Collection: Blake Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Blake Museum was founded by Bridgwater Borough Council in 1926, and initially concentrated on General-at-Sea Robert Blake and the Battle of Sedgemoor to the exclusion of pretty-well everything else. From the 1950s Social History was included. In 1957 No 7 Blake Street was purchased, allowing the Museum to expand towards the Mill at the end of Blake Street. In the 1960s when the local brickworks closed down, a number of artefacts were acquired. In 1974, the local government changes meant the museum’s building and contents were transferred to Sedgemoor District Council. In 1983 a Museum Custodian was appointed by the District Council and later the Council tried to close the museum. Following protests, the museum was run by volunteers, but funded by the Council, with a voluntary administrator. He was succeeded by a paid Museum’s Officer. In the early 1990s the Bridgwater Museum Trust was formed to purchase the Mill to allow for expansion of the museum, but in 1995 an arson attack destroyed the upper floor of the Mill, but without material damage to the museum collections. In 2000 a full-time education officer was appointed. In 2002 a new Museum Officer was appointed on the retirement of the earlier one. On the autumn of 2007, the District Council announced it was to close the museum, disperse the collection and redevelop the site.

  After comprehensive negotiations, the District Council, agreed to transfer the museum and contents to the Bridgwater Town Council, and it would be run by volunteers from the Museum Friends. The transfer was effected on 1 April 2009. For the next four years serious work was undertaken in the museum to bring the building up to modern standards.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Subjects

  Archaeology

  The collection consists mainly of finds from archaeological digs, and chance finds. The principal source for much of the collection has been from the fieldwork of Bridgwater and District Archaeological Society. The collection also includes plans, drawings and some archive material. Approximately 50% of the material is from Bridgwater itself and the remaining half from the surrounding area. the period represented is from the Prehistoric period to post mediaeval. The collection includes 2 Mesolithic skulls, found at Greylake, near Othery. A significant collection of local Roman material, forming the Tarrant collection, includes numerous examples of cast brooches.

  Archive, Printed Ephemera and Photographs

  The material held by the museum supports the social, industrial, and military history collections. The Archive and Ephemera contain letters of Admiral Blake and the Duke of Monmouth, trade catalogues and carnival and political posters, electoral registers and pamphlets. The Photograph Collection is very extensive and has been catalogued. It represents the work of several local photographers and extends to subjects outside the collections area but is retained as their oeuvres. The material includes glass plates, negatives, original prints from the 1860s and later, transparencies and colour prints. Some of the museum’s archive material is housed in the Somerset Record Office

  Social & Industrial History

  The existing material has been divided into four categories: domestic, agricultural, maritime and industrial . The collection contains a number of typological groups, such as Friendly Society Brasses, Horse Brasses and Constables’ Staves and Truncheons, as well as individual items of particular note; e.g. the L’Escopette Camera (one of only three known in existence, it has a Bridgwater association). Domestic life includes artefacts associated with the home, laundry, preparation of food, and leisure pursuits. Items that reflect community life include that from educational establishments, societies, churches and public houses, local Guy Fawkes Carnivals. Rural life is represented by a small collection of agricultural machinery and tools, blacksmiths’ bellows, saddlers’ tools and dairy equipment. Industrial material includes an extensive brick and tile collection, brewing, glass making, bell founding, and the port trades of shipbuilding and rope and sail making. The maritime collection, includes a sizeable collection of model ships, a model representing Bridgwater Docks circa 1900, various documents, and a selection of craft tools from associated trades. The period covered is from Tudor to the present. A large collection of the museum’s brick and tile material was transferred to the Brick & Tile Museum at Bridgwater in the 1990s. Some Carnival material was transferred to the Bridgwater Carnival Centre in 2010.

  Costume and Textiles

  The collection, largely collected during the 1980s, consists mainly of women’s garments dating from the nineteenth century, with some examples of twentieth century items. Menswear is under-represented, but there is a stronger selection of underwear and children’s garments, and fashion accessories of the Victorian period. There is a small collection of samplers which includes some eighteenth century examples, and lace making paraphernalia. In 2000 the Museum acquired material to represent the products produced by the textile industries in Bridgwater in the 20th Century. Much of this material is of national significance, in particular products made by S. Leffman and Son (later Baird Clothing) and shirt and collar manufacturers. The collection is severely constrained by storage and display space, which is inappropriate for much of the material.

  Decorative Arts

  The museum has a small collection of Decorative Art items, which are illustrative of its major themes, in particular furniture and artefacts, associated with the seventeenth century and with Robert Blake. Of particular note are Blake’s sea-chest, and a stained glass panel by Edward Frampton dated 1889 depicting Blake’s funeral. On loan from the Alford family are items of personal effects connected with three Somerset families. The museum also has a small collection of presentation silver and artefacts associated with the Borough of Bridgwater. Of individual interest is a nineteenth century replica of the Alfred Jewel, as well as several clocks made in the town.

  Fine Art

  This is almost exclusively confined to two-dimensional graphic art, and comprises maps and prints of a local and topographic nature, watercolours and oil paintings dating from the seventeenth century. The material includes pencil drawings, pictures and silhouettes of three Somerset families, on loan to the museum. Over 300 drawings, paintings and water colours by John Chubb (1746-1818) represent a substantial proportion of the work of the Bridgwater-born artist. The collection is complemented by nineteenth century prints of his sketches of the town.

  Military History

  The collection consists mainly of material from the Civil War period, the Battle of Sedgemoor and the two World Wars. Some Battle of Sedgemoor material is on loan to the Battle of Sedgemoor Heritage Centre at Westonzoyland.

  Numismatics

  The collection includes coins, military commemorative medals of local significance, a small number of Somerset bank notes and about forty public house and trade tokens of local provenance.

  The Geographic Area of the Collections

  The Museum has acquired items originating from, used in, or having connections with, principally, but not exclusively the Town of Bridgwater and the parishes of the former Rural District comprising: Ashcott, Bawdrip, Bridgwater, Bridgwater Without, Broomfield, Burtle, Cannington, Catcott, Chedzoy, Chilton Polden, Chilton Trinity, Cossington, Durleigh, East Huntspill, Edington, Enmore, Fiddington, Goathurst, Greinton, Lyng, Middlezoy, Moorlinch, Nether Stowey, North Petherton, Othery, Otterhampton, Over Stowey, Pawlett, Puriton, Shapwick, Spaxton, Stawell, Stockland Bristol, Thurloxton, Wembdon, West Huntspill, Westonzoyland, Woolavington and, in the District of West Somerset, Stogursey. The Museum has also collected items relating to Burnham and Highbridge Carnival which relate to Bridgwater Carnival Clubs.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC