I thought I would use this blog to update you on a couple of the exhibitions currently taking place in museums across the county.

Salisbury Museum

Salisbury Museum are currently showing ‘Secular to Sacred – The Story of the Lacock Cup’

Running until May 4^th this exhibition showcases the stunning 15^th century silver cup from the church of St Cyriac, Lacock. The cup was recently jointly acquired by The British Museum and The Wiltshire Museum, Devizes and Salisbury is the first venue to display it on this current tour.

The cup has a fascinating dual history, having been used both as a feasting cup and a holy chalice. The cup was in use at Lacock for over 400 years and was loaned to the British Museum in 1963, but continued to return to Lacock for use at religious festivals until about thirty years ago.

Alongside the Lacock cup the exhibition in Salisbury includes other church vessels from surrounding parishes including Wylye, Fisherton, Odstock, Nunton and Bodenham.

http://www.salisburymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/secular-sacred-story-lacock-cup

This exhibition will be followed later in May by a major exhibition ‘Turner’s Wessex’, the first ever exhibition devoted to J M W Turner’s drawings and paintings of Salisbury Cathedral, the city and its surroundings.

Trowbridge Museum

Trowbridge Museum's brand new Magna Carta exhibition ‘Game of Barons’ runs until 25^th July 2015. From medieval weaponry to Lego castles, the exhibition will educate and entertain visitors of all ages. The middle ages are explored through heraldry and pageantry as well as displays about daily life, food, warfare, the troubled reigns of Henry II and Richard the Lionheart and much more. 

http://wiltshireatwar.org.uk/

Our Heritage Lottery Funded project to uncover and share stories of the First World War Home Front in Wiltshire is approaching two exciting milestones early in 2015.

At the end of January our website will be going live. This will be a home for all the stories that have been gathered so far – in sounds, words and pictures. If your family or community have your own stories that you would like to include you will be able to do this straight through the website. Over time we hope this will become a significant record of the impact of the war across the county.

At the end of February the first exhibition based on the stories will be on display at the Springfield Community Campus in Corsham. This exhibition will focus on the role Wiltshire played in providing a home and training ground for the military and how this affected the lives of ordinary people. Look out for full details of the exhibition over the next few weeks. After Corsham the exhibition will be setting off on a tour of community venues whilst we start work on preparing further displays looking at different ways the First World War affected Wiltshire.

Our Heritage Lottery Funded project to uncover and share stories of the First World War Home Front in Wiltshire http://wiltshireatwar.org.uk/ is now moving into its second phase. Over the summer we have been out and about meeting people, making contacts and starting to identify some of the stories that we will be sharing and preserving. This month, we will be showing volunteers from across the county how to do this work so that they can find out and record more stories from their communities.

Places are filling up fast, but if you are interested in coming along to one of these workshops they are taking place at:

Malmesbury Town Hall, 15 Oct 2pm
The Rifles Museum, Salisbury 21 Oct 2pm
Trowbridge Town Hall, 27 Oct 2pm

Full details and how to book a place can be found in the attached Wiltshire at War Training Invite.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes museum education officers are planning the schools element of the project, which will be starting next year and we are looking at the best options for how we present all the stories. This will be done through exhibitions in libraries, museums, village halls, churches etc as well as on a dedicated website.

If you have a story to share, would like to know more about the project or would be interested in hosting an exhibition please contact Emma Golby-Kirk at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on 02380 262629. You can also visit the project website at www.wiltshireatwar.org.uk

Tim Burge, Museums Officer, October 2014

As part of activity taking place across Wiltshire commemorating 100 years since the First World War, museums in the county have been successful in getting Heritage Lottery funding to deliver an exciting project.

Wiltshire at War: Community Stories will invite communities from across Wiltshire to share their stories, memories and artefacts of the impact the First World War had on the county. Working with local museums and heritage centres these will be recorded, stored and shared to create a picture of how Wiltshire life was affected by the conflict.

Stories will be presented through a series of travelling exhibitions and also a website.

Alongside this schools and libraries will be hosting activities, talks and events, inspired by the stories from the exhibitions.

The conservation lab has been overtaken by the Bronze Age recently with two hoards totalling over 200 objects requiring x-ray, cleaning and stabilisation. Both the Hindon and Wardour hoards were found by a metal detectorist near Salisbury and have been declared as treasure. The hoards were excavated by archaeologists and information about how they were buried is being collected and analysed in the hope of gaining some clue as to why the objects were buried. Both hoards have been acquired by the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and once the objects have been conserved they will be put on display in the renovated Wessex Gallery at the museum.

In January of this year the conservation team took microscopes, cleaning tools and brushes and a few objects from the Wardour hoard to the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum as part of the ‘Watch This Space Exhibition’ giving visitors and local school groups a chance to see behind-the-scenes conservation in action. In the public gallery, conservators were on hand to answer questions about the hoard and demonstrate the cleaning techniques we use. Using the microscopes, the conservators were able to see the objects under magnification and could carry out mechanical cleaning.

Here at the History Centre we have a collection of over 1,000 prints dating from the 17th century to the late 19th century; artistic snapshots of our county in time. A selection will be on show in our reception area in the form of a mini exhibition, running from the 28th of September 2013 to the 3rd January 2014. Entry to the exhibition is free, open during our normal working hours. Please feel free to pop in and take a look; they are beautiful works of art in themselves!

The earliest examples of printed illustration are the woodcuts used by William Caxton to illustrate his books in the late 15th century. Saxton’s atlas of England and Wales was published in 1579 and has been called the greatest publishing achievement of the 16th century, being the first national atlas of its kind to be produced in any country, utilising the latest technology of line engraving.

By the 17th century it had become established practice to issue books with engraved title pages and portraits. The process required a different printing process to text and led to an increase in the use of the copper plate press. Demand for this new type of publication increased, resulting in the establishment of two new trades; the publisher and print seller.

The popularity of etching in Britain was predominantly due to one man, Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-77) from Prague. He arrived in Britain as a member of the household of the Earl of Arundel, one of Charles I’s Ministers of State who was a great patron of the arts. Less than 10 years later both the Earl and Hollar had to flee due to the Royalist defeat in the Civil War.