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Local and Social History

Small collection of local archaeology, mainly Roman finds. Small local archive and books of records of the local rating authorities prior to 1974: copied extracts from other sources eg Kelly’s Directories for March; information on local schools. Coins and local tokens, including a collection of 17th century trade tokens. The social history collections include craft tools (woodworker, shipwright, blacksmith, thatcher); general domestic items (lighting and heating equipment, furniture and furnishings, medical and personal items), items from local schools and organisations. The museum has a collection of cameras, radios and a domestic acetylene gas plant. Items relating to the railways including personalia associated with Ben Gimbert GC. Substantial collection of photographs of local buses. ASLEF trade union banner. Photographs and negatives showing people, places and events in March and District. Substantial collection of photographs of local buses. Collection of watercolours by two local artists GW (Nick) Simpson (mainly of local subjects) and by Maurice Gordon-Edgley (mainly of non-local subjects). Collection of 17th and 18th century church plate on loan from the parish church of St Wendreda. The earliest piece is a paten which was given to St. Wendreda’s in 1696 the rest of the silver was given to ‘The Parishioners of March’ in 1752. Items relating to local train driver, Ben Gimbert GC, including his George Cross which was awarded to him for saving the town of Soham from a blazing ammunition train during the Second World War. Also the microscope and slides belonging to James Green, nurseryman, ginger beer manufacturer and amateur biologist. The museum holds three important large textiles: The Guidon of Doddington & Hamlets Yeomanry presented to the troupe in 1798 and lodged in St. Wendreda’s Church, March when the cavalry was disbanded in 1828. It was lost in the church until 1996 when it was given to the Museum. It is desperately fragile and has been consolidated by the Textile Conservation Centre at Winchester. 1919 Peace Banner used for the Peace Rally held in March then lost for many years. It reappeared at a sale in Lubeck, formerly East Germany, and made its way back to March in a circuitous route. The banner was hand painted by a March man. ASLEF trade union banner; GW (Nick) Simpson who taught Chemistry at March Grammar School for most of his career and was a steam enthusiast. The collection includes several pictures of local railway subjects as well as other images.

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The origins of the Market Lavington collection go back to the 1950s when Peggy Gye took an interest in the history of the parish. It was soon known that Peggy collected items with a relevance to the area and people brought things to her over the next 30 years or so. When the museum opened in 1985 it was Peggy’s personal collection that formed the bedrock of the museum. Peggy had collected many photographs, paper documents and clothes. There were items from shops and local businesses. Much of the material dated back to the Victorian and Edwardian era but there were some antiquities including fossils found locally.

Since the museum opened more items have been added, particularly photographs and paper documents but also including items found by metal detectorists (after consultation with the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes – the local archaeology museum.)

All museum artefacts have a record card which records not only what the objects are but also donor name and date of acquisition. In recent years this acquisition of items – all fitting our collection policy – has increased due to our presence on the World Wide Web. The closure of pubs in the parish has brought us some pub related artefacts. To summarise, our collection allows us to portray village life over the past 150 years, with some ability to look back further.

We make a point of keeping current photographs, documents etc. These are in store for display in the future. We could, for example, produce a display on the way wedding orders of service have changed over the last 30 years.

Whilst much of our main catalogue of photos was digitised (at 600pdi) several years ago, we are in the process of digitising more recently acquired photos and other non digitised photographs. Our digitised photos are stored on a computer and two external hard disks stored in different locations. The museum blog now has more than 2500 posts. The vast majority are about items in the museum and include photos and descriptions and also, where possible, personal tales to give human interest.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Museum’s collections number over 8000. The main categories are as follows:

• Agriculture
• Costume and textiles
• Personalia
• Domestic life
• Recreation
• Trade
• Local societies
• Photographs relating to local trades and businesses, village events, inhabitants and activities. The earliest photographs date back to c1870

There is also a collection of objects and documents relating to the excavation of the Saxon burial ground in the village, on loan from Wessex Archaeology.

Highlights of the collection include the photographs and the documents relating to village events and activities, such as Hospital Weeks.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

Maritime history

Small Designated collection for the 16th century warship and the 29,000 finds representing the only securely dated source of early Tudor life. The hull is the only 16th century ship on display in the world and the largest recovered find in Britain. 300 tons with 800 timbers in situ and a further 3,000 recovered. The ordnance and weaponry includes heavy cast bronze muzzle loading guns, breech loading wrought iron guns and breech loading swivel guns. Stone, iron, lead and composite iron shot ammunition; Gunner’s rule, shot gauge, powder scoops and flasks, rams, priming wires, tampions and linstocks; longbows, arrows, spacers and wrist guards; kidney daggers, swords, bills and pikes: 4597 items in total. Costume and textiles is 1239 items covering leather shoes, boots, jerkins, and knitted and worsted garments; There are 140 items of coinage with gold and silver and copper tokens; 19 musical instruments with wind, including pipes, string and percussion; Personalia includes combs, razors, a ‘piss pot’, pomander, pewterware, wooden bowls, dishes, plates, spoons, tankards, recreational games with a back gammon set, handheld sundials, book covers, quill pens and an ink pot; 1263 Medicinal items are lidded canisters, urethral syringes, puncture syringe, trepan and feeding bottle; Navigation instruments are dividers, 3 gimbaled steering compasses, plotting board and log reel; tools of the carpenter, food utensils, and barrels of provisions; A well-preserved comparative set of 16th century human skeletal remains and bones of immature rat and small dog, butchered meat, fish bones, plum stones and peppercorns. The total is 5551 archaeological items, 50 decorative art, 728 science and industry, 3181 social history and 12,221 maritime.

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Ancient Egyptian Collection

The museum holds 420 ancient Egyptian objects. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; canopic jars; coffins; coins; flints; foundation deposits; jewellery; metal vessels; animal remains (mummies); human remains (mummies); pottery; relief sculpture; scarabs/sealings; shabtis; stelae (stone); stone vessels; textiles/leather; toilet articles; tools/weapons. Objects are known to have come from the following locations in Egypt (with the name of the excavator/sponsor and year of excavation given where possible): Abydos (Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1900-3); El Amrah (MacIver with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1901); Oxyrhynchus (Petrie, 1896); Denderah (Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1897-8); Hawara (Petrie, 1888-9); El Hibeh (Grenfell and Hunt with the Egypt Exploration Fund, in records as 1904-6, but may be accession years as excavations from 1902-1903); Hu (Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1899); Ehnasya (Naville with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1891); Naucratis (Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1884-5, Gardner and Griffith with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1885-6); Qarara (Grenfell and Hunt with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1903); Tanis (Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1883-6); El Sheikh Ibada (Johnson with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1914); Sedmant (Currelly and Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1904); Bubastis (Naville and Quibell with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1887-9); Defenneh (Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1886); Nebesheh (Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1886); Zuweleyn (Naville, 1887); Tell el-Yahudiya (Naville and Griffith with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1887); Deir el-Bahari (Naville with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1896, 1904-1906); Thebes.

Subjects

Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeological sites; Archaeological objects; Egyptology; Archaeological excavations

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC