Story Category: Legacy

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

Lockdown Craft Challenge is a new series in which makers at Hove Museum use its craft collections to inspire you to create at home. In this post, Grace Brindle and Rebecca Lean look at collecting inspired by short journeys.

Hove Museum & Art Gallery contains one of the best collections of Contemporary Craft in the South East. It includes the South East Arts Craft Collection and a host of national makers including Alice Kettle, Cynthia Cousens and Richard Slee. This collection contains an eclectic mix of makers, techniques and materials and is a great resource to get your creative juices flowing!

Under the circumstances of Covid-19 we aren’t able to open our doors to the public just yet, so in each blog, we will focus on an object from the collection and challenge our talented Hove Museum maker Rebecca to make something inspired by the piece – and to come up with some crafty ideas that you could make at home too.

This week’s piece is:  Steven Follen’s Box of Found Things

Steve Follen, Box of Found Objects

Stephen Follen

Steven Follen is an artist and maker who specialises in Design and Applied Arts and works in metalwork and drawing. In his studio practice, he creates metal vessels and large-scale commissions, making beautiful sculptures from wire. Hove Museum & Art Gallery houses one of his metal vessels ‘Grey Vessel’ and his “Box of Founds Things” in our collection.

‘Grey Vessel’ by Steven Follen, 1996

Collecting Inspiration

Steven says he has always collected things as souvenirs from the places he visits, from pebbles on the beach to shells and twigs from walks on the Sussex Downs.

Much of his work is based on the themes of journeys and maps. In 1989 he bought a Victorian microscope slide box from a flea-market; this box gave Stephen way of containing and ordering things he had collected from his journeys. It allowed him a create a three-dimensional sketch book which acted as a reminder for a place or time and as a source of inspiration.

Stephen Follen Box of found things, leaves and lichen

He has created several of these ‘sample boxes’ which serve different functions and are used as the starting point for his projects. The one housed at Hove Museum & Art Gallery, titled ‘Box of Found Things’ is made from recycled oak and is based on the Victorian microscope slide box from the flea market. He has arranged the objects in it by following a Victorian idea of collecting, preserving, and ordering and are arranged in colour order throughout the trays.

Many of these objects would normally have been thrown away or left to compost, but by looking at them closely some of them are beautiful in their own right; others get a new life by being placed in a box and going on display. By organising them in groups, you can really see incredible range of colour and texture that exists in objects in the natural world.

Stephen Follen lavendar and yellow tones

The Challenge

I think it is interesting why people collect things. Is it sentimental, is it creative? A shape, texture or colour that captures your imagination and you’d like to use for inspiration? Or is it to remember a place, to make a mental marker for somewhere you have been and wish to remember?

Rebecca, I know you love collecting, you’ve told me so many times your house is like a mini museum, so I challenge you to make something inspired by Stephen’s 3-D sketchbook. They can only be made from things you can find at home or on your walks during quarantine.

Grace Brindle, Collections Assistant

---

Challenge Accepted!

I’ve always loved to collect things; I can’t go anywhere without having my eyes to the ground just in case there’s something unusual to pick up and add to my collection. I think a lot of people who are drawn to museums want to almost reconstruct their own little version at home and find themselves unconsciously curating little displays of trinkets and finds – one person’s trash is another’s treasure!

My own finds are on every shelf, littering every spare workspace. The neatness and restraint of Stephen Follen’s objects, curated in one place, is very appealing.

Lockdown Journeys

Like many people during lockdown, I have noticed that the places I visit look a lot different to how they did before. Stephen Follen collected things from his significant journeys and I feel daily walks have become a significant journey for many of us.

I decided to collect little bits of nature from each walk. Having a project where I suddenly had to really focus on what I could find made me start to appreciate things that I might not have noticed before, like how many types of tree I was passing by each day. With such lovely warm weather for spring, most trees and plants are in bloom right now and I wanted to mark this by collecting at least one leaf or natural object each time I went outside.

Nature collected from daily exercise, Photo by Rebecca Lean

Victorian Arrangements

As I started to arrange these items carefully in wooden boxes, I suddenly thought to myself: why stop there? Why be limited to the things that I am only able to find on my daily walks? Why not create items that I would love to find on my journeys or even on a faraway trip? I started to think, what would I really like to find if I were strolling along under the cliffs, along the beach or up on Devils Dyke? What would be amazing to find? How can I make what I wanted to find from what I already had in my home?

1. A Blackbird’s Egg

I started with a blackbird’s egg – it’s illegal to collect  eggs in real life – so I thought I’d make my own. Blackbird’s eggs are the most amazing colour! Wouldn’t it be amazing to add one of these to put on my shelf of oddities? I rooted around for something I could use to make an egg. Rolling and putting pressure on a polystyrene ball makes a fantastic egg shape. I mixed some shades of blue and green tester pots of matt paint and — voila! — I had a blackbird’s egg to add to my collection!

‘Blackbird’s egg’. Photo by Rebecca Lean.

2. Gemstones

Carving a gemstone out of soap. Photo by Rebecca Lean

On a colour high, I decided I was determined to make some gemstones. Maybe some Amethyst, some Garnet, a bit of Lapis lazuli, but what would give me those sharp crystal-like edges? Perhaps one of the more unusual materials…soap! I carved little pieces of soap into crystal shapes and painted them. I added little bits of grainy texture to some of the paint to give it a more realistic surface.

Finished minerals. Photo by Rebecca Lean.

