Story Category: Legacy

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

We’re very sad to hear of the death of HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Prince visited the Royal Pavilion in 1979 to see restoration work following the 1975 fire in the Music Room. The photograph is dated June 1979 and shows Prince Phillip with John Dinkel (1942-1991), Deputy Director and Keeper of the Royal Pavilion (right of photograph). 

We send condolences to HRH The Queen and the Royal Family.

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

In Charles Reade’s historic novel, The Cloister and the Hearth (1861), his character Gerard Brandt, an artist with ‘sensitive organs’ and a penchant for social blunders, is caught in a storm. He is tempted in to an inn by the prospect of shelter, warmth, and food – only to discover from the landlady that he is too late for dinner.

She points out that:

All the world knows ‘the Star of the Forest’ sups from six till eight. Come before six, ye sup well; come before eight, ye sup as pleases heaven; come after eight, ye get a clean bed, and a stirrup cup, or a horn of kine’s milk at the dawning.

But what I find interesting here is not the timings or social etiquette at ‘the Star of the Forest’; it’s the different types of drinking vessel referred to by the landlady. A drinking horn is fairly self-explanatory – but what on earth is a stirrup cup?

At its most basic, the term ‘stirrup cup’ refers to a small cup containing an alcoholic drink, usually offered to a horseman ‘in the stirrups’, before they ride away. More loosely, the term can be used to refer to a farewell drink. One of the earliest known references to a ‘stirrup cup’ can be found in the 1697 edition of George Meriton’s The Praise of York-shire Ale, wherein is enumerated several sorts of Drinks, with a Discription [sic] of the Humours of most sorts of Drunkards. Here, he describes how, before leaving for ‘famous Yorke’, a group of riders ‘wee’ l have with you a merry stirrup cupp’. The Victorian writer, William Tegg, argues that the origin of the stirrup cup lies further back than the seventeenth century. In his One hour’s reading: remarkable customs, seasons and holidays, epithets and phrases, &c, published in 1877, Tegg proposes that the custom of ‘the cordial stirrup cup’ dates back thousands of years, with its ‘origin in the poculum boni genii of the ancients’. Here libations were offered to the gods, for ‘the safety and prosperity of the host’, and one small last cup ‘was quaffed to one general “good night”’.

Because they were intended to be used for a small, quick drink by riders, stirrup cups are crafted for comfort and designed to be easy to hold. Most stirrup cups have a small capacity that allows the liquid to be drunk quickly and easily by a rider balancing on a horse. Early stirrup cups were essentially a wine glass without a base, with a simple, plain design. However, in the eighteenth century, stirrup cups of a more elaborate design were produced, for specific occasions such as a hunt. A number of these more elaborate stirrup cups can be found in the Willett Collection of Popular Pottery here at the Royal Pavilion & Museums. One stirrup cup, currently on display, is in the shape of a fox’s head, suggesting a possible link to fox hunting and the aristocracy.

Other stirrup cups in our collections make reference to religious and political themes, such as this stirrup cup. When placed on its rim, it depicts the Pope in his Triple Crown, and when it is inverted it shows the Devil. Inside the rim of this stirrup cup is the phrase ‘the Devil smiles’. Created in the second half of the eighteenth century, this stirrup cup could be referring to the campaign for Catholic emancipation, or Catholic relief. These reforms aimed to reduce the restrictions on Roman Catholics enforced under British law such as the Act of Uniformity, Test Acts, and penal laws.

Stirrup Cup, c1790. Depicting the Pope with his triple crown (left) and inverted, showing the Devil (right).

But the shapes of stirrup cups – or stirrup bottles – in our collections here at the Royal Pavilion & Museums aren’t restricted to animals or people. They are also shaped like vegetables, specifically potatoes, such as this one, that again dates from the second half of the eighteenth century. It’s possible that stirrup cups shaped like potatoes are an economic statement, referring to the increase in potato farming in Europe, which helped to reduce the threat of recurrent famine to the agricultural classes. A potato-shaped stirrup cup could also make allusions to ideas of mystery, and mysteries revealed. After all, potatoes grow underground, and only reveal themselves once they have been dug up and cleaned. But could a stirrup cup in the shape of a potato make a more subtle political statement? Marie Antoinette is known to have worn purple potato blossoms in her hair – could a potato shaped stirrup cup suggest its owner sympathised with the French Cause?

Bottle modelled as a potato or yam, c. 1790.

Whatever the symbolic meaning of a stirrup cup shaped like a potato, by the mid-nineteenth century, the use of the stirrup cup was in rapid decline. William Tegg described how ‘this custom, which was continued for ages, was long religiously adhered to by our hospitable ancestors, until it was exploded by the cold refinement of modern manners’. Today, you are most likely to see a stirrup cup or stirrup bottle at a hunt meet – or in a museum. A number of the stirrup cups in our collections are on display under different themes in the Willett Gallery at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, including another shaped like a potato. Can you find it?

Naomi Daw, Visitor Services Officer

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Two years after the end of WW2, an anti-aircraft gun was shown off in a Brighton park. Collections Assistant Charles Paddick looks at the story behind the gun.

This photograph was taken by the Brighton and Hove Herald newspaper at an army exhibition called ‘Salvo’. The exhibition was held on 27 September 1947 at the Level in Brighton.

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In the centre of the photograph is a mounted anti-aircraft gun known as an Ordnance QF 3.7-Inch. Anti-aircraft guns were designed to fire at airborne targets from ground level.

