Time to catch up - mostly as I'm laid up today.  This is partly down to the heat, partly down to a cold, probably not helped by a couple of nights under canvas at Leiston Abbey with DigVentures an a couple of days of rail travel either side.  Very cold nights (shiveringly so) and boiling hot days.  Oh well.

DigVentures was a load of fun.  With funding all over the sector squeezed these days then crowfunding is definitely a way forward.  

http://digventures.com/


Currently about to start work at the Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture at Berriew near Welshpool - working on finishing cataloguing their collection on MODES and imaging their collections.  This will also mean looking at 123D with Richard Smith - sculpture needs 3D imaging to be properly imaged, being a 3D medium.  Interesting times - especially as this can lead to 3D printing.  The possibility of creating surrogates easily for display or handling collections opens up new possibilities.

 http://andrewloganmuseum.org/

Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture

Other work at the moment is more work for the LMS-Patriot Project.  The new display will be at the People's History Museum in Manchester.  Looking forward to this one!

http://www.lms-patriot.org.uk/

Catch-up time – been a long time since I posted.

Coming to the end of the Llangollen contract and with the few things in the pipeline yet to bear fruit, it’s been a month or so of going on training courses – free, offered by CyMAL  and mostly local, as well as doing some interesting work in public engagement.

This work has been for the Museum of Cannock Chase. The museum is on the site of one of the many collieries of the Cannock coalfield.  The museum has been given some money for various upgrades and new interpretation.  The job of myself and the great Ruth Moore Williams (her website: http://www.songandstory.org.uk) was to dress up – Ruth as a cleaner at the pit, myself as the lampman- and to interact with visitors, doing some first person interpretation.  Ruth also provided music on harp, hurdy gurdy – there’s literally nothing she doesn’t play.  We’d also ask them, after our performances, what they would like to see at the museum .

Making sure that they knew that we could be trusted with the information – we were working with the museum but were independent from it – was important.  The public had to be made aware that we could be told anything.  They could say what they liked to us, tell us what wasn’t working for them at the museum (both in interpretation and facilities), what stories were being missed out, how things could be done better, etc.  It’s interesting to see the difference between this and just using visitor feedback sheets or visitors’ book.  The response is more vivid, of course, and with the barriers brought down by the interaction through the performance, visitors can feel free to talk – sometimes for minutes.  After writing up the visitors’ responses in between performances we could write a report that the museum will, hopefully act on.  It may originate with the museum’s management, but it does show that people’s perceptions of the museum can help create change.  The one problem with this is that it does not engage non-users, so we have other days planned outside the museum – indeed Ruth’s done another at Tamworth Castle.  

Ah, dressing up and meeting the public.  As interesting as it is to spend days amongst collections and cataloguing artefacts, if I couldn’t do days like this now and again with public interaction I’d go insane.   Looking forward to a weekend digging at Leiston Abbey with DigVentures in July.  Fun awaits!

It's audience participation time!  Wednesday saw the first of two days of a public engagement exercise for the Museum of Cannock Chase.  In practice this meant some first person interpretation in costume as the lamp man at the Valley Colliery - the museum being on the site of the old colliery.
The point of the days - apart from entertaining and informing - are to ask visitors what they'd like to see at the museum, what works for them, what doesn't and what improvements they would like to have made there.

It's a great idea, rather than just having a form with a suggestions box, or a visitors' book.  The interpretation and storytelling engage the visitors, draw them in, and once you have that connection you are free to ask them about the museum.  It does help to let people know that you're independent and that they are able to say anything they like. It is much more immediate, people's reactions to the facilities, interpretation, exhibits - yes, and staff - are perhaps more raw, but have more impact. They are less easy to ignore.  It will be interesting to find out how the public react on the second day - May 10th - and what results come from the exercise.

I've become one of the crowd-funding community with DigVentures.  I've yet to decide if I can make it to the dig at Leiston Abbey in Suffolk this summer, but have been asked to write a blog on "A Day in the Life of..." sort of thing.  Be good to get the trowel out again!

Now for a week of artefact imaging, policy writing and work on my AMA.

Incidentally, if anyone wants a signal box from the old Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, please contact Wigan Culture and Leisure Trust as they have one to dispose of - looking for a good home.

OK, first thing, yes, it's black armbands time for the last Time Team.  A terrible idea to axe it, as everyone knows.  Even the show's detractors can't but admit that it has popularised archaeology in Britain, even, to use the dreaded phrase, made it "cool".  Honestly, though, I wonder how many current archaeologists and historians were inspired by this programme?  How many archaeology courses are still going through people signing up for it spurred on by this hour of Sunday tea-time viewing?  Shows the power of a media idea done well.  New horizons await apparently, very interested in Dig Village...

Giving a talk on cataloguing on Wednesday night.  Well I say that, but as Llangollen - where I'm giving the talk at the museum - has had so much snow, electricity off all over town, Horseshoe Pass and A5 blocked, I'm just hoping things improve! The talk is mostly on the document collection, especially the many Victorian auction posters that show how the town grew, but also trace the many farm auctions - showing times of agricultural depression.  Unravelling a story from such documents is always a fantastic feeling.

Some of the farm auction posters name the horses to be sold, along with their particulars.  You can imagine them running in the fields.  

Busy time recently organising the loans for Llandudno Museum.  Some were from people just round the corner, some from the Royal Collection. If you're ever around Llandudno, it's worth popping in, especially for the Japanese armour presented to the Prince of Wales(later Edward VIII) in 1922. (see photos above - pictures by John Lawson-Reay)

Keeping going with the museum documentation for the Accreditation of the museum too.  Policies and plans - all necessary and all part of the unseen work that heritage professionals and volunteers have to do to keep going - and something that some people - mentioning the management at no county councils in particular - seem to understand.

Heritage. It isn't easy and it isn't cheap.

New Year, new challenges.  
January has been pure chaos - mostly with projects winding down and at the same time the usual rush with document writing as everyone applies for grants.  Being held up by the snow hasn't helped, but if you will have work that includes driving through the Welsh mountains...  

What can I say... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eT40eV7OiI

Have had some good tours of various stores - not only Llandudno Museum and Llangollen Museum where I'm just coming to the end of the collections management projects, but also at Wigan Museums and at Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (which hereafter on the blogs I'll refer to as LIME, on account of it being hard on the ol' fingers constantly typing in Llangollen International... you get the idea). 

The variety of these stores and the many different collections shows what a resource we keep for the nation (however you define it), from large industrial pieces to newspaper cuttings.  It's the living database of the country's history.  Looking at the way it is regarded shows, however, that it is the biggest struggle with the authorities - whoever they are - who don't (literally) see the worth of the stores, concentrating on the "bums on seats" and more attractive front of house that is the museum displays open to the public.

More interest in the Contemporary Collections, mostly within Wales, but this also has its own problem - what do we mean by "contemporary"?  With the sports project in contemporary collections we basically used the idea of being artefacts post-1950.  As good a definition as any.  Some places see it as just the last 20 years - or even the last 5!  Is there a definition that all in the museum profession can agree on?  Just a thought...

Will shortly be visiting the Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture at Berriew.  Now that is a change of style in collections.  http://andrewloganmuseum.org/

MA Conference thoughts.

First off, apologies for the delay - haven't been well.

OK, thoughts on the MA Conference and other events.

Great conference, good to be up in Edinburgh, the guys at the National Museums made us all very welcome, from the first evening's reception at the National Portrait Gallery to the ceilidh at the National Museum of Scotland.  Liverpool will have to go the extra mile next year, but personally, it'll be easier for me being just around the corner.  Come up with some good events, Liverpool, or I'll commute to conference next year! Save myself the expense of the hotel (Jury's Inn in my case, which was OK, room good, food average).

The keynote speakers were good on the whole, Martin Roth of the V&A and Aamer Anwar being the star turns.  Martin Roth's very dry and to the point speech and answers to questions from the floor were a particular highlight.  I thought that both of those keynotes were saying a lot of what David Anderson of Amgueddfa Cymru was leading on, the need for museums to be aware of social justice issues. It was good to go to those events and find more Welsh delegates, especially Morrigan and Laura from Bodelwyddan Castle - and Lesley-Anne from CyMAL who is, after all my AMA Mentor.

The first keynote by Fiona Hyslop was a bit political for most, judging from what I'd overheard form delegates leaving the hall afterwards.  A little less overt politicking in favour of the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum would have been nice and a bit more concentrating on the issues confronting museums here and now would have been more welcome.  Having said that, expect more of the same in Cardiff in 2014 when Conference is there, but a bit more subtle, pointing out differences between Westminster and Cardiff Bay.  We're a long way from an independence referendum here in Wales.  Then again if the Scots do go their own way...  Wales will still probably stay in the Union for the foreseeable future. Either way, on the day we were not there to be addressed like a constituency meeting and from my observations many resented the fact that we were.

Anyway, back to the themes. David Anderson's sessions, especially the "Save the Children" on Thursday afternoon were good on highlighting the possibilities for museums in tackling the social justice agenda.  Will Morecombe from Rhyl Adventure Playground (RAPA) and myself went down to Cardiff in March to do a presentation on our involvement in Communities First areas and partnership working, so I was aware of some of the issues raised by David and Huw Lewis, Welsh heritage minister (who also spoke at the Cardiff event).  Living in Rhyl, I'm well aware of the problems of child poverty and cultural poverty in the area - it's certainly something that museums can work on.  At Rhyl, when I was with Denbighshire we worked with communities in creating exhibitions to express their views of their community and follow up with outreach events.  It's one of those areas where with the right eyes you see a whole range of possibilities.  OK, a cliché, but it is seeing a challenge rather than a problem. 

The other sessions I went to were mostly about education and play.  It was nice - and unexpected, I admit - on Friday night to find someone coming to speak to me: Dea Birkett of Kids in Museums. I was involved in KiM events with Denbighshire. It's a great cause and an ideal opportunity.  It was good to catch up with Dea.  It made me think about Llangollen Museum where I'm currently working.  There is one alcove (the building is a 16-sided (!) 1980s building, former library) that is the children's section, with books, toys and dressing up. I was wondering if it could be otherwise used - a bit of creative thinking sees the whole museum as the children's section.  Why not make costumes available at the door?  Why not have the needs of children catered to throughout the displays, not pushed into a corner which can be little more than a crèche?  Hopefully, with the upcoming Sharing Treasures project with the National Museum of Wales that Llangollen are involved with, this might be a possibility.  

More thoughts to come, hopefully, but really a Conference to set the mind into overdrive.  Always come home with pages of notes and ideas buzzing...

Off to Conference!

Off to the Museums Association Conference in Edinburgh - report and recent events coming up at the weekend!

Well, it's been an interesting week or so - I've been trying to write about it but this blog has been down.

Anyway, after some good meetings last week in Bangor to talk about possible research projects, Wednesday was the Federation of Museums and Galleries in Wales AGM.  Much better known as the Fed.  Saves a load of oxygen and typing.  The most interesting things, apart from the guest speakers was the Contemporary Collections project and "Rhannu".  

Contemporary collecting does split the museum world.  Not only do people disagree about whether we should be collecting modern items at all (although this varies between institutions), but they differ on what "Contemporary" means.  Apparently in some places it means only in the last 10 years, but the Sports project which has been running for the last 18 months or so in Wales used items since 1950. That project, which resulted in a travelling exhibition around the country to highlight contemporary collecting, and for which I was a member of the steering group, was valuable in making heritage people think about collecting modern items (whatever that means).  Perhaps a national definition will arise.  When it's mentioned most people (non museum folk) often thing of computers and modern electronic gadgets, the objects that define the modern age, that separate generations.  The latest project, however, is on Natural History collections.  Considering most collections of this type seem to be stereotyped as Victorian collections of stuffed birds and insects on pins this may seem odd, but a contemporary natural collection may tell us more about the environment, climate change and ecosystems as we now understand them.  It'll be an interesting project.

Rhannu has a lot of potential - a meeting place, really, for museum professionals throughout the country to swap ideas, information, best (and sometimes not so good) practice and case studies. 

The good thing about working in Wales is the networks - there is a very good feeling of everyone in it together, people keeping in touch, support always being there.

