Fine Art Collection

2000 works of art, mainly 19th and 20th century, representative of British art from Sir Thomas Lawrence in the 18th century to John Piper, Ivon Hitchens, Patrick Heron and Edward Wadsworth. New acquisitions from Andy Goldsworthy and David Mach. William Powell Frith, a leading Victorian artist, was born and raised in the area, and is well represented in the collection with such renowned pieces as ‘Many Happy Returns’ and L’adieu du Marie Stuart. The collection includes many prominent Victorians such as Burne-Jones, Atkinson Grimshaw, Herring and Miles Birket Foster. Local artists are represented by watercolours of David Rose, Victorian watercolourist Bernard Evans and recent naive works by Knaresborough artist Joe Baker Fountain. Photographs include some of the earliest war photography from the Crimea, and early Victorian photographs by Fenton, Robertson, Le Gray, and Julia Margaret Cameron. The prints include works by Durer, Tissot, Crome and Nevinson, along with historical topographical images of Harrogate and area including a number of pre-war railway posters.

Subjects

Fine Art

Archaeology Collection

Around 1200 items were bequeathed by B W J Kent in 1969, including an Egyptian mummy case of 26th dynasty, a collection of glass vessels from the Roman empire and 100 ceramic vessels from ancient Greece. Kent Collection has pottery vessels from South America, ancient Cypriot pottery and Egyptian antiquities – ushabti figures, amulets, stone vessels, wooden sculptures and jewellery. J R Ogden Collection includes a range of Egyptian antiquities, and a small collection of material associated with the history of writing – baked clay tablets from Mesopotamia with cuneiform script, samples of Egyptian hieroglyphs and some Roman material. British archaeology is well represented with collections of prehistoric material including stone tools, metal implements and pottery vessels, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, particularly with local material from the 500 square miles of the Harrogate District. Recent acquisitions include a rare Iron Age dagger, a medieval finger ring, pottery sherds from a previously unknown medieval kiln, and a hoard of silver coins dating from the Civil War.

Subjects

Archaeology

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The museum collections span the 13th century to the present. The collection relates most strongly to York, North Yorkshire and the United Kingdom, although there are artefacts from Europe, the Baltic, Iceland and Russia. The historical context of the collections is that they have been acquired by purchase of the working apparatus of the Company, or by way of gift or legacy from Company Members and others. The collections help to illustrate life (social, business, charitable and religious) of a guild since its foundation in the fourteenth century.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

The collection seeks to interpret and inform visitors about the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall and its role in the history of York, to identify key figures involved in the Company’s history, to highlight the significant work of Guilds and to emphasise the importance of overseas trade to the Company in the 15th and 16th Centuries. The collections feature the building itself, a medieval guildhall constructed from 1357 (built on the foundations of a Norman Manor House) along with two collections of silver (one of which is a nationally significant collection of York Hall-Marked silver), jewellery and seal matrices; a large collection of oil and water colour paintings, prints, drawings and photographs, furniture and treen plus guild and other items. The collection is made up of just over 600 items, 60 items of which are on long-term loan with most of the collection on permanent display to visitors.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Mercian Regiment Museum was originally established as the Worcestershire Regiment Museum at Norton Barracks, the Regimental Depot, in 1922. It was moved in the early 1970’s, to a self-contained gallery in the Worcester City Museum and Art Gallery in Foregate Street, Worcester, where it currently welcomes over 14,000 visitors a year. As the Worcestershire Regiment Museum it collected material from its two antecedent regiments the 29th and 36th Foot and from the Worcestershire Regiment. Following the amalgamation of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiments in 1970 it collected material relating to the newly formed WFR. Following the amalgamation of the Cheshire Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment and the Staffordshire Regiment to form the Mercian Regiment it has collected material relating to the Mercian Regiment.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Mercian Regiment Museum currently collects artefacts and documents relating to The Worcestershire Regiment and its antecedents (comprising the 29th and 36th Regiments, The Worcestershire Militia and Worcestershire Volunteers), to its successors (The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment and The Mercian Regiment) and to the adversaries on those campaigns in which these regiments have fought.

The collection of Archives contains private, regimental and business papers. The Photographic collection comprises an estimated 1500 images dating from the 1870s to the present day. The collection also embraces pictorial works of art, together with three-dimensional arts and crafts such as sculpture, ceramics and silver. The collection includes soldier-made craft objects, as well as ceramics and mess ware. The museum also holds works on paper, oil paintings, and items of silver.

The Museum’s collection of Printed Books includes holdings of regimental histories, campaign histories, biographies and other official publications.

The collection includes over 300 items of uniform and other garments dating from the early nineteenth century to the present day, In addition it holds almost 66 colours, 200 badges, and,2500 medals including 6 Victoria Crosses. The Museum’s collection of weapons covers those used by the British soldier from the Peninsula to the present day, and includes around 93 edged weapons and 96 firearms; together with items of personal equipment, musical instruments and personal records of many of those who have served in the regiments. Apart from the Militia, whose origins go back to the early medieval period, the other components were formed from 1694 and relate to Worcestershire and those places where the regiments have been based. The period of collecting therefore dates from around 1694 to the present and, in respect of The Mercian Regiment, into the future.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2022

Licence: CC BY-NC

When the museum was founded in 1976 the majority of items donated were bygones, farming tools and maritime items. The collection gradually expanded to include the range of artefacts held today. The vast majority were and still are donated by local people with a much smaller number purchased or bought at auction. Currently the most rapidly growing collections are in archaeology and the digital database.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2023

Licence: CC BY-NC

Social History

This represents one of the core collections and includes articles of domestic, agricultural, farming and business use, mainly originating from the local area and illustrating life and industry over the last few centuries. There are also old toys and games.

Maritime History

A separate category due to the historic and current importance of the marine industries in the local economy. The collection includes artefacts relating to boat building, sail making, fishing and oystering and also covers the history of local racing yachts, sailing barges and houseboats.

Archaeology

Included in this important section are finds of pottery and other objects plus flints and stone axe heads excavated locally or dredged from the sea. There is a particular emphasis on the Roman period due to the island’s Roman occupation and proximity to the Roman garrison at Colchester. Two Roman cremation burials from Mersea are currently on an extended loan from Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service. Recent additions are timbers from a Bronze Age walkway and other artefacts found during excavations on the island. There are also remains such as pedestals and briquetage from the salt making industry in the Red Hills.

Local History with photographs, documents, maps and plans

This is becoming one of the most important and fastest-growing themes. Of particular interest are a large collection of local postcards from the early 1900s and some speculative plans for the development of Mersea as a large seaside resort. There is a growing digital archive of over 45,000 images and documents which can be viewed on the museum’s computer database, plus census returns and parish records for family history research.

Natural History and Geology

This smaller category includes rocks and fossils from local sites, particularly East Mersea, with a few interesting specimens from further afield. There is a small collection of stuffed birds and small mammals and some ancient animal bones.

Costume and Textiles

A small collection which includes women’s, children’s and babies’ clothing from Victorian times onwards, some military and other uniforms and a selection of accessories and textiles such as tapestries and samplers, most with a local connection.

Militaria

A category which includes locally recovered artefacts from the Civil War such as cannon balls and musket balls, plus items from the two World Wars including service records, medals, gas masks and helmets. Several aeroplane propellers and engines dredged from the sea are displayed outside.

Engineering

This comprises of a small collection of powered engines for domestic or commercial use. However due to a change in emphasis at the museum some of these items are now on long term loan to the Museum of Power at Langford which has better facilities to display and run them.

Art

The museum holds a small collection of art comprising original oil paintings and watercolours and some prints, mainly of local scenes or by local artists. There are two items of sculpture.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2023

Licence: CC BY-NC

Peter Scoley, one of the founders of the museum, had a few objects himself. Other items were donated to him and his wife over time. When the 106 Squadron Association closed officially, their collections were transferred to the museum to be looked after and a resolution was passed to do this. In 2017 the museum gained accredited status and began to focus acquisitions to the collection with the introduction of a Collections Policy.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

MAVC preserves and conserves the buildings and collections forming part of the former RAF Metheringham Airfield (operating 1943-1946).

Our collections are designed to display the history of 106 squadron and RAF Metheringham whilst showing what life was like to be stationed here and to fly from by telling the story of the people involved.

Our collections cover the period 1939-1955

Our collections include books, photographs, uniforms, correspondence, memorabilia, ephemeral objects plus a range of aviation and avionic artefacts and they cover the following themes:

• RAF Metheringham 1943-1946
• 106 Squadron
• RAF Bomber Command
• USAAF Dakota units as casualty evacuation airhead following the invasion of Europe
• The Royal Air Force
• Voluntary Agricultural Corps post 1946-1955
• The Scoley family

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

Transport Collection

The Sir Frank Whittle collection provides a unique insight into the history of the inventor of the British jet engine. A further strong focus in the collections is the Coventry and Midlands aircraft industry as a whole. Aircraft such as the Sopwith Pup, Lancasters, Mosquitoes and Whitley bombers, and later Meteors and Hunters, were built in the area. Examples of many of these are shown, dominated by the last of them all, the huge Armstrong Whitworth Argosy freighter. The aircraft themselves are accompanied by smaller items of tools, machinery and equipment. The focus of the collections is Sir Frank Whittle, and many of the exhibits are related to the jet engines he developed, and to the aircraft they powered. A further strong focus in the collections is the Coventry and Midlands aircraft industry as a whole. Aircraft such as the Sopwith Pup, Lancasters, Mosquitoes and Whitley bombers, and later Meteors and Hunters, were built in the area. Examples of many of these are shown, dominated by the last of them all, the huge Armstrong Whitworth Argosy freighter. The aircraft themselves are accompanied by smaller items of tools, machinery and equipment. The museum also exhibits eight aircraft on loan from the USAF Museum Loan Programme.

Subjects

Aviation (civil); Weapons and war; Transport; Air Force; Aerospace; Military Transport (aviation)

Costume and Textile Collection

This small group of exhibits consists of flying clothing.

Subjects

Costume and Textile; Costume (workwear)

Social History Collection

The museum collects artefacts of all descriptions related to its overall objectives.

Subjects

Social History; People (military); People

Archives Collection

The archive contains material relating to Sir Frank Whittle and the history of jet engines, and to the aircraft industry in the area as a whole.

Subjects

Documents (historic); Archives; Documents (personal); Photographs

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC