Archive conservation staff are to be reunited with an ‘old friend’ with their latest project.

The letters of John Russell in the Eyre-Matcham archive document his career as a naval administrator at Woolwich, then Deptford, as Consul General in Lisbon and Consul in Morocco.

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 I am delighted to be able to share with you the news that ‘Photographing Wiltshire’s Treasures’, a collaborative project between ten independent museums and a local further education college, has won two awards at an event to celebrate the work of the voluntary and community sector in Wiltshire.

 
The Voluntary and Community Sector Award

The project, funded by a Renaissance South West Museum Development Fund grant, saw photography and media students from New College Swindon complete placements at museums across Wiltshire, most of which are run entirely by volunteers. During their placements the students received training in object handling and photographic techniques and were then able to work with staff and volunteers to select and professionally photograph items from the collections.

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“Hoodies can be Goodies”, “Think Twice, Think Positive”, “Take off your cover”, were just some of the campaign slogans created by Swindon students developing their own campaigns having been inspired by the example of the Suffragettes, Anti-slavery campaign or the campaign to improve Public Health.

At work on the project

Students at St Joseph’s Catholic College learned about the appalling conditions in Swindon in the 1850s and how public health campaigns helped to bring clean water and proper sewers. They then investigated modern day campaigning techniques before developing their own campaigns challenging the media stereotype of teenagers as vandals and criminals. Staff from the History Centre and school governor, Stan Pajak, had the difficult job of judging a winner from the excellent presentations. The students used rap, poems, posters, leaflets and some great slogans to get their message across. The winning slogan was “You tell us not to judge a race, so why would you judge a younger face?”. To find out more, please 'read more'..

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Following on from our glimpse into Victorian school life, school today seems so different to the experience of Victorian pupils. Computers, interactive white boards and televisions would certainly seem as foreign to those children as slates and dipping pens would to today’s students. However, a recent trawl through the delightful school log book collection for extracts to show teachers also found some things in common.  All the teachers agreed that whether it was bad weather, uniform, behaviour in class or the challenges of teaching maths and English, parts of school life from 140 years ago seemed very familiar.

 
Swallowcliffe Schoolchildren

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In 1849 a crowd of 30,000 people gathered outside the imposing gates of Devizes prison to watch the public execution of Rebecca Smith of Bratton for poisoning her baby. Rebecca spent the night before in the prison chapel with her open coffin for company. After her execution her body is taken for burial in unhallowed grounds within the prison wall.

 
Devizes Prison Gate, 1889

Students from Wiltshire College have been investigating crime and punishment in the county as the basis for their creative writing. You can find out more by reading the prison diaries, letters appealing innocence, court room scripts and newspaper accounts that they have written. Their work will be appearing here soon and will be on display in the public search room at the History Centre in December.

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