Story Category: Legacy

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Chrissie Berridge explains how the Royal Pavilion provides constant inspiration for her photo-artwork

Over the years I have taken thousands of photographs. When I’m not out taking new pictures I enjoy manipulating the ones that I already have. It’s proved to be a productive way to use up time when I’ve been unable to get out and about during the Coronavirus lockdown.  Working at my computer I select and overlay various photographs, working with creative apps to make new, striking images.

I usually work as a Visitor Services Officer at the Royal Pavilion and I enjoy seeing people photographing its iconic exterior. When you visit Brighton a photograph of this landmark is a must-have! Looking out from the first floor windows I see the cameras and mobile phones raised the minute people walk through the Indian Gate, capturing the fairy-tale frontage. There are also countless selfies taken in front of the main entrance; couples lounge against the turning circle’s green fencing, recent graduates wave mortarboards for their celebratory photo, and numerous groups of students waving and pouting. And now of course those who venture inside the Pavilion can fill their photo streams with even more exotic imagery!

You’d think that working at the Pavilion I would be immune to its photographic charm, but the opposite is true. It is a building that truly gets under your skin. The changing light, the differing seasons, and the beautiful planting in the gardens surrounding it, render the Pavilion a constant subject for the lens. That myriad of turrets and domes makes for a great image and it can’t be mistaken for any other building.

Another of my other favourite subjects to photograph are mannequins. Whether it is a full length figure, or just a head shot, I am constantly drawn to them. I’ve snapped them at exhibitions, in shop windows, and at antique fairs, and of course I have one at home. They’re certainly easier to capture than real moving people.

Pavilion Gaze by Chrissie Berridge

During a couple of creative sessions, I worked with both of these subjects to produce two new images. With Pavilion Gaze I combined a number of photographs; one I refer to as ‘the mannequin and the mixing bowl’ (taken at the Ardingly International Antiques Fair) of a female mannequin wearing a fur cape perched on a step ladder, beside a Mason Cash mixing bowl. The second image is a view of the north end of the Pavilion – not as frequently photographed as the west front of the building by visitors, and yet a third photograph is of a swathe of flowers taken at Preston Park’s beautiful wild flower meadow. The combination has been overlaid, tweaked and altered using computer software. The Pavilion, rendered to a sky blue silhouette is unmistakable!

Pavilion Dream by Chrissie Berridge

In my second artwork, Pavilion Dream I wanted to conjure up a Sleeping Beauty scenario, where the gardens have grown beyond their usual boundaries in a bid to hide the Pavilion, emphasising the fantasy elements that are part of this building’s charm. I used photographs of flowers and seed heads combined again with that view of the north end of the Pavilion exterior. Here you can see more of the architectural detailing of the minarets and domes. The prominent silhouetted seed heads were originally photographed in the grounds of at Emmaus in Portslade. All the photographs have been manipulated to create this final image.

I’ll certainly be on working on more Pavilion-inspired images in the days to come.

Images: copyright Chrissie Berridge

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This is a page from a letter written by Mrs Diana Magniac (nèe Macdonald) in 1936 to Mr Henry Roberts, curator of the Thomas-Stanford Museum, as Preston Manor was then called. When undertaking research using hand-written letters I am frequently faced with a deciphering challenge before I can get to the information I am seeking.

What does the letter say?

Reading historical letters takes some practice. You get better at it as you become familiar with the hand-writing of a particular individual. At first glance a letter like this appears as a mass of swirls and is tiring to the eye.

I have a scan of this letter as part of my research into Preston Manor’s haunted history. It is pertinent to ghosts because it is a reply to a letter written by Mr Roberts although we don’t have a copy of that one. He must have asked Diana’s permission to quote her regarding her experience seeing ghosts at Preston Manor.

The letter covers other matters as well and reads

Letter by Diana Magniac 1936

“Dear Mr Roberts, I am glad Margaret is recovering but I am so sorry she has had so much pain. Yes of course you may quote me in your article about the Preston ghost, and my sister also, but may I first have a short draft of text for…”

I think that last word is ‘text’. It may not be but the word fits Diana’s request.

Margaret was the wife of Mr Henry Roberts. She suffered frequent bouts of ill-health and would eventually die suddenly of a brain haemorrhage in the family apartments at Preston Manor eleven years on in 1947.

Letter-writing tools

The original letter exists in an archive at Preston Manor. The pale cream-coloured paper measures about 6 x 8 inches, in imperial not metric measurements, as we are thinking about the pre-metric days of the 1930s.

Born in 1866 Diana Macdonald grew up at Preston Manor with her twin, Lily. They were home-schooled by a governess, learning to write first with pencil then graduating to a dip-into-ink pen with a metal nib. By 1936, now aged 70, Diana was more likely using a fountain or reservoir pen. This device still retained the metal nib element of the older style pen but contained an additional small tubular rubber sac that could be filled with ink and so avoid dipping the nib into an ink-pot every few words. Enlarging and studying this letter shows it is without the tell-tale drips that even the most carefully correspondent rarely avoided when using the ink-dip type pen.

When my eye looks confusedly over the swirling looping words on hand-written letters I wonder if people at the time had the same response.  When opening this letter over the breakfast table when the first post arrived did Henry Roberts set it aside to tackle later? Perhaps when he was sitting in better light wearing his reading glasses? Or did he glance through the words interpreting Diana’s writing as rapidly as we would scan a modern-day message displayed on our screens?

The glamorous Diana

Diana Magniac whose glamorous 1895 portrait hangs today in pride of place in the entrance hall at Preston Manor knew Henry Roberts very well. Although he was a museum employee and she was a member of the grand family who’d donated Preston Manor to Brighton in 1932, they were good friends. The pair had known each other socially for many years. However letter writing etiquette of the day required them to address each other in a formal manner. Dear Mr Roberts not Dear Henry and Dear Mrs Magniac not Dear Diana. In fact, they would have addressed each other so when meeting in person, such were the conventions of the time.

