War Horses, The Tank Museum, Bovington Camp, 29/04/17.

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Bovington, Bovington Camp, horses., Museums, tanks, The Tank Museum, World War One

The “Warhorse to Horsepower” exhibition at The Tank Museum tells the story of the role of the British Army’s cavalry on the Western Front during World War One and, as the title of the exhibition suggests, the transition from horse riding and horse drawn conflict into a armoured and motorised one from a rather unusual perspective; that of the horses.

The horses in the walk through exhibition are represented by rather charming models, each with its own character and voice, which guide the visitor from 1914, when horses were at the forefront of British military doctrine, to the 1920’s and 30’s, when the advantages of the tank over the horse were firmly established. It gives one a perspective on the rest of the galleries, which are largely mechanical; albeit with an eye for the human stories behind the armour.

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Bristol Harbour Railway, The M Shed, Bristol, 12/02/17.

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Bristol, Bristol Harbour Railway, Industrial Heritage, M Shed, Museums, Portbury, steam locomotive, steam railways

“Portbury“, built by the Avonside Engine Company in 1917, steaming along the Bristol Harbour Railway towards the M Shed museum. According to the “working exhibits” section of the M Shed’s website:

“Portbury had a reputation for great strength and in her hey-day it was said that she could ‘pull a town down’. She also had a tendency to move off when unattended – a common problem with steam locomotives with worn parts. Thus she was usually parked between other engines in the Avonmouth shed“.

Thankfully, it looked like Portbury was under control as the locomotive reversed!

 

Bumping Into Two Celebrities, National Media Museum, Bradford, 09/02/16.

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celebrities, Celebrity Guest, George, ITV, media, media personalities, Museums, National Media Museum, puppets, rainbow, television, Zippy

I didn’t get their autographs.

A View of The Exercise Yard, The Galleries of Justice, High Pavement, Nottingham, 08/09/16.

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exercise yard, Galleries of Justice, High Pavement Nottingham, Museums, Museums and Galleries, Nottingham, prison

Photo Archive: The View of Greyfriars Chapel from Canterbury Heritage Museum, Stour Street, Canterbury, c.2007.

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animation, Bagpuss, Canterbury, Canterbury Heritage Museum, chapel, Franciscan Friary, Franciscan Gardens Canterbury, Greyfriars Chapel Canterbury, Museums, Noggin The Nog, Oliver Postgate, Peter Firmin, Smallfilms, St Francis of Assisi, The Clangers, views

I’m sure the interior of the room was just as interesting. 

According to Canterbury.co.uk, “Greyfriars Chapel, set in the Franciscan Gardens, is the only building now remaining of the first English Franciscan Friary built in 1267, forty three years after the first Friars settled in Canterbury, during the lifetime of St Francis of Assisi“, but I don’t think I knew that at the time; it was simply a beautiful building viewed from a rather interesting museum.

The Canterbury Heritage Museum is housed in “the magnificent medieval Poor Priests Hospital” and houses a wide range of treasures, including… the original Bagpuss. In 1958 Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin set up Smallfilms animations in a barn in Bleam, near Canterbury. Between them they were responsible for producing Noggin The Nog, The Clangers, Bagpuss and many other animated children’s television favourites.

It’s amusing to think that there are so few degrees of separation between St Francis of Assisi, the creators of The Clangers and myself!

Dinosaurs Behind Railings, The Dinosaur Museum, Icen Way, Dorchester, 29/04/15.

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dinosaurs, Dorchester, Dorset, Icen Way Dorchester, Museums, railings, The Dinosaur Museum Dorchester

“Make a Mummy”, Leeds City Museum, Millennium Square, Leeds, 12/09/15.

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Chalk board, Egyptology, Leeds City Museum, mummy, Museums, tiger

The View from The Georgian House Museum, 7 Great George Street, Bristol, 05/08/15.

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Bristol, City Hall Bristol, cityscape, E Vincent Harris, English Literature, Georgian Britain, Great George Street Bristol, John Pinney, Museums, Romantics, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, slavery, sugar, The Georgian House Museum Bristol, views, William Wordsworth

The view from The Georgian House Museum isn’t what it was, for better or worse; I don’t know the history of Bristol well enough to say. E Vincent Harris’ Bristol Council House, opened by The Queen in 1956 and renamed Bristol City Hall in 2012, dominates the centre of this cityscape; with Bristol Cathedral barely visible behind.

I would imagine that, in the 1790s, when John Pinney, sugar merchant and slave plantation owner, moved into the property he would have been able to see as far as College Green. The Georgian House Museum’s website suggests that John Pinney would have been able to see ships in the harbour from his bedroom window; you’d have hardly thought it looking at this view!

The Museum’s website also informs me that the Pinneys entertained the Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth at their Great George Street home. What would they have made of the view from this window, I wonder?

The View from the Roof of The Keep Military Museum, Bridport Road, Dorchester, 07/07/15.

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British Army, Castle, Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, Dorchester, Dorset, Dorset Regiment, flags, Military History, military museums, Museums, The Keep Military Museum, The Rifles, Union Flag, views

The view looking towards the junction of Bridport Road and Cornwall Road.

Heights have been something of a theme recently. The Keep is an impressive, in terms of its scale, Portland stone construction, dating from 1879 and, if you are willing to pay the admission price for the military museum that now occupies the building, you can climb the spiral stairs all the way up to the roof. Once informed by the ladies stationed at the entrance that I could go up onto the roof I thought to myself, “It would be rude not to!”

On the roof of The Keep.

The Keep Military Museum’s own website quotes a description of the building by the well know art and architectural historian Pevsner, who describes it in less than favourable terms: “The monumental gatehouse is a knock-down affair. Two round towers to the front, the archway between. Three storeys of long slit windows. Rock faced with a vengeance. Today it is a grade 2 listed building. The designer was probably Major AC Seddon R.E, head of the War Office Design branch at this time…The barracks behind were humble by comparison“. As somebody who grew up by the seaside, The Keep reminds me of the castle shaped plastic buckets and the resulting crenelated sand castles they produced.

The Keep is topped with two flags, the Union flag and the flag of The Rifles. In 1958 the Devonshire Regiment and the Dorset Regiment amalgamated to form the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment. In 2007 the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment was amalgamated with a number of other regiments to form The Rifles, which still has a Reserve Company [the Territorial Army as was] based Dorchester.

The flag of The Rifles.

The spiral staircases in the towers give access to the museums galleries on three floors and then you are invited carry on and step out onto the roof. It was a rather windy day and the situation was unique in my experience, in that the area of the roof is very large, but the battlements around it are very short. The two gentlemen working on the maintenance of the tower didn’t seem to mind climbing up even higher and out onto the scaffolding you can see on my photographs, but one of them did remark to me that, “It was a bit windy”.

The Keep is tall enough for you to get a unique perspective on a number of tree tops  and the comings and goings of the Bridport Road. The military museum itself is very interesting and, if you like heights, I would recommend a walk on the roof.

The Keep.

Souvenirs: Stickers from The SeaCity Museum, Southampton, and The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth, 2012.

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Bournemouth, diary, Museums, Museums and Galleries, Russel-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, SeaCity Museum, Sir Merton Russell-Cotes, Southampton, Souvenir, Souvenirs, Stickers, Ted, Titanic

Wearing a sticker, having gained admittance to a museum or gallery, must have been the in thing in 2012, but they are difficult souvenirs to keep. These two examples have survived because I must have peeled them off my coat, shirt or hat and stuck them to the back of my pocket diary for 2012.

The SeaCity Museum, which forms part of Southampton’s very striking Grade II listed civic centre, is home to a very interesting permanent exhibition about Southampton’s links to the Titanic. According to the museum’s website, “more than 500 households lost a family member“, when the ship sank on the 15th April 1912. I seem to remember that the Titanic arrived in Southampton during a peak in unemployment, so an unusually large proportion of Southampton’s residents went to sign on as members of the crew and service staff, but don’t quote me on that.

The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum sits on top of East Cliff in Bournemouth and was the brain child of Sir Merton Russell-Cotes, owner of the Royal Bath Hotel, fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Mayor of Bournemouth (1894 – 1895), who built the villa as a birthday present for his wife, Annie. The pair travelled widely, buying things they liked and filling the house with them, until 1907, when they announced they wonted to give the house and contents to the people of Bournemouth as the foundation of an art gallery and museum.