Visiting the Museum!

Our standard opening hours are:

Wednesday-Saturday 10-5pm

Sundays & Bank Holidays 2-5pm

Closed Mondays (apart from bank holidays)

Tuesdays are reserved for pre-booked group visits by schools and other parties in term time. 

www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org

Object of the Month

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

June’s object of the month chosen by James Lumbard, Natural Sciences Officer is the cast skin (exuvia) of a dragonfly larva, found in Elsenham in August 2005.

The shape of the eyes and the length (40mm) suggest it’s a hawker dragonfly, while the finder’s description of the adult dragonfly being green and yellow means it is probably a southern hawker, which are common in July and August. These dragonflies spend 2 or 3 years as a larva or nymph living underwater, before coming above water to shed their skin and emerge as an adult.

The process of shedding a skin is called ‘ecdysis’, and the skin that’s left behind is called an ‘exuvia’. Ecdysis occurs in spiders, crustaceans and some insects.

Dragonfly nymphs gradually change into adults through a series of moults which also allow it to grow in size, emerging as an adult directly from the last moult. This is different from other insects including flies and butterflies, which have an inactive pupal stage where the body changes entirely from a maggot or caterpillar to the adult.

To find out more visit the Museum in June or see our website www.saffronwaldenmuseum.org

Pictured Left: Dragonfly lava skin 

© Saffron Walden Museum

Feeding the Family 

Runs until Sun 9 July 2023   

Our current exhibition showcases the history of food preparation and food serving from Roman times to the present day. 

Throughout history, people have laboured to put food on the table. The Museum draws on its own collections and historical sources to see what local families might have been preparing and eating over the last 2,000 years.

Food is always a major topic and these days more so than ever. Affordability, supply, diet and environmental sustainability are all in the news. We wanted to explore how our meals and food fashions have changed throughout history.

Visitors to the exhibition get the chance to see original recipes as well as typical dishes and tableware from each time-period. To accompany the display there are also mystery food smells to identify, and why not decorate a plate with a picture of your favourite meal or write about your food memories and add it to our display. 

Your Stories: 

Community Showcase 

The Hidden History Project:

A special exhibition by The Lodge

In this display, you will find an intriguing array of different items, information, and stories. You will also get a peek into the process that brought these items together!

Earlier this year, a group of young people and facilitators from The Lodge - a consent-based, self-directed learning community based in Saffron Walden - formed a collaboration with the Museum.

Curiosity Corner:

Celebrating our Volunteers 

Wendy-Jo and her daughter Anabelle have put together a display about the role played by our volunteers in the museum, to celebrate National Volunteer week (1-7 June).

The display will continue throughout June to coincide with the Volunteer’s Tea Party (20th June) and the Council Garden Party (23rd June) being held at the Museum. 

In the display you will be able to find out more about the role volunteers play in our organisation, past and present and how we are looking to develop volunteering here in the future!

Pictured Left: the volunteer week/month display is always a popular addition to the museum in June, especially at the Volunteer Thank You Event. 

Pictured Below: Volunteer Anabelle preparing this year's display. 

© Saffron Walden Museum

Upcoming Exhibition:

The Uttlesford Open 2023

The Uttlesford Open 2023 is Saffron Walden Museum’s first, open call, judged art exhibition.

The call for entries has now closed. 

Artists, aged over 18 who are living, working, or studying in Uttlesford or within 20 miles of Saffron Walden Museum have submitted artworks on the theme of “A Sense of Place: The people, places and landscape of Uttlesford”.

The entries have been judged and selected by artists Ian Wolter and Heath Kane. 

The exhibition opens to the public on the 22 July

A Taste of History:

Demonstration and Tasting of Salad through the Ages

with food historian Monica Askay

Tuesday 13 June  2.30 – 4.30pm

including Free Admission to the Museum from 1.30pm to view the Feeding the Family special exhibition

Join cook and food historian Monica Askay to learn about salads of the past and their varied and surprising ingredients.

A cookery demonstration with tastings, this will be an opportunity to see salads from three different periods assembled and try them.

Collections Volunteer: 

Archaeology 

Not all objects in the Museum are what they seem. Volunteer Joanne Pegrum has selected this strange ‘medieval’ metal figure on horseback for the Museum’s July Object of the Month.

Visit the Museum and our website in July to discover the story behind an intriguing group of apparently ‘medieval’ metal objects, and the Victorian mudlarks who caused a stir in the antiquities trade.

Image left: Joanne Pegrum, Archaeology Volunteer © Saffron Walden Museum 

Collections Volunteer: 

Decorative Art 

In April, university students Eleanor, Elizabeth and Katie joined us to help inventory the ceramic and glassware store behind the scenes at the museum. 

Eleanor is continuing with working on the audit of the ceramic and glassware collections project until she starts back at University in September. 

Image left: behind the scenes at the Museum, a snapshot of the ceramics and glassware store 

Linton Children’s

Book Festival

James and learning volunteer Ann spent a wonderful day in Linton talking to children and adults about the lost language of nature, from birds’ dialect names to birds Christmas carols, with Ann sharing her love of nursery rhymes, especially Sing a song of Sixpence! We were lucky to be next door to children’s author Jana Broecker, a native German speaker who pointed out that an East Anglian dialect name (amsel) for blackbird, is also the German term for blackbird. And the term ‘spadger’ for sparrow is very similar to German ‘Spatz’ for the same bird.

Image left: James and volunteer Ann at Linton Book Festival

© Linton Book Festival 

Flowers:

in bloom and in distress

The lily of the valley was looking wonderful with a fantastic display of pure white flowers in the second half of May, and very popular with pollinators!

In the neighbouring tub, a rescue operation was staged for self-seeded old English marigold seedlings from last year’s blooms which were being overwhelmed by the vigorous perennials sharing the space.

Image left: Lily of the Valley in the museum grounds. 

© Saffron Walden Museum 

Learning & Outreach

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

We welcome schools and community groups to the Museum or offer outreach sessions. 

Why not book in your school or community group.

Our loan boxes are also available for hire, at £18 for 6 weeks.

Victory in the Kitchen

Aligning nicely with our current exhibition, Feeding the Family and our Taste of History event on the 13th June.

"This ‘Deliciously Entertaining’ book is the story of a woman who was not a royal, not rich, not famous; someone who simply worked hard and enjoyed her life. But while Georgina Landemare saw herself as ordinary, her accomplishments were anything but. Georgina started her career as a nursemaid and ended it cooking for one of the best-known figures in British history: Winston Churchill.

To him, food was central, not only as a pleasure but as a diplomatic tool at a time when the world was embroiled in war. With this eager eater and his skilled cook, ranging from rural Berkshire to wartime London, via Belle Epoque Paris and prohibition-era New York, Annie Gray shows how life in service - and food - changed during the huge upheavals of the 20th century."

On sale in the Museum Shop at a very reasonable £9.99

Volunteer Verge Surveyors

Do you like wildflowers and getting out into the countryside?

We need volunteers to keep an eye on special roadside verges in the district.

Uttlesford is lucky enough to have 46 verges designated for their chalk grassland and rare plants. They are remnants of the wildflower meadows that once covered this area. The verges are cut in March and October or November each year.

Volunteers check the verges to ensure they have been cut properly and spot if wooden marker posts and plaques are missing. If botany is your passion, we also need help with ecological surveys in summer.

To find out more, please contact Sarah Kenyon on 01799 510641 and skenyon@uttlesford.gov.uk

Pictured Left: Cowslips in flower at one of the special verges in Arkesden. Volunteer Vic checked and found that the damaged post had been replaced © Saffron Walden Museum