Moyse’s Hall: By Night Perspectives of Poaching

By Night: Perspectives of Poaching at Moyse’s Hall Museum

An exhibition exploring the illicit world of the poacher is currently running at Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds. Running until May 1st, By Night: Perspectives of Poaching, presents rural objects, art and literature from the darker side of West Suffolk Heritage Service’s collection to illustrate the perils and conflicts of the practice.

It also includes items on loan from the Museum of East Anglian Life; Bungay Museum and the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, which will provide invaluable additions to the narrative. While the exhibition concentrates on the local history of hunting and poaching from the 18th to the 20th century, it also traces the roots of poaching back to the era of the Norman Conquest and examines how it can still prove a divisive subject, even today. Poachers might appear as a romantic outlaw such as in the tales of Robin Hood, but in other contexts they can be presented as decidedly more villainous. In tackling this complex issue, the exhibition brings the origins, equipment, legends, allies, enemies and consequences of poaching into focus. It seeks answers as to why people might risk their freedom and, in some cases, their lives in pursuit of the hunt. Visitors are also invited to form their own opinions as they trespass in the footsteps of the people who walked by night.

Ben Ridgeon, Heritage Officer, West Suffolk Council said; ‘Poaching forms a key element of the crime and punishment gallery at Moyse’s Hall Museum, but in learning about these collections I found that there were still more stories to tell if we could offer this enthralling subject a wider stage. By Night: Perspectives on Poaching is that stage.’

Pony and Dead Game by Thomas Smythe. © West Suffolk Heritage Service