‘Curious Works and Stately Lodgings’: The Art of Thornbury Castle

A Grand Design

Kevin McCloud eat your heart out!    In around 1507 in Thornbury, one of the highest ranking and richest men in the country began altering his manor house in order to create a fortified, palatial residence.

Edward Stafford, Third Duke of Buckingham, already owned eleven castles and thousands of acres of land spread out around England and Wales but decided to build Thornbury Castle as his power base. It was strategically placed to give him good access to most of his properties, yet still allowed him to attend the King’s Court in London when needed.

Although the defensive parts of the castle seemed to hark back to medieval times, the new residential accommodation incorporated many features of the latest style, taking inspiration from the recently erected Richmond Palace, built by Henry VII.  Edward Stafford definitely wanted the wow factor!

Downfall

BUT – Buckingham did not live to complete the works…  Perceived by Henry VIII as a threat to the throne, the duke was tried for treason and beheaded in 1521 and everything he owned was taken by the Crown.

Aftermath

King Henry granted many of the estates to his own followers but he held on to Thornbury Castle, perhaps because of the quality of the impressive building, with its beautiful gardens and three nearby hunting parks.

The king’s surveyors had reported that, ‘The south side is fully finished with curious works and stately lodgings’.   The word ‘curious’ in this context meant ‘skilfully made’ or ‘rare’ – details which would have caught the eye of a Tudor Kevin McCleod!    We have chosen this phrase for the name of our exhibition.

Our new exhibition

The exhibition looks at some of the finer points of the building’s architecture and how this magnificent residence was adorned in Tudor times.  It asks the question: Did aspects of Buckingham’s lifestyle and the running of his great household contribute to his downfall?

The exhibition also comments on the mid-19th century restoration and shows how Thornbury Castle has been represented in art and photography over the centuries.

Artists at the Museum

We’re very excited to be hosting three wonderful artists in the museum for ten days. We’re opening every day and staying open longer because we want as many people as possible to see their work.

We’ll be open from 10am to 4pm every day, from Friday 28 April to Sunday 7 May (inclusive) and entry is completely FREE – to the artists and their work and to the rest of the museum.

You’ll be able to see some really high quality work from three artists:

Claire Alway creates beautiful glass engravings, as you can see from the picture above.

We are very pleased to welcome back Rosemary Millar, whose hand-crafted silver and gold jewellery with semi-precious stones has proved a great hit in previous years.  Hers is the necklace pictured above.

It will be a first visit for Robert Hirstwood, a painter and printmaker. You can see a kitchen-inspired work above.

Come and have a browse – and feel free to chat to whichever of the artists is in the museum when you visit.  They love to explain what they do and how they do it.

Some of the work will be for sale, so you may end up buying  a treat for yourself or a present for someone else.  But above all, just come and enjoy yourself!

Aerospace at Filton: the BAC story

Photo credit: Eduard Marmet

For local residents with any kind of connection with aerospace at Filton, this small Thornbury exhibition will act as a taster for the opening of the new aerospace museum at Filton in Summer 2017.

Filton’s been involved with the aerospace industry since 1910, when the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company was established, and since then the Bristol name has been associated with the design of everything from aeroplanes and aircraft engines to satellites and guided weapons.

Today Filton is the home of facilities for Airbus, Rolls-Royce and GKN and the south west still has the largest cluster of aerospace-related industries in the country.

In summer 2017, the Bristol Aero Collection Trust will be opening a new museum in Filton – Aerospace Bristol – which will celebrate the BAC story.

In the meantime, this much smaller exhibition has been travelling around the area and Thornbury & District  Museum is delighted to be hosting it.  As well as information on everything from the Bristol Box Kite to Concorde, various artefacts, pictures and documents will also be on display- some from the museum’s own collection, others generously lent by local residents and organisations.

You can also don a pair of headphones and hear the real voices of some of the people who worked at BAC – stories that bring to life the experience of being under an aerial bombardment – or test flying different planes – or being one of only two women to work in the wartime engine design office.   It’s lovely to hear these voices captured for all time, especially as several of the speakers are no longer with us.

Dashing Away with a Smoothing Iron

You think ironing is hard now?  We have a new small display in our upstairs gallery which shows it used to be a lot harder without electricity.

We are delighted to be displaying part of Alveston resident Reg King’s wonderful collection of irons – and they come in all shapes and sizes.  But without exception, they required more effort to use than modern irons do.

So next time you grumble about the ironing, be grateful you don’t have to use one of these every time you need a neatly pressed shirt or blouse.

50 years of the Severn Bridge

To mark the official opening of the Severn Bridge on 8 September 1966, we’re showing a small collection of bridge photographs and memorabilia in our upstairs gallery.

And of course the opening of the Bridge meant the end of the Aust Ferry.

Were you involved in the construction of the bridge? Did you witness the official opening ceremony?  Do you remember the old Aust ferry?  Have you got any good stories about crossing the waters of the mighty Severn?

Volunteers at the Museum would be interested in hearing your memories or in seeing any photographs you might have in connection with the bridge.

History in the Making – back by popular demand

Back by popular demand… celebrate History in the Making – the stories of things made in the Thornbury area.

This is our autumn exhibition running up to 22nd December.

It is an exhibition about things made and produced in our area (hence the title: History in the Making)– from leather items to ploughs – with stories of gunpowder and pigeon poo along the way!

