Collection: Museum of Enfield

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Like many Local Museums the collections of Enfield Museum have built up in a relatively ad hoc way. Originally the Borough had 2 museums – Broomfield House in Palmers Green, which housed the local and social history collections, including natural history artefacts and Forty Hall, where the decorative and fine art collections were stored and displayed.

  Broomfield House, a Grade II* house with a Tudor core, developed as a Museum almost by accident. It had been purchased by the then Southgate Urban District Council in 1903 along with the park, but with no real idea of what it would be used for. Museum collections had been building up since the discovery of mammoth bones and teeth in the Palmers Green areas a few years previously. These had been lodged at Southgate Town hall with a view to displaying them at some point in the future. The publicity surrounding them seemed to encourage residents to donate other local history related artefacts and eventually it was decided that some of the downstairs room in Broomfield House would be turned into a Museum and the House was opened to the public in 1925.

  The permanent displays of local and natural history and a full programme of temporary exhibitions were a very popular with visitors to the House, which also included a café and baby clinic. It was well loved and thought of by locals and is still remembered very fondly by older residents. It lasted until 1984 when the house suffered the first of several catastrophic fires. The collections were then put into storage in Forty Hall and eventually amalgamated with the rest of the, by then, LBE’s collections.

  Forty Hall, a small Grade I listed Jacobean mansion was bought by Enfield Borough Council in 1951 from its last private owners, with the express intention of turning it into a Local Museum for Enfield. It was refurbished and opened in 1955. For quite a while, particularly in the 1960s and 70s, it could not really have been described as a local museum as it was largely a display of historic room settings augmented by displays of decorative and fine art objects from the collection. The then curator appears to have had a good budget for purchasing items and chose to buy good examples of both fine and decorative art, although not many of them had any particular relevance to Enfield.

  From the mid-1980s Museum provision in the borough was centred on Forty Hall and many well-received exhibitions on local themes were held there. Despite threats to its very existence, this continued on and off until 2010 when the Hall was closed for refurbishment and the Museum was moved into the Dugdale Centre, a far more accessible building in Enfield Town Centre. Here a permanent Local History gallery and small art gallery are augmented by a temporary exhibition area, once again displaying local material in exhibitions on local themes.

  The previous Museum Officer joined in 2002 and one of the first jobs was a complete examination of the collections to enable a plan for conservation to be drawn up and decisions to be made on where the gaps were and what type of material would continue to be collected.

  Since the current Museum Officer joined in 2021, an emphasis has been placed on making the collection more relevant and representative of the diverse communities within the London Borough of Enfield.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The collection contains approximately 20,000 artefacts which illustrate the local, social and political history of the people of the London Borough of Enfield (the geographical area has defined by the Local Government Act of 1963).

  The collection dates from prehistoric to the borough today, and includes the following:

  Social History

  Includes items relating to community, domestic, family, personal and working life. The majority of the items date from the late Victorian period to the present day. The collection includes a quantity of costume consisting of male, female and children’s dress together with accessories, uniforms and civic regalia. The costume mainly dates from the 20th century but there are some notable items of women’s dress from the 19th century and an 18th century silk brocade gown.

  There is also a good range of artefacts and material from the Second World War, acquired during and prior to the museum’s Enfield at War exhibition held in 2005, and mostly relating to the Home Front. Until 2019, social history items had been acquired in a similar way by being connected to a specific temporary exhibition – this has included First World War, wedding and sporting material. Since 2021, an emphasis has been put onto collecting social material that better represent the diverse communities of the borough.

  Industrial History

  These items are included in the social history collection and mainly consist of locally produced goods and items of social significance relating to the local industries in the borough. These include the type collection of valves from the Ediswan Factory, based in Ponders End, and a large collection of packaging items with a particular emphasis on items manufactured by the international ‘Metal Box Company’. There is also a small range of objects representative of the other world-renowned factories and industries, such as Belling and Matchbox, which were in the borough. The museum started collecting objects highlighting industry of today for its 2023 borough wide Enfield Industry exhibition, part of the ACE funded Festival of Industry project. However, there are still gaps in the collection, especially looking at the textile industry and working lives of people who came to the borough to work for the large factories.

  Fine and Applied Art

  The fine art collection consists of pictures in all media and has three main components: pictures featuring local landscapes or people; pictures by artists with strong local links to the borough, and a third, general category.

  The applied art collection consists mostly of ceramics, glass, and furniture, with a few items in other plastic materials. There are significant holdings in 20th century ceramics.

  Natural Science

  The Museum of Enfield holds geological and natural history specimens including rocks and minerals, fossils and mounted animals, insects, and birds’ eggs collected during the Victorian period. Due to the unstable nature of most of this type of material and the difficulty in storing and conserving it, it has been decided not to add any more of this type of material to the collection.

  Archaeology

  Most of this material comes from excavations within the borough by the Enfield Archaeological Society. Items of note include a rare lead coffin and a glass flagon both from Roman excavations in the borough, and fragments of Elsyng Palace, a Royal residence dating from the 15th Century in the north of the borough. The collection is owned by the Society but cared for and stored by the museum.

  Handling Collection

  This consists of approximately 2,000 items of mainly unprovenanced material or objects, which have been offered to the museum and are duplicates of existing items in the main collection.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC