Collection: Blandford Town Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  In 2007, Blandford Museum Trust adopted in its entirety the Museums Association Code of Practice for Museum Authorities (1987), now the Code for Museum Governing Bodies.

  The history of Blandford Museum has been set out in the booklet: Blandford Forum Town Museum: The First 21 Years, by Pam Le Bas, former Museum Archivist. The majority of the museum collection has been the result of the efforts of first curator, Ben Cox, who both assembled the collections and managed the exhibits. The purpose of the museum is to display these objects and inform the public about them.

  Blandford Museum traces the history of Blandford and surrounding villages from prehistoric times to the present. Blandford Museum Trust was formed in 1975, and the museum was formally opened in 1985. The existing collections form the bulk of the collections held by Blandford Museum Trust. They contain mainly 19th and 20th century material, with a small range of items from the 18th century. We are starting to collect more items from second half of the 20th century and even very recent items if they are of special relevance to the Blandford area. This is putting a strain on our storage space and the Trustees are considering ways to deal with this problem. Currently, we use local storage, but one of our Strategic Aims is to acquire another building for expansion.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2023

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Palaeontology & Archaeology

  The museum holds a few fossils from the Jurassic to Cretaceous, such as dinosaur footprints and a partial skeleton of a Plesiosaur. There is also a small archaeological collection from the Upper Palaeolithic of the area in the immediate vicinity of Blandford. Later remains are from the Shillingston Roman villa, and Roman artefacts from Hod Hill. The archaeology display includes material from Cranborne Chase, Roman remains on loan from the County Museum, and Mediaeval artefacts.

  Mediaeval

  The Museum’s Mediaeval artefact collection is small because so much was destroyed by the devastating fire in 1731. Some stone work from the former church and a few artefacts form the current collection. Items do still periodically come into the museum.

  17th to 20th century artefacts

  These artefacts comprise the bulk of the museum’s holdings. They relate to five main areas:

  1. Agriculture – a collection of tools from rural Dorset, mainly 19th century. Some of these are on display on the ground floor.
  2. Domestic and Office – a collection of domestic artefacts, much of which is on display in the reconstructed Victorian kitchen, domestic music and office data equipment.
  3. Rural crafts – collections of tools for cobbler’s workshop and blacksmith’s forge, together with the material products of these crafts, are held by the museum and are on display in two reconstructed workshops. The museum also holds saddlers’ artefacts mostly on display.
  4. Transport – a key area of expansion in Blandford Museum is the collection of railwayana relating to Blandford railway station. A scale model of the station has been built, and railway signs and artefacts are being collected. A large collection of books and maps has recently been acquired, and photographs are being collected. We are currently developing collections of bus artefacts, including uniforms and bus signs.
  5. Toys – the museum holds a good collection of toys, including unique 19th century objects, mostly on display in a reconstruction of a Victorian child’s playroom. The museum also has a selection of Wend-al toys made during the mid 20th century in Blandford.
  6. Education – a small collection of 19th century school room artefacts are held, and these are on display with the complete costume and artefacts of a Blue Coat boy from the former Blandford charity school. We have also acquired the entire archive of St Leonard’s School which closed down in 2006.
  7. Public Services – small collections of police and fire brigade artefacts are held, mostly from the 19th and early 20th century. Ration books and other war time artefacts are held and on display.
  8. Military – good collections of medals, uniforms, military hardware, gas defence artefacts, home guard, ARP, and government literature. These are currently on display on the upper floor, including a purpose-built display from the Boer war to WW2. We hold a small collection of Nepalese objects relating to the Nepalese community residing in Blandford due to the Royal Signals Camp nearby.
  9. Coins and commemorative medals – small collections of these are held in the museum but mostly not on display.
  10. Costume – the museum holds a large costume collection, including domestic, military, Public Service, Local Government, rural smocks and a good collection of Victorian accessories such as scarves, umbrellas, quilts, embroidery, gloves, sticks and many others. There is also a small collection of Dorset buttons. In general the museum does not exhibit costume since there is a separate costume museum in Blandford, and we restrict exhibits to costumes of historical importance to Blandford.
  11. Town Council – there are several types of artefact recording the local political history of Blandford. There is a selection of civic robes; the town pillory is exhibited on the ground floor; a misericord is on loan from the Town Council; and the Bond doors from the old Customs and Excise on White Cliff Mill Street are in storage offsite to dry out for a year in preparation for conservation work to be carried out.
  12. Local individuals and families – material from some of the historical families is preserved, mostly photographic but some artefacts as well: the Portman family, Ryves and Rogers families, Jack Counter VC, and the Bastard brothers who rebuilt Blandford in the mid 18th century.
  13. Music – a small collection of musical instruments, some on loan from the Town Council such as the Serpent and Ophicleid, and a flute made by one of the Barfoot family in Blandford. We also hold the costumes and instruments from Blandford Marching Brass Band.
  14. Clocks – several Blandford clocks are held by the museum, including a hand-made gravity clock and a recently donated 1720’s (pre-fire) clock, which came without a case but was otherwise completely intact. We received a grant to build a modern glass case which allows the workings to be clearly seen.
  15. Art – the fine art collection consists of a number of early works by Alfred Stevens, the Victorian painter born and brought up in Blandford, and other works by David Wright, Herbert Neville, and Ruth Speke. During the construction of many of the recent exhibits we have also had paintings of people and places by Philip Le Bas, a well known artist, and Peter Rush, who specialized in papier mache figures. A recent diorama has also been contributed by Felicity Baker. Some of these artists have helped with contextual art for exhibitions. In addition, there are numerous paintings, drawings and etchings by other artists.

  Photographic Archive

  A photographic collection consists of circa 5000 images. Our main source has been the collection of Sam Jardine, who formerly had a photographic shop in Blandford, and was compiled by Ben Cox. It consists of black and white prints, colour transparencies from the collection of Ben Cox, and glass negatives from a variety of sources. The three main collections are of Blandford town and Dorset villages, and an increasing collection of photographs of the Somerset and Dorset railway. All have been digitized by the museum photo archivist. We are still collecting photos when possible. These are made available to users for a small fee.

  Archive

  Blandford Museum’s former curator published a number of books and booklets on many aspects of Blandford history, and in the course of this he built up an impressive archive. The archive is organized in two heads, Dorset villages and Dorset families, with a third currently being added on the Somerset and Dorset railway. We are always receiving new archival information, which is assessed by the Archive curators for relevancy to the museum and are incorporated into the collection accordingly.

  1. Dorset villages – all villages within the collecting area of Blandford Museum have documentation of varying degrees of detail. This is currently being cross-referenced with the photographic archive, and when complete all information will be retrievable from either source.
  2. Dorset families – most of the families of note living in and around Blandford have documentation of varying degrees of detail. This is being added to as information comes to hand.
  3. Somerset and Dorset railway – transfer of the archive collection of John Evans is currently under way. He has already donated his collection of ~400 catalogued maps and a number of his books, and he is cataloguing the main part of his collection prior to handing it over. This archive consists of photographs and collected documentation spanning the ~100 year life of the railway. This work is still in progress.
  4. Blandford area trades, services, and industries, local shops, archaeology, schools, and any other materials relevant to the Blandford area.
  5. A well curated set of records on all soldiers appearing on the war memorials of 17 local villages. This work was donated to the museum from the Blandford U3A.
  6. Materials relation to the British Monarchy (specifically Queen Elisabeth II Jubilees/death and King Charles III Coronation.
  7. A long term aim is to scan the entire archive and maintain it online, but so far we have been working to put lists of material and indexes online and making them available on the museum web site.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2023

  Licence: CC BY-NC