Dorset Museums - Portland Museum

In the 1840s Portland saw the arrival of a bunch of rather reluctant visitors.

The building of the Portland breakwater, one of the largest civil projects of the period, needed manpower; so who better to provide it than Queen Victoria's prison population?

They gave new meaning to jailhouse rock as they sweated and manoeuvred thousands of tons of rocks into place. The jailbirds even became something of a tourist attraction, with wily Portlanders renting out rooms overlooking the prison quarries to London sightseers who quaffed tea and munched cakes while watching the hapless inmates. 

By the 1860s the prison population had risen to 1,800 and the prison regime had become noted for its brutality. Deaths averaged one a week. 

This grim situation was somewhat alleviated by the surprise arrival of Edward VII in1902 who promptly ordered the distribution of half a pound of roly poly and two ounces of golden syrup to each and every inmate.

In 1921 the prison was replaced by a borstal, and now houses young offenders. 

The two objects pictured can be found in Portland Museum and date from the prison's early years. The delicate ivory object was lovingly carved by a sentimental old lag, probably for sale to the public; while the chains...well they can be summed up with a sentence...

Dorset Museums 17- Blandford Town Museum

As mentioned previously not only was John Bastard responsible for creating the Blandford we see today but, in keeping with all educated men of this era, he took a keen interest in his surroundings and produced this watercolour of a local landmark. 

He described the Damory Oak with these words (his spelling by the way...) 

'Damory Oak Supposed to be More than a Thousand years Old. Was in the year 1600 Verry hollow as shown in the plan. And was some time used by 7 people to sell ale there and some times to House Calves, lambs etc. In ye year 1700 it was a verry Hansom Tree and full of Leaves (but hollow as a cove's) Itt sufford in ye ftorm 1703.  Since that many good timbers have ben cutt of  by ye Rives of Ranston Dorsett. The remainder sold in ye year 1757, asFier Wood, att 14 pounds sterling'

At the time it was felled it measured 68 feet in circumference

Dorset Museums 3 - The County Museum

No toads were harmed in the making of this reconstruction...!

This is a story of a toad; a toad in a bit of a hole, you could say... so those of you with a nervous disposition better switch to another blog.
 In the 19C James Buckland self-styled doctor of King's Stag near Cerne claimed to cure scrofula with the use of toad bags. An unsuspecting toad's head was pulled off and its still wriggling body put in a bag around the patients kneck. The shock assured a cure (of the patient, not the toad)...the cure's popularity was such that a toad shortage was created meaning that patients had to make do with toad portions rather than a whole toad.
Each year during a spring full moon Buckland hosted a Toad Fair where his wife and daughter clad in white would hand out his cure to the afflicted.
He was up the (tad) pole if you ask me...

Dorset Museums-Dorchester Military Museum

The Keep Military Museum stands at one end of Dorchester and looks very much like William the Conqueror's second home. Its castle-like appearance, though, can be credited to the Victorians rather than the Normans.

The Keep Military Museum

 
Amongst the usual war-like paraphernalia can be found strange and off-beat pieces which make small museums so interesting. 
Take the object above, a useful addition to anyone's handbag. It belonged tothe Thugees,  an Indian sect believing in ritualised murder and robbery. Called a 'Wagnuk' or 'tigers claw' it was used to give the impression that their unfortunate victim had been killed by a tiger. No use in Dorchester then...

Dorset Museums 14-Poole Museum

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Standing in the old town close to the quay, Poole Museum was fully refurbished in 2007. A modern atrium leads through to galleries housed in one of Poole Quay's old warehouses . Wide-ranging displays document the archaeological, social and maritime history of the area. Best of all admission is free

Poole harbour is the world's largest natural harbour and has attracted people to its shores since time immemorial. The Romans were here and several of their roads converge on the harbour.
Three hundred years before their arrival and predating Brittany ferries by several thousand years a group of Iron Age Dorset chaps were busily constructing the largest primitive boat to be found in Britain. This is it. 

Its actually far more impressive than my humble photo indicates.
Found during dredging operations in 1964, the boat measured almost ten metres and was carved from a single oak. Specially adapted for the shallow harbour waters it could hold eighteen people but no duty-free's.
It took forty years to find a way of satisfactorily preserving it. 

The answer, though, was quite mundane to submerge it in a solution, of sugar.

Dorset Museums 13- Shaftesbury Abbey Museum

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Looking somewhat like a water-damaged Clark's shoebox, this humble lead casket tells a mighty story. It held the remains of an English king and for centuries was the focus of veneration and pilgrimage to the Abbey.
The king was Edward the Martyr, son of the Saxon king, Edgar. Crowned at only sixteen, Edward was murdered soon after at Corfe Castle and his remains interred in Shaftesbury Abbey around 979 AD.  Edward was canonised in 1001AD and his feast day became one of national celebration. 
He was obviously not a smoker because centuries later Edward's lungs, kept in a glass jar, were reportedly still breathing...

Lost for centuries receptacle and bones were discovered during an archaeological dig in1933 and while the box remains above ground Edward's bones were eventually reinterred in a cemetery in... Woking...but that's another story...