Thursday's meeting at Llandudno Museum was an excellent opportunity for people to make known how they felt about the museum and how its future should be shaped.  Having just been awarded a contract to work on their collections and train up staff to work in collections management there (for which I must thank again the most excellent Helen Bradley) I'll be a part of the process which will look at the collections.  I'll be using the CyMAL Significance Model to highlight the stars of the collection and eventually this will lea to a re-interpretation of the museum's collections.  Exciting project, starting next week - can't wait!

The main notable thing about Friday's interview in Scarborough - apart from the fog pretty much all the way between Leeds and the coast - was the presentation that I had to give on an object from the stores and say how I'd use it in a Key Stage 2 education session.  There was a choice of 4 objects to choose from, but as soon as I saw them I knew what I wanted to use.

So the main thing I'll remember from Scarborough is a stuffed kakapo. See below.

Still working on the collections at Llangollen Museum, two months of that still to go.

Last word of the day, on contemporary collections.  When thinking about technology remember this:

Everyone who has ever lived, lived in the Modern Age.

Today has been another collections management day - training the Llangollen Museum staff in the use of their collections database, in their case, PastPerfect IV.  If you've used MODES, PastPerfect can be a bit of a shock to the system.  To be honest, its search functions aren't as good.  I admit I'm wondering if one of my bugbears about it is that it's an American product, so addresses and phone numbers that you need to input in the UK aren't in the right format - same for dates (ugh!) and there's no flexibility in the system.  Give me MODES Compact any day!  Anyway, having got to grips with it I've been able to give the training necessary for the staff to accession and search once my bit of the project has been completed.

Still two months and a bit to go at Llangollen - now searching for the next job.

Time for a major update - sorry for not updating this for ages but between work and being a bit unwell, it's been one of those things that have gone by the board - more posts to follow - little and often will be the policy from now on I think!

I've had a good time digging at Project Eliseg (for more info see: http://www.projecteliseg.org/).  The dig at the 9th Century Eliseg's Pillar near Llangollen was great experience and the finding of the late Neolithic / early Bronze Age cist burial was a major find, showing the length of settlement in the area.  Have a look at the videos on the website or on YouTube.  Sadly it looks like that's the last year of excavations at Eliseg, for the time being at least.  The cairn beneath the pillar will keep some of its secrets for a while yet.  There were also medieval and probable Iron Age burials, but they had either been disturbed or were empty.  Either way, it was nice having a bit of a dig and deal with the hard historical evidence in the ground before it is sanitised and "packaged" with conservation and interpretation.

My work at the Sir Henry Jones Museum is nearly done - just waiting for the replies from those people who have loaned items to the Museum and that'll be it.  The Forward Plan and Conservation Care Policy and Plan are done, and the Museum will be all ready for their Accreditation return in a month.  

I'm also looking to going on the CyMAL register of Museum Mentors, for which the preparation of the documents and all the help I've been giving to Llangollen and Llandudno Museums has been good practice.  Other projects await....

I must thank Sarah Paul, Collections Adviser of CyMAL for her help and support.  I've also been doing some work on Significance and sending this to Sarah for help with the new Significance Model that CyMAL will shortly be bringing out.  If you ever have any questions on your collections ask Sarah - she's brilliant.

Llangollen Museum is an ongoing project, but most of the collection is now described and properly catalogued using PastPerfect IV.  I'm training the staff next Wednesday, and then doing a talk on Roman pottery to the Llangollen Brownies in the evening.  

It's all varied and all go, isn't it?

Well, it's been a busy time.  The last week has been taken up with an archaeological dig - can't say where or what was found - or not - until I get the go ahead and the relevant authorities have had their say, but it's been a load of fun - even the shovelling what seemed like tons of soil from the spoil heaps. Then again, retrospect is a wonderful thing - wasn't so good when I was sweating buckets after an our of shovelling or mattocking.  I can say that I'll be doing it again at the end of the month at Eliseg's Pillar near Valle Crucis Abbey near Llangollen. Can also say that over the last week it's been good being on the same site as Stewart Ainsworth, probably better known from Time Team - he's the one who looks at the landscape and tells them what's been going on all along!  As someone who hasn't dug in a while it was good to get the trowel out.

I've been working mostly on Collections Management again, both at Llangollen and at the Sir Henry Jones Museum.  Once I've collected my thoughts I'll say more on the collections side.  Also just embarking on the main part of my AMA.  Did a good talk last night at Llandudno Museum on the use of MODES to the Friends of the Museum - many thanks to Richard, Debbie and Sian James, it was a good evening, even if I was exhausted after hot footing it from... wherever we were digging.

Most of what I'll be doing soon will be on the subject of Museum Accreditation - bust week next week when I'll know more of where I stand.

Thought I hadn't posted in a while - many apologies!

Well, I'm now into writing the documentation for the Syr Henry Jones Museum and well into the collections at Llangollen.  Again, the job is made by the items you find, everything from a sheep's skull to Samian ware.  

Good meeting with Sarah Paul of CyMAL, and Helen Bradley, looking at the Accreditation Standard and what it means in practical terms along with a look at the stores of Conwy Council  and some from the Syr Henry Jones Museum as well as a peek at the collections of Llandudno Museum.  Nearly finished my stint there - good to see a job to its end, and the report to the Friends and the Trustees will be worth all the digging around in boxes - or is it the other way round?

Sarah gave us good advice on the documentation needed for the museums and the various plans and policies needed for certain sizes of institution expected by accrediting bodies. Very pleasant meeting, helped by the fact that Sarah is one of the more knowledgeable people you'll every meet, good company, and that we were meeting in the cafe at the Mostyn Art Gallery - with some very good cake!  Thoroughly recommeneded if you're in Llandudno  - 2 mins from the station.  30 seconds in you run!

The weather has been pretty bad up here,but in comparison with many other places, we've got off lightly - the worst I've experienced were flooded roads between Llangernyw and Abergele and later just outside Llangollen.  Thankfully none of it put a damper on the International Eisteddfod - great to see choirs and bands on the streets of Llangollen despite the drizzle.  I'm not fit to judge their singing but 10/10 for determination.  Also it's pretty great working in an office where live music is going on outside.

Then again I'm going to forsake the office and storerooms for the outside a bit more this summer as I'll be doing a little digging this year - always great to do some practical archaeology.  Trowels out - and also, given the weather,the wellies!

Will be booking my place at the Museums Association Conference this week - a lovely couple of days in Edinburgh.  

The big news of the week up here really ought to be Susan Dalloe leaving Denbighshire this week.  A fantastic servant of the county, Susan has been at the heart of museums and heritage throughout the region as well as just Denbighshire.  As a committee member of the Federation of Museums and Galleries of Wales Susan has been a national figure who certainly deserves better than that she has been served with by the political masters in the county.  Better pastures await!  Added to which those who really know heritage in North Wales know what Susan has done for the Denbighshire sites, including all the independent museums that she has mentored and I must include my personal thanks for her part in developing my career in the heritage industry, which has been immense.  If I've learned how to do anything properly, I've learned it under her tutelage.  

Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got til it's gone.

Good line for a song that...

Good day today at the Syr Henry Jones Museum - working on their documentation.  Interesting exhibition they have on at the moment - it's about E.H. Jones, Syr Henry's son who was an prisoner of the Turks after being captured during the Kut debacle in 1916.  His experiences are detailed in his excellent book "The Road to En-Dor", which I believe that Maj. Pat Reid mentions in "The Colditz Story" as being an inspiration for British escapers during the Second World War. 

At the museum you'd find out how E.H. Jones corresponded with his parents through postcards using a code of sorts - great story and another reason to go and check out this small but perfectly formed museum.  It's a tribute to the truly "hands-on" trustees of the Syr Henry Jones Museum that they have a vibrant exhibition programme and an immaculately kept museum. Have a trip up to Llangernyw and check it out - only a quarter of an hour or so from either Llanrwst or Abergele, and well worth it.

Very busy recently - in fact it’s been an interesting couple of weeks – now working on two main projects.  The first is at Llangollen Museum, where I’ve been awarded the contract as Documentations Officer – 3 days a week for the next few months making sure that their collections are fully up to date, correct and all with the proper images.  It’s similar to the work I’ve been doing in Llandudno in many respects, but with the added photography and scanning.  

It’s always good to look through collections like this – ok it’s not exactly “every day is like Christmas!”, but there is so much scope for the curious curator (good name for a book – or a tv series – someone commission it now, I’ll take 10%... maybe 20…).  Favourite find so far has been the log book that I’ve mentioned on the Llangollen Museum Facebook page –I’ve been asked to blog on my findings by the management.  It was the log book of and RAF pilot who had gone on to fly gliders and detailed his missions on D-Day, taking across a party from the Royal Ulster Rifles (my grandfather’s old regiment, albeit in the 14-18 war) and later in the Rhine Crossings.  

I’ll be doing a bit of museum management at Llangollen as well and the possibility of a little practical archaeology later in the summer too… looking forward to it.

The other project is at the Syr Henry Jones Museum, Llangernyw.  It’s one of those museums that can get overlooked because it’s in a village in the hills between Abergele and Llanrwst and is, at first glance, only on one topic – it’s the childhood home of the aforementioned Syr (Welsh spelling) Henry Jones, who went from mending shoes in his father’s workshop, to gaining the Chair of Philosophy at Glasgow, and the museum celebrates his life an works – it is certainly a good story of local boy makes good, but it also offers a snapshot of Welsh rural life in the nineteenth century and points out the importance of education in Welsh society at the time.  The museum is well worth the drive through some very pretty scenery.  I’ll be working on the museum’s collections management but also their forward plan and documentation as they prepare for their Accreditation return in the October tranche.  

I’ve been working on collections management a lot recently, so it will be good and useful to work on the strategic side of museums management. 

Today was also the launch of the People’s Collection in North-East Wales.  It’s great to see results of the work you’ve put in, even if it was over a year ago – or maybe it just seems it…  The launch was at Wrexham Museum, which meant that apart from catching up with my AMA mentor I was able to view the exhibition “To War with Wellington” based on Michael Crumplin’s private collection of Napoleonic memorabilia.  Unmissable if you’re anywhere near the area and a Napoleonic fan.  Which I am.  

On the subject of a year ago, tonight also saw the broadcast of Lost Routes of Britain with Griff Rhys Jones – glad Nantclwyd y Dre got some publicity – and also satisfying to see the on screen experts tell the viewing audience the odd thing that you told them off-camera just a few moments before!  I was just out of shot a few times too… a good experience and an amazing chance to publicise Nantclwyd y Dre, which ought to be better known and more visited.

Will be spending a few days a week this summer down in Llangollen - great place to be! I'll be at the museum on Parade Street, working on the collections, doing some staff training on collections management systems and a load of imaging for the museum database and for their website. 

Well, with many thanks to Mr Dave Snape the website is looking good and the new e-mail on there is working nicely.

Rainy day for the Jubilee -wet weekend in all, but the long weekend's festivities and my work in Llandudno has sent me thinking.

There has long been a debate over what sort of history is taught in schools, with the debate being mostly along the lines of traditional "battles and kings" history against "how ordinary people lived in times past" history.  In the right balance, nothing wrong with either approach in the right balance.  If you look at television, there seems to be much more of this balanced approach.  You can't have one without the other.

In the month or so I've been at Llandudno there have been two aspects to the collections.   In in one room there was a large collection of military memorabilia including items from the Royal Artillery Club collection.  Elsewhere there have been items mostly associated with the Welsh Kitchen. The way I've been sorting them into their boxes in their separate rooms is simply to distinguish between "Military Boxes"  and "Social Boxes".  I do wonder whether this is a true division or just a handy label to use for sorting out such collections, with the whole debate on what sort of history we are taught causing this division in the mind.

Is it because the history of Britain since 1945 has been so troublesome with the loss of international status going with the Empire that we are now looking inwards, perhaps - or looking differently - at history, and being more interested in the daily life of ordinary people?  Perhaps the most interesting objects are those where both sides collide - the small and personal but associated with the major historical event.  The best artefact that I've come across in the last 6 months or so was a postcard.

The card came in a box that had been at Bodelwyddan Castle, almost definitely for longer than I had been working for Denbighshire.  Morrigan Mason at Bodelwyddan told us there were some Rhyl associated items that had turned up - and would we like them.  Morrigan had done an excellent job in organising the postcard collection, especially as there were a few hundred of them.

