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Welcome to our seasonal newsletter containing updates from the Museum team on exhibitions, events and projects. Whether you are interested in local history, art, family activities, or just a friendly place to escape to, there are plenty of exhibitions, events and activities to choose from. Admission to the exhibitions is free, events and activities require booking, please see further information below. If you are unable to visit the Museum, but would still like to support our activities, we gratefully receive online donations.
Janine Fox, Museum Curator
 On Saturday 2nd July Newbury hosted its first ever Pride march organised by Newbury Pride. To mark the event the Museum has been working with Newbury Pride and members of the LGBTQIA+ community to develop an exhibition about Pride. The exhibition has been co-curated and led by stories and objects from the local LGBTQIA+ community to tell the story of UK Pride, why it is important and why it is still necessary. The exhibition will hopefully evolve over the course of the year with further loans and donations. Following Saturday’s Pride march a local group, Proud to be Trans in West Berkshire, kindly donated the banner they used to lead the march from Victoria Park, through Northbrook Street and into the market square. This is now on display in the Museum’s exhibition Hope and Pride, running until 2nd July 2023.
 In May the Thames Valley Ancient Egypt Society (TVAES) were invited to the Museum Stores for a tour and to take a closer look at the Museum’s Egyptian collections. The Museum Curator and Beth Asbury, Assistant Archaeologist for West Berkshire Council and member of TVAES, pre-selected a group of objects from the Museum collection that were interesting but also had the potential for further research. The group brought their expert knowledge to the sessions and were able to enhance the information recorded about the items. A few members are also experienced at reading hieroglyphs and were able to translate the writing on a 26th Dynasty funary stele and were able to tell us that the person it was made for used to be a scribe, overseer and a priest. We hope to continue working with members of TVAES on the development of a future exhibition displaying the Egyptian collection.
 Clare Bromley, the Learning and Participation Officer at West Berkshire Museum, reports that this school year (September 2021-July 2022) has seen the return of local schools visiting the Museum to do led sessions and explore the galleries, usually with a museum trail. The Museum’s artefact loan boxes, which are boxes that contain real and/or replica objects on a variety of topics that schools can borrow for three weeks, proved popular at the beginning of the pandemic and have remained so since.
The Museum has a relatively small collection of museum artefact loan boxes, which link directly to the National Curriculum e.g. Fossils, Stone Age, Toys from the Past and World War II evacuee (pictured). A museum artefact loan box contains a minimum of six objects as well as teachers’ notes about the objects. There is a leaflet for schools containing the answers to the most frequently asked questions, and this can be downloaded here: WBM-Museum-Artefact-Boxes-FAQ-leaflet.pdf (westberkshireheritage.org)
This school year (September 2021-July 2022) there were about 50 museum artefact loan box bookings from just under 30 different schools (with some schools making more than one booking). Most bookings were made by West Berkshire primary schools but some out-of-area schools, secondary schools and other educational establishments did also make bookings.
The museum’s learning and participation service will hope to build on this success by adding new museum artefact loan boxes over the next few years; these will be developed based on information from completed evaluation forms (returned with a museum artefact loan box) and the West Berkshire Museum Learning Advisory Panel (for West Berkshire teaching staff).
 Philip Smither is Berkshire’s Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) whose role is to identify and record archaeological finds discovered within the County of Berkshire for the Portable Antiquities Scheme. If you have found something that you would like Phil to take a look at, please book onto one of Phil’s Finds Surgeries. Phil is usually at West Berkshire Museum on the 1st Saturday and 3rd Wednesday of the month. Click here to book and to see the full list of Finds Surgery locations.
A recent treasure find to be accessioned into the Museum collection is this Roman gold lunate object, found in Chieveley. This object could have been used as either a pendant or possibly an ear-ring. It is made of thin sheet metal and rather crudely shaped and damaged. In the centre of the lower side is a circular box setting for a stone or glass gem, which is no longer present. NEBYM:2022.2.
 Collections. An exhibition of artwork by Newbury College Art & Design students. Runs until 21st August 2022.
The Stories We Tell. Folk tales and unsolved mysteries - what do we consider legends and how much truth is buried within them? Runs until 28th August 2022.
Focus on Hungerford. Exploring the history of Hungerford through objects from the museum collection and from the local community. Runs until 4th September 2022.
Barrels and Bottles. Looking at the story of brewing in West Berkshire, from home brewing to local industry. Runs until 15th January 2023.
The Age of Dinosaurs. Discover some of the fascinating creatures that lived in the shallow waters and lowlands of the Mesozoic era. Runs until 30th April 2023.
Hope and Pride: What is Pride and why do we need it? A co-curated community exhibition to mark Newbury’s first Pride and the 50th anniversary of the first UK Pride in London. Runs until 2nd July 2023
 For further details and for booking any of the following, please visit www.westberkshireheritage.org/whatson
Messy Museum Mornings, every Friday from 29th July to 26th August,
10am to 1pm.
Themed to tie-in with ‘The Age of Dinosaurs’ special exhibition, we will be making and painting a wooden dinosaur model, making a cast of a dinosaur footprint, creating a clay ammonite and painting it, printing a forest of ferns, and painting dinosaur eggs. £2 per child per session (a child must be accompanied by an adult throughout).
Why not become an Arts Award Explorer this summer?
Complete an Arts Award Explore over the school summer holiday at West Berkshire Museum. Aimed at 7-12 year olds, this programme includes three arts and crafts led workshops where you will discover more about the Museum and a job in it, complete Roman-themed crafts and host a pop-up exhibition. To find out more (and download a pdf), please go to www.westberkshireheritage.org/life-long-learning
The Museum’s Talking History programme restarts on Wednesday 14th September at 1pm, with the in-person talk: ‘Developing Creative Artworks Using Local Inspiration (Wash Common burial mounds)’. The season will continue with free or paid lunchtime and evening talks themed to tie-in with ‘Age of Dinosaurs’ and ‘Focus on Thatcham’ special exhibitions, as well as other local history and archaeology topics. Tickets will be available to book online from late August onwards.
Heritage Open Days, Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September, 10.30am to 3pm, free, drop-in.
Explore the attic of the historic Cloth Hall – this part of the museum building is not usually open to museum visitors and can only be accessed by a narrow and steep staircase. Do a self-guided tour and to help you better understand the Cloth Hall’s unique history, you'll be provided with an A3 laminated interpretation sheet telling you about some of the people who were involved in its story.
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