The Abbey Museum stands next to the site of Shaftesbury Abbey; once home to Britain's the leading Benedictine community for women.

Dorset Museums 11- Dorchester County Museum

The next time you pay for that ice cream with an old bent pfennig and congratulate yourself on having got one over that simple Dorset pedlar, think again... especially when those old knee pains, back pains, eye pains, ear pains, you name it pains suddenly reappear.

Sticking pins in wax effigies is well known and though not confined to Dorset serves as a warning never to mess with the locals.
Thomas Hardy records it in his novel the 'The Return of the Native'
'From her workbasket in the window seat the woman took a paper of pins. These she began to thrust into the image in all directions, with apparently excruciating energy. Probably as many as fifty were thus inserted, some into the head of the wax model, some into the shoulders, some into the trunk, some upwards through the soles of the feet, till the figure was completely permeated with pins'

Dorset Museums 10-The Philpott Museum, Lyme Regis

She sells seashells on the seashore

The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure

So if she sells seashells on the seashore 

Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells

Mary Anning has become to fossils what bacon is to eggs... so notorious that she has even inspired the classic tongue twister written above.

Not everyone thought so as this letter displayed in the Philpott shows. It was sent from the British Museum in 1935 rejecting the offer of her 'commonplace' book (a miscellanea of personal writings) with the words -

'They are just the sort of extracts and jottings which a young lady of the period might be expected to make but have no lasting value' 

Could this be the man who also turned down the Beatles?...

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Dorset Museums 10- The Philpott, Lyme Regis

Shown below is a table made in the 1830s for pioneering geologist William Buckland. The interesting part is that the ornate inlay is not all it first appears. It is made of coprolites or beetle stones so called for their beetle-shaped centres. 

Coprolites have come down to us after first partaking of rather an interesting journey... from the front end of a dinosaur and out of the back porch. No more beating about the bush - here is a tabletop made entirely from dino crap and Buckland was obsessed by it; as the table bears witness.

I leave you to muse on what may have constituted the table's legs ...

Dorset Museums 8-the Russell-Cotes Museum and Gallery

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If your idea of Bournemouth is a bit gor-blimey, you're mostly right; but then, perched on the cliff, high above the pier and the cloying aroma of chip fat and sun oil stands the town's last bastion of culture...The Russell-Cotes Museum.

I shad no inkling of this hidden gem (and it is gem) until just a couple of years ago yet it houses a world class collection of

Victorian painters from Rossetti and the pre Raphaelites to Landseer and on to amazing pieces created by daubers I've never even heard of. In fact it forms a short sharp anthology of the best of Victorian art.

The collection was assembled by manic collectors Merton and Annie Russell-Cotes and is housed  in the opulent villa Merton built on the cliff-top as a present for his wife. 

The building is an exceptional monument to late Victorian taste and for that reason alone would be worth the visit. As old man Merton said, 'I made up my mind to construct it architecturally to combine the Renaissance with Italian and old Scottish baronial styles' How did he resist chucking in a pyramid for good measure... that's Victorians for you...

The Russell-Cotes were also avid globe-trotters and souvenirs of their jaunts cover Australasia, America, India, the Near East and Africa as well as the Pacific Islands. 

Great art bringeth forth great hunger so if you want to sample a further masterpiece in oils. Harry Ramsden's fish and chips is but a short walk down the hill - just follow your nose.
www.russell-cotes.bournemouth.gov.uk

Dorset Museums 6- Dorchester County Museum

Hot on the heels of my Viking piece here's some telling evidence from the Dorset County Museum showing that Dorset men didn't always get the best of a fight.
Two thousand years ago at Maiden Castle, a fortified hill on the outskirts of Dorchester, the locals faced a load of Italian Johnnies in a no-holds barred battle between two civilisations. Iron age man faced the might and technological superiority of the Roman Empire, armed with little more than slingstones taken from nearby Chesil Beach. 
The outcome changed the course of British history.

The skeleton belongs to one of those Iron Age defenders who was struck down by a bolt from a ballista (a powerful floor-standing crossbow). When Maiden Castle finally fell to the victorious Romans, the unfortunate victim was hastily bundled into a mass grave; the ballista bolt, which would have killed him instantly, still embedded in his vertebra.

Dorset Museums 5- The Philott Museum, Lyme Regis

Hidden in Lyme's excellent museum is this entertaining historical scrap...
Cross the locals at your peril. It was as true two centuries ago as it is today. 
When a young, bushy-tailed Henry Fielding, author of Tom Jones, visited Lyme Regis in 1725 he fell head over heels for Sarah Andrews, a local heiress. There were just two problems; she was just fifteen and she was already spoken for. 
This  did not put off Henry who, aided by his valet, attempted to abduct Sarah on the way to church. Unfortunately, her local beau, John Tucker, along with a lot of other Tuckers thwarted the attempt, but not before punches had been thrown and charges brought.
Henry left Lyme soon after, bloodied but not bowed,  leaving the  note above as a final parting shot.
In case you can't decipher it reads:
'This is to give notice that Andrew Tucker and his son John Tucker are clowns and cowards
Witness my hand 
Henry Fielding'

Locals 1- Tourists 0, I'd say...

Dorset Museums 4 - Portland Museum

One of the attractions of local museums is that their very lack of sophistication gives them a unique charm that their urban brothers lack.
Portland museum is a great example of this. It occupies a modest quarry worker's cottage and is filled with objects tracing its relationship with both sea and stone. 

Thrown in for good measure is this intriguing exhibit of a rather withered moggy. 
Portland having been a virtual island until the 1820s meant that superstitions took a long time to disappear, as this unfortunate cat bears witness. Dating from the 1800s it was walled up alive in a new house to bring luck and to ward off evil spirits.

www.portlandmuseum.co.uk

Dorset Folklore 3- The Byzant

At first glance this exotic-looking object would seem more at home on the Indian sub-continent than in darkest Dorset. 

It is called the Byzant and formed the centrepiece of a ceremony of the same name. The Byzant ceremony dates back at least seven hundred years and took the form of an annual tribute to the Lord of the Manor of Gillingham for the use of his water supplies. Once a year the Mayor and townspeople made their way in a procession with the Byzant at their head to the water source. Here the Lord of the Manor would be presented with the Byzant as well as gifts of gloves, ale, wheaten bread and..vegetarians leave the room... a calf's head. Sadly, the ceremony was discontinued in the 1830s because of...you've guessed it...the expense!
You can see the Byzant at the fascinating Gold Hill Museum, Shaftesbury

Dorset Museums 3-The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester

Flog it! Cat o' seven tails; two tails missing but who's arguing? Only abolished in 1881.

When I was a nipper I was always told, 'join the army and it'll make a man of you'...well in the 18th and 19thC it was more a case of 'join the army and it'll make mincemeat of you'...the museum lists  a few of the punishments that may have made you wish you'd opted for flower selling.

Flogging  Up to a 1000 lashes with a count of five between each lash to prolong the agony for up to four hours.
Picketing  Victim suspended by wrists with feet on stake just sharp enough to break the skin.
Wooden Horse  Rough, sharp edged, boards knocked together forming a horsey shape. Victim was made to sit on the sharp ridge of the 'back' for many hours with  muskets or other heavy objects tied to the ankles to increase the weight.
Strappaddo The unfortunate soldier's hands were first fastened behind his back, after which he was hauled high into the air by a rope tied to them and then dropped with a jerk often causing dislocation.
Running the Gauntlet  A man's comrades armed with sticks formed a corridor through which the victim, stripped to the waist, passed while being thrashed. In front of the unfortunate were guards with bayonets drawn to stop him moving through at faster than regulation pace.
Bottling or Cold Burning  The soldier's hand was tied palm uppermost. Water was then allowed to slowly drip on it from a height of several feet, apparently the accumulated pain over a period of time was said to make the strongest of men faint away.
Caution...I hope it goes without saying that none of the above should be tried at home.

Board hung round the neck of a murderer on the way to the gallows after riots in 1898.

Dorset Museums 2-The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester

Here's a military 'guess what I've got here, sarg?'. One of a host of small but telling objects to be found at the museum of the Devon and Dorset regiments.

No idea?... It's a deserters stamp... believe it or not it was considered a humane way of tattooing 'D' for deserter. 

The inhumane method was to trace a letter 'D'  on the left-hand side of the body. The skin was then pierced with a bunch of  ordinary sewing needles after which gunpowder was rubbed well into the wound to create a permanent mark of military disservice.

Dorset Museums 1- Bovington Tank museum

Humanising the inhumane.

Watching Jeremy Paxman's recent WW1 documentary brought to mind my recent trip to the Dorset Tank Museum.
I'm not a macho type and lost every playground fight, but even I found it riveting.
There are tanks of every shape, size and colour, housed in several purpose built hangars. If you can put aside the use to which they were put they possess a brutal, sculptural quality.

OUCH! 1

Amongst its many exhibits, the museum possesses examples of the very first tank. In 1916 when these top secret weapons first appeared on the Somme, militarised warfare entered a new chapter. War will always remain barbaric and crude despite advances in technology and if the tank terrified the Hun they were equally terrifying to the unfortunate crews operating  inside them.

OUCH! 2

Inside these lumbering beasts a three man crew shared their cramped, claustrophobic conditions with the enormous engine in a terrifying maelstrom of noise and fumes. (Half of all deaths in tanks in the WWI were, in fact, from carbon monoxide poisoning).

WW1 Tank crews mask

Often it is the smaller items in a museum which paint the biggest picture...The item above, looking more medieval  than 20thC, provided crews with questionable  protection from  the razor-sharp metal splinters that sliced through the confined space after a hit. Needless to say, the Tommies generally preferred to take their chance rather than to actually wear them.
The museum also has an atmospheric reconstruction of a wartime trench as well as a special exhibit about the conflict in Afghanistan.

www.tankmuseum.org