What’s in a name?

The meaning of the gun’s name can be broken down into several parts:

• Ordnance applies to weapons designed for the propulsion of missiles by explosive force.
• QF stands for Quick Firing. It denotes that the ammunition is made to facilitate rapid loading with the means of ignition, propellant charge, projectile and fuse being joined together to form one fixed complete round which can be loaded in one motion.
• 3.7-inch refers to the calibre of the gun, which is the measurement of the diameter of the bore shell or bullet.

Who is operating the gun?

In the photograph the gun is crewed by a detachment of seven men from the 411(Sussex) Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery (Territorial Army), which was headquartered at nearby Preston Barracks and formed part of the 101 Coast Brigade.

An anti-aircraft brigade was made up of Anti Aircraft regiments. Each regiment typically had three batteries, each containing eight guns in two troops of four.

Pre-war background and development

During WW1 anti-aircraft gunnery were developed to meet the growing threat of air attacks on the United Kingdom and the Western Front. In 1914 the War Office issued a specification to modify the Vickers naval 3-inch Q.F. gun for an anti-aircraft role. This role lead to the development of the QF 3-inch 20 CWT.

The guns where operated by the Royal Garrison Artillery and remained in service with the Royal Artillery on its amalgamation after the end of the First World War. In 1925 the Textbook of Anti-Aircraft Gunnery Volume 1 was published, in which recommendations were made for heavy anti aircraft guns. A few years later in 1928 a Royal Artillery Committee minute lead to new designs and experiments, with a General Service Specification being laid out in 1933.

The specification for the new heavy anti-aircraft gun was that ii had to fire a 28lb shell; have a 3.7-inch bore; a 3,000 feet per second muzzle velocity; a 35,000 feet ceiling; the ability to be towed on roads at a speed of 25 mph; have a maximum weight of eight tons; and an into action time of 15 minutes in order to be better able to engage high speed and high flying aircraft.

The following year Vickers-Armstrong Ltd came up with a pilot gun, which passed proof in 1936. Production of the Ordnance QF 3.7-Inch AA was authorised in 1937 and manufacture began in 1938.

The gun was used during WW2 and remained in service by the British Army until 1959.

Firing the gun

The firing process required several complex movements, yet a trained crew could maintain a rapid rate of fire. British Movietone has some excellent footage of an Ordnance Q.F. 3.7-Inch being fired which is well worth a watch:

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The guns were operated alongside a height finder and predictor, which allowed the guns to fire at the correct distance and altitude to disrupt an enemy aircraft’s flight path. The information was fed to the Ordnance QF 3.7-Inch electronically.

Charles Paddick, Collections Assistant

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On 25 March 1858 work began on a new water well at the Warren Farm Industrial School in Woodingdean.

It took four years of digging before workers found water. By this time they had created the deepest hand dug well in the world, descending over 390 meters beneath the surface.

The remarkable story of the well is told on the Museum Crush website. Here we’ll take a look at some of the artefacts that remain from the well.

What lies beneath?

The ‘last green sand’ dug from the well was collected in a small phial.

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A similar phial was used to capture some of the first water drawn from the well.

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Celebrating the achievement

The well was celebrated as a miracle of Victorian engineering. A commemorative medal was struck and presented to Edgar Willett, the son of one of the founders of Brighton Museum.

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A cheaper form of souvenir was provided in the form of inscribed shells such as the one below.

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Although the surveyor is named on the shell, the names of the workers who toiled so deep beneath the earth are sadly unrecorded.

Modern inspiration

In 2012 the story of the Warren Farm well helped inspire artist David Miles to create an exhibition in Brighton Museum, The Hole in Mount Hakone.

A companion video to the exhibition was created with a story by author Mick Jackson.

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This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

In 1933 the Brighton Corporation commissioned this aerial photograph of Hove.

We don’t know why this photograph was taken, as Brighton and Hove were governed by separate local authorities at the time. But it provides a fascinating and detailed bird’s eye view of the town.

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What can we see?

Hove gas works

The four large cylindrical structures are gasometers. These were part of the Hove Gas Works and used for storing gas before it could be distributed to homes and businesses.

The gasometers were gradually removed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A large Tesco now stands on this spot.

St Andrew’s Church

One of the oldest churches in Hove, St Andrew’s still stands today. However, the graveyard is now much smaller.

In the early 1970s, East Sussex County Council purchased some of the land on the north side in order to build St Andrew’s School.

Dubarry’s Perfume Company

This striking Art Deco building can still be seen today by passengers waiting at Hove Railway Station. The Dubarry Perfume Company stopped trading in the early 1980s but the building has continued to be maintained and used by a variety of businesses.

Goldstone Football Ground

Brighton & Hove Albion’s football ground can be glimpsed in the north at the edge of the photo. We can just make out an advertisement for Tamplin’s Ales, a local brewery.

The ground was home to the club until 1997 when it was sold to developers and the land redeveloped as a retail park.

Kevin Bacon, Digital Manager

More information

• Hove in the Past blog post on Hove Gas Works

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

This series of blog posts is inspired by objects from Botswana which have been researched as part of the Making African Connections project. Many of these were collected by Reverend William Charles Willoughby, a missionary who lived and worked with Tswana people in what was then Bechuanaland in the 1890s. 

