Story Category: Legacy

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

Fiona Redford, Programmes Support Officer, looks back at last month’s Whitehawk Family Archaeology Day.

Early one drizzly, grey, January Saturday morning, members of the Local History and programming teams were busy finalising the arrangements for the Whitehawk Family Archaeology Day.  Furniture, handling collections, flint artefacts, human bones and spinning wheels were all manoeuvred into position.

By 10 o’clock there was a small huddle of eager visitors at the front door. By 11o’clock, there was a steady but relentless flow of excited families – all eager to have a look at and find out more about our exciting archaeological past.

Courtesy Hilary Orange, UCL

There was a really good variety of things to do, thanks to curator Andy Maxted, and Hilary Orange, who represents UCL’s project Archaeology South East.  There were flint knapping and prehistoric clothing demonstrations; and children’s creative workshops, which included digging for objects in a sandpit, making sashes, and creating badges based on local wildlife. There were two activities relating to pot making & decoration techniques and an observational drawing activity — all of which proved extremely popular.

Alexia Lazou delivered several fantastic archaeological Magic Lantern shows throughout the day, showing images of the 1930’s excavation of Whitehawk.

Other activities included Drop-Spindle and Spinning Wheel demonstrations, handling collections (including ancient artefacts and human remains), three talks, and numerous displays and projections. In addition to our work, 14 other local archaeological groups and societies took part. The Dig Whitehawk! volunteers were brilliant at chatting to the public, handing out programmes and directing visitors to the activities.

Through a ‘happy coincidence’ John Cooper’s Bite-size Museum talk on Amber also ran that day and became part of the programme. That too went down a storm! He’ll be doing another Bite-size Museum talk on Flint on 17 March.

All in all, it was a fantastic day that saw over 2000 people visit the museum and allowed them to get really hands-on experience of our local archaeology. Hard work – but all worth it.

Family days are run periodically throughout the year and are advertised in the What’s On Guide and on our website. So if you missed this one – keep your eyes peeled for the next one and feel free to get involved!

Fiona Redford, Programmes Support Officer

Further resources

• View upcoming Family events
• Visit the Dig Whitehawk Tumblr
• Learn more about our Archaeology collections
• Visit the Archaeology South East website

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

Technical advancement met the battlefield in the First World War. Increasingly mechanised on a scale never before seen, the war became a “storm of steel”, coined as the title to the memoir of German officer Ernst Jünger’s experiences on the Western Front.

Among scenes of mud, futility and sacrifice, particular forms of offensive and defensive weaponry became synonymous with trench warfare: the machine gun and barbed wire; sapping and the laying of mines; trench, field and heavy artillery and names like ‘howitzer’, ’18-pounder’ and ‘Big Bertha’; shell fire and shrapnel are to name but a few. The latter in particular claimed more lives than any, an estimated 70-80% of all fatal casualties. Furthermore, wounds from shrapnel significantly contributed to the approximately two million British soldiers, sailors and airmen that had been permanently disabled or disfigured by the conflict. This included over 41,000 amputees.

The first limbless patients at the Royal Pavilion were admitted on 20^th April 1916 following the complex’s use as a hospital for Indian servicemen. Colonel Sir R Neil Campbell, “the trusty Scot to be relied on”, and his staff focused on rehabilitation and vocational training, pioneering at the time, laying the groundwork for today’s treatment of limbless ex-servicemen. Here, they convalesced to improve their strength before referral to Queen Mary’s Hospital at Roehampton, a specialist centre for fitting prosthetic limbs.

Maintaining morale of the invalided men as well as preparing them with the skills needed to find employment after the Army were very much part of daily life at the Royal Pavilion Military Hospital. The Pavilion “Blues” magazine, running from June 1916 to February 1920, gives a good insight into the activities patients involved themselves in. Sport features strongly, and a Sports Committee was quickly formed to organise events within the hospital and elsewhere, answering the cry “Play up “Blues”, and make the Pavilion the most interesting Hospital in Brighton”. Of the outdoor sports football, ‘king’ cricket and the ‘ancient’ game of stoolball would prove especially popular among the men, and women, who participated.

For those not familiar to stoolball, it’s probably best described as ‘cricket in the air’ with different bats, balls and wickets. My personal interest in the ‘ancient’ game comes from having played it whilst at primary school in Brighton. Regrettably, I have yet to pick up a stoolball bat in anger since and was completely unaware of its fascinating heritage and significance in rehabilitating injured soldiers until reading through volumes of the “Blues” magazine, seeing it referred to time and time again. This curious game predates cricket and other modern batting-sports, being played for over 500 years. It is even given a mention in Shakespeare’s comedy The Two Noble Kinsmen, “playing stool ball” supposedly used as a euphemism for sexual behaviour! The origins of the game lie firmly in Sussex and it could be argued that England’s first female sports ‘stars’ were those named in the Glynde Butterflies team of 1866, along with teams from other Sussex villages with brilliant names like the Chailey Grasshoppers and Selmeston Harvest Bugs.

The popularity of the sport has ebbed and flowed over the past 150 years or so, but midway through the First World War it experienced a real resurgence thanks to one Major William Wilson Grantham (1866-1942). He almost single-handedly revived the sport, suggesting its suitability to Military Tribunal for men invalided by war “for whom cricket or football was too strenuous”, prompted by his own son being wounded whilst serving in the Royal Sussex Regiment. Thanks to his efforts, knowledge of the game was passed to military hospitals such as the Royal Pavilion where it was very much enjoyed by patients and staff alike.

Heightening popularity resulted in matches featuring injured servicemen being played at the County Ground, Hove and elsewhere in the country, including Lords. The first of these matches at the home of cricket on 31^st August 1917 featured teams from the 2^nd London Hospital, ‘damaged by wounds’, and Ye Ancient Lawyers, ‘damaged by age’. It was reported in newspapers as far afield as Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and was also recorded for promotion and posterity by the Topical Film Company. Soon after the war’s end, showpiece matches were being played to raise funds for injured ex-servicemen such as that played at Buckingham Palace, watched by George V and Queen Mary, in September 1922. Through Major Grantham’s passion and determination, stoolball would experience a golden era and an almost worldwide reach being achieved, funds raised being used to send equipment and copies of the rules to Australia, Canada, Egypt and Japan.

All-female stoolball teams battling it out at the County Ground, Hove, c1930s. Image obtained from a glass plate negative of the Brighton & Hove Herald newspaper [DB1124.346]

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

Patients at the Limbless Hospital, 1917

When I was a student in Brighton 25 years ago I became very used to seeing the iconic Royal Pavilion building during my everyday life in the city. I then discovered the story of this former royal palace being used as a hospital for injured soldiers during the First World War and suddenly I started looking at it in a new way. Since then it has fascinated me that this beautiful, yet strange building was somehow transformed into a state of the art military hospital, first for Indian soldiers and then for British soldiers who had lost a limb in warfare. I am certainly not the first to have found this fascinating.

An article in the 1917-18 The Brighton Season magazine describes the spectacle of the transformed palace:

‘..the great rooms, famous for their beauty, now hospital wards, is indeed a strange, sad sight, and one that probably very few ever dreamed that their eyes should rest upon.’

Since the opening of the Indian Military Hospital display in the Pavilion in 2010, there has been renewed interest in the forgotten story of thousands of Indian soldiers hospitalised in the city between 1914 and 1916. We are fortunate that this was recorded through a huge range of photographs, paintings, postcards and a commemorative book — all of which can now be downloaded for free.

However, the story of the Pavilion as a hospital for limbless soldiers, from 1916 until 1920, is a little less well known. There are hardly any photographs of the interior of the Pavilion during this time.

It was not just a hospital at this time, but a place of rehabilitation and retraining, before the men went to Roehampton to be fitted with new prosthetic limbs. To this end, workshops were built in the Pavilion grounds. The motto written over the entrance, ‘Hope welcomes all who enter here’ was said to be chosen by Queen Mary, who gave her name to the new buildings.

Queen Mary’s workshop, 1917

The Queen Mary workshops provided training to enable the soldiers to learn to become book-keepers, motor mechanics, and carpenters, among other trades. There is a short film showing life at the workshops, held by Pathe, which can be seen here.

[iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/h9DceOSNILw” align=”center”]
Sport and leisure activities were also used as a means of rehabilitation. Cricket, the ancient Sussex game of Stoolball, even hairdressing competitions were held in the Pavilion Gardens.

Jody East, Creative Programme Curator, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

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

I’ve just booked up our annual trip to one of the BEST things ever about living in Brighton – the fantastic ice-skating at the Royal Pavilion.

I can honestly say it is one of the most exciting and exhilarating highlights of my entire year.

It’s the fifth year the outside rink has been in the grounds of the Pavilion and there is nothing more Christmassy than gliding on the ice alongside the beautifully lit palace.

Some people hate ice-skating – they feel out of control, their knees lock and they spend most of their time panicking they’re going to fall over. When you’re a kid, falling over doesn’t hurt so much and falling as an adult can feel quite terrifying.

A couple of years ago, I ended up with concussion after a fall while holding hands with my son and hurtling around the rink. He slightly changed direction and I fell back and bashed my head. I definitely saw stars. That night I ended up at A&E, with the nurse shaking her head knowingly when I said it was at the ice rink.

Still it didn’t stop me and I was back about a week later, a little more cautious at the beginning, but once I got my confidence back, just as happy to whizz around feeling the cold air on my cheeks with a huge big grin on my face. It makes me feel like a big kid again and for that hour, I feel completely carefree and joyful

We’ve booked for Christmas Eve again this year and I can’t wait.  There’ll be skating, some mulled wine and then home to wait for you-know-who to visit

To find out more visit the Royal Pavilion Ice Rink website for tickets and prices.

Caroline Sutton, Blogger in Residence

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUb1-bqTVOM]

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

Wednesday 27th August was the Kids in Museums Teen Takeover Day. Charlie from the Museum Collective was our teen taking over. Afterwards she wrote a review on her blog.

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

Creative Future run creative writing courses at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery for marginalised writers. Dr Claudia Gould, the group facilitator, encourages participants to use Museum objects to inspire their work. Funded by the Arts Council England, these  groups will be running again in June 2014 and spring 2015. If you’re interested in attending please contact Creative Future (01273 234780) for further information.

Creative Future run the creative writing workshops in partnership with Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.

The Shabti’s Lament by Vicky Darling

It’s not much of a life as a Shabti
with a mummy so wrapped up and quiet.
As employer she’s not satisfactory,
and down here it’s never a riot
of singin’ or dancin’ or chattin’
and she won`t use my skills as a cook.
There’s not room for swingin’ a cat in
and there’s no light for reading my book.
The Afterlife tends to be boring.
It is not what it’s cracked up to be.
My mummy just lies about snoring,
I wish she would find work for me.
Then there’s coping with Sekhemet’s rages,
(she is one of the goddesses here)
she sometimes goes off and rampages,
and fills the poor mummies with fear.
I am trying my best to keep cheerful,
and take every day as it comes,
but sometimes I get very tearful.
It`s not mummies we want but our mums.

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

I have blogged many times about the occasions when we receive visits from scientists interested in various aspects of our collections, ranging from Gorillas to fossil fish. But as anyone who is familiar with the Booth Museum will know that there are as many if not more visitors to the museum and our collections who do not have science in their minds but the arts. Locally we see many students from Brighton University and rarely does a University degree show go by without some reference to the Booth. Practising photographers, painters, sculptors, regularly visit the collections and sometimes borrow from us. But last week we were able to help a very special guest, who, it turns out, has been a fan of the Booth for many years.

Early on Friday morning I opened the doors to the many people who make up a film crew – camera man, sound man, director, producer and assistants, and once they had set up, we welcomed the star of the day Kate Mosse, novelist, non-fiction and short story writer and broadcaster. She is best known for her 2005 novel Labyrinth, which has been translated into more than 37 languages. Not only do her literary credentials sparkle, she was awarded the OBE last year. In 2000 she was named European Woman of Achievement for her contribution to the arts, and she holds an Honorary MA from the University of Chichester. She was also the 2012 winner of ‘The Spirit of Everywoman Award’, awarded by NatWest. In 2013, she was named as one of publishing Top 100 most influential people by the Bookseller and one of London’s 1000 most influential people in the arts by The Evening Standard.

So what was she doing at the Booth Museum? Well, it is now an open secret that the title of her next novel is The Taxidermist’s Daughter, described as an enthralling and haunting Gothic novel and due out in the autumn. There are few clues yet to its storyline, but Kate did say that it is built around four birds in particular: jackdaws, magpies, rooks and crows – all of which are well represented in the Booth’s collections. Filming within our Victorian ‘parlour’ was perfect to produce pre-publicity interviews and movies for the upcoming press launch in London, And of course the theme of taxidermy was all around!

Kate was a perfect guest and her crew very professional. More about the day plus many images can be found on Kate’s own website.

John Cooper, Keeper of Natural Science

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

The Museum Collective is group of young people aged 15-14, who meet regularly at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. One of the activities on offer to this group is regular creative workshops, inspired by our collections and buildings. Recently the group had a behind the scenes tour of the Museum’s Fashion & Textiles store, and were treated to a peek at the extensive fashion collection dating from the 16^th century to present day.

