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Be A Basket Case In Oxfordshire For Museums And Galleries Month 2006
By Nicola Tann
08/05/2006
Image: A tiny leaf shaped basketresting on some grass
Leaf Basket by Dail Behennah - One of the mini-baskets to be found on the story trail in the garden at Oxfordshire Museum. Photo by Felicity Wood.
Basket making in all its forms will be the subject of a new three-part exhibition at the Oxfordshire Museum starting 20 May 2006 as part of Museums and Galleries Month.
The exhibition, inspired by this year’s Museums and Galleries Month theme, Making Connections: Past, Present and Future, will showcase examples of traditional Oxfordshire basketry with new work by local group, the Oxfordshire Basketmakers. The third exhibition will explore the use of willow, rush and straw in local weaving and will have baskets and materials for handling.
A range of Family Friendly events and educational outreach projects will be taking place alongside the exhibition, including a ‘Basket Day’ for the Young Archaeologists’ club at the museum and workshops at Campsfield Detention Centre and Bardwell Special School.
Image: An old black and white photo of people taking baskets onto a train
Banbury Railway Station, with porters, passengers and luggage, 1905 © Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive.
Adam Guillan, who is also Writer in Residence at the Roald Dahl Museum, has created a series of Story Trails that will lead children to mini-baskets hidden around the garden. These will lead up to the big story telling day on 8 July which will see Adam in the museum garden telling stories of baskets, old and new, next to the Big Basket, a giant basket 3 feet high with an 8 foot diameter created by local basketmaker, Matthew Lewis.
In addition to the exhibition, the group have developed the Oxfordshire Basketry Map, which you can download from their website at www.oxfordshirebaskets.co.uk. This gives you all the information you need to visit over a dozen museums in the county that have items on display that were made using basketry techniques.
“Baskets used to be everywhere. You’d start life in a Moses basket, and, when you finally gave up the ghost, you’d have been buried in a basket coffin,” says David Nutt of the Oxfordshire Basketmakers.
Image: A huge basket with bushes growing inside under a tree
The Big Basket, built by Oxford based basketmaker Matthew Lewis, as seen in the garden at Oxfordshire Museum. Photo by Felicity Wood.
“The tragedy is that baskets were generally cheap functional objects and, when they wore out, were usually discarded,” he continues. “The map has been made so that you could see some of the Oxfordshire baskets that have survived.”
Items on the trail include a bee skep, a type of old wicker hive, at the Waterperry Rural Museum and a splendid six foot long eel trap at the River and Rowing Museum, an accurate replica of what, a hundred or so years ago, was a common object. You can also see some basketmakers’ tools at the Pitt Rivers Museum and the beautiful Banbury cake basket at the Banbury Museum.
A post-graduate volunteer with the group has also established links between local libraries and the museums on the trail. This has seen local libraries making people aware of Museums and Galleries Month 2006 by directing them to take advantage of their local museums.
Nicola Tann is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer for Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
Oxfordshire County Council Heritage Services
Oxfordshire County Council Heritage Services, Woodstock, OX20 1SN, Oxfordshire, England
Banbury Museum
Spiceball Park Rd, Banbury, OX16 2PQ, Oxfordshire, England
Open: Monday - Saturday 0930 - 1700
Sunday 1030 - 1630
Bank holidays Sunday opening times
Closed: Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day and Easter Sunday.
Chipping Norton Local History Museum
Westgate, High Street, Chipping Norton, OX7 5AD, Oxfordshire, England
Open: Daily 1400-1600
Closed Mon
Charlbury Museum
Charlbury Museum, Charlbury, Oxfordshire, England
Open: Easter to October: Sundays 2 to 4
Bank Holiday Mondays 2 to 4
Other times by appointment: 01608 810060 and 810609
Tolsey Museum
126 High Street, Burford, OX18 4QU, Oxfordshire, England
Open: Mon-Fri 1400-1700
Sat-Sun & Bank holidays 1100-1700
Easter Open
31 October-31 March Closed
Other times by appt
Cogges Manor Farm Museum
Cogges Manor Farm Museum, Church Lane, Witney, OX28 3LA, Oxfordshire, England
Open: 3rd April - 28th October 2007
Tues-Fri 1030-1730
Sat-Sun 1200-1730
Early closing during October 16.00
Closed: Mondays
Witney & District Museum
Gloucester Court Mews, High Street, Witney, OX28 6JA, Oxfordshire, England
Open: 18th April 2007 - 24th October 2007
Wed-Sat 1000-1600
Sun 1400-1600
Mon-Tues-Closed
Swinford Museum, Gloucester
Swinford Museum, Fox House, Filkins, Nr Lechdale, Gloucester, GL7 3JQ, Gloucestershire, England
Open: Open May - September, 1st Sunday in month, 14.00 - 17.00.
Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PP, Oxfordshire, England
Open: Temporarily closed from 7th July 2008 until Spring 2009.
Vale and Downland Museum
Vale and Downland Museum, The Old Surgery, Church Street, Wantage, OX12 8BL, Oxfordshire, England
T: 01235 771447
Open: Mon-Sat 10.00-16.00
Closed on Bank Holidays and Sundays except for private bookings at £15 per hour.
Closed: Closed Sundays and Bank Holidays
except for occasional special events and private bookings
Didcot Railway Centre
Great Western Society, Didcot Railway Centre, Didcot, OX11 7NJ, Oxfordshire, England
Open: We’re open Saturdays and Sundays all year, and daily between these dates:
Daily
27 December 2007 to 1 January 2008,
16 to 24 February,
5 to 20 April,
24 May to 1 June
21 June to 7 September
25 October to 2 November
27 December to 1 January 2009
Steamdays with rides on the trains throughout the year including Bank Holidays, all weekends 28 June-31 August, Wednesdays 23 July-27 August and some other weekends and special events.
Opening Times
Weekends and Steamdays 10.30am-5pm.
Other days, also January, February, November & December 10am-4pm.
Last admission 30 minutes before closing time.
Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult
River & Rowing Museum
Mill Meadows, Henley-on-Thames, RG9 1BF, Oxfordshire, England
T: 01491 415600
Open: Open 7 days a week:
1 May to 31 August 10.00 to 17.30
1 September to 30 April 10.00 to 17.00
Museum Cafe open from 10.30 daily
Closed: Closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve & New Year's Day
Waterperry Gardens and Rural Museum
Waterperry Gardens, Nr. Wheatley, OX33 1JZ, Oxfordshire, England
Open: Tues-Sun inclusive
2pm-5pm + bank holidays
Other times by arrangement.
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