Diana was a widow in 1936 and living at 10 Cumberland Mansions W1, a grand apartment block near Hyde Park. Her life was one of leisure and luxury. When Henry’s daughter Margery wrote her memoirs in 1998, she recalled the Macdonald twins, “they were beautiful women, but always rather aloof from everyday life.” I suspect Henry Roberts was a little in awe of his attractive correspondent and was always thrilled to see an envelope addressed to him in her distinct hand-writing.

The etiquette of letter-writing

Nuances around social class dictated every part of your life in the 1930s.

Upper-class Diana would have referred to the paper on which she wrote as “writing paper” and not “notepaper” which was a word used by persons lower down the social scale.

I have a book, Modern Etiquette, The Key to Social Success, dated 1950 but which concerns matters of polite and correct behaviour that existed in 1936, as etiquette changed very little during the period in-between.

The book states regarding hand-writing,

“If your writing is very difficult to read, either set to work to make it more legible or try to type your letters. The signature, of course, must always be handwritten on all  letters.”

Regarding type-written letters Modern Etiquette states, “quite a number of people type even their personal letters, which was once considered bad form, but is now quite legitimate.”

Modern Etiquette also gives advice regarding writing paper,

“This should be as good as you can afford and quiet – usually cream in tint. Blue-grey stationery is quite allowable, but avoid pink, green or other definite shades which, except for children, are not considered the best of taste.”

Writing to Preston Manor

The archive of letters at Preston Manor are mostly business letters connected to the day-to-day function of Preston Manor as a museum in the mid-years of the 20^th century and are a mix of handwritten and typewritten documents. Special interest groups wishing to book a guided tour of the museum would make contact by letter. These letters survive from groups as diverse the Women’s Gas Federation Homecraft Circle (1957), the Institute of Operating Theatre Technicians (1969) and the Circle of Glass Collectors (1962) and of course, there are many letters from schools wishing to book an educational visit.

Personal handwritten letters, such as this one by Diana Magniac, form a small part of the collection and are a fascinating glimpse into the days when reading a message from a friend required an element of concentration to interpret.

Paula Wrightson, Venue Officer Preston Manor

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Beth has chosen a great selection of objects for you to get your teeth stuck in to for this week’s draw. She’s had a go at a fighting cockerel, why not take a look and see if you’re inspired to draw too?

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

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.

Here are some more drawing ideas:

• Have a go at drawing your pet
• Draw a picture of different leaves, or flower heads if you can’t find any leaves
• Draw a map of the world from memory

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.

The Willett Collection of Popular Pottery at Brighton Museum offers a lively and different way of actively enjoying and engaging with ceramic objects. Each piece provides a comment on the social, religious, military or political history of the day. Many commemorate well-known events and figures we are still familiar with today, but others represent events or figures that have disappeared into obscurity over time.

One of my stories depicted by ceramics in the Collection is the Tichborne Case of the 1870s which received widespread publicity in both England and Australia at the time. It is a story which seems to have it all – a broken heart, fraud, death, cattle-rustling, and a mother’s delusional love. Its popularity was so great that it sparked the mania ‘Tichbornia’ for all things relating to it – including ceramics.

A heart-broken Englishman heads to South America

Roger Charles Tichborne was born in 1829 into an old English Catholic family with extensive estates in Hampshire. As the oldest son, he had a typical aristocratic upbringing including a good education and he gained an Army commission into the 6th Dragoons. Unfortunately, he fell in love with his cousin Katherine to the disapproval of both families. His heart broken, Roger left England in 1854 on a long tour of South America and Mexico to recover.

According to all reports, he reached Rio and left aboard a ship The Bella bound for Jamaica that year. Unfortunately The Bella then disappeared, never to be seen again. Only one empty long boat was found and over time all hope of survivors faded.

Lady Tichborne steadfastly refused to believe her son was dead and continued to search for him desperately. Encouraged by a clairvoyant who claimed her older son was still alive, she placed missing persons adverts in several newspapers in South America and Australia, offering a reward for information.

The long wait for news

For 11 years, she waited. During that time her husband died and the estates and title passed to their younger son Alfred in 1862. Finally, unexpectedly, a letter arrived from Australia, claiming to be from her son Sir Roger. Although crudely written in poor handwriting and unrefined language, Lady Tichborne was immediately convinced of its authenticity.

It is likely that Lady Tichborne’s mind had turned somewhat, as the son’s claims in the letter were pretty extraordinary for a member of the English aristocracy. According to his letter he was working as a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, going under the alias Tomas Castro. He was married to an illiterate former housemaid he had met there and had a baby. Regardless of these life-changing events, Lady Tichborne was overjoyed and in 1866 with his wife and baby in tow, Castro (or should we call him Roger?) set sail for England to claim his inheritance.

When he arrived, Lady Tichborne was in Paris, so Castro set to work familiarising himself with the local Tichborne workers, many of whom had know Sir Roger when he was growing up. Unsurprisingly it was immediately noticeable to Sir Roger’s old acquaintances and family that he had changed significantly.

The riddle of the tattoo

Before leaving on his travels Sir Roger was described as of slender build, under 9 stone, with a long sallow face, straight dark hair and a tattoo on his left arm. Indeed Lady Tichborne’s description in the missing persons adverts in Australia referred to him as ‘of a delicate constitution, rather tall, with very light brown hair and blue eyes’.

The man who returned was very different. Weighing over 24 stone he was bursting out of his clothes, with a large round face and fair wavy hair. He no longer had a tattoo. While we cannot deny that years abroad and good living can wreck some changes on one’s physical appearance, such a drastic change is highly unusual. Certainly, the village blacksmith thought so, saying that ‘if you are Sir Roger, you’ve changed from a racehorse to a carthorse’. The family of Lady Tichborne also believed him to be a fraud, wanting nothing to do with him.

Not to be perturbed, Castro, who was now calling himself Sir Roger, travelled to Paris to meet up with his mother. According to accounts, he insisted on meeting her in his darkened hotel room – saying he was ill which presumably decreased the risk of her noticing the significant changes in his physique. Although he apparently made glaring blunders about his school and grandfather, the grief-struck, self-deluded elderly Lady Tichborne believed him. She commented fondly; ‘He confuses everything as in a dream’ and promptly settled on him an allowance of £1000 per annum. Such is the power and weakness of a mother’s love.

Did the prodigal son return?

When Lady Tichborne died in 1868, the rest of the family repudiated Castro. Running out of funds, he brought a civil case in 1871 to claim the Tichborne lands, worth £25,000 that had now passed to Alfred’s son and Sir Roger’s nephew. The trial lasted 102 days until the civil court rejected the claimant’s case. He was then arrested and charged with perjury. This second criminal trial commenced on 21 April 1873 and lasted 188 days until 28 February 1874, making legal history for its duration and cost as enquiries had to be made as far afield as Chile and Wagga Wagga.

In all, Castro produced over 100 witnesses in his favour, including many of Sir Roger’s fellow army officers who swore that he was the real Sir Roger. Certainly there seems to have been a strong facial resemblance between Castro and the younger Sir Roger that swayed many of Sir Roger’s acquaintances. Crucial evidence in his favour included the fact that he suffered from a rare congenital defect of his sexual organs, known to have also been experienced by the young Sir Roger.

Ultimately though, the jury judged him an imposter, convinced by his rough way of speaking, his known blunders and his inability to speak French, when Sir Roger had spent most of his early years in Paris and was fluent in it. Additional evidence exposed him as Arthur Orton, born in Wapping in 1834 who had gone to sea as a boy. Orton travelled to Australia and was alleged to have been a member of a horse-stealing and cattle-rustling gang and involved in criminal activities, with rumours of murder – a far cry from aristocracy. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

The case in ceramics

The participants in the criminal case provided juicy content for potters and proved popular objects for the public. Orton was perceived by the working class as a victim of conspiracy by the elite and the Catholic church. Figures of the judge, the prosecution and defence counsels were made and sold as souvenirs of the case together with figures of the young Sir Roger Tichborne, the Claimant Tichborne (Castro) and Lady Tichborne. The plaster figures of Sir Roger and the Claimant highlight the extraordinary physical changes that age can (and had) brought to Sir Roger if they were one and the same.

Pair of figure groups, c1874. Painted plaster, coloured to resemble terracotta. depicting participants at the second trial of the ‘Tichborne Claimant’

The Willett Collection contains a pair of figure groups of the participants of the second criminal trial modelled as animals and birds by Randolph Caldecott, the celebrated children’s book illustrator, who attended the trial. One group shows a bench of judges represented as owls, the other group shows the prosecution and defence counsels as a hawk and a rooster respectively, playing on the name of Sir Henry Hawkins, prosecution counsel. They stand behind the claimant – a seated tortoise.

Sir Henry Hawkins, a future High Court judge, also appears in the collection in the form of a candle-snuffer made from biscuit porcelain. The piece is intended to ‘snuff-out’ a candle-shaped porcelain model of the claimant.

Five figures, c1875. Painted plaster. The figures represent participants in the Tichborne case. The young Sir Roger Tichborne stands with his mother, Lady Tichborne on the left hand side. The candle-snuffer, c1875 on the far right is modelled as Sir Henry Hawkins, prosecution counsel All from the Willett Collection of Popular Pottery at Brighton Museum

Orton was released in 1884 after 10 years in prison. He sold his confession to the People newspaper for £3000 but immediately retracted it and proceeded to tour music halls arguing his case. He died destitute in 1898 of heart failure and was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave. Even in death however the mystery continued. The Tichborne family allowed a card bearing the name ‘Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne’ to be placed on his coffin before it was buried. It shows that an element of doubt still existed.

Cecilia Kendall,Curator, Collections Projects

Reference

Stella Beddoe ‘A Potted history Henry Willett’s Ceramic Chronicle of Britain’

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Marguerite Patten’s distinctive signature with the bold looping ‘M’ was both familiar and remote in my 1970s childhood seen on the spine and cover of household cookery books. Familiar because Marguerite Patten was the cookery writer of the day, and remote because you could hardly believe she was a real person, such was her legendary status. Meeting Marguerite Patten in 2009 was one of the most exciting experiences in my time as Museum Learning Officer for Royal Pavilion & Museums adult event programme.

Paula, Marguerite Patten & Sarah Tobias 2009

This picture, taken on Saturday 10 October 2009, shows from left to right, myself Paula Wrightson, Marguerite Patten then aged 94 and Sarah Tobias, Social & Cultural Historian. We are seated at The Old Courtroom in Brighton, then newly restored and opened as a Lecture Theatre. The occasion was a study day linked to an exhibition at Brighton Museum, ‘The Land Girls: Cinderella’s of the Soil,’ that ran from October 2009 to March 2010.

The exhibition looked at the work and lives of recruits to the Women’s Land Army in World War II through personal stories, paintings, posters and photographs. It revealed the experiences of some of the 75,0000 women who left their ordinary lives to work on farms and in fields helping to keep the country fed at that time of world crisis. A highlight of the exhibition was a display of the distinctive uniform worn by the Women’s Land Army; buff-coloured corduroy breeches, green woollen jumper and brown felt hat.

Land Girl Uniform 2009

I had invited Mrs Patten to speak about her wartime work at The Ministry of Food. During the war in that role, via practical demonstrations, pamphlets and a BBC radio broadcast called Kitchen Front, she advised the nation on how to eat well and stay healthy using the rationed, limited and sometimes unpalatable foodstuffs available.

The privations of the wartime diet are well-known but Marguerite’s description of whale meat is worth repeating, “it looked like a cross between liver and beef and because the raw meat had a strong and very unpleasant smell of fish and stale oil, I loathed handling whale meat to create recipes and in my demonstrations to the public.”

Marguerite deplored the use of these “magnificent animals” for food, however the perilous state of food supply by 1946 and throughout the infamously harsh winter of 1947 meant all sources of nourishment were considered. I have in front of me one of Marguerite’s 1947 recipes; Hungarian Goulash made with a pound of cubed whale meat to two pounds of onions and a little paprika and salt that I should not like to try!

After the war, Marguerite Patten went on to become one of the most famous and influential cookery writers of the 20^th century and the first ‘celebrity chef’, a term she disliked. Mrs Patten termed herself a Home Economist. From the 1940s and into the 2000s she appeared regularly on radio and television and published over 170 cookery books with sales in the multi-millions. My 1968 copy of her Entertaining at Home is a delightful dip into the era of fondue parties, vol-au-vents, make-your-own sundaes and mock béarnaise sauce.

Meeting the legend was a nerve-wracking experience. To secure her as a speaker I first corresponded by letter, writing to Mrs Patten at her home in Withdean, Brighton. On the day of the event she arrived, a tiny stately and pin-neat person in a royal blue dress, escorted by her personal assistant who left Mrs Patten in the care of Sarah and I. At 94 she was frail but you could feel the vitality she radiated.

Anxious not to tire our guest, Sarah had prepared a list of carefully researched questions, focusing on her wartime work meaning the speaking engagement took the form of a convivial dialogue. Marguerite spoke (to a packed audience) in the clipped RP or BBC English accent of her era, heightening the sense of being in the presence of a person of considerable grandeur although in actuality Mrs Patten was down-to-earth and modest.

Sarah conducted the interview in her customary merrily serene manner but I sat watching nervously because afterwards Sarah and I were to take this distinguished cookery expert to lunch. I realised, here in our care, was a great personality appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1991 for her “services to the Art of Cookery”, the 2007 recipient of the Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award and the celebrated name on pretty much every cookery book I grew up with, and now I had to decide on a fitting lunch menu.

Fortunately, after the interview and loud rounds of applause, Mrs Pattern let me know she had a very small appetite at her age and requested simple pâté on toast. We dined in the open air, having chosen an Italian restaurant near the Royal Pavilion, our small party favoured by the warm sunny weather that October day. Marguerite Patten’s fame was bought home to me when a young chef from a nearby establishment came running out of his workplace having heard the legend was in the vicinity. He was keen to meet and thank Marguerite Patten for being his inspiration. It was a lovely happening on an unforgettable day.

After lunch Mrs Patten was collected by her personal assistant and we bade her farewell thanking her for her contribution to the event. I seem to remember Sarah and I looking at each other, smiling broadly and having one of those ‘phew, that went well’ moments as we stood in the autumn sunshine.

And yes, I did find the courage to ask her to sign a cookery book for me.

Signed book

Marguerite Patten went on to live another six years, sadly passing away at the age of 99 in June 2015. By that time, to add to her honours, in 2010 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Paula Wrightson, Venue Officer Preston Manor

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Today is Star Wars Day, so we thought we’d give some suggestions as to the animal inspirations for several of the aliens seen in the Star Wars universe. Some of these are backed up from accounts of the creators, but others are our best guesses as to where they got their inspiration! We have kept to the more main stream films and TV series in order to make the creatures as familiar as possible!

1. Rodian – First seen in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)

The bounty hunter Greedo, who confronts and is shot dead by Han Solo in the Mos Eisley Cantina is of the Rodian alien species. Though they have elements of other animals (such as a tapir like snout and toad like skin) the main inspiration for this species would appear to be a fly. In this case we’ve picked the green bottle fly to match Greedo’s colour.

Greenbottle Fly © Lee Ismail

Greenbottles are one of the most well-known, and disliked, insects. This is because they lay their eggs on rotting material such as dead animals, as well as on faeces and other waste. They are therefore disliked as carriers of disease. They also cause ‘sheep strike’ where their maggots eat away at the flesh of livestock or pets, preventing an open wound from healing. However, maggots from sterile, medical grade stocks are used in maggot therapy as a way to prevent gangrene in wounds. And they provide food for many animals such as insectivorous birds.

2. Porg – First seen in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)

Whilst both these aliens and this film splits the opinion of viewers, they are based on a real creature, though heavily modified to create the aliens. The reason these creatures exist in the Star Wars universe is simply due to the fact that there were so many puffins on the real island of Skellig Michael, where the scenes were filmed, that it was easier to adapt the puffins into an alien instead of digitally removing them all.

puffin © Richard Bartz CC BY-SA 3.0

Whatever your opinions of porgs, most people find their real world counterpart – puffins – adorable. Atlantic puffins are the most recognisable species and they nest around Scotland, Ireland (including Skellig Michael) and Northern England, as well as Canada, Iceland and Scandinavia. They feed on small fish and sand eels. Unfortunately they are threatened due to over fishing by humans.

3. Sarlacc – First seen in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

These giant creatures live in pits in the sand, with their entire body hidden from view and only their jaws and tentacles visible at the base of the pit. Jabba the Hutt seems to use them as a favoured method of executing his enemies. Take away the tentacles and scale them down to ant size, and in our world there is something very similar – the ant lion.

Ant Lion, Booth Museum

Ant lions are the larvae of lace wings. Lace wings are very delicate, harmless flying insects. But their larvae are voracious killers, if you’re unlucky enough to be an ant sized insect! Their pit is made in sand or other loose grained earth. The steep sides and loose grains of sand stop ants that slip in from escaping the pit, and they slide to the bottom into the waiting jaws of the ant lion.

4. Hutts – First seen in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

Speaking of Jabba, he is clearly an oversized, grotesque slug! Even Princess Leia herself refers to him as a ‘giant slug’

Slug © Lee Ismail

More manageable, Earth bound slugs are some of the most successful molluscs on the planet. Though they are gastropods (the snail family) most have lost their shell. They instead use a sticky mucus to protect their body from drying out. This mucus also has other uses such as helping them to move, and protecting them from predators.

5. Bantha – First seen in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)

These shaggy cattle like animals are the favoured mounts of Tusken Raiders on Tatooine. They look a lot like oversized muskoxen found in the Arctic (a much more suitable environment for their thick fur coat!). For filming the costume was put onto an Asian elephant named Mardji.

Muskox © Hannes Grobe CC BY-SA 2.5

The muskoxen from our world are found in Arctic North America and Greenland. However, they originally evolved in Germany and spread out across the arctic during the most recent Ice Age. They died off with the retreating ice, and possible early human predation, everywhere except in North America. Recently there have been attempts to re-introduce muskox to Arctic Russia and Scandinavia, from American herds.

6. Mynock – First seen in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

These space faring creatures that choose to snack on the Millenium Falcon in the stomach of a space worm seem to be a Bat and tapeworm hybrid. Their wings resemble the membranous wings seen in bat species found on earth. Their head has the grotesque hooked ring-shaped mouth of a tapeworm.

Tapeworm © 커뷰 CC BY-SA 3.0

On earth bats are found globally (except in Arctic regions). Smaller species feed on insects whilst the larger species feed upon fruit. There is one exception though – the South American vampire bat. These are the only bats to feed upon the blood of mammals.

Bat, Booth Museum

Unlike mynocks, tapeworms do not use their vicious looking mouths to eat with. Instead they use the ring of hooks to anchor themselves in the wall of an animals gut. It then absorbs its nutrients from the food the animal has eaten as it flows through the gut.

7. Ewoks – First seen in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

These furry creatures have clearly been designed to show what a teddy bear would look like if it was alive. As such their inspiration, much like the teddy, must be a bear.

Sunbear © Lee Ismail

Bears are found in every continent except Africa, Australia and Antarctica. They range in size from the Malayan Sunbear at about 1.2 m long to the Polar bear at about 3m in length. Bears are unfortunately threatened by hunting from both the fur industry in the West and for Asian medicine in the East.

8. Mon Calamari – First seen in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

Represented by Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi, the mon calamari are modelled after the head-body of octopus or squid. Octopus and squid are cephalopods belonging to the animal order mollusca.

Octopus public domain (Albert Kok)

This means they’re related to animals like slugs and snails. Despite this they are some of the most intelligent animals on earth.

9. Ortolan – First seen in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)

These blue skinned aliens are first seen in Jabba’s Palace and are represented by keyboard player Max Rebo in the band entertaining Jabba the Hutt. Though often described as an elephant like species, we think they’re more like an aardvark. However, they may not have four legs like either of those real world counterparts.

Aardvark © Scotto Bear CC BY-SA 2.0

Aardvarks are quite unusual in themselves. They have teeth unlike any other mammal – the teeth have no enamel coating and grow continuously as they wear down quickly without the protective enamel coating. They have a long snout and eat ants and termites like anteaters but they are not closely related to each other.

Honorable mention: That’s no space station, it’s a moon!

Saturn’s moon Mimas has a eerie similarity to the deathstar.

So do you agree with these possible real world inspirations for these aliens? Can you suggest any others or alternates for those mentioned? Feel free to add your suggestions to the comments below. Once we regain access to the collections we’ll add an additional gallery of examples from our collections.

Lee Ismail, Curator of Natural Sciences 

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

In a previous blog I looked at the difficulties in deciphering a 1936 hand-written letter. This page from a 1953 letter is both typed and hand-written and is from Lady Evelyn Izme Mottistone to Preston Manor’s Honorary Curator, Margery Roberts and is part of a correspondence between the two women in March that year.

The original letter exists in an archive at Preston Manor. I’ve chosen it because it demonstrates the ease with which you can read typed script compared to the difficulties in reading period hand-writing. There’s a pleasing story here too, and an insight into the genteel manners, letter-writing etiquette and a flavour of life in Brighton in the early 1950s.

Lady Mottistone’s letter 1953

This sample is the reverse of the letter which Lady Mottistone either typed herself or had a secretary type for her and to which she adds a hand-written addendum.

What does the letter say?

The letter was sent from Lady Mottistone’s London residence, 31 Greycoat Gardens, Westminster, SW1 dated 5^th March 1953 and concerns arrangements linked to her charity work. In this instance a day-trip to Brighton in June for a party of women Old Age Pensioners or OAPs living in poverty in London.” Some of them are rather elderly,”Lady Mottistone notes. An elderly person in the mid-1950s was born in the 1880s or earlier, so these were a group of Victorians. She adds; “And some even paddle!”

The hand-written part of the letter reads; “I do hope you won’t think all this trespassing on your kindness. Could you see some of the dim dark…rooms many of my club members live in…you would realise how much this day’s outing means to them. They look forward to it all the year, believe me. Yours sincerely, Evelyn Mottistone.”

Visiting your lovely home

Margery Roberts, 45 was the daughter of museum curator, Henry Roberts. After his death aged 81 in 1951, she inherited both the Manor’s curatorship and the grace-and-favour apartments that went with it. Unqualified as a museum professional Margery nevertheless threw herself into the role and managed to do a good job. She did have one quirk and that was ‘accidentally on purpose’ allowing others to assume she was the Lady of the House, a fact supported by Lady Mottistone’s request that she might; “possibly bring some of my old age pensioner club members for a summer outing to Brighton, visiting your lovely home on the way back.”

The plan was for a party of 37 old folks, with Lady Mottistone at the head, to have ‘a long sit on the beach…I certainly hope for deckchairs in the sun in true tripper spirit!’ broken by luncheon and afternoon tea. The arrangements for these meals form a great deal of content of the letters.

Discuss the whole matter with Mr Alf

Margery was eager to please her grand friend who she’d met via the social-networking at which she was adept. This would have been in-person at civic functions, art exhibitions, charity events and so forth as well as private gatherings. In 1950s Britain your social and professional path was smoothed considerably by knowing members of the upper classes, especially persons with a title.

With her intimate knowledge of Brighton and its eating-places Margery recommends the Savoy Cinema Restaurant, “on the front.”

However, restaurant manager, Mr Alf turns out to be “too concerned with making profit from the Coronation” to take bookings for large summer parties. The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was the event of 1953 taking place on 2^nd June.

Margery was obliged to lean on Mr Alf to have him consider the OAP booking for Wednesday June 24^th. Knowing her friend’s title will open doors, Margery suggests that Lady Mottistone write to Mr. Alf directly. The ploy works and agreement is eventually made for the party to occupy one end of the “bright airy” restaurant with views of the Palace Pier and sea; the room “curtained off, I believe.”

The two ladies discuss menu and prices, Margery concerned the 2/6d (two shillings and sixpence) a head for “soup, joint, sweet and coffee” might exceed the club’s budget.

“I have never found him easily cooperative”

After the tussle with Mr Alf, the pair must now lock-horns with Mr Avery of the Brighton Entertainments Committee, manager of the Rotunda Café in Preston Park. Margery finds Mr Avery uncooperative “when I have had telephone conversations with him.”

It must be said that Margery had a rather stately manner, though she was exceptionally kind-hearted in person, so possibly Mr Avery took umbrage at the tone of her speaking voice on the phone. However he agrees to accommodate the party of elderly women for tea at 4.45pm but the unfortunate proviso is a charge of two shillings a head, just under the price of their three-course meal followed by coffee in the seafront restaurant.

The vexed issue of time-keeping worries Lady Mottistone, “one is never quite sure of ‘time’ with the elderly. I find they either return to the coach much too early or else straggle in cheerfully rather late.”

Visiting Preston Manor after tea

After finalising plans for the day-trip Margery makes a suggestion to Lady Mottistone on 11^th March 1953 asking if she is able to slip away by taxi from the old ladies while they are on the beach and take refuge at “her house,” Preston Manor

“Spending as little or as long as you could manage at my house…you could be perfectly alone in my sitting room, which looks over the park. It was my mother’s bedroom, and so many people have spoken of its peaceful atmosphere and my friends always say that they feel refreshed from being in it.”

Margery’s description of this particular room at Preston Manor has always pleased me because it is now my office. Peaceful though the room was in 1953, Margery’s attempts to lure Lady Mottistone away from the beach failed according to her reply on 2^nd April.

“Your most kind invitation to rest at Preston Manor is very tantalising, but I know you will understand my feeling that I must stay with my old ladies.”

She goes on to suggest Margery join them at the Rotunda Café for tea writing, “it would give me great pleasure,” yet she warns, “please do not feel you must come! For you might find, delightful as they are, my 36 old age pensioners, are rather an inquisition!”

I can’t help but think that one of the group may have died, for there were originally 37.

Arrangements were made, however for the 36 pensioners to see Preston Manor after tea, Lady Mottistone writing; “We should reach Preston Manor by about 5.45pm and have, as you suggest, half an hour or so, to walk through the rooms and gardens. June 24^th should be a Red-Letter day.” She hoped to get the elderly ladies on the coach and back to London “just before 9pm.”

Was the day-trip a success?

We can’t know the answer because there are no letters after 18^th June.

I hope the ladies got to enjoy the beach on this annual treat, but was it beach weather? The British weather for June 1953 can be found on record as, “rather cool and dull with slightly above average rainfall.” Not good!

Coronation Day is infamous for its terrible weather conditions, “dull damp and unseasonably cold,” with heavy rain showers, the temperature in London reaching only 11.7˚C, which you’d expect in early March not June. However the temperature shot up during the last week of June with 26˚C reached on June 26^th so maybe things were improving by Wednesday 24th ?

And Benedict Cumberbatch?

Lady Evelyn Mottistone, our 1953 correspondent with Margery Roberts of Preston Manor, was the maternal great-great-grandmother of theatre and opera director, Sophie Hunter who married actor, Benedict Cumberbatch on 14^th February 2015. The couple held their wedding reception at Mottistone Manor on the Isle of Wight. The house is now National Trust property (only the gardens can be visited) and was formerly the ancestral home of the Seely family into which Evelyn married.

Warrior, the War Horse

Lady Evelyn’s first husband, Captain George Crosfield Norris Nicholson died aged 31 following an aircraft accident in Hampshire on 11^th March 1916.

In 1917 Evelyn married again, this time to John Edward Bernard Seely, 1^st Baron Mottistone who as General ‘Jack’ Seely led one of the last cavalry charges in history.

This took place in March 1918 at the Battle of Moreuil Wood in France with the General mounted on the famous war horse, Warrior, the “horse the Germans couldn’t kill.” In 2014 Warrior was posthumously awarded the PDSA’s Dicken Medal for courage in the face of war.

Lady Mottistone was a widow of six years at the time she was writing to Margery Roberts in 1953 clearly keeping herself busily occupied with charitable work.

I am amused by a comment Margery makes in her letter of 12^th March 1953 to Mr Avery, Brighton’s Entertainments Manager based at Royal York Buildings.

Regarding Lady Mottistone she writes, “she herself is elderly and rather delicate.”

Evelyn Mottistone was aged 67 in 1953 and, despite Margery’s diagnosis of antiquity and delicacy, would go on to live another twenty-three years dying aged 90 on 11^th August 1976. Benedict Cumberbatch was born in London three weeks earlier.

The last word goes to Margery who expressed a feeling of kinship with her grand friend

“You were so sympathetic to me, and reminded me of my mother, who, too, in spite of such delicate health never thought of herself in “giving out” to others.”

Paula Wrightson, Venue Officer Preston Manor

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

‘I loved the freedom on the bike’. Crawley-born Katie-George Dunlevy (b1981) is a high scoring paralympic road and track cyclist, best known for winning gold and silver medals with pilot Eve Crystal at the Rio Paralympics in 2016. 

Before arriving at Rio in 2016 Dunlevy who has been registered blind since the age of 11 when she was diagnosed with the rare degenerative eye condition Retinitis Pigmentosa, was already a successful athlete with a number of medals and awards to her name – although not always in cycling. 

Dunlevy began her incredible sporting journey in the field of athletics where she won a bronze medal aged just seventeen.  Swimming followed, and then rowing in which she competed for seven years, and as a member of the GB adaptive rowing squad became World Champion for Great Britain in 2004 and 2005.  In 2011 she was invited by Cycling Ireland to take up cycling.  At first she wasn’t sure, telling the Crawley Observer in September 2019, ‘I didn’t even realise tandem racing was an elite sport or that there were world championships and Paralympic events so I kind of just gave it a go’.  It didn’t take her long to start to enjoy her new sport, telling Cycling Ireland I just loved the feel of it. I loved the freedom on the bike and the feel of speed. I fell in love with it straight away’. 

Katie George Dunlevy and Eve Mccrystal. With thanks to Paralympic Ireland

The gamble paid off with Dunlevy showing a brilliance at the sport that has won her many medals.  In 2014 she and McCrystal won silver in the Women’s B tandem road race at the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) Para-Cycling Road World Championships in the USA, a performance that Paralympics Ireland described as ‘laying down a marker for a new force to be reckoned with in tandem para-cycling’.  Dunlevy followed this in 2015 with a bronze medal in the 3k pursuit at the UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships in the Netherlands.  Dunlevy and McCrystal’s subsequent victory at the 2016 Rio Paralympics was decisive, with second place Japan, coming in over 30 seconds behind.   

The following year was just as spectacular when, in September, she achieved the feat of becoming double World Champion at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in South Africa.  In 2018 she retained both titles in Italy becoming double World Champion again.  In 2019 Dunlevy added another Gold Medal to her expanding tally when she came first in the time trial at the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships in the Netherlands and managed to take a Silver in the competition’s road race.   

Despite Dunlevy living and training in Crawley, she usually competes internationally for Ireland as she has Irish family connections.  She has won plenty of plaudits both in Ireland and here.   In 2016 she won the Outstanding Female Performance Award at the Irish Paralympic Awards, was declared The Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year and was shortlisted for the RTE’s Sports Personality of the Year 2016.   

Closer to home Dunlevy won Sports Personality of the Year in both 2016 and 2017 at the Sussex Sports Awards in Brighton.  She was Disabled Sports Personality of the Year finalist at the same competition in 2016 and winner 2017. 

Dunlevy’s focus is clearly one to watch in Tokyo Paralympics next year as she and McCrystal strive to retain their title and this time win gold in the road race too.  

Good luck in your future events, Katie-George! 

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

It’s time for another round of our Booth Museum Animal, Vegetable or Mineral? quiz.

Having worked at the Booth Museum for several years, I have seen a lot of really bizarre objects behind the scenes which never fail to leave me shocked and amazed. Normally, at museum events, I get to bring these objects out to show visitors and have a quick Booth Museum game of Animal, Vegetable or Mineral? But under the circumstances of Covid-19, we thought we would write our game as an online quiz instead.

In each blog, we will focus on an interesting object and discover how it was made, where on earth it has come from and throw in a few juicy facts along the way.

Can you guess what the mystery object is before we reveal the answer?

Mystery Object of the Day

Mystery object

Mystery object in my hand

Clue 1 

These tiny spiraled objects are part of an animal whose relatives are said to be one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep. Good ol’ Kirk Douglas may have a whale of a tale to tell you about this animal; a whale of a tale or two!

Clue 2 

Their favourite hideout is fabled to be 20,000 leagues under the sea. Top tip, if you ever find yourself at these depths, don’t forget to watch out for the tentacles!

And the answer is…Drum roll please!

The Rams Horn Squid, Spirula spirula 

Spirula spirula, illustration by Rachel Caauwe / CC BY-SA 3.0

Are you squiding me?

These sweet little animals aren’t exactly what you would call giant, in fact, they are pretty tiny reaching no more than 45mm when fully grown. Like the legendary Kraken they do like to hang out in the deep ocean, not quite 20,000 leagues under the sea, but they can be found at depths of up to 550-1000m during the day. When night falls, thousands of these tiny animals make one of the largest vertical mass migrations in the world, travelling to the shallows of 100-300m in order to feed on small fish, crustaceans and echinoderms.  They use their two large tentacles, laden with strong suckers, to grab onto their prey and draw victims to their mouths. If their prey has a tough shell, no problem for the little rams horn squid, they have a sharp beak at the ready to crush it open!

Like many weird and wonderful deep-sea creatures, Spirula spirula have a light emitting organ or photophore which is nestled between their ear-like fins and gives out a green light, this has landed them their other common name the tail-light squid. This photophore can light up for several hours and is thought it may be a key source of communication for them. 

I can sea clearly now

Now I know the image above doesn’t give much away as to where our mystery object comes from in Spirula spirula, but this diagram of its lovely innards hopefully reveals all…

Spirula spirula cross section of animal Ewald Rübsamen / Public domain

The objects in my hand were the internal shell of Spirula spirula. These shells look like a miniature rams horns and is where they get their common name from – can you imagine how tiny that ram would have to be!?

Spiral shell of ram’s horn squid (Spirula_spirula), on Muriwai Beach Avenue / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

The ram’s horn squid is in the cephalopod (aka head-foot) family which includes the octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and nautiluses. Their shells are chambered, which is a characteristic of cephalopod shells and act as a buoyancy device. The chambers can be filled with gas, which helps to keep their body upright when migrating through the ocean. These animals are rarely seen by humans alive, the shells on the other hand, are thought to be carried wide distances by the ocean currents. They frequently get washed up on tropical or subtropical beaches including Australia and New Zealand.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to jet off to Australia to see fascinating objects like these washed up on the shore. On our very own Brighton beach you will find numerous cuttlefish bones from one of our resident cephalopods the common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). It’s amazing what gets washed up on a beach don’t you think?

Common cuttle fish, Sepia officinalis, Marie Bournonville / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Discover More

You can see an impressive fossil of an ancient ammonite, the rams horn squid’s distant relative, on display in the Booth Museum when we re-open.

You can learn more about Sussex marine life and how to protect it using via Sussex Wildlife Trusts Our Living Seas website.

References   

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Spirula_spirula/

https://niwa.co.nz/blogs/critter-of-the-week-spirula-spirula

https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/cephalopods

https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/molluscs/rams-horn-squid-spirula-spirula-linnaeus-1758/

Grace Brindle, Programming Assistant

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 Lynn Beun, Leader of RSPB Brighton & Hove District Local Group.

These are the people who work tirelessly to help protect wildlife and connect people to nature within our area; within the Brighton & Lewes Downs Biosphere or the South Downs National Park – and sometimes both. Each week, we will 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, during and after lockdown.

Curlew, Numenius arquata © Lee Ismail

Lynn Beun of RSPB Brighton local group

Lynn Beun is a volunteer for the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and Leader of the Brighton & District Local group. As a child, Lynn grew up on farms in Yorkshire and gained her love of the natural world from her parents, who taught her about nature and wildlife. She joined the RSPB “Young Ornithologists Club” and enjoyed watching the flocks of lapwings on the farm. The soundtrack to her childhood was the evocative call of the curlew.

As an adult she moved to Sussex where her career and family took priority and her hobbies were set to one side. As time passed she grew to realise that the great flocks of lapwing she knew from childhood no longer existed and many previously common birds such as sparrows were also declining. On retirement she decided to learn more and to try and encourage others to make a connection with nature and to raise funds for research.

House sparrow, Passer domesticus © Lee Ismail

Nuthatch, Sitta europaea, © Lee Ismail

What do you love about the wildlife in Sussex?

The thing I really love about Sussex is the South Downs and the diverse wildlife you see there. However Brighton has some lovely parks and green spaces too. It is impossible  for me to choose a single thing so I am going to give you a selection of my favourites and where I saw them. Please bear in mind we are still under Lockdown movement restrictions so I am not advocating you travelling to those places to see them.

• Near Arundel a few years ago: five short eared owls flew right over me whilst I was walking with friends. This was definitely a very special moment as I love owls.
• Stanmer Park last year: Walking in the bluebell woods there. I will have to miss doing that this year due to lockdown restrictions.
• Knepp Estate last year: Seeing purple emperor butterflies.
• St Ann’s Well Gardens, Hove this year: two nuthatches perched on a tree during my permitted local walk. I find them delightful little birds.

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

The thing I enjoy doing most is helping people of all ages make a connection to nature and seeing their “Wow” moment as they experience that for the first time. For children, it might be showing them how to use a small pair of binoculars or telescope to look at, perhaps a large bird like a herring gull. Or it can happen when they use a microscope to see the structure of a feather or a leaf. Older people have often been preoccupied with jobs and family for many years and decide to learn a little more about nature when they retire. You are never too old or too young. People often don’t realise what wonderful wildlife we have in this urban area, thanks to the city parks and proximity of the seafront and South Downs.

Herring gull, Larus argentatus © Lee Ismail

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

bee – species unidentified, © Lee Ismail

What I have found during lockdown is a greater appreciation of the natural world immediately around me. Being indoors for much of the time has intensified the experience somehow. I enjoy hearing the birdsong on my daily walk, and the great thing about there being less traffic around is that you can hear birdsong much better too. I don’t just like looking at birds though, I enjoy seeing the bees and insects busy in my small urban garden, and have been surprised at how many different types there are. One of the things I enjoy about the natural world is that you never stop learning about it.

What project are you most excited to get back to when you leave lockdown?

When life eventually starts to return to normal, I will be looking at commencing some of my community teaching events again. I had quite a few planned with the Booth Museum, community groups and schools. I am also really looking forward to seeing my RSPB local group members again on one of our events – walks, coach outings and talks. I enjoy walking and have really missed having a good long walks on the South Downs. The thing I have missed doing this year is taking part in a South Downs farmland bird survey as it was cancelled, of course. I have done this every Spring for several years now. However, when the lockdown ends I will take a long walk in that location. I love the South Downs National Park.

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

Everyone can play their part even during lockdown. During my daily walk I have been sorry to see litter such as cans, beer bottles and crisp packets in our urban green areas. These are hazardous to both wildlife and humans. Please – take your litter home, place it in the bin and recycle items whenever possible.

Also remember, you don’t need to have a big garden to give nature a home. I live in a flat and am always amazed at what I see outside my window and in the plant pots. If you have bird feeders and enjoy watching birds in your garden you can also prevent the spread of disease in birds by keeping your bird feeders, water dishes and bird baths clean, and making sure you replace the bird food regularly.

Above all I want you to do is this simple thing – just take a look at the natural world, listen to birdsongs and enjoy it. You might like birds, mammals, butterflies or bees. It doesn’t matter if you cannot identify what it is that you are looking at. Take pleasure in the small things around you. Make the connection with nature and learn something new about it.

Discover More

Lynn will be writing a blog to tell you what wildlife she can see from her window for our Nature at Home blog series. Watch out for it in the next few weeks.

Learn more about RSPB Brighton & District Local Group on their website.

Find out where best to hang your bird feeders and how to clean them from the Sussex Wildlife Trust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHnzqKfxSQw

If you find some birds are difficult to spot outdoors, you can see a wide range of Sussex birds up close at the Booth Museum of Natural History when we re-open. In the meantime, we hope you can enjoy hearing the birds from your window and spotting wildlife on your doorstep.

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

Grace Brindle, Collections Assistant