One afternoon I had a good look at them.  Pretty much all were of the coastal resorts and towns throughout North Wales, not just Rhyl.  Many had been posted, stamps and clear postmarks being wonderful news to the social historian.  The one that really got to me, however, was a postcard of the Marine Lake, Rhyl Miniature Railway, only a few years after it opened. It was a coloured in photograph of one of the engines on the tracks full of holidaymakers in their best clothes, enjoying the experience.  It could have been a sunny Bank Holiday snap.  What makes the card special, however, is when you associate the happy picture on the front with the postmark.

The postmark was dated 9.30 PM on 3rd August 1914.  The last day, indeed the last few hours of peace before the horrors of the First World War.  

Suddenly the happy snap is a memory of the last hours of a world that was about to destroy itself forever, a confident world, certain of its values, and sure that these values and Britain's place in the world would remain forever.  The picture becomes more poignant.  The postcard becomes a symbol of lost innocence and a world about to be left in ruins.  The bright colours contrast with the now familiar photos of men in uniform, black and white such as the ones I've inherited from my own grandfathers, both of whom went through the trenches.  The postcard is such a simple thing, the writing just a short message on the "having a lovely time" theme, but because of when it was sent - and also think of when it was received - it becomes so much more.  A cheap little item when originally bought and posted, now to the right people, priceless.

Further  television thought - good to see Griff Rhys Jones' Britain's Lost Routes - mostly because he came to Nantclwyd y Dre last year to do some of the filming of the series - it'll be on the programme where they're covering the pilgrim trail from Holywell to St Davids.  They spent most of the day at Nantclwyd, cooking in the garden as it went dark.  Nice to meet Griff and the crew who were excellent guests, even the next morning when he signed our guest book. 

http://www.peteralexheritage.co.uk/

End of another week down in Llandudno, but may be spreading my wings a bit - possible work coming up in Llangollen and in Conwy - watch this space. 

This week's Accreditation Briefing was interesting, looking at the new standard and how to fill in the forms online may not be essential for a freelancer, but it does impact on the work you do.

The session, led by Emma Chaplin pointed out the need for Accreditation to be an ongoing process, not just a case of  "whew, we passed this time - it's OK to sit tight for a few years now!"  Some of my upcoming work might be entwined with upcoming Accreditations, so it'll be all hands to the pump with Forward Plans and other documentation.  It'll make a change from collections management, although there will be some of that, but I won't be getting my hands dirty by actually handling anything. Damn.  It's been nice the last few weeks having a look at everything from Civil War armour to Eleventh Century Coins, to beer bottles. Yes, no end of beer bottles....  All in a collection, I should point out!

Website : http://www.peteralexheritage.co.uk ought to be up and running in a week or so. That is the plan....

Great week, including getting down to London for the Museums and Heritage Show at Earls Court. Although it's mostly a trade show with stands that are more designed for the museum and heritage organisations the seminars on engagement with young people and on marketing were pretty good, although there was nowhere near enough space to fit everyone in who wanted to attend - note for next year - more space for the seminar rooms!  Good to see Dr Sian James -who I'd run into in Llandudno only the day before - from the wonderful folks at Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, and Annette Butler from Framework.  Their transportable cases made life a load easier when I was with Denbighshire.   Putting three collapsible museum cases in the back of an old Punto is no easy task, but achievable without too much bending of the space-time continuum. 

Must also apologise to all who had to clean up afterwards as I left my business cards on as many tables as I could.  Must have been a few left over!

In between another couple of days of working on the collections at Llandudno Museum.  Having a look at the Museum's environmental controls this Tuesday, so more on this subject then.

Then the week got not so good.  When one of the most competent people in the museum world in Wales hands in her notice,something somewhere is very very wrong.  There's not much more I can say here, due to legal considerations, but most of us, in the north anyway, know who the guilty men are and how it is a demonstration, even in these troubled times, of how not to manage a museums service and how to alienate an demoralise staff.

Men that, having been given the Welsh Government's "Museums Strategy for Wales" have not read it.  Who told me that they did not see how it applied to them.   These are people responsible for a heritage service - along with other services, yes, but when some of the most important heritage sites in the region are in their hands you despair.  See my previous post on how local authorities see the museum future.

Dark days, my friends, dark days...

