know about the families of these men and women and what effect the army had on their lives.
