Treasures From the Earth Exhibition at the Castle, Bude

By BudePeeps at 12:04 on 13/12/11

The Castle is the last host in what has been a series of venues for a touring archaeology exhibition of artefacts from SW museums, including Royal Cornwall Museum, Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter and several major Somerset Museums.

The artefacts have been found by archaeologists and the exhibition is all about how they find sites [aerial photos; earth-movers on building sites etc.] and how they assemble information on the lives and culture of the people who made, used and lost or left the artefacts.

Our big 'coup' is that Stephanie - our Museum Development Officer - managed to persuade Liskeard & District Museum to loan to us - for the duration of the exhibition 29th February - quite a unique artefact - a English Civil War helmet which looks like it has seen better days!

[Quote from History of Cornwall in 100 Objects] " ....... But take a closer look and you will discover that the tatty material that covers it is in fact cloth – purposely added by the wearer to cut down the shine of the metal surface of this Parliamentarian helmet.

It is one of the oldest survivors of a camouflaged helmet in the UK and it belonged to Major Thomas Johnson, a Parliamentarian soldier from Liskeard who fought at the Battle of Braddock Down in 1643.

There are various hands-on tasks - making a mosaic, sorting a box of pottery, stone and bone into their right categories etc. Great for children, and local schools will be making good use of it for their history lessons.

Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Repeats: Every Week until Wednesday, February 29, 2012

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Made time to pop in to this splendid exhibition today and would recommend it to anyone desirous of a break from Christmas shopping. I didn't have much time so will return but the good news is that it is on until 29th February, 2012. The idea is to get people involved in archaeology, and it seems to have succeeded, as the gentleman visiting when I was there was chatting about how exciting it must be to go on a dig. Although a travelling exhibition, each host museum or heritage centre has selected a theme pertinent to their town. Bude's choice was The Battle of Stratton. I was fascinated by the Civil War camouflage helmet, covered in cloth to prevent shine, especially as I had never seen one with ear flaps before, said, by Patrica Wright, Centre Manager, to be protection against slicing by sword. Ouch! I am also a great lover of costume as it helps me to visualise how things would have been at the time. I also learned how to tell the difference between used lead shot and unused lead shot and the horrific impact it would have had upon entering a soldier's body. Of course, animals are still subjected to it! The skeleton is the item which attracts the children, and, whether real or not, I'm not sure, but it does have amazingly good teeth. There are hands on things to do such as creating a mosaic. The lovely ladies in the shop told me that if you visit in the morning, you can combine it with tea/coffee/hot chocolate in the fabulous Castle Restaurant with its amazing views of Bude's coastline. Hmn, now there's one hot chocolate I've not yet sampled...........my treat for a cold January day in 2012!

By BudePeeps at 15:23 on 20/12/11
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