Between the 24 and 26 July the carriage collections at the County Museum were photographed by Art UK. All 22 carriages took their turn on the turntable. The images will be stitched together and will appear on a new website due to be launched early next year. The project forms part of the County Museum's 'Moving On' programme, funded by Arts Council England. For more information on the project contact Chris Copp, Senior Museum Officer.
Rubbing along at
Staffordshire Record Office
We’ve recently come across a series of full length brass
rubbings in the collections at Staffordshire Record Office. Brass rubbing was
perhaps a more popular past time in times gone by, and was used to record the
intricate brass ornamentation (often featuring figures in period costume and
heraldic designs or animals) sometimes found on older memorials in churches in
place of carved effigies or engraved inscriptions. An engraved brass plaque
(shapes and sizes varied considerably) would be fixed to the top of the
tombstone as part of the memorial design, and in later centuries interested
individuals would create a ‘brass rubbing’ by placing a suitably sized piece of
paper over the memorial and gently rubbing over it with a crayon or pencil to
record the details.
The rubbings we found come from Audley and Caverswall, and
the picture shows the full sized rubbing from the memorial of Thomas d’Audley
in Audley church. Thomas, the son of James d’Audley, died in 1386. His tomb was
originally in the nave of the church, and his impressive brass effigy was
accompanied by his helmet and crest attached to a nearby column, which remained
in place for over 300 years. The tomb was removed to make way for new pews in
1850 and the memorial brass taken away from the church. It was returned some 40
years later, and re-sited in the chancel.
The sheet of paper which holds the rubbing measures some 6
feet in length and takes some rolling back up again! For more information contact Ben Cunliffe, Archive Assistant.
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Page from missing parish
register identified.
This item was found in one of
our solicitor’s collections this month by one of our readers. It is for
Butterton in the Moorlands, and although it had been catalogued years ago as
containing parish register entries, the connection had not then been made that
it must be a page from a lost original, as the Butterton registers are now lost
before 1746. A survey of parish documents made in 1935 mentions two earlier
registers from 1686, but both in poor condition without good bindings. We
believe that this page survived because the other side of the page contains
useful information about the ownership of lengths of the churchyard fence. Keep
your eyes peeled, everyone, there may be more of them about.
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"And now back to the studio"
August sees the end of the Minton Conservation Project, which has been ongoing for the last year. Funded by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust and the Art Fund, with contributions from the Wolfson Foundation and the Pilgrim Trust, the project enabled a Project Conservator to work full-time conserving a selection of books and artworks from the Minton Archive.
22 items have now been conserved, including the very earliest Minton pattern books, several ornaments books, and two lever arch files of single-sheet ‘shape’ designs. Many of the books were in a very fragile state, and needed complex treatment including re-sewing their text blocks and replacing or reinstating the leather on their spines. They are now much more stable and can be handled safely by users of the archive for a long time to come. What’s more, the project has enabled the Stoke-on-Trent City Archives to make high-quality scans of many of these beautiful books, with the plan to make them available digitally in the future.
More information about the project, including photos and sneak-peeks of the conservation treatments, can be found on the Minton Archive website where Project Conservator Jess Hyslop has been blogging about her work throughout the year.
Bees and Badges at Sandon Fete
Staff from the museum and archives teams took items from the collections to the Sandon and District Village Fete which took place at Sandon Hall on Saturday 12 August.
We had a great day talking to lots of people about our
collections, looking at local photographs and objects and asking people what
they would like to see from the service in the future. The bee smoker was a talking point for many of the visitors. We also ran a badge
making activity for children which went down a storm!
We will be visiting
village shows and fetes for the rest of the year, so watch this space for our
next event…
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Criminal Quilts - Art Exploring Victorian Women Criminals
Join us for the launch of the Criminal Quits project on Friday 8 September at the Staffordshire Record Office.
Ruth Singer is working with Staffordshire Record Office and Wolverhampton University on an art project throughout 2018. The project is inspired by photographs and documents in the archives which Ruth has been researching and working with since 2012. Ruth has been inspired by photographs of women criminals who posed with their hands on their chests as a form of unique identification.
The project has been funded by Arts Council England, Staffordshire County Council and the Brewhouse Arts Centre.
The event runs from 1pm to 4pm. Tickets are free and can be booked via the Staffordshire Record Office. Email or telephone 01785 278379.
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