Re-opening in December to Museum Society Members, Volunteers & Season ticket holders

We are delighted to announce that Saffron Walden Museum will be re-opening exclusively to our Season Ticket Holders, Museum Society members and Museum Volunteers from Thursday 10th December, to offer our friends and supporters a preview before public opening resumes in 2021.

Timed slots with be available to book for: Thursday 10 December – Saturday 12 December, 11am-4.30pm Sunday 13th December, 2.30-4.30pm Thursday 17 December – Saturday 19th December, 11am-4.30pm Sunday 20th December, 2.30-4.30pm

Pre-booking is essential using the online booking portal: https://saffron-walden-museum.arttickets.org.uk/saffron-walden-museum/2020-12-10-friends-and-members-museum-entry

For more details about booking and our Covid secure arrangements check out our website www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org

Learning & Outreach

Saffron Walden Museum is committed to continuing to share stories from its collections through its learning and outreach services.

With the new national lockdown unfortunately we can’t welcome schools or groups to the Museum or offer Outreach sessions.

However our loan boxes are still available for hire, £18 for 6 weeks, and will be quarantined in between hires to ensure they are Covid 19 secure.

We are also developing virtual learning sessions for the lockdown period and offering a bespoke "click and collect" learning packs to schools and groups.

To find out about any of these services or for a list of loan boxes contact our Learning & Outreach Officer Charlotte Pratt via email at cpratt@uttlesford.gov.uk

Click & Collect

Activity Packs:

Winter Wonderland

The learning team have been busy working on some festive activity packs to help you all get creative over the holidays. As well as our usual children’s activity pack we will also have a limited number of activity packs for grown ups because creativity has no age limit!

Our kids activity pack will contain the materials you need to create your own salt dough Christmas decorations, fluffy festive Christmas tree cards and a snow crown to bring out  your inner Jack Frost or Snow Queen! Also included is an A4 activity booklet with instructions, winter trail and festive collection cards to collect and keep.

Our adult packs will include the materials to design and make your own lino print Christmas cards, a beautiful paper wreath and wire bird decorations.

Packs will be available to order from  1^st of December for collection from the 8^th of Dec.

https://saffron-walden-museum.arttickets.org.uk/

QR Code Object Labels

In order to comply with Covid guidelines we have removed all the hand-lists from all the display galleries.

These have been replaced with QR codes produced by Jenny Oxley (Collections Officer, Human History).  The codes can be scanned by visitors during their visit when the museum re-opens, so that they can view their own personal copy of the object labels for each display, rather than multiple people touching physical copies of the labels. 

Lepidoptera cabinet in place

We’re very grateful to receive the cabinet of moths and butterflies that James mentioned back in October's edition. After a couple of weeks in temporary quarantine, the cabinet now has pride of place next to the butterfly cabinet from the same donor, which was donated to the Museum in 2002. 

Taxidermy conservation

Back in the summer, James and Charlotte started an ambitious piece of work to move, condition check and carry out conservation work on the taxidermy bird collection. The first job has been to freeze or fumigate items which showed recent signs of pest activity, which has meant creating a dedicated section of the Natural Sciences Store at the Museum to house the defrosting and recently fumigated specimens. This stage is coming to an end and they are looking forward to starting the conservation work itself in the new year.

They will be taking plenty of photos of the work so keep an eye out for updates on everything from gentle dusting up to the really delicate work such as securing heads and wings on some of the older specimens.

Spring bulbs

The first batch of ‘upcycled’ plant tubs is now fully planted with spring bulbs. These should provide flowers and foliage for pollinators and other invertebrates from January all the way through to April or May. The tubs themselves still need a bit of sprucing up to disguise their original function as catering-size mayonnaise containers before they take pride of place either side of the Museum doors!

Document Archive

Jenny Oxley, Collections Officer (Human History) has been using the lockdown closure period, as an opportunity to catalogue and re-pack more of the museum's document archive (booklets, leaflets, property deeds and legal documents, sales ledgers, posters, etc related to the history of the Uttlesford district). 

