Welcome to the 24 Hour Museum news in brief page for the week ending June 1 2008. This page is updated every weekday.
30.05.2008 - National Railway Museum invites people with sensory, mobility and learning difficulties to Please Touch event
This June, the National Railway Museum (NRM) National Railway Museum will again be welcoming visitors to its annual 'Please Touch' event - a fantastic experience for people with sensory, mobility or learning difficulties.
As well as providing these visitors with the chance to participate in many activities including drum workshops, rides on the miniature railway and the ‘Sensory Station’, this year there will be something extra on offer – the chance to ride the Yorkshire Wheel, free of charge until 6pm and free rides on the Simulator until 7.45pm!
Please Touch takes place every year at the NRM and aims to provide a fun and interactive free day out. This year’s event will take place on June 17 2008 from 3pm until 8pm and people should pre-book their place in advance. Please visit www.nrm.org.uk for more details.
30.05.2008 - Manchester's Urbis to help girls hit the headlines for the right reasons
With violet girls hitting the headlines in ever increasing numbers for their part in the cruel teenage phenomena of happy slapping and bullying, Manchester's Urbis museum is holding a conference to encourage girls to use their strength in a positive way.
Running from June 23 - 26 2008 at Urbis, RECLAIM is a project that aims to empower young women to demonstrate leadership skills in a positive manner, and hit the headlines for all the right reasons.
First piloted by Urbis in October 2007 to tackle gang related crimes involving young men from Moss Side and south Manchester, the next conference will shift the focus to address issues facing young women.
The four-day event will introduce 30 young women (aged 12 - 14) from six south Manchester schools to 15 adult mentors recruited from the local community. On the final day of the RECLAIM conference, the young women will write their manifesto, a statement of intent about how they will grow, develop and defy the headlines to be successful and inspirational women.
30.05.2008 - Museums get local in Brighton and Hove
People in Brighton and Hove can now learn more about their localities from displays on their doorstep, as two new ‘micro museums’ have opened in Whitehawk and Portslade.
The two micro museums are at Portslade Library and the Roundabout Children's Centre in Whitehawk. In each location visitors can browse through an array of historic local photographs using a touch-screen computer. There are objects on display and explanatory panels annotated with quotes, images, text and newspaper headlines, all tailored to the vicinity.
30.05.2008 - Dating shows Stonehenge used as burial ground before large stones erected
Archaeologists have revealed new radiocarbon dates of human cremation burials at Stonehenge, which indicate that the monument was used as a cemetery from its inception just after 3000 BC until well after the large stones went up around 2500 BC.
The University of Sheffield archaeologists, Professor Mike Parker-Pearson and Professor Andrew Chamberlain, believe that the cremation burials could represent the natural deaths of a single elite family and its descendants, perhaps a ruling dynasty. One clue to this is the small number of burials in Stonehenge´s earliest phase, a number that grows larger in subsequent centuries, as offspring would have multiplied.
Many archaeologists previously believed that people had been buried at Stonehenge only between 2700 and 2600 B.C., before the large stones, known as sarsens, were put in place. The new dates provide strong clues about the original purpose of the monument and show that its use as a cemetery extended for more than 500 years.
This is the first time any of the cremation burials from Stonehenge have been radiocarbon dated. The burials dated by Parker Pearson’s team were excavated in the 1950s and have been kept at the nearby Salisbury Museum.
29.05.2008 - Historic shovel returns to Head of Steam
A valuable locomotive firing shovel, taken from Darlington Railway Station and used in self-defence 50 years ago, has made its way back to the town to go on display at the town's railway museum Head of Steam.
The shovel, which used to stand with the famous Locomotive No. 1 at Darlington Railway Station, has been returned by a man who used it to fend off an attack by soliders at the railway station in the 1950s. Having fended off the squaddies, the young man, Jack, took the shovel home for extra protection and forgot to return it.
50 years on he has travelled from Devon to return the shovel back to its rightful place - alongside Locomotive No. 1, which now resides at Head of Steam.
29.05.2008 - Sunderland Museum hosts Gardens of Tranquility study day
The day centres around the new display, Gardens of Tranquility, featuring a beautifully detailed model of a Daoist temple in a garden-like landscape, on loan from the V&A.
The free day of talks is part of the Bede and Beijing festival, which explores themes common to Anglo Saxon and Chinese culture. Find out more at www.wearmouth-jarrow.org.uk/bedebeijing
29.05.2008 - Edith Pretty artefacts donated to Sutton Hoo House
David Pretty, the grandson of Edith Pretty who was landowner of Sutton Hoo in the 1930s, has donated a number of paintings and artefacts to the National Trust property Sutton Hoo House, the largest of which is an oil painting of the Pretty family on horseback.
The painting which is still in need of some repair depicts Edith’s husband Frank, along with his father and brothers who were prominent figures in the Essex and Suffolk Hunt.
The most unusual item however is a stuffed albino mole. Caught on the Sutton Hoo estate in 1934 and given to Edith during her time here, it is a reminder that the mole population is still very much in evidence at Sutton Hoo today.
These and other items can be seen on the Edith Pretty tour of the property, which reveals the story of a remarkable lady, whose curiosity instigated the 1939 excavations that led to the incredible discovery of an Anglo-Saxon burial ground, one of the foremost Anglo-Saxon sites in England.
28.05.2008 - Boys Brigade celebrated at Historic Dockyard
The Historic Dockyard Chatham is hosting a day on Saturday May 31 to showcase the activities and benefits of belonging to the UK’s first and oldest uniformed youth organisation, the Boys' Brigade.
Several hundred people will be participating in the event which will include two brass bands, two drum and bugle corps, a pipe band and eight marching bands, as well gymnastic displays, a selection of classic vehicles, childrens' activities and a bouncy castle (weather permitting).
Normal admission applies for the event, which has been organised by the Stedfast Association London, which was formed and launched at the Royal Albert Hall in 1983 as part of the Boys’ Brigade Centenary year celebrations. It is an organisation for former members, serving officers, their family ahnd supporters of the work of the Boys’ Brigade.
28.05.2008 - Campaigners look to 16th century planning loophole to save historic power station
Campaigners fighting plans to demolish a former Victorian power station on Shoreditch High Street have learnt that Hackney Council may not have legal powers to decide the building’s fate, if an obscure land law dating back to the Reformation is still in effect.
Maps unearthed by architectural historian Robin Stummer, editor of Cornerstone Magazine, show that a small area surrounding the Light Bar, which was originally built to generate power for Liverpool Street Station, was once an independent district occupied by the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital.
When the land was handed back to the Crown during the Reformation, the parish, or ‘liberty’, of Norton Folgate, as it was known, continued to be run as a distinct administrative district, answerable only to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Campaigners are now hoping this turn of events could throw yet another obstacle in the path of Sir Norman Foster’s plans for a mixed-use development on the site. The site has already faced stiff opposition from over 6000 local residents anxious to see one of East London’s last and most intriguing industrial buildings saved for future generations.
27.05.2008 - Oliver Cromwell steams back into York
The late May Bank Holiday weekend saw The National Railway Museum (NRM) mark the 40th anniversary of the end of mainline steam with the return of one of the national collection’s most famous locomotives.
No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell pulled the last ever BR steam-hauled train on August 11 1968, booking her place in the history books. This steam survivor has just undergone a four year restoration at Loughborough’s Great Central Railway and returns to the NRM to star in its ‘1968 and All That’ event; a half term extravaganza which started on Saturday and runs until Sunday June 1 2008.
Members of Colonel Edward Montagu’s Regiment of Foote, a roundhead regiment of the English Civil War Society, fanfared Oliver Cromwell’s historic return to the home of the railway by firing muskets at noon.
Men who worked on the last train, the ‘15 Guinea Special’, also relived their memories when they were reunited with No. 70013 for the first time since the engine has been restored.
Footplate workers on the famous train got in touch with the NRM in response to its ’memories of steam’ appeal asking for the public’s recollections of the end of steam as part of the preparation for its nine day celebration.
Their memories along with many others from across the UK are now accessible to the nation via the museum’s vast archive of railway history, the multi-million pound archive and research centre Search Engine.
For more information about the special event, which lasts until June 1 (tickets still available) visit www.nrm.org.uk or telephone 0844 815 3139.
27.05.2008 - UK's smallest museum opens in Northumberland
What is believed to be one of the UK's smallest museums opened in Northumberland at the weekend in a beach hut.
The hut, measuring no more than 3 metres by 2.5 metres, is in Alnmouth in Northumberland. It was once used by the local ferryman but in recent years it has fallen into disrepair.
It now contains memorabilia and information about the ferryman who used to row people across the River Aln estuary for a fee.
27.05.2008 - Coal Mining Museum - and its horse - celebrate 20th birthday
The National Coal Mining Museum for England will be celebrating the 20th birthday of Colonel, a Shire Horse, on Saturday May 31, as part of the Museum’s 20th Anniversary Celebrations.
Colonel has been one of the main attractions at the museum for the past 17 years. Now retired, in past years Colonel has been shown at county level by the museum, attending numerous shows and game fairs in heavy horse turnout classes (agricultural and trade).
Visitors are invited to join the party and enjoy a piece of birthday cake from 11.00am until 2.00pm and wish Colonel, the museum’s gentle giant, many happy returns.
As well as visiting the pit ponies, a range of activities at the museum include the underground tour which is free for all, a chance to look around the different galleries and collections, a walk along the nature trail and a ride on the train.
27.05.2008 - Broads Museum launches appeal
A Norfolk museum which tells the story of life on the county's famous waterways is to launch a £125,000 appeal to secure its future.
The Museum of the Broads is housed in waterside buildings at Stalham and covers traditional trades and boats. After two failed lottery bids the charity that runs the museum is launching its appeal to buy the two buildings it is housed in.
27.05.2008 - National Maritime Museum Cornwall completes new Falmouth Gallery
This week saw the completion of the new Falmouth First and Last gallery at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. The gallery explores the history of Britain’s first and last port of call.
The new Troops and Travellers display brings things up-to-date, covering the period from 1900 to the present day.
Key arrivals and departures in Falmouth in the 20th century are covered in the new display, including record-breaking achievements by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Dame Ellen MacArthur as well as the heroics of the St. Nazaire raid during WW2.
“The Falmouth First and Last gallery celebrates Falmouth’s unique place in British maritime history," said Jonathan Griffin, Director at National Maritime Museum Cornwall. "Following the opening of the Falmouth for Orders exhibition in February we are delighted to be able to complete the story of the port with our latest display. Visitors can now lose themselves in the maritime history of Falmouth from 1688 to today!”
27.05.2008 - Bede and Beijing music festival for Tyneside
A unique concert combining the music of Anglo-Saxon England, folk melodies and songs of China, is to take place at St Peter’s Church, Monkwearmouth on Wednesday May 28 and Saturday May 31.
Bede and Beijing features specially composed music by Sophy Ball played by a group of musicians, and Gregorian chant sung by the Benedict Biscop Gregorian choir led by Jonathan Adams.
The concerts are part of the Bede and Beijing festival, currently taking place on Tyneside and Wearside. Concerts are being held in the beautiful churches which make up the twin monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow – St Peter’s in Monkwearmouth and St Paul’s in Jarrow.
Tickets for the concerts are free but should be booked in advance to avoid disappointment. They are available from St Paul's Church, Jarrow, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens or Discovery Museum, Newcastle. Alternatively, they are available by emailing hubadmin@twmuseums.org.uk or by calling (0191) 277 2156.