3. Fossils

I also have a genuine love for fossils – the soap would definitely come in handy for making these too.

Fossil Ammonite carved from soap. Photo by Rebecca Lean.

4. An Arrowhead

An arrowhead seemed like a fantastic find to come across! Some moulded and painted blue tac was ideal and gave the object the right weight too.

Bluetac arrowhead, photo by Rebecca Lean

5. A Jewel beetle

I have always been fascinated by the colours of jewel beetles, but have never been lucky enough to spot one in the UK. A polystyrene ball, acrylic paint and a dab of eyeshadow made the perfect cruelty-free way to add a jewel beetle to my collection.

‘Jewel beetle’. Photo by Rebecca Lean.

6. A dash of lavender and some Ginkgo leaves

Flower stem. Photo by Rebecca Lean.

I missed the smell of lavender from my walks further afield. Some thick wire with a mix of green cotton threads and PVA glue wound tightly around it made great stalks! Purple felt acted as the buds. Tissue stained with a mix of turmeric and tea makes a fantastic rich colour for beautiful Ginkgo leaves.

Lavender and gingko leaves. Photo by Rebecca Lean.

7. Skulls

I am a real fan of skulls, I think this comes from studying archaeology at uni – all archaeologists love skulls! I decided to make two different types from different materials to experiment with texture. The large skull I molded from Fimo clay and made the small rodent-like one from papier mache.

‘Skulls,’ Photo by Rebecca Lean

A Box of Lockdown Memories

In my box of found objects I have recorded my own journey and experience of this lockdown period. I loved the excitement of being able to get out into the fresh air and experience the area I live in in a very new way. With busy streets now quiet, and no need to rush about, I have been able to mindfully focus on the little ecosystem of city life. The beautiful flowers growing in my neighbours garden, the different architecture from road to road, and the diverse network of trees in bloom above me.

[arve url=”https://youtu.be/4ubgK91fK88″ align=”center” /]

I have also been able to create items to remind me that happier days will come: journeys to well stomped walks, trips to much loved towns and cities, but also visits to new faraway places. This part of my own box of found objects records these imagined visits. The array of colours, textures and shapes will hopefully inspire me to create something new.

Finished collection. Photo by Rebecca Lean.

 

Rebecca Lean, Museum Maker

---

As you can see, craft can be done with quite literally anything! We would love to see your own box of quarantine objects, lockdown memories or future hopes, whether you have collected them or made them. Send your photos in to grace.brindle@brighton-hove.gov.uk and they may be featured in our blog.

Look out for more Craft Challenge posts soon.

Error: Contact form not found.

 

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

Welcome back to our Cultural Icons series exploring the fascinating stories behind the people commemorated in flatback ornaments in the Willett Collection of Popular Pottery in the Brighton Museum.

Many of these Victorian souvenirs, which are only decorated on the front so they can sit on a mantelpiece were on display at Hove Museum this year.

They were usually of famous and sometimes infamous people in the Victoria era who we would now call stars or celebrities. The hearth, the centre of the home, provided an ideal space for the flatback as a conversation piece inspiring discussion and fascination among family and visitors alike.

Royals and left-wing politicians

Whilst unsurprisingly the most popular royal subject of the day was Queen Victoria, a number of flatbacks were made of foreign royalty. The public was especially keen on British allies during the Crimean War of 1854, especially France.

We have Napoleon III of France (1808-1873) and his wife Empress Eugenie (1826-1920) nursing their only child Eugenie, the Prince Imperial, c1870.

Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte had spent most of his youth in exile. Returning to France after the 1848 Revolution, he was declared Emperor in 1852. He first met Eugenie, a renowned beauty and the daughter of the Count of Montigo of Spain in 1849 in Paris. They married in 1852 when she was aged just 23. 

A well-educated, headstrong young woman, Napoleon often consulted her on political matters and she acted as Regent when he was abroad. Unfortunately due to her Catholicism and conservatism she often countered any liberal tendencies in her husband’s policies. With the Fall of the Second Empire in 1870, both were exiled to England. After their flight from France, the couple stayed for a time at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Their baby son was later killed in the Zulu War of 1879 leaving Eugenie devastated.

Also on display is a figure group of Queen Victoria with the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel III (1820-1878), c1860. The King of Sardinia was another popular subject as his country had sent a corps of soldiers to help the British and French in the Crimean War.

A politician for the potters

Left-wing politicians were other popular subjects, reflecting the potter’s own concerns and working life as well as the political leanings of the lower middle and working classes who purchased them.

Meet the politician and economist Richard Cobden (1804-1865). resplendent in his brilliant cobalt blue coat. Elected MP for Stockport, an advocate of free trade and low taxation, and famous for founding the Anti-Corn League in 1838, Cobden was a firm favourite of the potters. The piece was made to commemorate his role in bringing about the abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846, as evidenced in the cornucopia of corn that he sits beside.

Discover More

Follow our Cultural Icons series as we explore some of these fascinating flatbacks and discover of these early celebrities.

Cecilia Kendall, Curator, Collections Projects

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

Members of the Museum Collective – a youth group run regularly by Royal Pavilion & Museums – worked with local ceramist Louise Bell to create figurative ceramics based on the theme of heroes and villains.

They created these works as a response to Hove Museum’s exhibition Cultural Icons: Remaking a Popular Pottery Tradition which took a modern take on the Victorian Staffordshire flatback. Victorian flatback figures were a distinctive pottery form which emerged in the 1830s to meet public demand for objects that depicted iconic people and major events.

Emperor Napoleon III, c1857 Earthenware, enamelled and gilt, Empress Eugenie holding the Prince Imperial, c1857 Earthenware, enamelled and gilt, from Royal Pavilion & Museums collection

But what is a hero or a villain? Can someone be both at once? The Museum Collective explored this idea:

Collective member Callum said his ceramic piece was “a recreation of a scene from Spec Ops: The Line, a video game adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness. The game repeatedly states there are no clear cut heroes in war, and has the player and their in-game avatar Walker participate in horrific actions despite having noble goals.”

Spec Ops: The Line, Callum © Louise Bell

Emily looked at a historical figure linked with the traditional Staffordshire flatback, “for my ceramics I chose to portray Queen Victoria in an image which she is recognisable for, older in age and wearing black, a crown and a white veil. I chose to portray this image of Queen Victoria as I envisage her as a character where the image of hero/villain can be blurred. I myself have often regarded her as a hero, a female ruler during a time where the role of women was contested and constrained. However, I have also come to see her to represent the British Empire and imperialism with the difficult connotations this represents. The image of, if not the person herself presents contradictions which can be viewed as both a hero and villain, not a clear character.”

Queen Victoria, Emily © Louise Bell

Long-term MC members, Rowan and Eliph, stated “we decided to work collaboratively, and were inspired by the story of the Gruffalo. We explored who was the villain of the story. We played with scale to suggest that the mouse was the true villain. We wanted to make the piece accessible for all ages, using a well known story like the Gruffalo.”

The Gruffalo, Rowan and Eliph © Louise Bell

Another member Jacob noted “with my ceramic piece, I wanted to really embrace how symbolically Medusa, as a Greek Mythological character, is an allegorical figure for fatal beauty and a statue for a feminist rage. The reason behind this is the inequality and the mistreatment of women that is still happening today – therefore this is relevant to how easily males objectify and materialise women as something to control.”

Medusa, Jacob © Louise Bell

New member Dorothy mused “when I was told what we’d be doing in this ceramic workshop it was really hard, at first, to think of what Heroes and Villains really were – and after hearing and seeing everybody else’s amazing work, I think it must mean something different to everyone. Who came to mind for me was Nurse Ratched, from the book (and film) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. The nurse really stuck with me as someone, who despite not being real, I truly detest. Possibly as despite being in a position of trust, one intended for caring for people – she is still one of the worst villains I can think of.”

Nurse Ratched, Dorothy © Louise Bell

Whereas Charlotte chose a hero, she said “I based my ceramic on Sue Heck from The Middle; I chose her because her character is really quirky and optimistic even though everything goes wrong for her all the time.”

Sue Heck from The Middle, Charlotte, © Louise Bell

Another member Amelia said “The character that I chose was Pearl from Steven Universe. That cartoon played an important part in my childhood and Pearl has always been my favourite character. She’s smart, brave, caring, generous and strong. I admire her characteristics since she does not portray the stereotypical ideas of female. Even though she’s strong and independent, she also has a delicate heart and is a very loving character.”

Pearl from Steven Universe, Amelia © by Louise Bell

Thanatcha also used a hero, “I chose ‘Totoro’ by Studio Ghibli as my hero because the character is from a film that I have watched since I was little and it reminds me of my childhood. In my opinion, the character is a representation of cheerfulness and warmth.”

Totoro, Thanatcha, © Louise Bell

Back of Totoro figure, Thanatcha © Louise Bell

Discover More

Want to join the Museum Collective? They’re a group of young people (14-25 years) who are interested in all things arts, museums and heritage. We meet regularly at Brighton Museum and do lots of fun projects like this one. If you want to join us, email sarah.pain@brighton-hove.gov.uk

• Unfortunately the Museum Collective is not currently running due to Covid-19 but do get in touch as we will re-start as soon as possible.

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

Growing our own food is something many of us have taken a renewed interest in over the past few months. Allotments often provide a haven of green space and earth in otherwise crowded towns and cities. It is thanks to pioneering woman Mary Ann Gilbert for her inspiring, thoughtful use of land back in the 1830s that the idea of allotments came into being.

Mary Ann Gilbert, photograph courtesy Amanda Andersson, WayfinderWoman

In 2018, the Wayfinder Woman group in Eastbourne started a project to find out what role women had played in the development of the town. They came up with a long and intriguing list of women from the fields of literature, music, painting, social activism and aviation, who had quietly helped to shape today’s town. One of the women whose activities changed many lives for the better, not only in Sussex but country-wide, was Mary Ann Gilbert (1776 – 1845). Her willingness to go against the grain and think up a solution to a problem most people of her class and social milieu preferred not to think about makes her one of our county’s true greats.   

Mary Ann, who lived for much of her life in Eastbourne’s Gilredge Manor, was born in Lewes.  Although having a relatively poor childhood, she was lucky enough to inherit substantial land and property in the Eastbourne area after the death of a wealthy uncle.   In 1808 she married  Davies Giddy, a Cornish MP, landowner, and chairman of the Board of Agriculture.   

Although Mary Ann could have lived a charmed life of indulgence and luxury, she became interested in ways to help the rural poor.  The early years of the nineteenth century were particularly hard for rural populations. Between 1770 and 1830 around 6 million acres of common land, historically accessed by anyone and used to graze animals and grow food had been enclosed and therefore made out of bounds by wealthy landowners, giving ordinary people no option but to scratch a living, often as itinerant and low paid workers wherever they could.  The introduction of machinery to farming coupled with the plummeting grain prices and oversupply of workers that followed the Napoleonic Wars were creating hitherto unseen depths of poverty and unemployment.  In 1830 the so-called ‘Swing Riots’, where disgruntled and desperate workers attacked equipment, such as threshing machines, was sweeping into Sussex from Kent and the East of England.  

View of Mary Ann Gilbert’s land near Eastbourne, photograph courtesy of Amanda Andersson, WayfinderWoman

Unlike many wealthy people, Mary Ann didn’t choose to blame the poor for their own predicament.  All they needed, she thought, was a chance to become independent, the opportunity to unshackle themselves from the need for seeking ill paid and insecure work, charity, or poor relief.   On a piece of her land at Beachy Head, she hired a number of paupers to create allocated plots of land, or ‘allotments’ and make them fit for cultivation.  This she set at an affordable, non-exploitative rent. The people who started to rent the plots of Mary Ann’s land were soon becoming self sufficient, growing a range of vegetables and raising animals. Mary Ann herself made loans available for the purchase of equipment, gave lessons in using spades rather than ploughs to work the land, introduced the idea of water butts to help preserve water and kept costs down by using seaweed and liquid manure as fertilizers.  Leading to the allotments, she built an iron gate, the first of its kind in Sussex, with a sign proclaiming ‘Here waste not Time and you’ll not want Food.’  By 1832 almost 200 families were renting allotments from her, growing vegetables and raising animals on their allocated plots of land.  Twelve years later that number had doubled.  In the 1840s she founded self supporting agricultural schools at Willingdon and East Dean, staffed by teachers plucked from the workhouse.   

Mary Ann Gilbert had pulled off the amazing feat of creating a win-win situation.  The poor families who had come to her to rent an allotment could now stand on their own feet, dignity restored.  Poor relief, paid through rates to the very poorest in the community, always a source of humiliation by the people receiving it and a burden on the people paying, went down.  Useful and sustainable skills were being pioneered and passed on, tracts of wasted land was being brought to productivity and Mary Ann was proving, in the face of her many detractors that ‘poor’ wasn’t synonymous with idle and feckless.   

A champion of the poor, she constantly stood up for the workers, sending allotment grown potatoes to Lord Liverpool to prove the worth of the experiment, counter prejudice and once retorted there was far more intelligence amongst the labourers than those who questioned them.   Not only did her work have a direct impact on her local community and parochial politics, it was cited and discussed in parliamentary reports and government commissions.   

Mary Ann had eight children.  One was John Davies Gilbert (1811 – 1854) who played a leading role in developing the town of Eastbourne. 

Written by social historian Louise Peskett

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

The exhibition Cultural Icons at Hove Museum earlier this year provided an opportunity to display some of the flatback ceramics from the Decorative Arts Collection.

Previously housed in one of our stores, these historic flatback figures offer a glimpse of the stars and icons of a former age. Some are still recognisable and well-known, others forgotten, casualties of tim. They provide a snapshot of celebrity culture before social media.

‘Cultural Icons’ displayed works created by six figurative ceramic artists inspired by the forms and subjects of Victorian flatbacks. Whilst the contemporary works took centre stage, the display of historic flatbacks alongside their modern counterparts added additional compelling visual narrative. So much so, that when the exhibition closed, rather than returning them to their ‘nobody’ or ‘has been’ status in stores, we decided instead to continue to let them enjoy their celebrity life as heroes and icons on display in Hove Museum.

What is a Victorian Flatback?

The design emerged in the late 1830s and 1840s and is basically a ceramic with a flat back. As you can see from the image of this small rather stylized object, it is modelled as a house at the front but the back has been left unmodelled and flat.

Previously ceramic figures had been modelled in the round, with both the back and front intricately painted as shown in the images below. Whilst the front no doubt provided a more pleasing viewpoint, it was still perfectly possible to enjoy a charming view of their behinds.

As ornaments for the home, flatback ceramics were perfectly suited to stand on a mantelpiece against a chimney breast, hence their other name ‘chimney ornaments’. The hearth, the centre of the home, provided an ideal space for the flatback as a conversation piece inspiring discussion and notoriety among family and visitors alike.

The flatback design emerged in response primarily to an increased demand for cheaper ornaments by the lower and middle classes. Besides involving limited decoration, the method of flat-back production was economical. Figures were typically press moulded, generally from a three-piece mould – the front, the back and the base. Subsidiary parts also tended to be moulded rather than hand-made.

They weren’t highly designed objects. The originals would mostly have been modelled by an anonymous artisan than a named artist. They aimed for a likeness but were based on sources such as engravings from the Illustrated London News and popular prints. To speed production and make it even cheaper, potters often used the same moulds but altered designs from one person to another – maybe just the title on the base, a painted facial feature or items of clothing.

Flatbacks were made of the celebrities of the day, the iconic events, anything that captured the public imagination. Although royalty provided the most popular subjects for nineteenth century flat-backs, figures were also made of military and naval leaders, popular politicians, notorious criminals, celebrated musicians, singers, writers, actors, sporting heroes as well as significant historical or cultural events.