R4007/7 cloak, 1890s

Tswana were pastoralists as a people, keeping cattle and also goats. This was an important social identity, so it’s no surprise that leather was a prevalent and important material for clothing, and remains a central part of culture for people from Southern Africa. Leather and skins from herded animals, like cattle and goats, as well as wild animals which were hunted, are part of the story of societal changes in the region over thousands of years.

R4007/3 Apron / Mothikga, 1890s

Changes in the use of leather

Brighton Museum’s collection includes several large leather skins. By the time Willoughby was collecting in the 1890s, people were wearing a mixture of leather and woven clothing. Willoughby’s photographs from the time show both local and European styles of dress.

Left: Women fetching water from a spring in Palapye; right: a group of Batswana men and women, in Mafeking, South Africa (administrative centre of the British protectorate of Bechuanaland at the time) c. 1895. Photograph taken by Rev. Willoughby. Image courtesy of Neil Parsons.

This change was partly due to the influence of missionaries like Willoughby and, amongst the Bangwato, chief Khama III encouraged the wearing of European clothing as part of embracing Christianity. People were also becoming consumers in the changing economy created by colonialism. In the decades after Willoughby was collecting, leather skins with more elaborate designs were produced specifically for sale to tourists and collectors. For example, this cloak is from a similar collection to Willoughby’s which was collected 15 years later, now held at the American Museum of Natural History.

Goatskin mat and other leather-crafted objects on display in 2019. Courtesy of the Art Division of the National Museum of Botswana

Despite the huge changes since the 19th century, leatherworking as a craft has continued in Botswana. Today leather workers use similar tools, materials and techniques but produce mats for ceremonial use, rather than skins for wearing. Contemporary craft skills are showcased at an annual exhibition held at the National Museum of Botswana in Gaborone.

As part of the project, Khama III Memorial Museum curator Scobie Lekhutile interviewed leathersmith Edwin Keipedile at his home in Serowe. In this clip Scobie translates Edwin’s answers from Setswana to English.

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While leathersmiths like Edwin produce mats, there is still a market for ‘traditional’ looking leather clothing and accessories, which people wear for ceremonies. This image, taken during the team’s visit to Botswana in 2019, shows mass-produced goatskin clothing for sale in Gaborone Market Mall.

Herding vs Hunting

Long before the arrival of missionaries contributed to changes in dress, a major change in leather production in the area was in the move from hunted to herded animals. 

The first inhabitants of the Southern Africa area, over 150,000 years ago, were the ancestors of Khoe and San peoples (known as Basarwa in Setswana). They lived off the land, with some livestock, and were adept at hunting and gathering. Later (1,500 years ago) in what is known as the Bantu expansion, other peoples moved into the area who owned and herded large amounts of livestock, especially cattle. 

While San peoples were skilled in hunting, cattle-owning people brought with them a plentiful supply of herded animals. Leatherwork made from the skins of wild animals was prized because it was hard to acquire and demonstrated the skill of the hunter. Leather from domestic cattle did not have the same status attached, but was nonetheless invaluable for making things which could then be used in hunting.

R4007/73 leather sandals, 1890s

These leather sandals, collected by Willoughby in the 1890s, are made from the skin of a herded animal, using the soft forehead skin of a cow. However this style of sandal was originally made from buffalo and wildebeest which were hunted, and hard to kill, making them a high status item. The sandals are still popular with hunters today, and are called rampechana in Setswana. Scobie explains:

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In the following clip Scobie talks to local elder Tshupo Ntono about his memories of wearing rampechana:

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R4007/10 Duiker skin quiver bag / Motsistana, 1890s

R4007/101-108 quiver and arrows, 1890s

Willoughby also collected a leather bag made out of the skin of a duiker (a type of small antelope which is the totem of the Bamangwato). This was labelled as a ‘corn bag’, but partners in Botswana thought it was more likely to be part of an arrow quiver, used to transport hunting equipment, and for gathering items en route.

R4007/11 hunting belt, 1890s

Another leather object related to hunting is this belt. Described as a ‘bullet belt’ it has pockets and places to attach equipment for easy carrying. This reflects the change from traditional hunting methods, such as the bow and arrow, to the use of guns. Scobie reflected that this object was probably made by a Tswana person who had seen European guns and equipment, and used their leatherworking skills to adapt to their needs: 

“…back then we were just like Basarwa. We were making things out of leather, we were making crude belts like this and taking pride in that …and only a mongwato or some kind of motswana will have a dream of you know, having something like that because they’ve seen the white man and have carried a gun for him. So, [the] next day when I go home, I try to fashion you know, make my own.”

Scobie Lekhutile

The greater availability of guns, and the fashion for big game hunting, has had a negative effect on the wildlife in Botswana. In the following clip, Scobie and Tshupo discuss the animals that were common in the area in the mid 20th century:

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Watch the full interview with leathersmith Edwin Keipedile, Meeting Makers:

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Rachel Heminway Hurst, Kathleen Lawther and Tshepo Skwambane, Making African Connections project

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

Making Botswana is a series of posts inspired by objects from Botswana in RPMT’s collections which have been researched as part of the Making African Connections project. Many of these were collected by Reverend William Charles Willoughby, a missionary who lived and worked with the Bangwato people in what was then Bechuanaland in the 1890s. 

You can read more about the significance of the collections in the first blog in the series. Each blog will explore connections between the objects in RPMT’s collection and the history and contemporary culture of Botswana. For International Women’s Day, this post explores the role of women in making Botswana.

Women’s role in making Botswana

Women played an important role in the formation of modern Botswana and have made an enduring impact on society, including in the creation of public sector services. Prominent women include Gaositwe Keagakwa Tibe Chiepe, who was the first female cabinet minister in the country, and first woman High Commissioner to represent Botswana in London. The objects that Reverend Willoughby collected show little evidence of women’s role in late 19th century Bangwato society. Unlike some collectors, he did not make notes about the people who he collected from. Despite these stories being ‘missing’ from the collections, the team felt it was important to highlight the important role that women played in making Botswana.

Subtle power 

The running of Bangwato society is traditionally centred around the Kgotla. This is a public meeting headed by a chief where community decisions are made. The Kgotla is democratic, with anyone being allowed to speak, but historically women were not allowed at the Kgotla. 

In this clip project curator Tshepo Skwambane talks about the Kgotla and changes in Tswana society:

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Women had no direct power at the Kgotla, but were able to have influence in the community in more subtle ways. Within the ruling families, women had an important role in succession planning. You can read about the role of Semane Setlhoko Khama, Khama III’s fourth wife, in a blog by Special Collections staff at SOAS, where the records of the London Missionary Society are held.

Khama III and his third wife, Sefhakwane, taken in 1896 by Reverend Willoughby. Courtesy of Neil Parsons.

Women’s traditional roles in Tswana society 

In Tswana society there are three significant places: Lelapa (homestead) Masimo (arable lands) and Moraka (cattle post). 

These objects represent the kind of activities associated with each place, from left to right: Lelapa – R4007/65 Basket used for storing food; Masimo – R4007/87 Hoe, used to cultivate soil and remove weeds; Moraka – R4007/98 Knife, a multi-purpose tool used at cattle posts. The cattle post was the domain of men and boys, while women maintained the homestead and did most of the arable farming work.

Women at work in the homestead, thatching roofs and stamping mealie (maize), and returning from working on the arable lands, Palapye, c.1895, photograph taken by Rev W. C. Willoughby.

How was society changing in the late 19th century?

School children gathered outside the Mission House in Palapye, 1896. Photograph taken by Rev. Willoughby. Image courtesy of Neil Parsons.

Colonial powers and missionaries, with their Victorian patriarchal attitudes, reinforced the gender divide in Tswana society. Missionaries like Willoughby were based in the towns, where the homesteads were. This meant that, as men spent a lot of time away from home at the cattle posts (and later as migrant workers), women had more contact with the missionaries. Because of this, many women became heavily involved with the church, helping to set up church schools. In the younger generation, this meant that while boys were working at cattle posts, girls were more likely to receive an education. Lily Mafela, of the University of Botswana, has found that by 1910, three times more girls than boys went to the new Church schools. Although more girls were attending, the British education system in place meant that they were taught domestic science while boys were taught practical subjects, reinforcing the gender divide.

As well as being exposed to European missionaries around this time, Tswana society was also influenced by other southern African societies. This included the Herero who were then fleeing to Bechuanaland from German South West Africa. Herero women owned and managed their own cattle, a right which Tswana women were not afforded. The example of Herero social structure illustrated that women were capable of running society. Women’s abilities were also highlighted when men were called away from home for military service or to work as migrant labourers from the 1870s onwards.

From mission to fundraising: women and the church today

The connection between the church and women’s activism has an ongoing legacy. While in Serowe, curator Rachel Heminway Hurst visited the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA). The UCCSA has direct links to the London Missionary Society (LMS), the organisation which sent Reverend Willoughby to Bechuanaland. Willoughby was minister of the LMS Church at Phalatswe (Old Palapye) in the 1890s. The old church (below left) was largely financed by Khama III, who was already a dedicated Christian before Willoughby arrived. Khama later moved the Bangwato capital to Serowe and built what would become the UCCSA church in 1912 (below right, image taken in 2019).

While at the church, Rachel recorded an interview with Mopati Serapola, Chair of the Women’s fellowship. Mopati organises the women who raise money for the church and community. They do this by crafting items which they take to regional conferences to compete with other churches. Fundraising through crafts like this has a long history; Tswana women raised money and knitted socks for soldiers in the First and Second World Wars.

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Women at work in the homestead, wearing European-style long cotton dresses. Palapye, c.1895, photograph taken by Rev W. C. Willoughby.

In the film the women are sewing with German print fabric. Mopati explains that this has long been a popular fabric since it is good quality and easy to sew, and that it is something her mother and grandmothers wore for special occasions. The fabric also has ties to European missionaries, since it was first popularised in Southern Africa by King Moshoeshoe I (also spelt Moshweshwe) of Lesotho, after he was gifted some by French missionaries (it is sometimes called shweshwe after him). European-style dress was promoted by missionaries, and by the time Willoughby arrived in Botswana in the 1890s long cotton dresses were common.

Brighton Museum does not have any examples of 19th century German cloth from Bechuanaland in the collection but collected many examples of contemporary shweshwe as part of the Fashioning Africa project.

R6095/13 Contemporary shweshwe / German print fabric from Botswana, owned and donated by Batsho Dambe-Groth.

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To celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, we are finishing our series of posts about 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex with a tribute to the little known story of Avis Joan Hearn, an upholsterer and aircraftswoman during the Second World War. Written by Lucia Wallbank, assistant curator at the RAF Museum. 

Close to Arundel in West Sussex is the site of a military installation with an important role in RAF history. Most of the surrounding land has been given over to agricultural use and not much remains to reveal its key role in the south coast’s line of defences during the Second World War. It was closed in 1955, its towering pylons demolished.

The story begins with Avis Joan Hearn, an upholsterer from the market town of Amersham in Buckinghamshire.

Acting Corporal Avis Joan Hearn wearing her Military Medal © RAF Museum X004-8476/001

In March 1939, she joined the 39^th (Buckinghamshire) Company of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). When the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was formed on 28 June, RAF ATS companies were absorbed into it. Standing at only 4ft 10 ½ inches tall, Avis was shorter than the height requirement but was accepted. The WAAF were mobilised on 28 August. On 3 September, Britain declared war on Nazi Germany.

Aircraftwoman 1^st Class (ACW1) Avis Joan Hearn was selected for top secret work using an emerging technology called Radio Location or Radio Direction Finding (RDF). It became known as Radar. Detecting and tracking enemy aircraft, radar was a vital component in the RAF’s success during the Battle of Britain.

Women were thought particularly adept at this kind of work. Radar pioneer Robert Watson-Watt declared that ‘anti-hamfistedness is women’s greatest attribute in war whether it is radiolocation or potato peeling’[1]. He admired their delicacy of touch, alertness and quick thinking.

ACW1 Hearn’s training began with a security lecture at RAF Leighton Buzzard followed by a three-week plotting course. At RAF Bentley, she was a Clerk (Special Duties), the prosaic description disguising the importance of her role. In December 1939, she finished a Radar course at RAF Bawdsey. From there, she went to Poling, a Chain Home station near Arundel.

Chain Home radar installation at Poling, Sussex, 1945 © IWM CH 15173

Chain Home stations formed a network covering Britain’s south, east and southwest coastlines. They were the radar system serving the RAF’s Fighter Command and provided early warning of approaching enemy aircraft. Hastily set up, most early buildings were wooden. Later, vital buildings such as the Receiver Block were rebuilt in brick with exterior blast walls to protect them in the event of anticipated Luftwaffe attacks and station defences were enhanced.

The Chain Home station at Poling, known as CH08 was one of the first 20 planned, established in 1938. ACW1 Hearn’s role was to work the telephone switchboard, where she communicated with the nearby Chain Home Low station at Truleigh Hill, above Shoreham-by-Sea, taking plots and following the progress of approaching enemy aircraft[2]. Plots from Poling and Truleigh Hill went to the HQ Fighter Command’s Filter Room at RAF Bentley Priory. From there, information was assessed and fed down to the Group and then Sector Operations rooms which directed defensive fighter action.

August 1940 was one of the driest of the century[3]. The conditions were ideal for attacking German bombers heading for Britain. It was full of sunny days, and Sunday 18 August was no exception.

At 1300 hrs, Acting Corporal (A/Cpl) Hearn began working the afternoon shift on her own in the new Receiver Block.

On what became known as the ‘Hardest Day’ of the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe planned raids on RAF bases along the south coast. One raid targeted the Sector stations at Biggin Hill, Kenley, Hornchurch and North Weald. While another was directed towards the aerodromes at Gosport, Thorney Island and Ford as well as the Chain Home station at Poling. 87 Junkers Ju87 aircraft (known as Stukas) from Stukageschwader 77 were detailed for the latter raid, escorted by 155 Messerschmitt Bf109 fighters. The Stukas each carried one 550lb under its fuselage and four 110lb bombs under each wing.

Early in her shift A/Cpl Hearn observed a mass of aircraft off the coast of France on the cathode ray tube. A call came in from the Filter Room confirming they were hostile. The plotting map in front of her showed they had split into groups, one heading straight for Poling. Shortly afterwards, she heard the distinctive sound of Stukas and the whistle of their bombs falling. With the station under direct enemy attack, A/Cpl Hearn remained in the Receiver Block while plots rapidly came through. At one point, she transmitted that, ‘the course of the enemy bombers is only too apparent to me because the bombs are almost dropping on my head.’ She continued relaying plots to RAF Bentley Priory until the telephone lines were cut.

When the raid was over, the Receiver Block’s doors and every window had been blown in, the walls were cracked, and the roof threatened to collapse on her at any moment. A/Cpl Hearn recalled:

‘It seemed suddenly quiet as death, and I put my hands to my head and wept…for what seemed like hours of unbearable stillness…I seemed to be engulfed in a jelly of silence’.[4]

In a ‘dazed, uncomprehending state of terror’, Hearn was led away to a building where others had taken shelter[5]. She saw that “everything was a heap of rubble, our transport lorry ablaze, all our bicycles twisted into shapeless lumps of metal”[6]. Later she walked to Arundel Parish Church and gave thanks for her deliverance:

‘I have never fallen on my knees and prayed so hard, thanking God we were still alive and praying that our country would survive’[7]

90 bombs fell on Poling that day. The station was put out of action for the rest of the month. Within days, new equipment arrived and its vital place in the radar chain was maintained by a mobile unit concealed in nearby Angmering Woods.

The Hardest Day was over. Both sides lost more aircraft than on any other day during the Battle of Britain. The RAF lost a total of 68 aircraft, 31 in aerial combat. 69 German aircraft were destroyed. After bombing Poling, the Stukas were intercepted by fighter aircraft from Nos. 43, 601 and 152 Squadrons[8]. 16 were shot down or damaged beyond repair. As a result, the Luftwaffe made the decision to withdraw its Junkers Ju87s from service over Britain’s skies. A/Cpl Hearn played no small part in the events that day.

A/Cpl Hearn had endured and survived. On 5 September 1940, she was recommended for a Military Medal for “courage and devotion to duty of the highest order”[9]. In total, six WAAF were awarded the Military Medal during the Second World War, all for actions during the Battle of Britain. A/Cpl Hearn was surprised to hear about the honour while listening to the radio in January 1941. Years later she said:

“I never thought for one moment I was being brave. As far I was concerned, I was doing the job I was trained to do. If I had run away when I was needed most, that would have gone against my training”[10]

24-year-old A/Cpl Hearn received her decoration from King George VI at Buckingham Palace in March 1941.

Medal bar of Flight Sergeant Avis Joan Hearn © RAF Museum X004-7220

In the Autumn of 1940, A/Cpl Hearn returned to Poling and was billeted with other WAAF in a wing of Arundel Castle. She remembered her time there fondly, recalling that “we were very well looked after, with butter, milk and pheasants off the Duke’s estate. The room was very comfortable, and we even had our own butler at the beginning”[11]. She served at the Chain Home Station in Rye before her final posting as a radar operator instructor at No. 8 Radio School at RAF Cranwell.

After the war, A/Cpl Hearn returned to her former life in Amersham. She started an upholstery business and married later in life, becoming Mrs Parsons. She was a life member of the Royal Air Force Association’s Amersham and Chesham Branch and became President of her local British Legion Branch. Her final days were spent at Princess Marina House, an RAF Benevolent Fund home in Rustington near Littlehampton, where she passed away in 2008.

2020 saw the 80^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. A/Cpl Avis Joan Hearn’s uniform and medal bar were left to the RAF Museum in her will and are on display at our Cosford site. They are listed in the RAF Museum’s Adopt-an-artefact scheme.

Women’s Auxiliary Air Force uniform of Avis Joan Hearn © RAF Museum 72/U/760

Lucia Wallbank, Assistant Curator RAF Museum

[1] Salute to the Women of the RAF, (RAF Ads Ltd., c.2006), p16

[2] Poling was an earlier Chain Home Air Ministry Experimental Station (AMES) Type 1. Truleigh Hill was an AMES Type 2 station, which meant that, unlike Poling, it could detect low-flying aircraft.

[3] James Rothwell, “The weather during the Battle of Britain in 1940”, Weather, Vol. 67, No. 4 (April 2012), pp109-110

[4] Avis Joan Hearn, ‘Account of the actions for which FS Avis Joan Hearn was awarded the Military Medal’, RAFM X004-8476/004

[5] Ibid.

[6] Op cit.

[7] “War Heroine Returns to Castle” in Littlehampton Gazette, (8 June 2018). Accessed 28 October 2020. https://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/war-heroine-returns-castle-2439174

[8] “A WAAF’s Military Medal”, Britain At War, Issue 40, (August 2010), pp65-70

[9] The London Gazette, Issue 35039, (10 January 1941), p196

[10] “War Heroine Returns to Castle” in Littlehampton Gazette, (8 June 2018). Accessed 28 October 2020. https://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/war-heroine-returns-castle-2439174

[11] Ibid.

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

This series of posts is inspired by objects from Botswana in RPMT’s collections which have been researched as part of the Making African Connections project. Many of these were collected by Reverend William Charles Willoughby, a missionary who lived and worked in what was then Bechuanaland in the 1890s.

You can read more about the significance of the collections in the first blog in the series. Each blog will explore connections between the objects in RPMT’s collection and the history and contemporary culture of Botswana. 

Like many of the crafts featured in the Making Botswana series, basket-making has a long tradition in Botswana. The craft has developed over time from a practical domestic one to an artisanal culture where intricate baskets are created for display in the home, for sale to tourists and for exhibition in galleries.

From left: R4007/14 Winnowing basket, c 1890; E3/1/70 basket, date unknown; WAENT000146/1 Totwana basket made in Maun, Northern Botswana, purchased from Khama III Memorial Museum shop, 2019

The objects collected by Willoughby include a plain winnowing basket (used to remove the chaff from the grain) which would have been woven by a Tswana man as a way to pass time while away from home at the Moraka (cattle post). In contrast, more decorative baskets were woven by women, a trend that continues today as basket-making can provide women with an independent income.

How are baskets used?

R4007/63

The original use for baskets was as practical domestic utensils. This is reflected in the items Willoughby collected, which included storage baskets. Although basket-making has diversified into an art form, there are still practical uses for baskets today, as maker Nchadinyana Teseletso explained to Khama III Memorial Museum curator Scobie Lekhutile.

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Decoration and Designs

While most of the baskets that Willoughby collected are plain and practical, other baskets made in Botswana are known for their distinctive designs. These may not be represented in Willoughby’s collection because he was stationed in the central district of Botswana. The most famous baskets come from the north and north west of the country, but the designs are widely recognised across Botswana. In Willoughby’s time there was less understanding about the diversity of cultures, and cross-cultural influences, within African countries. Collectors, and museums, at this time preferred to present objects as ‘typical’ of a single culture. We do not know Willoughby’s motivation for collecting, but like other colonial-era collectors, his collection reflects a particular place and time, and there were many kinds of object that were not available to him or that he chose not to collect. 

The striking designs are inspired by local myths as well as by Botswana’s wildlife, and are named accordingly, as Scobie Lekhutile explains:

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Another design is inspired by the zebra’s distinctive stripes, as described by Norman Selelo of Botswanacraft.

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Today, these designs make baskets desirable as decorative items. Botswanacraft, based in the capital Gaborone, is an example of an enterprise set up to develop and market crafts as artisanal products.

‘As basketry evolves in Botswana, some unique one-of-a-kind designs are being created by true artists, merging the craft of basketry with the world of abstract art. Knowledgeable basket collectors are aware of this and regard some Botswana baskets as a serious investment to rival artworks from around the world. As the art form evolves, more and more unique and collectable baskets are being created.’  

Botswana Baskets; A Living Art, Ed. Alexander von Rudloff, Botswanacraft Marketing 2010.

Enduring Materials

One of the enduring aspects of basket-making is the materials used. Baskets are made from different grasses, barks or reeds depending on what is available in the region. This way of working is sustainable thanks to traditional methods of conservation. In this clip Nchadinyana Teseletso describes how she collects material from wild plants, and how she cuts these to ensure they will grow back (Scobie Lekhutile translates):

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Adopting and Adapting Styles

R4007/61

While traditional basket-making materials and techniques have endured, the ways in which they have been used, and the items created with them, has been ever changing and innovative. 

Willoughby’s collection includes a hat in a noticeably European style, shaped like a boater, which is made from the same plant materials as a traditional Tswana basket. This object is interesting because it reveals how Tswana society was changing in the late 19th century. Photographs from the time show the influence of missionaries such as Willoughby on the way people dressed, with men and women wearing Victorian-style hats and clothing.

A crowd of people gathered outside the Mission House in Palapye, 1896. Most people are wearing Victorian style clothes and hats. Photograph taken by Rev. Willoughby. Image courtesy of Neil Parsons.

Rather than directly adopting the clothes and accessories of the missionaries, local makers created hybrid styles using their own craft traditions. While the shape of the hat is European, the materials are unmistakably Tswana, as Scobie Lekhutile explains:

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Interweaving Cultures

r4007_12_d05.jpg

Another hat in Willoughby’s collection also uses basket-weaving techniques, but is strikingly different in shape. Many of the people the project team spoke to in Botswana did not recognise it as a local style. The hat is, in fact, part of a shared Tswana and Sotho culture but is now seen as synonymous with Sotho cultural heritage. Tshupo Ntono, an elder who was interviewed for the project, recognised the style of hat from his childhood. He recalled how he and his friends would describe someone wearing this style as a ‘basket head’!

The difference in the way people of different ages viewed the hat may be because styles have changed in the decades since it was collected, with population movement and intermixing within different cultures in southern Africa, as well as the influence of European colonists and missionaries. 

Botswana has a long history as a place of refuge for people from neighbouring countries. This has included people fleeing colonial genocide in what is now Namibia, and escaping the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The concepts of Botshabelo (refuge) and Tshireletso (protection) are celebrated as part of the national story of Botswana at the Three DiKgosi Monument in Gaborone.

Tshepo Skwambane explains the meaning of the Tshireletso plaque to Rachel Heminway Hurst. The plaque forms part of the Three Dikgosi Monument, Gaborone, Botswana, 2019.

In the following clip project curator Tshepo Skwambane talks about his experience moving to Botswana as a young person.

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Contemporary Basket-making

Today basket-making is one of the ways that resettled refugee women can make an income. While in Botswana in 2019, the RPMT team visited Botswanacraft, which sells baskets woven by Hambukushu women from Northern Botswana and the Okavango Delta. The team purchased contemporary baskets which complement the historic ones in the collection. 

WAENT000150/10 Running Ostrich basket by Maria Thenu Thomas

When collecting contemporary pieces it is important for the museum to record details about the makers of objects and to acknowledge them as artists. This is because, in the past, colonial-era collectors like Willoughby did not record who made the objects they collected. Almost all of the museum’s historic African collections have no maker recorded. This basket (WAENT000150.10) was made by Maria Thenu Thomas, who was born in Angola and came to Botswana as a refugee in the 1960s. The name of the design is ‘running ostrich’.

WAENT000147/11 Basket by Nchadinyana Teseletso

The team also purchased a basket (WAENT000147) made by Nchadinyana Teseletso, who is featured in the Meeting Makers film.

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Rachel Heminway Hurst, Kathleen Lawther and Tshepo Skwambane, Making African Connections Project

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

This series of blog posts is inspired by objects from Botswana which have been researched as part of the Making African Connections project. Many of these were collected by Reverend William Charles Willoughby, a missionary who lived and worked in what was then Bechuanaland in the 1890s. 

• See all posts in Making African Connections series

This was a significant period in the history of Botswana, and of the British Empire. The British imperialist Cecil Rhodes was seeking to expand the territory held by his British South Africa Company, with the aims of securing the land to build a railway line from ‘Cape to Cairo’ which would ensure the British Empire held influence and power across the length of the African continent. 

Sebele I, Bathoen I and Khama III on a contemporary 100 Pula bank note

Several Tswana diKgosi (chiefs) resisted Rhodes. They met and agreed that three diKgosi, Sebele I, Bathoen I and Khama III, would act as representatives for the region. Willoughby facilitated their visit to England and accompanied the chiefs to petition Queen Victoria to protect their territory from Rhodes. 

Each blog in this series will explore connections between the objects in the collection and the history and contemporary culture of Botswana.

