Recently I gave a talk to Devizes Camera Club on the care and preservation of old photographs. While preparing this I realised how bad our centrally heated homes are for storage of this material compared with the old days of one two open fires and perhaps one electric fire switched on for going to bed! The required temperature and relative humidity varies according to the type of material but for general collections, as we have at the History Centre, we keep;

Black and white materials at 12°C and 35% relative humidity

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I’m Victoria Barlow and I’m the County Conservation and Museums Manager. Before moving to Wiltshire three months ago, I worked as Collections Manager for a maritime museum in Kent and have worked in museums for 15 years. During my first few weeks in post I visited all of the 18 museums that we work with and I was struck not only by the welcome I received but by the professionalism and enthusiasm of everyone working in Wiltshire’s museums.

Volunteer Mike Asbury of Pewsey Museum and Photographer Simon Harris collect an award at the recent Voluntary and Community Sector Awards. Copyright Wiltshire Council.

Many of our museums are run by volunteers and even those which do have excellent professional staff, rely on volunteers to some extent to run their services. You will have heard the government talking a lot about volunteers recently and the concept of The Big Society. Here in Wiltshire we have been doing that since the 1970s! Wiltshire Council doesn’t run a museum but instead we have a Museums Advisory Service and a team of Conservators who work with museums small and large across the county, supporting and helping them to look after their collections and meet professional standards. 

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Wax visible inside the skull before treatment

Background

The 2009-2010 project to conserve 300 items for the new display at the Roman Baths Museum included a variety of materials from Roman earthenware ceramics to bronze statuettes. Some of the larger objects were made of lead and included lead piping from the baths themselves and a Roman coffin. The coffin was the feature of our last blog and we’d like to follow on from this with details of the conservation of the coffin’s contents.

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Many of the objects that come into the Conservation labs are from Wiltshire Museums.

This month conservators have been working on a glass sign belonging to Mere Museum. The sign, advertising ‘Attaboy Hats’, came to the labs in several pieces. The museum would like to put it on display as part of an exhibition about local industry in Mere.

The sign before repainting
To find out more please 'read more'...
 

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Wow, what a day! Over a thousand people came along to meet the Tudors at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, on Saturday 26^th September. King Henry VIII and his courtiers were on hand to greet visitors as they joined in the fun, meeting the crew from the Mary Rose and looking at original artefacts from Henry’s great naval ship; learning how to shoot arrows with a longbow and dress as a Tudor; and viewing some of the History Centre’s rarest documents from the Tudor period including the marriage deed of Henry VIII to Jane Seymour and a signed letter from Elizabeth I about her cousin Mary Queen of Scots, just some of the thousands of historic documents about the county contained in the History Centre.

King Henry VIII looking at his marriage deed

They were also able to check out Tudor technology with the Science Museum; have a go at our giant interactive Tudor Quiz; see how the film ”The other Boleyn Girl” was made at Great Chalfield Manor; write with a quill pen and find out how conservators freeze dry waterlogged wood. Glass painting, Tudor badge making and other craft activities were also taken up with enthusiasm by our younger visitors. Another popular attraction and predating the Tudors by a few hundred thousand years was the Stone Age hand axes. Visitors were also able to gain exclusive behind the scenes access to conservation laboratories and strong rooms.

 
One of the strongrooms only accessible during the Open Day

We were really pleased that more than 400 of the visitors were children, some came dressed as Tudors. Many were learning about the Tudors at school, so hopefully we were able to bring a little bit of it to life.  Everyone was encouraged to post a comment on our magnetic wall so please take time to read them all if you are visiting the Centre in the near future. We also asked people what they did not enjoy (we are always looking to improve) and one young visitor told us that he or she “didn’t enjoy nuffing”. So there you have it! How did our staff feel about the open day and what do you think would be a good theme for next year? Please 'read more' to find out and have your say....

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The Objects Conservation team regularly have volunteers working alongside staff in the labs who carry out valuable work for Wiltshire museums and external clients. At the moment we have two volunteers with us, working three days per week.

Jo Launchbury is a student at Cardiff University and originally came to work with the Objects team on a work placement as part of her degree course. She has since come back as a volunteer until she returns to university.


Joe working on the seed fiddle

Jo has worked on a number of projects during her time with the Conservation Service, including repairing two ceramic goblets, cleaning and re-packing a pony harness from Market Lavington Museum and cleaning and repairing a seed fiddle from Mere Museum. She has also visited a number of Wiltshire museums with the conservators, taking readings to monitor the environment in stores and galleries. 
 
Amanda Wilkinson has just graduated from Cardiff University and is currently working with us for three days per week in order to gain work experience. Read on to find out more....

Amanda in the process of repairing the jigsaw
 

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Conservators in the Objects labs are currently working on a glass goblet (pictured above) dating to the Medieval period. The goblet was found at Ludgershall Castle which comes under the collecting remit of Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes.

The vessel is in several pieces at the moment and will require careful cleaning before it can be reconstructed. Glass is notoriously fragile and can deteriorate very quickly in a burial environment so it is not often that whole objects are found. Conservators are hoping that analysis can be done to discover what the goblet may have been used for. Organic residues can sometimes be detected on the surface of objects which can indicate that they may have been used for eating and drinking in the past. This goblet is quite ornate so it may in fact have been a decorative piece with no other use.

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