Potters knew these figures would sell and they did. People purchased them from itinerant hawkers travelling from village to village, at stalls in travelling fairs, from local hawker stalls and the new china retail shops springing up in towns. People wanted them in their homes to look at and hero-worship, talk about, show off, identify with. After all these were the Princes Williams and Harrys of their day, the David Beckhams, Adeles, Daniel Craigs, Ant and Decs!

Follow our Cultural Icons series as we explore some of these fascinating flatbacks and discover of these early celebrities.

Cecilia Kendall, Curator, Collections Projects

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

This week the Booth Museum of Natural History continues our series of interviews of the Nature Heroes of Sussex with Andrew Scoon, Volunteer Ranger for South Downs National Park Authority and joint Project Lead for Brighton Dolphin Project. 

These are the people who work tirelessly to help protect wildlife and connect people to nature within the Brighton & Lewes Downs Biosphere or the South Downs National Park – and sometimes both. Each week, we focus on a different Nature Hero to highlight the projects they have worked on and find out how they have had a positive impact on our environment. We also asked them for some friendly advice on how we can all do our bit to help wildlife in Sussex, both during and after lockdown.

European hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus, © Lee Ismail

Andrew Scoon, SDNP volunteer and Joint Project Lead for Brighton Dolphin Project

Andrew has been interested in wildlife since a young age, regularly visiting zoos and trying to protect wildlife around him. He enjoyed both STEM and art subjects at school and so began his early career pursuing product design and then onto engineering. He has kept in touch with the natural world by becoming a scuba diving instructor and volunteering in long-term wildlife projects. Andrew remains a Volunteer Ranger with the South Downs National Park and is Joint Project Lead at the Brighton Dolphin Project after making an assertive effort to change his career path.

What do you love about the wildlife in Sussex?

Stoat, Mustela erminea, © Lee Ismail

The thing that grips me about wildlife in Sussex is it’s mammals. My favourite encounters with these elusive creatures include a walk on the Harting downs, which had me cross paths with a stoat, and seeing a family of water voles quietly scamper past me, along the banks of the River Arun. I love seeing bats swooping over head and seeing signs that hedgehogs have visited my garden fills me with joy – they are closer than we think! It is a bit cliché to like the cute and fluffy stuff, but maybe it’s what we’re wired for. They are closer relatives to us and really grip our attention. Mammals tend to be quite significant to ecosystems as a whole too.

Water vole, Arvicola amphibius, © Lee Ismail

What wildlife project have you worked on in Sussex that you feel has made the most difference to wildlife?

I have been volunteering for the South Downs National Park Authority as a Volunteer Ranger for the past four and a half years, which has been an absolute pleasure. I feel they give a lot back to their volunteers through training opportunities and tools and equipment. The experience they offer has really helped with my aspirations in the sector whilst giving me inspiration. I love being active and getting dirty too! We are so lucky to have the South Downs on our doorstep, we have beautiful examples of a chalk grassland habitat, a true global rarity. With delicate streams and important rivers, the porous ground also serves the vital water that we depend upon. I have been lucky enough to construct habitats for forest-dwelling butterflies and dormice, build a hibernaculum and restore a dew pond for Great crested newts and other pond dwellers (I even got in chest deep!). I’ve also been able to take part in planting trees, as well as coppicing, scrub bashing and laying hedgerows for the dual purpose of connecting biodiversity, and maintaining order in land management. Every task is an adventure. The chance to work so closely with the SDNPA brings real insight to the overall impact of the work and the scale of what is being done and just how interlinked we are with nature.

Photo of the South Downs © Lee Ismail

How are you connecting to nature during lockdown? Can you offer any advice to people?

I’m lucky enough to live in a house with a garden – it’s a smallish one, but boy is it bursting with life! For those of you that don’t have a garden, indoor plants might not be improving wildlife – but your connection with the life that surrounds you will surely be strengthened. Secondly, if you can – just walk outside with your eye’s open to everything that’s around you. The UK suffers from having highly degraded wildlife, but there is still plenty out there, and without the pressures of the usual rush of house-car-work, you’ll be surprised at just how much is waiting for you right on your doorstep! It’s amazing to see the variety and strength that UK wildlife still has to offer.

What project are you most excited to get back to when things return to normal?

Dolphin sp. taken by Shoreham Ports Marine Team

We’ve been using our lockdown time to plan the future of the Brighton Dolphin Project, and we believe the future is bright. This includes ramping up our focus on the practical side of conservation and research to complement our achievements to date, which have focused primarily on education and community development. We’d like to continue evolving our approach by building stronger collaborations with other active local organisations and by delivering practical insight into the marine environment around Sussex. This will provide a new level of richness to the overall project. We’re also committed to giving our amazing volunteers the deeper engagement and serious conservation opportunities that they crave, without having to leave our shores. In summary, we want to deliver enhanced activity and stronger function working with our dolphins, other marine mammals and the wider marine environment to provide opportunities for those building a career in conservation. This will be quite an undertaking but it has certainly got me raring to go.

Grey seal, Halichoerus grypus, © Claire Byrd

What one thing would you recommend that people can do to support local wildlife in Sussex?

Sketch drawn in lockdown © Andrew Scoon

The best thing I can suggest is to just connect with nature and do this in anyway that suits you. Join a group, volunteer your time, and just engage with any opportunity – you will get so much out of it. If it’s your style, read and study about local species or you can just get outside, and get in it! If you have a creative streak, you could keep a nature journal to tell a story or create artwork around what you see, hear, smell, touch? You can share what you make on Instagram using the realwildlives handle.

Discover More

• Discover how to build your own hibernaculum for amphibians and reptiles with this handy guide from The Wildlife Trusts.
• One of the Booth Museum team’s favourite wildlife identifying apps is iNaturalist. Learn more about it on their website.
• Learn how you can get involved to help save Sussex Mammals by visiting the Sussex Mammal Group website. 
• We found this awesome video where you can learn more about Brighton Dolphin Project and see footage of dolphins swimming around Brighton.
• You can see lot’s of British mammals on display at the Booth Museum when re-open. In the meantime, why not enjoy seeing a cute little mammal from our collections in detail on our Close Look Collections website.

Watch out for our next Nature Hero of Sussex in our blog next week.

Grace Brindle, Collections Assistant

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

When recalling the name Margaret Hardy, a number of Brightonians will no doubt cast their minds back to the teachers, uniform and fellow students of their former school. ‘Maggie Aggie’ as some knew it operated as Margaret Hardy High School for Girls from the mid-1940s until 1989. In today’s Pioneering Women of Sussex blog, we shine a light on the lady behind the school’s name.

Portrait of Miss Margaret Jane Hardy, Mayor of Brighton 1933-1934

Margaret Jane Hardy was born in Brighton on 18 March 1874. Margaret’s father William passed away when she was 12, leaving her Welsh mother Leah widowed at the age of 54. Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, mother and daughter lived together at 49 Preston Road. Margaret was a dedicated Baptist and a member of the Florence Road Baptist Church from its foundation in the mid-1890s. She was also a passionate educationist and taught children of the Sunday School, later becoming president of the local Sunday School Union. Fundraising events were held at her home to support the school and union’s activities.

When Britain declared war in August 1914, the Young Man’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) was quick to extend its work across to the Channel to support troops. Before the month had passed, the Y.M.C.A. Women’s Auxiliary was formed in a bid to scale up effort, the organisation previously being ‘for young men by young men’. Margaret signed up.

In areas of conflict, the Auxiliary looked out for the welfare of soldiers in huts behind the Front. ‘Ladies of the red triangle’ administered first aid and a welcome cup of coffee or cocoa. They provided for the intellectual, social, moral and spiritual needs of soldiers. The huts gave much needed respite and the means and a place to write letters home. For many, the huts were places of normality and a small but precious reminder of home.

Miniature Y.M.C.A. Hut Day fundraising flag, 1914-1918

The Y.M.C.A. became the largest organisation involved in welfare work with troops and other war workers. By 1918, over 40,000 women had served in the Auxiliary at home and abroad. There are accounts of women working 48 hours or more in a single shift, such was the dedication of the volunteers such as Margaret. All were unpaid and had to meet their own living expenses. Margaret’s mother passed away within a year’s service with the Y.M.C.A. in France. She gave a further three years to the organisation and was made an MBE for her ‘devoted service in France for the troops’.

Upon returning to Brighton, Margaret continued to immerse herself in the activities of the church and civic affairs. She identified with many women’s movements in the town and was keenly involved in the Baptist Women’s Movement. From 1922 she served a year as the President of the National Free Church Women’s Council. In the same year she became a magistrate. Margaret was also a member of the Steyning Board of Guardians which was responsible for the administration of the workhouse and children’s home in Shoreham until the late 1920s.

In 1928, the Borough of Brighton was extended to include the parishes of Rottingdean, Saltdean, Patcham, West Blatchington and parts of Falmer forming ‘Greater Brighton’. This created a new Hollingbury ward which Margaret was elected councillor, supported by the National Council of Women of Great Britain. She would be one of only seven women elected to the Brighton council in the interwar period.

In November 1933, Margaret was installed as the town’s first female Mayor. This was met with great caution from a female correspondent of the Brighton and Hove Herald, proclaiming, ‘We can prophesy an increasing degeneracy of life in England that will reach its lowest point with the zenith of feminist influence.’ They needn’t be worried.

Margaret’s term as mayor was a busy yet an enjoyable one which oversaw the town’s continued growth and modernisation. She is described as being almost inseparable from the office but also a very visible public servant. Her calendar was filled with a plethora of eminent occasions. These included the opening of new amenities such as the Astoria cinema, Sports Stadium Brighton swimming pool, Brighton Aquarium indoor bowling green and the switching on of a new generator at Brighton Power Station. Press photographs of these events appear to capture her jovial nature. She had a great sense of humour and an infectious laugh which might not be all too apparent from the men in some of these images.

It is said that Margaret probably enjoyed ruling over the Council Chamber and her male colleagues during her term as Mayor. She was noted for her ‘flair for keeping them in order with so little trouble’. In the Mayor’s Parlour at Brighton Town Hall, Margaret replaced the sherry that used to welcome guests with boxes of chocolates. These were reserved for the children of visitors whom Margaret would ask after, requesting parents to “give them my love – and a box of chocolates each!”.

The lack of alcohol in the office of Mayor Hardy might be down to her religious grounding as much as her professionalism. Margaret does seem to have been socially liberal in her outlook however and didn’t hold back in poking fun at protests against wearing swimwear in the town. Whilst very capable of rising to all manner of distinguished occasions, she maintained her support for children’s services and the vulnerable, evident in the praise received from her involvement with the Southover Street and Whitehawk canteens (soup kitchens).

