folk museums and collections in england

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Folk Museums and Collections in England Author(s): M. M. Banks Source: Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Mar., 1945), pp. 218-222 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1257639 . Accessed: 18/06/2014 01:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. and Taylor & Francis, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Folklore. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 194.29.185.230 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:08:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Folk Museums and Collections in EnglandAuthor(s): M. M. BanksSource: Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Mar., 1945), pp. 218-222Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1257639 .

Accessed: 18/06/2014 01:08

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. and Taylor & Francis, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to Folklore.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.230 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 01:08:49 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

218 Collectanea

course and she will conceive." 95 Or: " Take the milk of a bitch and wash with it her privy parts and immediately have intercourse with her and it will be efficacious with the help of God. And this has to be done several times." 96

Ass. " Take wool and dip it into ass's milk and put it on her navel at the time of intercourse and she will conceive." 97

Mare. " For pregnancy.... Let the woman drink mare's milk for nine consecutive days without her knowing and have intercourse with her ... and she will conceive immediately." 98

Bear. Of the use of bear's milk we have already heard above. Cow. " Let the woman wash her womb in milk when having inter-

course with her husband and she will conceive." 99 Goat. Of the use of goat's milk we have already heard above. Addi-

tionally let us mention the following charm: " Take the first milk of a goat before the kid had touched the udder, make a small cheese of it, put it into a new linen cloth, and tie it upon the left arm; it must never be taken off, and the woman will then bear children." 100

RAPHAEL PATAI

9s Sepher Segulloth we iddoth, manuscript, 74b. 96 Toldoth Adam, 4a, no. 9; Mar'eh Hayyeladim, 34b. 97 Mar'eh Hayyeladim, 35a. 98 Sepher Segulloth weHiddoth, manuscript, 67b, quoting R. Nathan Omri.

99 Sepher Rephuah wejlayyim, chapter 12, p. 35b. 100 Gaster, ibid. For the use of milk by various peoples as a cure for barrenness

see Hartland, Primitive Paternity, I, 62, I 14 ; Hovorka-Kronfeld, op. cit., II, 515, 516, 517.

FOLK MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS IN ENGLAND

THE infOrmation concerning the Museums and Collections in the following list has been supplied, very kindly, by the curators and owners, in some cases as the result of personal visits. With the meagre details quoted, highly interesting photos, notes and comments have also been given, but war-time conditions prevent their reproduction at the present time. The list cannot clairm completeness, for there are still private collections of which little is known, and even large collections, such as those in store in Bristol, await a favourable opportunity for housing, classification and exhibition.

The last entry tells the tragic tale of a fine collection dispersed; else- where too, smaller collections have been broken up at the death of the owner, whose family and friends have felt little sympathy with a preserva- tion of " old rubbish ".

Lines from the letter of a keen collector who bequeathed her Village Museum to a friend during her last illness this year, make a suitable intro- duction to a list of Museums and may guide would-be collectors to the happiest method of collection.

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Collectanea 219

" Downside, East Hendred, Berks. zoth February, 1944. .. I always say that the Museum made itself, for the village people

used to bring me old things which they thought would interest me. At last I had a few things put away in a drawer where they lived a lost life. Then I thought, and collected them together, and putting them together on a table in an unused little room thus made a refuge for these Old Age tools. This idea came to me partly by the Dedicatory Epigrams in the Greek Anthology commemorating the fishermen, huntsmen, etc., who in their old age hung up their simple instruments in the Greek Temples. I had also seen the collection of local relics in Winchcombe church.

As soon as I put the few things I had on a table I went out and waylaid one of the village people with her small children and declared the Museum open! This was Whit Monday, 1933. The children were de- lighted and others came and brought things or talked of old things and I began to ask the wheelwright, the blacksmith, the carpenter, the builder and work people of all sorts, and so I soon got to know about and to possess things I had never heard of or read of. I have learned all sorts of inter- esting things from men who had spent their life in farm work and other trades belonging to earlier times. I think I have between 700 and 8oo things....'' Lavinia Smith.

Bedfordshire. Luton Public Museum, founded 1927 to illustrate " every- day life and culture of the people of the district throughout the ages ". The Rural Industry Room is supplemented by exhibits of Hat and Lace Making Industries. A Children's Room shews samplers with furniture for children's use, toys and school equipment. There is also a School Loan Collection.

Berkshire. East Hendred Museum, opened 1932 ; a collection of domestic and agricultural tools and implements of the district. (See prefatory note above.)

Buckinghamshire. At Reddings, near Aylesbury, Mr. H. J. Massingham began to form his Collection about 1935. It consists largely of imple- ments of agricultural and rural cults and lace-making, with rare items such as a Regency sand picture, seventeenth century bells, a fine smock, and a magnificent set of spellikins.

Cambridgeshire. The Cambridge and County Folk Museum, founded 1935, is housed in the Old White Horse Inn and contains a collection illustrating the social life of the people of Cambridgeshire, with a shop window of the eighteenth century.

Devonshire. Torquay Museum exhibits old implements and domestic apparatus, chiefly of farmhouse type.

Dorsetshire. The Pitt Rivers Museum near Farnham has among its Archaeological specimens English, Scottish, as well as foreign pottery, and old bicycles, carts, etc.

Essex. Colchester and Essex Museum, in Colchester Castle, founded about 1846. A large collection of local agricultural implements. It includes the Holly Trees Museum, devoted to a very large collection of speci- men products of local industries and connected implements.

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220 Collectanea

Gloucestershire. Gloucester, Bishop Hooper's Lodging, a museum for the display of the Folk-Culture and Historical relics of Gloucestershire, opened 1935, with two Trades Rooms, cases of bells, specimens of fight- ing equipment of Fighting-Cocks and objects illustrating the home life of the district.

Cheltenham. The Municipal Museum contains Folk Culture exhibits and has a large collection of specimens stored for a possible Folk Museum of the future.

At Winson, near Cirencester, is a small collection of old tools con- nected with coach-building, ironwork from old Cotswold wagons, drays and harrows, with a few field-labourers' implements. Private owner Mr. W. W. Field.

Hampshire. Alton. The Curtis Museum, founded 1855 by William Curtis, M.R.C.S., in which a large section exhibits once-familiar objects of everyday local life in farms, hop-gardens and kilns, and from the woods and the downs such things as charcoal-burners, hurdle-, hop- and sheep-rack makers' material, also articles of sport or for the use of poachers and keepers. Indoor arts are amply illustrated with fine specimens of needlework, pottery and glass. (See Folk-Lore, March 1944.)

Winchester. The City Museum exhibits illustrations of the older clay pipe industry, grocers' and apothecaries' trades, home laundries, with old watches, toilet articles and a Sedan chair complete, also tools of the lace-workers.

The West Gate Museum also has a collection of objects of Folk Culture.

Alresford. Mr. P. W. Ford, Ropley, has a private collection of fire- marks, horse brasses, etc.

Herefordshire. Hereford. The Public Museum has a very large collection of domestic and agricultural Bygones and implements still in use, lace, pottery and many English costumes.

Hertfordshire. The Hertfordshire Museum, founded privately by Robert Thornton and William Frampton Andrews awaits adoption by the Town Council. It includes articles of kitchen and general fire appar- atus, with farmers', shepherds' and other countryside implements, also bells, barrel-organs, needlework, etc.

New Barnet. The Abbey Folk Park and Museum exhibits Folk arts and utensils of great variety, English and foreign, against a pre-historic background in its Park. An old barn has been arranged as a chapel with beautiful furnishing and decoration. Privately owned.

Isle of Man. At Cregneish the Folk Museum, founded 1937, illustrates Folk life by a crofter's cottage and a weaver's, with the old loom and other fittings. (See Folk-Lore, March 1944.)

Douglas. The Manx Museum with its Antiquarian collections has

specimens of Manx Folk culture. Lancashire. The Manchester Museum, of the University of Manchester,

now includes steadily growing collections of Folk material representing Transport; Fire, Light and Cooking; Agriculture and Domestic Life;

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Collectanea 221

Traps; Magic, etc. Collections made privately in Cheshire have been presented to the Museum, extending its area beyond Lancashire.

Near Ormskirk. The Rufford Village Museum is housed in Rufford Old Hall ; it was established in 1939 to illustrate life and work in S.W. Lancashire. Collection is from a certain area only which is represented by its agricultural implements, domestic chattels, and various crafts.

