 Criminals on Tour
Criminal Quilts is an arts and heritage project
by artist Ruth Singer working with volunteers at Staffordshire Record Office.
Ruth and the team of volunteers have been researching over 500 women who appear
in photograph albums from Stafford Prison 1877-1916. Ruth is also creating an
exhibition of textile artworks inspired by the research. Some of her previous
work on the subject is on show at Staffordshire Record Office.
The research will be shared through a touring
display at Staffordshire libraries throughout 2018 and in major
textile exhibitions at the Festival of Quilts in August, at the Brewhouse Burton (September to October) and Wolverhampton University (November to January).
Ruth is writing a book about the
research and textile work. This will be published in August. There is an
opportunity to pre-order a copy from 1st June to 20th July at a special reduced
price, including a free gift and the opportunity to have your name included in the book. For more information visit the Criminal Quilts website
 Images courtesy of Ray Johnson
Start with a story . . . and ending with sand and laughter!
Storytelling was at the heart of
a recent intergenerational project for people living with dementia and very
young children. We worked with Tom England, a professional actor and storyteller to develop a session
around the theme of Childhood, the
focus of our upcoming touring exhibition. This session explored the idea of precious
objects linked to childhood, their meanings and what we can learn from them.
The first session took place in a
nursery with 3-4 year olds. They loved Tom’s performance and really engaged
with the idea of objects as precious and important. They enjoyed unwrapping and
handling museum objects to explore themes of holidays, school and toys. This
was followed by a session with people living with dementia and carers. Participants
were very engaged with Tom’s monologue and enjoyed exploring, often unexpected,
themes through the objects. Halfway through the session we were joined by five
children from the nursery. Bringing the two groups together had a fantastic
impact on everyone. It was a lively, exciting and enjoyable experience involving
a lot of play, laughter and sand!
This pilot project will help us
to develop sessions for a range of groups using the museum handling collection
and storytelling techniques. A fantastic additional outcome is the nursery and
ward planning regular work together.
"The session was a bright and vibrant
demonstration of intergenerational working and engagement. The children and
adults really enjoyed themselves and it was heart-warming seeing how much the
clients clearly gained from the story-telling and interactions."
Trainee
Clinical Psychologist
 New Volunteers Get Their Names on the Map!
Since the start of May a new
volunteer group has been meeting in Lichfield busily trawling through glebe
terriers to extract every place-name they can find to contribute towards the
English Place-Name Society Survey of English Place-Names in Staffordshire Project. This project is run by the Institute of Name Studies and the English Place-Name Society (based
at Nottingham University). The group are trying out a new way of working for
the Archive Service by entering their data straight onto a website. They have already added over 250
names. This has the great benefit of the volunteers being able
to plot the place-names onto a map, allowing them to see if the
place-names have survived into modern times and how much (or little they have
changed).
 Lichfield Collections
An important and interesting
collection is that of the Lichfield Conduit Trust (LD126). Water had to be
piped into the City from an early date. The oldest document in the collection
is a survey of lands mainly around Lichfield, Norton Canes and Wigginton, c.1476.
The Trust itself was established in the 16th century. The spring
near Aldershaw just outside the City was granted in 1550. An attractive map of
1721 shows Trust lands around Norton Canes. A detailed plan of 1766 by John
Snape shows four Conduits for supplying soft water from the Conduit Heads at Aldershaw.
The two pools, Minster Pool and Stowe Pool, are connected to the piped water
system.
 New Additions at William Salt Library
The majority of the annual book order has now arrived at the
Library. This year’s purchases include books relating to
speedway, football, folklore, hand-bell ringing, the Minnie Pit disaster of 1918, West Midlands Dialect,
pottery, brewing, the Newcastle workhouse and railways including one on the Hixon rail crash of 1968,.
In addition a number of books relate to the First World War including books on
the Zeppelin raids over the Midlands in 1916 and Handsworth born Charles
Landers’ war diary. There is also an intriguing book detailing a new
theory on the failure of the Battle of the Somme, entitled ‘Somme Into the
Breach’, which asks whether a North Staffordshire soldier gave up crucial
secrets to the Germans in the lead up to the battle led to the failure of the
offensive. For more information on the Wiliam Salt Library Collection contact Dominic Farr, Assistant Librarian.
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