Margaret Hardy School badge, c1970s

At the conclusion of her term as Mayor, Margaret was made an Alderman in respect of her eminent service to public life. Further honorary appointments were bestowed upon her including President d’Honneur of the Brighton and Hove French Circle of which she was a ‘formidable member’, a position she served from 1935 to 1952. Fittingly her name would be perpetuated, seemingly, in the Margaret Hardy County Secondary School for Girls in October 1945. The name ceased when the school was amalgamated with the all boys school Patcham Fawcett in 1989 and became Patcham High School.

Illness had prevented Margaret from taking an active part in public affairs in her later years which might have been rather frustrating after a life devoted to the service of others. On 10 December 1954, Margaret Jane Hardy passed away at the age of 80, leaving ‘a very large number of townsfolk in all walks of life with a real sense of loss of a very real and intimate kind’. Even in death, Margaret continued to look out for the vulnerable, leaving a gift in her will to establish the Margaret Hardy Fund to prevent and relieve poverty amongst the Florence Road Baptist Church congregation.

Margaret paved the way as the first woman to attain what was once the most important role in local civic office, ‘the first citizen of Brighton’. Yet it took almost two decades for Brighton to elect its second female Mayor, Dorothy Stringer OBE (1894-1977). An equally committed public servant, Dorothy’s career followed a similar path and recognition of her service came in 1955 when a new secondary school was named after her. An OBE and Freedom of the Borough were to follow and Dorothy Stringer High School continues to carry her name. Although ‘Maggie Aggie’ is no longer, it is hoped that Margaret’s life will continue to be remembered.

Since 1986, a policy of female and male mayors in alternate years has existed. More information about the history and role of the Mayor of Brighton & Hove can be found here.

Written by Dan Robertson, Curator of Local History & Archaeology

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

In previous blogs I’ve looked at hand-written letters from the Preston Manor archive, and here is another with a story to tell. During the summer of 1979 Preston Manor’s curator Mr David Beevers corresponded with a Mrs Margaret Avis living in Surrey who remembered the house before it became a museum in 1933.

Mrs Avis’s letters are packed with valuable historical fact, but even better, she illustrated her letters with cartoon-like drawings. This proves the importance of drawing to memory and speaks much of the character of Mrs. Avis who I can’t help but like enormously.

Mrs Avis had family connections with Preston Manor when it was a private house belonging to the Stanford family. Four generations of her family worked there, beginning with her great-great grandfather Thomas Gorringe who was a gardener. Her grandmother, also called Margaret, was employed as a domestic worker inside the house.

Dear Old Nurse

Mrs Avis quotes Ellen Thomas-Stanford who told her, “your granny Margaret, Dear Old Nurse, was nurse to my sisters, the twins.” The twins were Diana and Lily Macdonald, Ellen’s half-sisters who were born in 1866. I don’t know the age of Mrs Avis in 1979, but she writes, “I lived in Loder Road in 1916” and “in 1924 I was nurse to two little girls in Lauriston Road,” so I am guessing her date of birth to be around 1900.

Mrs Avis flies over Preston Manor

This first picture works like an aerial view looking down onto the north façade of Preston Manor and, like all her illustrations, is drawn from memory.  Much of its value is in showing the position and style of two buildings that were demolished in the 1930s; the Manor’s gatehouse lodge and butler’s cottage. They are shown on either side of the iron gates that remain today. The gates were the original entrance opening to a “gravel drive to Manor.” Mrs Avis draws a car and a van on the turning circle showing its vehicular use and marks the circular “grass lawn, mounting block and stone steps” to the house. The position of trees and paths are clearly recorded, as is a “high wall with broken glass on top to stop burglars.”

Looking down onto Preston Village

Looking down on Preston Village from the past

In this picture Mrs Avis takes us further afield and we are flying above Preston Manor looking down in a westerly direction. To the left, the hilly green slope of what became the municipal Rock Gardens in 1935, a wildly drawn place with crazy-looking trees crossed by “winding path to railway line and Brighton” and bordered by a countrified “hawthorn hedge and blackberry brambles”. At the top the “rookery nest”.

In fact, an alternative name for the Rock Gardens is The Rookery named after a mansion house nearby called The Rookery, now demolished.

Above the Rookery or Rockery is the “railway line from Brighton to London” where the life of a busy rail line is depicted showing a steam train puffing smoke, its cabin and driver, train door, guard’s van, Preston Park Station and Booking Office and the subway to Claremont Road. The line is protected by a “five feet high wooden fence”. I can almost smell the coal and steam so immersed am I in the vintage world Mrs Avis depicts. I like too the quizzical expression on “cows grazing in the fields belonging to a farmer who lived in Rose Cottage Farm” and the “horses grazing in Fellingham’s field”.

The stables, cottages and small wooden gates depicted speak of the rural nature of the Preston Village of Mrs Avis’s youth. The fields are now gone and contain the late-20^th century apartment blocks of Rookery Close. Today, looking at this view, you will still find many of the old farm buildings, but converted to modern use. You will also see an unsightly petrol station and storage facility and the Preston Bowls Club building of a boxy modernistic 1964 design. These buildings were, understandably, not included in the Preston Village Conservation area first designated in 1970.

Picturesque village life

A pub, a school and a bakers in Preston village

Now we are entering village life of a bygone age as Mrs Avis takes us across the road from Preston Manor where we find a “double-fronted baker’s shop and bakehouse, boot-repair shop, chemist shop, small sweets tobacco & newsagent shop, public house, village school and Rose Cottage Farm” and many small houses and gardens. The bakehouse chimney billows with smoke, as do the two chimneys on the double-gabled building enticingly labelled “lunches and teas served here”.

The neighbourhood is bordered by South Road with its railway tunnel and the “small flint stone houses” of North Road. The railway line to the west and Preston Road to the east neatly enclose the village. You could navigate using this map today.

Transcribing Mrs Avis

Valuable to future generations

Mrs Avis speaks in vivid description of the places, people and activity she knew in Preston and wider location in the 1920s and 1930s. She wrote on a variety of papers from thin pale grey writing paper, to the back of cards and scraps of waste paper she’d saved, such as the back of an auctioneer’s printed letter. Mrs Avis clearly had the waste-not habits of her age.

Her handwriting is clear to read, although its cramped loops quickly weary the modern eye. She writes in the style taught in the period before the First World War when the ‘copperplate’ calligraphy of the Victorian age lingered. To aid readability, a Preston Manor volunteer patiently hand-transcribed the Mrs Avis letters in 2016 into her own immaculate style and these too now form part of the letter archive and will be kept in perpetuity.

On 23^rd July 1979 Mr Beevers wrote to thank Mrs Avis for her “long and fascinating” letters that “answered all my questions most kindly”. He added;“You are now one of the very few people who remember the Manor before 1932 and the information that you have given will be invaluable to future generations.”

As far as I know, the file of letters from Mrs Avis were stored largely unseen between 1979 and 2016 although they may have been read from time to time for research purposes. Mrs Avis was a prolific writer and keen correspondent but no letters exist after 1979. If she was born in 1900 or thereabouts, she cannot be alive now.

For me, Mrs Avis lives on at Preston Manor through the power of her example demonstrating how illustration can bring an individual’s memory of the past into sharp and shareable focus.

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

Beth has another new selection for you with lions, tigers and herons, oh my! Why not take a look and have a go.

Beth

Draw Artists

We are very pleased to see that some of you have taken part in our online Mid-Week Draw, here are some of the fantastic works that have been sent in.

Ossie

Ann

Geri

Join In

If you are tempted to have a go, please share your drawings with us, we would love to see them. Email them to Beth at beth.burr@brighton-hove.gov.uk 

Tweet @BrightonMuseums or if you are uploading them to Facebook with pride, share the url in the comments section below.

Come back next Wednesday to see what new objects Beth has chosen.

Some additional drawing ideas:

• Sketch the outside building of where you live, including the front garden if you have one
• Draw a sink tap, concentrating on light and shade and the reflections you can see
• Draw a portrait of your favourite singer or actor. It can be a serious or caricature go!

Discover More

The Mid-Week Draw

Beth Burr, Museum Support Officer

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

One of our early Nature Heroes highlighted the work of Lynn Beun, leader of RSPB Brighton & Hove District Local Group. Now Lynn has written a blog post of her own to share with us. 

Despite the lifting of outdoor exercise restrictions, I know there are many of you who fall into the vulnerable category and will still be pining for the great outdoors during this time. Being confined to quarters may not be so bad though, as it gives us the opportunity to look out of our windows at the world around us in detail.

Lynn Beun Leader of RSPB Brighton & District Local Group

As a birdwatcher I enjoy seeing birds of course, however I find that most people who like birds enjoy having contact with all things in the natural world – be they butterflies and plants, birds or animals. Like many of you, I live in small urban flat with a very small garden but our small green patches still provide a wealth of wildlife. So here is the Wildlife from my Window. I hope you will enjoy it!

First to visit in the morning is the little troop of House sparrows. When I first put my bird feeder up several years ago there were only about 8, but by providing them with a mixed diet which includes mealworms and suet nibbles they have now increased to about 30. House sparrows need a protein and energy rich diet to thrive and reproduce successfully. They form “gossiping groups” in the morning in a tree nearby which is overgrown with ivy. This is perfect cover for hiding in.

House sparrow, Passer domesticus, © Lee Ismail

You may ask which sort of feeder to use?

I use a feeder on a high pole so the birds are safe from predators. Feeders should also be kept clean to avoid disease so I make sure I do this and rotate my feeders, I also make sure the water in the bird bath is clean and fresh. The Starlings come along and I enjoy seeing their shiny iridescent feathers as they splash around. They create quite a mess squabbling over the tastiest mealworms, throwing the seeds they do not want on the ground. But no problem – a little Dunnock will be along to pick up their unwanted seeds. The Robin sometimes sits on the fence whilst I fill up the feeders and is always keen to snatch a suet bite before the House sparrows beat him to it!

Dunnock, Prunella modularis, © Lee Ismail

As the morning progresses a large male fox arrives to sleep on the garden shed roof. He enjoys the sunshine and when he gets too hot he moves into the shade provided by a leafy tree. Last year a vixen did the same with her male cub, so I wonder if it is the same cub grown? Here is a photograph of him – I hope you enjoy it!

Fox on garden shed, © Lynn Beun

Honey bee, Apis mellifera on Hebe, © Lynn Beun

During the drowsy warm afternoon, the Hebe comes into flower and is visited by Honey bees. All this happens in the course of a day. What will we see next time?

Discover More

Read more about our Nature Heroes

Explore more of our Nature at Home series

Lynn Beun, Leader, RSPB Brighton & District Local Group

Spotted any interesting wildlife from your window? Email your photos to grace.brindle@brighton-hove.gov.uk and it may be featured in our blog.