Shaftesbury Camera Club Exhibition at Gold Hill Museum

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Following last year’s successful Photographic Exhibition held over a holiday weekend, Shaftesbury Camera Club are returning to the Anna McDowell Garden Room at Gold Hill Museum for a week long show. The Exhibition of top quality prints will run from Saturday 30 April until Friday 06 May, 10.30a.m to 4.30p.m. Entry is free to both the Exhibition and the Museum. The image of Swanage Pier was kindly provided by David Lampard of the Camera Club.

Reminiscence

Reminiscence Afternoon 2.30 – 3.30 Tuesday 29 March at Shaftesbury Library

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Ann Symons and Claire Ryley are holding a further Reminiscence Afternoon at Shaftesbury Library, on Tuesday 29 March between 2.30 and 3.30p.m. The focus of interest on this occasion will be family stories of the experiences of Prisoners of War and internees, during both World Wars. There will be tea and cakes and the opportunity to examine documents and artefacts from the Gold Hill Museum Collection. Further details of this free event and of the Gold Hill Museum Great War Community Project can be obtained by contacting Ann and Claire via education@goldhillmuseum.org.uk or by phoning 01747 852157.

Life in Shaftesbury and Tisbury Workhouses

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A new exhibition for 2016 created by Librarian and Archivist Ray Simpson tells the story of two local workhouses. In 1834 Parliament was keen to cut the welfare bill and the Poor Law Amendment Act abolished the practice of giving outdoor relief to the able-bodied poor. Recipients of welfare now had to enter the workhouse, where conditions were made deliberately unpleasant to discourage claimants. Ray’s fascinating exhibition couples extracts from letters and documents detailing the foundation of the new workhouses in Shaftesbury and Tisbury with episodes in the lives of unfortunate inmates: Martha Street and Eliza Tucker, jailed in 1869 for “fighting, quarrelling and making use of most obscene and profane language”; the Tisbury vagrant punished in 1907 for refusing to break stones for fear of losing his one good eye. This display is outside the Museum Library on the first floor and will run until October.

34035 “Shaftesbury” arrives at Gold Hill Museum

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“Shaftesbury” was one of the Southern Railway Company’s “West Country” class of steam locomotives. She hauled trains across the South and West from 1946 to 1963, and was scrapped at the British Railways works in Eastleigh in 1964. One of her two name-plates was presented to Shaftesbury Borough Council in 1964 by former BR Works Manager Mr J.T. Hillier. This has now been kindly loaned to the Museum by the Town Council, together with an OO gauge model of the original engine and tender given by Mr W.R. Sherriff. Helping to fix the model in its bespoke case above the name-plate in time for the 19 March opening are Peter Campbell-Orde of Framers of Shaftesbury and S&DHS Trustee John Parker.

The Language of the Fan at Gold Hill Museum

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Gold Hill Museum re-opens on Saturday 19 March with many new items on display. The main temporary exhibition features a selection of breathtakingly beautiful Ladies’ Fans from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The history of their use is explained, together with their secret language. It could be that Sheena Commons (left) and Margaret Baxter are signalling “Follow me” or “I’d like to make your acquaintance.” Also involved in the preparation of this stunning exhibition were Maureen Bottom, Lesley Frost and Gill Hutchings, who are all delighted that a previously unseen part of the Museum Collection is on public view. An A4 poster “The Language of the Fan” is available in the Museum Shop.