It's been a busy couple of weeks down at Llandudno Museum.  On one level it's great to be let loose to catalogue an entire collection but also daunting due to its size as well as finding items for which you find you need to create a whole new record.  Looking at the CyMAL Significance Model has also helped to see things in a new light, and will hopefully be a tool to help with the further development of the collections.

Wednesday was a great day out in Llanelidan with Dave and Polly Snape.  I've worked with Polly with a schools drama and exhibition project at Plas Newydd, Llangollen.  Great work, helped by Polly's seemingly endless energy. Dave is currently setting up my website for my consultation work. Coming to a webspace near you soon at www.peteralexheritage.co.uk.  

Thoroughly recommend the Leyland Arms at Llanelidan too - excellent chowder. It was a nice chance to re-connect with my old job, visiting Llanelidan church, seeing the grave of John Jones, Coch Bach y Bala, who was shot nearby in 1913after breaking out of Ruthin Gaol.  Inside is also the memorial to Eubule Thelwall who lived in and added to Nantclwyd y Dre.  A truly wonderful little village church.

Some more thoughts on community museums, looking at Wireless in Wales and Denbigh.  The enthusiasm of Wireless in Wales’ committee and volunteers is great, and it’s becoming increasingly necessary.   Anyone working in the heritage industry knows that the last few years have been tough. To some extent, devolution has worked well for both Scotland and Wales, where we’ve been cushioned from the very worst of the cuts – it’s been observed by someone I’ve worked with that local authority museums’ services in England have undergone a “massacre”.  Jobs being lost, museums closed, volunteers now being the order of the day.  Of course, we couldn’t escape this forever, and local authorities here are scaling back.  From a professional standpoint what is happening down in Carmarthenshire is worrying. 

The proposed Heritage Act, that Huw Lewis says will be coming in towards the end of 2014 or early 2015 cannot come soon enough, and we’ll all have to do our best to shape the resulting legislation.  It looks like heritage or museums services will be made statutory, but that could mean (i.e. probably will) that the unitary authorities will only have to provide one heritage/museums officer rather than have a dedicated county museum.  At the moment there is no such statutory protection. 

 

So what is the impact on community museums?  It seems that they will be filling the spaces left by the local authority museums once the axes have been sharpened.  It does raise the question of what the model for the professional heritage industry will be by 2020 – a few specialists in national museums and large heritage organisations giving advice to small community museums that operate on a purely voluntary basis?  Local authority museum officers responsible not for any sites they operate themselves, but working all out supporting the independents?   It could easily be.  Senior officers in local authorities are not heritage specialists and have no idea on the range of issues and targets that the councils are involved with.  I do remember when we looked at that in Denbighshire, and the only core council responsibility that we genuinely had nothing to do with was flood prevention!  Education, environment, health and lifestyles, yes.  It’s because of this that the Advocacy Toolkit will be necessary.  In forming (and in the case of politicians informing) the Heritage Act we’re going to have to spend much more effort on advocacy, and much more time too – not that we have any more time with the mounting backlog in collections and increasing our education, exhibition and events programmes to increase footfall and try to justify our existence.

Denbigh is an interesting place to see the community museum developments.  There is a group, of which I’ve been involved on the periphery, trying to create a Denbigh Museum.  There used to be one, in the Library, but it lost accreditation and closed.  The items are currently in the care of Denbighshire Heritage Service, but apart from occasional exhibitions in Denbigh, they are not on show.  Several buildings have been inspected as possible sites for a new museum, but it will be raising the money that will be the hard part, or course.  The will to do this is there, as are the people, the collections are waiting to be displayed, there is enough curatorial help available to get the museum up and running – for them now is the time for their advocacy to hit its stride.  Wireless in Wales is lucky to have a space in Canolfan Iaith in Denbigh with Popeth Cymraeg (Welsh Unlimited) due to the links between them that already existed.  Although a smaller concern than the proposed Denbigh Museum (of which its collections might one day form a part, although it would be nice to see it retain some independence) it does show how enthusiasts, properly constituted, with the right help, can source funds and develop their collections management and display expertise and work in partnership to create a going concern.

The main concern for the industry as a whole is whether this will be the model that all local authorities will look to in the next couple of years before the Heritage Act makes them get their houses in some sort of order.  This isn’t a criticism of these community museums, but it would be a damning shame if only the nationals and they were left.