Leicestershire. Leicester, the City Museum and Art Gallery has a section dealing with local Folk Culture in the form of Bygones, Agricultural and Domestic.

Norfolk. Norwich. The Strangers' Hall Folk Museum started life privately in 19oo in a Medieval Merchant's house which with its con- tents was presented to the City in 1922. It illustrates the domestic life of the citizens of Norwich from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

Norwich has also the Bridewell Museum of Local Industries and the St. Peter Hungate Museum of Church Art, both of interest to folk- lorists.

Oxfordshire. The Pitt Rivers Museum (University of Oxford), noted for its Ethnological collections, has always collected British and other Folk material as part of its Ethnological Collections and is now making a special effort to increase and develop its department of British and European Arts and Crafts.

Somersetshire. Taunton Castle, where the Somerset County Museum has a special section for collected Folk Material and Bygones under the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society; exhibits date from approximately 1700 to 19oo and include Banners and Brasses; Lighting, Heating, Smoking and Fireside Appliances; Dairy, Farm, Kitchen and Weaving instruments; Needlework, Personal Belong- ings, etc.

Suffolk. Ipswich; Christchurch Mansion contains period furniture, and domestic Art and Bygones under the maintenance of the Corporation of Ipswich since 1894. The rooms are furnished in a sequence of periods from Tudor to Victorian.

Wiltshire. Salisbury; the Salisbury, South Wilts and Blackmore Museum exhibits in the Marsh Room things in every-day use in the City of Salisbury between 1250 and 1850, including the City Watch Horn, 1675, a brass lantern clock, made locally in 1636, clay pipes, wig-curlers, man-traps, fireside appliances, etc. The Wyndham Gallery contains the famous Giant and Hobnob of the Merchant Tailors of Salisbury pageants. In period rooms are objects connected with various City Companies and trade tokens.

Worcestershire. Bewdley; Tickenhill Manor Park and House have been dedicated by Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Parker to the formation of a Folk Museum; begun in 1935. Collection is carried on in the Midland area and includes objects and tools from many crafts and industries to be exhibited later in shops of the old style in a village street after the model of Skansen in Sweden; this will represent much of the life and activities of older times. In the House rooms are under arrangement

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222 Collectanea in period styles. Household goods, personal belongings, objects and implements from many crafts and industries have been collected during these first years of the Museum.

Yorkshire. York possesses a noted Folk Museum, based on the large Collection made by Dr. J. L. Kirk of Pickering; it forms a section of the York Castle Museum, with a street of Jacobean and Georgian shops on the ground floor, fully equipped with appropriate wares, toys and articles of dress and household use. On the upper floors are musical instruments of ancient date, constable truncheons, fireplace fittings, pillow-lace tools, etc. The Museum was opened in 1938 under the charge of the York Corporation, and the Collection then filled nine galleries and ten rooms with much left over for an annexe.

Barnard Castle. Bowes Museum; in 1935 the Trustees of this Museum arranged the Teesedale Rooms on the upper floor as a Folk Museum where archaeological exhibits and objects of Folk culture already collected might stand together on view. These last are dis- played in a Teesedale kitchen and dairy with a Victorian room attached. In attic rooms implements of weaving, rope-making, and clogging are on view.

Hull. The Collections made by Mr. T. Sheppard, Director of the Hull Museum, arranged as an old-time street in Wilberforce House have been seriously damaged by enemy action, but few objects have been rescued from the d6bris.

Essington. The Old Tithe Barn with its Collection was reported by the Museums Association to be still intact in 1941, but was vacated later, only the smaller items have been preserved and are stored in Hull. Added from a list of Museums containing Folk Collections and Bygones

kindly sent by the Museums Association: London. The Science Museum. Sussex. Brighton, The Museum and Art Gallery.

Hastings, The Public Museum. M. M. BANKS

A BUCKINGHAMSHIRE BLACK DOG.

In 1938 I was told the following by a relative of a family farming at Stewkley, Bucks, about 188o.

Leighton Buzzard was their market town to which they drove via Soulbury. Often after dark, a large black dog would run beside the dog- cart between Stewkley and Soulbury, always disappearing just before entering the latter place. The dog was not considered as frightening, and on one occasion a lady bent over and attempted to stroke it (an indica- tion of its size) at which it at once vanished.

L. F. TEBBULT

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