Tag Archives: Museum

Come to the County Record Office in May

Take a new look at the past with May’s programme of events at the County Record Office.

‘Ancestry’ on Saturday 5 May from 9.15am to 12.15pm introduces people to the ‘Ancestry.co.uk’ website which is a vital tool for family historians. This hands-on session will be led by family historian Jennifer Cranfield costs £12 and will provide an in-depth look at the resource.

In ‘Maps and plans for local history’, visitors will look at how these materials can be used for house and local history and discover what can be learned from them. The session takes please from 10am to 1pm on Tuesday 8 May and costs £12.

On Saturday 12 May Find My Past Jennifer Cranfield is back to guide people through findmypast.co.uk, a website and vital tool to aid family historians in their research. The session from 9.15am to 12.15am costs £12 to attend.

A workshop to help with sixteenth century handwriting will take place at the record office on Saturday 19 May. Priced at £12 per participant, this morning course will offer hands-on practice to decipher hand written documents from this period in history.

From 2.30m to 4.30pm on Saturday 19 April reasearchers Pat McGarrell and Colin Jennings will be giving an illustrated talk ‘The Rise and Fall of Covent Garden Market in Leamington’. Pat and Colin will introduce the audience to the market and give them a glimpse into the lives of some of the people who lived there. The talk costs £4.50 (Friends Members £3) to attend (no need to book – pay on the door).

Two events are taking place on Saturday 26 May. ‘Internet Sources for Family History’ from 9.15am to 12.15pm is a workshop to help people improve research skills and get the most out of the internet and cost £12 to attend.

Also on Saturday, another event from the How Do We Know…? discovery series is taking place, ‘Whodunnit?’ starts at 2pm, costs £6 (£5 concessions) and looks at historical crime records.

Of interest to family and local historians newspapers, court records, and our Known Thieves Album are open for participants to look through and discuss with experts from Warwickshire Museums and the County Record Office

Rounding off the month, ‘Behind the Scenes at the County Record Office: Secret Leamington’ takes place on Wednesday 30 May from 7pm to 8.30pm. Record office visitors will learn how to use the record office with an archivist, tour the strongrooms and view original records.  In conjunction with Leamington Looks Back: A Festival of Heritage & Culture, documents displayed will have a Leamington theme. This event costs £6, (£5 concessions).

All of these workshops take place at Warwickshire County Record Office, which is located at Priory Park, Cape Road, Warwick, CV34 4JS.

Unless otherwise stated, places must be booked in advance by calling Warwickshire County Record Office on 01926 738959.

The record office is involved in safeguarding, managing and developing Warwickshire’s archives so that they can be accessed, interpreted and enjoyed by all those with an interest in Warwickshire’s past and its people. The office houses records dating from the twelfth century up to the twenty first.

For more information about the County Record Office and activities visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/cro.

How do we know about Warwickshire’s past?

An exciting new series of discovery sessions involving lively discussions, artefacts, archives, specimens and illuminating information about Warwickshire’s past starts at Warwickshire County Record Office next month.

Held in the spacious searchroom at the record office, these regular sessions, entitled How Do We Know…? will focus on different topics across the Warwickshire Museum collections, including archaeology, geology, social history and archives.

The first session ‘How Do We Know Where all the Archaeological Sites are in Warwickshire?’ takes place on Saturday 25 February at 2pm. In this session Ben Wallace, the Historic Environment Record Manager from Warwickshire County Council, invites people to come and find out about the Warwickshire Historic Environment Record.

The record has information about all types of archaeological sites and monuments in the county covering all periods of the past from prehistoric through to modern. Who knows what workshop attendees will be able to find in their local area.

‘How Do We Know About Warwickshire’s Geological Past?’ is for those keen to know more about Warwickshire’s ancient landscape. On Saturday 24 March at 2pm, attendees are invited to learn all about how the rocks and fossils in the field and in the museum collections act as evidence for Warwickshire’s changing environments, climates and ecology through time. Jon Radley, Curator of Natural Sciences at Warwickshire Museum will lead the informative session.

Finally for this season, those interested in researching their family tree are invited to attend ‘How Do We Know About Our Family History?’ on Saturday 21 April at 2pm. This practical session for ‘absolute beginners’ will provide lots of opportunity to use the local and national sources available at the County Record Office, including parish registers, census records and online sites.

Rowan Fisher, Learning and Community Engagement Officer for Warwickshire County Council, said: “This exciting new series is a great opportunity for those keen to learn more about your areas of interest or discover something altogether new with experts and specialists from the relevant fields.”

All sessions take place at Warwickshire County Record Office, Priory Park, off Cape Road, Warwick, CV34 4JS and cost £6.00 (concessions £5).. Sessions can be booked on an individual basis.  Please call 01926 738959 to book your place.

Future topics for the summer will include sessions on aspects of the museum’s costume collection and local history archives.

Inspired by exhibition

Warwickshire MuseumWarwickshire County Council’s Market Hall Museum in Warwick extends 60th birthday celebrations by inviting families to take part in some free workshops.

The museum celebrated 60 years of being open as a county museum in 2011. ‘Rewind – 60 Years’ a special exhibition called  marked this diamond anniversary and presented objects, specimens and stories that have been collected over this time.

Part of the ‘Rewind – 60 Years’ project involved three artists-in-residence at the Museum getting inspiration from the objects on display to create their own pieces. These artists were Jacqui Rowe a 2D artist and writer, 3D artist Ros Ingram and ceramicist Robin Wade.

The creative trio spent a month working in the museum. During this time they had plenty of time to soak up the history of Market Hall, and get to know the collections and artefacts in more detail which they responded to with their own chosen art form.

To tie together the 60th anniversary exhibition and the artists’ residency, a new show called ‘Inspired by…’ presents their alongside the museum artefacts that inspired them. This repositions collections as not only objects from Warwickshire’s past, but as both natural and human-made works of art themselves.

Museum staff hope families will also come and get ‘Inspired’ with some free and crafty activities on Saturday 21 January 2012. The day offers the chance to explore the new exhibition and take a detective trail around the museum throughout the day or join in with the free workshops between 10.30am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm to 3.30pm.

Two interactive craft sessions will be on offer. Families can choose to make a creative 3D collage with fabric and paper using words and images linked to the objects on display or they can join the ceramics workshop, make a storage jar and help construct a collaborative vessel inspired by a Roman jar from Alcester.

Events throughout the day are free and offered on a drop-in basis so there is no need to book. Activities are suitable for all ages but children must be supervised.

Michelle Alexander, Museum and Natural Environment Manager for Warwickshire County Council said: “This will be an imaginative and fun way to mark Warwickshire Museum’s anniversary. We’re looking forward to unveiling the artists’ creative responses to the museum’s collections, and inviting families to come in to create masterpieces of their own.”

Showcase your classic car

Warwickshire County Council’s Heritage & Culture Services are planning to exhibit an array of 1950s cars and motorcycles as part of their Jubilee celebrations.

If you have a British vehicle made in the early 1950s that you would be interested in exhibiting on Sunday June 3 2012 at St John’s Museum, Warwick get in touch.

Please contact Cathryn Ravenhall, Learning & Community Engagement Team on 01926 412034 or at lace@warwickshire.gov.uk for more information and a booking form.

Come to museum fair for Christmas crafts

For those looking for unique handmade gifts this Christmas St John’s House Museum is the place to be this week.

The ‘Contemporary Craft Fair’ takes place on Sunday 11 December is a great chance to buy unique Christmas gifts direct from the craftspeople and artists themselves.

A perfect place to find a special gift for a special person, or just for browsing through the items on sale which will include jewellery, textiles, accessories, home-wares, and artwork.

Refreshments will be available to purchase and the Craft Fair is open from 12pm —4.00pm. Entrance fee is £1 for adults and under 16s go free!

St John’s House Museum is based in Coton End, Warwick, CV34 4NF. The nearest car parking is St Nicholas Park car park.

Council praised for hands-on approach to learning

Fossil finding, bug hunting, and going back in time are some of the innovative learning approaches which have seen Warwickshire County Council retain a national education quality mark.

The council’s Heritage Education Service has again been awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge which will help cut the red tape that surrounds school visits and give even more children memorable educational experiences.

Under the scheme, organisations display the badge as a signal to schools that their venue has met a high standard in education and health and safety, so teachers do not need to carry out their own risk or quality assessments.

The service uses the collections of Warwickshire Museum Service and the County Record Office to make the heritage of Warwickshire accessible through educational sessions, events and workshops for school groups, children, families, young people and adults.

Last year alone, Warwickshire County Council’s Heritage Education Service worked with nearly 20,000 school children and families and it is hoped that news of the reaccreditation will encourage even more schools to take children out of the classroom to enjoy the many activities on offer in the county.

Laura Pye, Head of Heritage Education at Warwickshire County Council said: “The quality badge not only recognises the fantastic job that our staff here do to enrich learning but also gives schools and parents the confidence that we offer a high quality service in a safe environment.”

The quality badge was launched in 2008 by the then Department of Children, Schools and Families to provide an assurance of the quality of educational experiences on offer across all sectors.

Registered charity, the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom took over the management of the scheme in 2009 and supports both providers and users as well as promoting and developing the badge in response to feedback.

Heritage Education first received the award in 2009 and following a recent inspection the approval body extended it the mark until 2013.

Find out more about Heritage Education activities please visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/heritageeducation

For more information about the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge, please visit www.lotcqualitybadge.org.uk