Feeling inspired, the group decided they’d like to have a go themselves, and booked Traid to come and do a workshop with them in the Easter holidays. Traid are a fantastic charity working to stop clothes being thrown away.

Museum Collective member Elizabeth Carr, aged 18 will tell you more……

Most people don’t appreciate where our clothes come from, and t-shirts are especially bad for the environment. The making of one t-shirt uses as much water as we drink in 3 years! There’s also issues with the ways in which they are made – sweatshops and workers’ rights spring to mind but I’m sure there are many more issues to worry about.

So, if you’re going to buy t-shirts, it’s important to make the most of them, so upcycling is a great skill to have, and I’m really glad that Traid were able to teach us. One of the best things we discovered was how to make t-shirt yarn, which is very versatile. The easiest thing to do with your yarn is finger knitting, which we all managed to some degree – this can make jewellery, belts and handles for bags among other things. If you have something to weave on then yarn can also be woven.

The other key item we looked at making was a t-shirt bag. This was surprisingly easy, just a matter of cutting sleeves off and sewing up the bottom of the t-shirt. You could embellish them by sewing on other fabric or embroidering.

As soon as I got home, I wanted to share my newfound skills with my family and managed to find some old t-shirts – now I have a knitted t-shirt belt, two t-shirt bags and lots of yarn! If you ever get an opportunity to do an upcycling workshop, I would definitely recommend it!

Elizabeth Carr, Museum Collective member

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

My Name is Neda, and I came to the UK from Iran in 2010. I am researching some of the historic objects in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery which have not been on display before.

One of these objects is, according to the auction house it was purchased from, a Zoroastrian marriage apron.

It is a large flat textile, formed of a red silk background square with two side panels which have been sewn onto it. The red square is embroidered with different symbols such as sun-faces, couples beneath trees, animals (cat, fish, bird, etc),  flowers and cypress tree leaves. The cloth consists of five panels; the two side panels have a green background with a floral pattern. I have not seen anything like this before in Iran, but my research revealed that dresses were sometimes re-cut and fine embroideries were reused after their initial use. Rebecca Bridgman, Curator for Islamic and South Asian Arts for Birmingham Museums viewed the textile later and said that she thought the silk brocade green panels may date from the seventeenth or the eighteenth centuries, and the red panels attached later on.

According to Mr Jabbar Farshbaf, a painter and specialist in Persian rug design, this needle work is called Zoroastrian stitching (zartoshti doozi). The Zoroasters believed that decorated cloths protect them from surrounding evils, and the more decoration on the cloths the more protective they will be.

The symbols reflect enduring concepts in Persian culture and originally may have been understood to tell stories. For example the sun with the lion face may symbolise masculinity. Cats, on the other hand, are associated with femininity, and their tail in a circular ring shape gives them spirituality. All plants, especially the cypress trees, symbolise strength and fertility.

Zoroastrian stitching is a style that is still being practiced in some areas of Iran especially in Yazd and Kerman where most of the Zoroastrian population exist.  During my research I found out about a workshop held among textile students at Tehran Art University in 2010. The workshop aimed to teach traditional embroidery techniques. According to the educator, Shirin Mazdapoor, who graduated in Designing Fabric from Yazd University, Zoroastrian embroidery has been used for centuries. At the birth of every girl relatives would begin to make her wedding clothes. Thus this art can be evidenced in a bride’s dowries and in celebration costumes. Silk thread is usually used with bright colours such as red, green and white. Zoroastrians do not approve of dark colours such as black. The symbols used refer to nature and include plants, flowers and cypress trees, or animals such as fish, peacocks or cats. A design is first drawn on the cloth, and then the embroiderer follows the designs in thread.

What is Zoroastrianism?

Zoroastrianism is an ancient Persian religion. In Zoroastrianism, ab (water) and atash (fire) are agents of ritual purity. According to Zoroastrianism water and fire are respectively the second and last elements to have been created. Religious scripture describes fire as having its origin in the waters. Both water and fire are considered life-sustaining, and are represented within fire temples. Zoroastrians usually pray in the presence of some form of fire or source of light. Fire is considered a medium through which spiritual insight and wisdom is gained. Fire is regarded as a great purifier and a means of communicating with Ahura Mazda (God); the fire itself is not an object of worship. Water is considered the source of that wisdom. Zoroastrians have enormous respect for the environment and the elements: earth, wind, fire and water.

Neda Kahooker, Researcher, Iranian collections