Carving for cooking and craft

Museum Accession number R4007/78

Objects carved from wood have long been a feature of Tswana domestic life, with large spoons and vessels carved from the wood of a variety of local trees. This large spoon (R4007/78) is almost a metre long and would have been used for communal cooking in large pots. This example was collected in the 1890s.

Museum Accession number AF109

European missionaries brought with them metal tablespoons with elaborate designs on the handles. Tswana carvers interpreted these with their own designs, such as incorporating carvings of local animals into the spoon handles.

Museum Accession number R4007/85

Woodcarving was used to create utilitarian objects, but also to demonstrate skill. These interlinked spoons carved from one piece of wood are an example of this. 

By the time Willoughby was collecting, there were other European and American missionaries and anthropologists keen to collect examples of Tswana objects. Along with carved objects, they collected the tools used for carving, and sometimes examples of the raw materials. 

This created a market for carvers to make things for sale to collectors. If you look closely at the spoons Willoughby collected you will see that they have not been used for cooking, as Scobie Lekhutile explains:

Details like this are important because it makes us think about the relationships between the people who made the objects and the people who collected them. Willoughby did not record the name of the carver(s) who made these spoons, but it would likely have been someone who was savvy to the new opportunities for selling carvings to Europeans. This was the start of a thriving tourist trade.

Carving for tourists

Museum Accession number R4789/1

This carved wooden figure is also from Bechuanaland, from the 1950s. At the beginning of the project the Royal Pavilion & Museums team thought that this object was less interesting than the older collections. This is partly because this type of object is more obviously made for tourists and was therefore seen as less authentic. 

The museum also had less information about this figure than the objects collected by Rev. Willoughby. It was donated in the 1950s by a Brighton couple, Mr and Mrs Sneyd, but we don’t know who they were or what they were doing in Bechuanaland when they bought the carving.

The figure is marked on the base with the words ‘Shatsi B.P.’ At first we did not know what this meant. 

With the help of Botswana history expert Neil Parsons we realised that this is probably a mix up of the names of the Tati concession, a strip of land that bordered modern day Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the Shashe (or Shashi) River that flows there. From the 1890s there was a railway station at Shashe.

Carving out territory

How does this relate to the older collections? The railway line is significant. It was built in the 1890s, the same time Willoughby was in Bechuanaland. This photograph shows the railway being built through Palapye, the capital of the Bamangwato people. Willoughby captioned the image ‘Making the Cape to Cairo Line’. 

Building of Palapye railway station, 1897. Photograph taken by Rev. William Charles Willoughby. Image courtesy of Neil Parsons and National Archives Botswana.

‘Cape to Cairo’ was the name given to Cecil Rhodes’ plan to create an extended British Empire which would have control over territory stretching from Cape Town, at the southern tip of the African continent, all the way north to Cairo. Bechuanaland was one of the territories which Rhodes wanted for this project. 

Khama III, the Kgosi of the Bamangwato, and several neighbouring chiefs, opposed Rhodes’ encroachment onto their territory. In 1895, Khama III, Sebele I and Bathoen I, travelled to England with Reverend Willoughby to ask the British government for protection from Rhodes. Partly as a result of their visit, the northern part of Bechuanaland became a British Protectorate. The B.P. on the bottom of the carved figure’s foot stands for ‘Bechuanaland Protectorate’.

The Three Chiefs visit to England

Three diKgosi Monument, Gaborone, Botswana. From left: Khama III, Sebele I, Bathoen I

The leaders are honoured at the Three DiKgosi monument in Gaborone. During the project members of the RPMT team visited the monument. In the following clip Tshepo Skwambane talks to monument guide Samuel  Sebari about the visit to England.

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The three diKgosi were successful in protecting their territories from Rhodes, and Bechuanaland had the status of a protectorate rather than a colony. The border of the Bechuanaland Protectorate ended at the Shashe river, creating a sort of no-man’s land at the edge of Khama’s territory. Although there was to be no Cape to Cairo line, Khama did eventually grant permission for Rhodesia Railways to build there.

Because of Shashe’s borderland position, people from Botswana and neighbouring countries would congregate at the station to sell food to passengers and trade their crafts with tourists passing through the station. 

Children and traders at Shashi River Railway Station, taken from a train carriage, c 1920s. Photographer unknown. Image courtesy of Neil Parsons.

This photograph, taken from a train carriage in the 1920s, shows people gathered to sell ‘curios’ and food to passengers. Although the wooden figure was purchased 30 years after this photograph was taken, the trade in carvings for tourists was still going strong. Tourism still has an impact on woodcarving in Botswana today.

Carving today

Museum Entry number WAENT000147/3

This giraffe was carved in 2019 by Otwaetse Tona, a woodcarver based in Serowe, Botswana. Today Botswana’s tourism is centred around its wildlife, and this is reflected in the pieces that Otwaetse carves for tourists. He also makes use of tourist publications for his reference material, as he explains in the following clip.

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Otwaetse also carves domestic objects for local people. Today his customers buy large wooden spoons, similar to the ones collected by Willoughby, for use at weddings and other large gatherings. The RPMT team purchased one of his spoons, below, along with the giraffe above, to complement the historic collections. 

Museum Entry number WAENT000147/2

Khama III Memorial Museum curator Scobie Lekhutile interviewed Otwaetse Tona about his craft. The film shows Otwaetse working on the giraffe sculpture which Brighton Museum bought for the collection. 

Watch the video, ‘Meeting Makers’:

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Rachel Heminway Hurst, Kathleen Lawther and Tshepo Skwambane, Making African Connections Project