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:
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.
