2010
The Museum re-opened on 1st April
from the L&DLHS Newsletter, August 2010
News from the Museum Committee
The museum is still receiving a good number of visitors with the numbers being boosted by some events organised by the Friends such as the Craft Days and the Coffee Morning. Also some museum staff visited Seeability and gave a presentation featuring some of the museum artefacts.
On 24th May the Society chose the museum as the venue for the launch of its latest publication. This was considered appropriate as the book features some local industries and the museum had displays about some of these. Although it could have been warmer a number of people enjoyed wine in the museum garden.
We are continuing with recording, monitoring and conserving the collection but with the staff available it is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge! We have an excessive amount of rubbish which has accumulated in our store over the years and we hope to get rid of this shortly to make more room. I assure you that we do not intend to get rid of parts of the collection, just junk from many years.
We do have, however, a large number of bottles, more than we would wish to accession. We are told that some of these may have a value but we do not have the necessary expertise to know which, if any. If any member can help with this, or knows someone who may be able to help, will they please contact Alan Pooley (01372 374093), it will help us to tidy the Priory Basement.
Peter Tarplee
from the L&DLHS Newsletter, May 2010
Leatherhead Museum Store
Our Museum is no exception to the rule that applies to most other museums in that what is on display at any one time is only a small proportion of the total collection. We do make changes to the displays which involves bringing out items from store and of course returning items back and we are still adding to the collection as new artefacts are accepted.
Quite a few members of the Society and/or the 'Friends' have expressed an interest in seeing the store so we have arranged to have the store open to visitors on the evening of Friday 18th June 2010.
We will have to limit the number of people who can be in the store at any one time and avoid upsetting the neighbours. Intending visitors must congregate at the Museum between 7.15pm and 8pm and depending on the number be conducted in groups to the store. As an Accredited Museum we work to national standards and in Hampton Cottage we will be showing, for that evening only, the way that artefacts are formally 'accessioned', recorded, numbered and how we (hopefully) know what we have got and where it is located.
The store is only a short distance from Hampton Cottage and cars can be left in the Mansion or the Church Street car parks free of charge but please note that the store is in a basement accessed solely by a flight of steps. Within the store some artefacts are on open shelves but quite a lot are in boxes so it will only be possible to show a few sample ones of these which will be left open.
We look forward to welcoming visitors.
Alan Pooley 01372 374093News from the Museum Committee
The museum has now re-opened after the winter shutdown. As usual the committee has been as busy as, if not busier than, during the open season whilst the public have not been able to come in. As soon as we closed we cleared out everything in the office so that we could decorate the walls and ceiling and then have carpet tiles laid.
This immediately filled up the rest of the building with our books, files and records making it difficult to do anything else in the museum. Once the contents were back in the office the builders were in endeavouring to prevent water getting into thedownstairs back room over the window. It is hoped that this problem has now been solved.
The next task was to empty two display cabinets, one upstairs and one downstairs, so that these could be exchanged. Owing to the age and infirmity of most of the members of the Museum Committee a special young(er) working party came in on 15th February and the two cabinets were carried up and down the stairs in no time.
We always hope to renew most of the displays at this time but, as usual we ran out of time. However, we did renew the display in the front room where we display new acquisitions which have been received during the past year. Among the items shown is a group of Ashtead pottery of which two of the pieces were just a bag of broken china when they were handed in.
We have also received some more Ronson lighters including a very interesting collection from a retired tobacconist as well as a pen lighter which is of a type which we did not have.
We have a selection of memorabilia from Girl Guides as well as artefacts from the Bookham Boys' Brigade company. Some cameras have been added to our collection, even a 'Superdrug' disposable camera is historical now.
The window has been changed. We like to do this as for every person who enters the museum there are many more who look in the window. This time we are featuring scales in our very restricted space. We show the laboratory balance from ERA Technology, a spring balance, a standard GPO parcel scale (with a connection with Fetcham) and a set of tobacco or snuff scales.
The cabinet which was taken upstairs had a display of pharmacy items and this has been changed so that it can be shown in the cabinet which came down. The shorter cabinet was taken upstairs to make it easier to circulate in the middle room.
We have taken this opportunity to augment our display of local industries. We have fairly constant displays about Goblins, Ronsons and Ashtead Potters but we felt that some of the other works and factories could be given a turn. This is particularly relevant this year as the Society has published a book giving the history of some of these workplaces (see next page). We feature some of the local brick and tile works, one of which dates to the first century, Ashe Laboratories who were famous for Bandbox shampoo and Sherley's pet care products, the manufacture of both real and artificial silk, steam cars, photographic materials, valveholders and model railway equipment, electric blankets and more.
The interior lighting has been improved on the ground floor and we hope the layout of the galleries has been improved. Now that the museum is open again please pay us a visit you should find some new things to see. For example, we knew that Goblins made vacuum cleaning plant in Ashtead but did you know that the central system is still in-situ in the Leatherhead Theatre, even though it is not used at present?
We mentioned in the last Newsletter our gratitude to the Friends of the museum for the provision of the new carpet tiles, now they have generously paid for two new chairs for use by stewards during the times that the museum is open.
Peter Tarpleefrom the L&DLHS Newsletter, February 2010
News from the Museum CommitteeThe museum is now closed until April and we have started clearing the society's office of all furniture and contents in preparation for the installation of new carpet tiles, the cost of which is generously being provided by the Friends of Leatherhead Museum. Before the carpeting is done we will need to paint the walls and ceiling of the office.
Once the new flooring is complete and the furniture and contents have been put back we will be able to get to the cabinets and make some changes to the displays before the museum re-opens on 1st April. If only we had a larger building we could make changes to the displays throughout the year rather than in the three months in the winter, but with Hampton Cottage this is not possible.
Water has been entering the building over the downstairs rear window and it is hoped that whilst the public are absent the cause of the ingress can be found and the problem cured. This will prevent the need for a bucket to be positioned on the window sill behind the rear display cabinet. The Trustees of the building will be addressing this during the closed period.
Our visitor numbers this year were about 15% up on last year but in that year we had a shorter open period following the car coming through the front wall. However, the numbers were still higher than in 2007 and so we do feel that the Society is providing a useful museum service for the locality. The number of private visitors, that is school groups, U3A groups etc. was more this year and we do appreciate that our outreach to schools is continuing thanks to members of the Friends.
We re-open on 1st April, hopefully with some new displays both in the museum and in its window.
Peter Tarplee