It's important to know what we hold and where it is stored, so that we can provide the information quickly for research enquiries, publications, exhibitions, events and learning. 

Hundreds of boxes have now been catalogued (usually with additional help from our volunteers), and there are around thirty boxes left to complete.  The next stage will be digitising the documents. 

Here's one of the items from the document archive....a timetable from the Saffron Walden Railway Company....Did you know? It is 155 years since the Saffron Walden branch line was established. 

CV Walden

We are continuing to collect people's experiences of the current Covid-19 outbreak and how it has affected day-to-day life in the district for future generations to understand. 

If you are interested in compiling a diary now that we could archive at a later date that would be really beneficial.

We're also interested in audio and video clips, as well as artistic responses to the current situation, such as artwork, poetry and music, etc. If you are part of a community group or organisation - consider asking your members and contacts to take part in this project. 

These may be compiled to form an online or physical exhibition in due course.

Contact Jenny Oxley, Collections Officer (Human History) about this project at museum@uttlesford.gov.uk and title your email "CV Walden"

Object of the Month

The Museum’s ‘Object of the Month’ provides an opportunity to explore interesting and unusual objects from our stores. 

December's Object of the Month has been chosen by Jenny Oxley, Collections Officer (Human History).  It's a sculpture by the artist Karl Weschke (1925-2005) called ‘Deutschland 1946’

It's a very evocative sculpture by Weschke of a weeping mother and child, which he produced using clay he dug up at the Radwinter POW Rehabilitation camp when he was interred there.  Some have claimed it may even be the artist’s earliest known work.   

Radwinter North camp had been established in the grounds of the requisitioned Radwinter Rectory (Radwinter Manor). The camp was the brainchild of Charles Stambrook, a Jewish refugee from Vienna.  It was intended to be a way to reach out to those it was felt could be “re-educated.”

The German POWs regularly visited local families, as it was felt that this would help “rehabilitate” and integrate them better into the local community. Weschke regularly visited Bessie Midgeley at Larchmount on London Road, Saffron Walden with other POWS and she encouraged his artistic talents.  He painted scenery for the POW’s theatrical performances.  He became an art student at Cambridge and later went to St. Martins, before finding acclaim as a leading artist of the Cornish School.  He achieved national and international recognition relatively late in his career. A one-man show at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in 1980, prompted the Tate to start acquiring examples of his paintings and Tate St Ives held an exhibition of Weschke’s work in 2004. 

To find out more you can check out the Object of the Month post on our website

Elf House Trail

The Elves have been busy in the Museum, helping us prepare our Christmas Activity packs. They have made homes in our grounds and left you a message. Can you find all the houses and decode the secret message? You can download a copy of the trail from our website and hunt for Elf Houses in the Museum and castle grounds at any time, no need to book.

Museum Shop Spotlight

Linked to the museum's acquisition of a new cabinet of butterflies and moths....we are highlighting our bespoke jigsaws....

Unique - Saffron Walden Museum commissioned jigsaw puzzles, inspired by our British Butterfly collection.  These are very different to standard jigsaw puzzles:

Whimsy pieces - Victorian puzzle ‘whimsies’ – this jigsaw has bespoke pieces which reflect the nature of the puzzle itself.

Irregular Pieces - The mini jigsaw puzzles (40 pieces) may be small but that doesn't mean they're easy. Perfect for adults and children to complete together or alone they’re still challenging.

British Made Wooden Classic  - Not only are they made from sustainable wood, which gives a fabulous tactile feeling, but they are cut using lasers. Laser cutting the pieces ensures that each piece fits together perfectly  On sale for just £7.50 each.

Our stationery packs and jigsaws are now available for sale online via the TIC website, here are the links:

Jigsaw: https://www.visitsaffronwalden.gov.uk/product/saffron-walden-museum-british-butterfly-collection-jigsaw/

Stationery Pack: https://www.visitsaffronwalden.gov.uk/product/saffron-walden-museum-stationery-pack/