On 14 June eighteen members of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society enjoyed a privilege visit to The Salisbury Museum organised by Lavender Buckland. Curator Jane Ellis-Schon explained the rationale behind her design of the state-of-the-art archaeological display in the new Wessex Gallery. Chronology runs backwards from Norman Old Sarum to the Old Stone Age, via highlights such as the Saxon Warminster Jewel and the gold hair braids of the Late Neolithic Amesbury Archer. The sun of the midwinter solstice peeps between the stones of a projected image of Stonehenge as a whole day, and several birds, pass in twenty minutes. It would have been possible to spend a whole day among these marvels, but time had to be found for the British Museum’s travelling exhibition “Writing for Eternity: Decoding Ancient Egypt”, introduced by Joyce Paesen, and cake.

Recent entries in our Visitors’ Book:

23 April 2016  A really fascinating place! Thank you. And we especially liked the basket of traditional toys, listening to the serpent and seeing the cat mummy. All the exhibits are so well researched and full of facts. Thanks too to the volunteers for being so welcoming.  (A family from Oxford)

05 May 2016  I rarely miss an opportunity to visit a museum at home or abroad, but never remember being so impressed by a museum’s contents and presentation as here – may your volunteers long continue to flourish. (A visitor from Basingstoke, Hampshire)

22 May 2016  Fantastic – well done to all involved. Love the opportunities for children to dress up or touch things. (Anonymous)

22 May 2016  How charming and caring to visit a small museum that is kept fresh and dust-free and alive. Wonderful. (A couple from Gloucester)

Gold Hill Museum is open every day, including Bank Holidays and Sundays, 10.30 to 4.30 until 31 October

 

 

As part of the Shaftesbury Food and Drink Festival on Sunday 15 May, Gold Hill Museum volunteers will be turning the clock back to the Middle Ages. In period dress they will be offering visitors, especially accompanied children, sample tastings from the dinner table of seven hundred years ago. So why not follow the cheese races up Gold Hill with a visit to the Museum’s Garden Room and turn your hand to making medieval bread and salads, and other crafts? The event runs from 1 to 3 p.m. and is free, though donations towards the cost of ingredients will be most welcome.

448 visitors came through the door of Gold Hill Museum during the three days of the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. Apart from the permanent local history displays, there were FIVE temporary exhibitions for them to see. Shaftesbury Camera Club’s exhibition of top-class prints (above) continues in the Garden Room until Friday 06 May. Also available to view until the end of the season are: a magnificent array of fans from the Museum Collection; an insight into the history of Shaftesbury and Tisbury workhouses; a short history of King Canute (who died at Shaftesbury in 1035); and documents, artefacts and photographs from our Heritage Lottery Funded Community Project in a newly-opened show entitled Shaftesbury Remembers the Great War. Admission to all parts of the Museum is free.

The focus for the next Reminiscence Afternoon at Shaftesbury Library on Tuesday 26 April at 2.30p.m. will be “Childhood”. Ann Symons and Claire Ryley are hoping that contributors will recall their own experiences, and stories told by older family members, about growing up in the early twentieth century. Ann and Claire are currently putting the finishing touches to an Exhibition entitled “Shaftesbury Remembers the Great War” in the Large Exhibition Room at Gold Hill Museum. This will illustrate the considerable progress of the Heritage Lottery Funded Community Project. Ann and Claire can be contacted on 01747 852157 or via education@goldhillmuseum.org.uk