The photo above shows workers at Cullimore’s Sawmills in Thornbury.  The sawmill specialised in producing wood from English elm and larch, the timber being mainly used for coffins and pit props.

Did you know that the Mumtaz restaurant in Thornbury stands next to the site of an Elizabethan tannery? Katherine Rippe, who died in 1594, left the Tan House to her nephew.  Hers was just one of many Thornbury leather-making businesses over the centuries.  (There were seven different Thornbury tanners in 1784, for instance.)

There are lots of fascinating tales, all based on local historical documents and researched by museum volunteers. Don’t forget the gunpowder and pigeon poo!

Alongside the stories are hundreds of objects made and used by local producers. One visit won’t be enough to take it in.  Luckily, entrance is free, so you can come back often!

As always, museum volunteers will be keen to hear your stories of locally made items  We value your local knowledge!

Artists at the Museum

We’re very excited to be hosting three wonderful artists in the museum for ten days. We’re opening every day and staying open longer because we want as many people as possible to see their work.

We’ll be open from 10am to 4pm every day, from Friday 29 April to Sunday 8 May (inclusive) and entry is completely FREE – to the artists and their work and to the rest of the museum.

You’ll be able to see some really high quality work from three artists:

Claire Alway creates beautiful glass engravings, as you can see from the first picture above.

We are very pleased to welcome back Rosemary Millar, whose hand-crafted silver and gold jewellery with semi-precious stones has proved a great hit in previous years.  Hers is the necklace pictured above.

Philip John Whitehead will be exhibiting his colourful geometric drawings in Indian ink.  Not hard to work out which is his work!

Come and have a browse – and feel free to chat to whichever of the artists is in the museum when you visit.  They love to explain what they do and how they do it.

Some of the work will be for sale, so you may end up buying  a treat for yourself or a present for someone else.  But above all, just come and enjoy yourself!

Putchers and Putts

Our new exhibition tells the unique story of fishing on the River Severn, of the men who fished there and the methods they used.

If you live in the Thornbury area, you’re probably familiar with salmon putchers.  Nowadays, they are the large, open-ended, conical baskets which serve as beautiful plant-holders for Thornbury in Bloom.  For hundreds of years before that though, they were of course arranged in serried ranks in the river to catch salmon.  In 1863, eleven thousand two hundred putchers were in place  on the Severn.

But do you know what a putt is?  Well, it’s more massive than a putcher and it comes in three detachable parts – a kype, a butt and a fore-wheel.  It was  detachable so that it could be transported down to the river more easily but was made so that the three parts would fit together snugly.  It was constructed of local materials:  hazel sticks and withies. Putts are the most ancient form of fixed fishing engine, with reliable records of them going back to 1533 and references to basket-type traps (which may well be putts) back to 956.

The exhibition shows how the putchers and putts were constructed, where in the river they were placed and what kind of catches could be expected from them.

Discover how the coming of Oldbury Power station put paid to the most productive fishery site on our side of the Severn at Curtis Weir.

And find out about some of the fishermen who pursued this dangerous livelihood – including Bob Knapp, who first went into the river on his father’s shoulders at the age of four and who was seventy six when he stopped fishing.

You can’t fail to be impressed by the ingenuity and hard work of the men who pursued this way of life.

History in the Making

Made in Thornbury….

An exhibition about things made and produced in our area (hence the title: History in the Making)– from leather items to ploughs – with stories of gunpowder and pigeon poo along the way!

Did you know that the Mumtaz restaurant in Thornbury stands next to the site of an Elizabethan tannery? Katherine Rippe, who died in 1594, left the Tan House to her nephew.  Hers was just one of many Thornbury leather-making businesses over the centuries.  (There were seven different Thornbury tanners in 1784, for instance.)

Savery’s, that well-known Thornbury shop, has been run by four generations of Saverys, starting with Mark Savery in 1871. He invented a plough (the Savery plough) which sold as far afield as Australia – yours for only four pounds ten shillings!

There are lots of fascinating tales, all based on local historical documents and researched by museum volunteers. Don’t forget the gunpowder and pigeon poo!

Alongside the stories are hundreds of objects made and used by local producers. One visit won’t be enough to take it in.  Luckily, entrance is free, so you can come back often!

As always, museum volunteers will be keen to hear your stories of locally made items  We value your local knowledge!

Fetch the Engine!

Come and explore our ‘Fetch the Engine’ exhibition, the history of fighting fire in Thornbury.

There are fascinating stories about every aspect of creating and maintaining an effective local fire service – and about the fires fought and the people who fought them.

Since the exhibition first opened, we’ve had lots of visits from people with a family connection with the fire service. And everyone’s been really generous, lending us some wonderful items for the exhibition, including a shiny brass helmet and a set of cigarette cards showing firemen and fire equipment from the past.

On 23rd May, we were delighted to host a visit from five of Thornbury’s current firefighters, together with their fire engine and their fire-fighting equipment!  They proved to be really popular with local families and the children loved the fire engine and the uniforms and helmets.

130 people popped into the museum and were able to check out how the local fire service in the past compared with that of the present day.  Many, many thanks to Rob, Louis, John, Jason and Dave for giving up their time and giving everyone such a treat.  They’re truly a credit to the Fire Service.

The ‘Fetch the Engine!’ exhibition really is information-packed, so there’s a lot to see at one go.  You can come back again and again though.  It’s free and the time to see it has been extended.  Pop in any time.