‘Dem not-so-dry bones’

Back in business at the Old House

Bakewell Old House Museum is enjoying its first full season, post-Covid. We’ve been welcoming back our local visitors, and engaging tourists to Bakewell and the wider Peak District with our amazing local stories.

This has coincided with a new museum manager, Museum manager Mark Copley Mark Copley, starting at the museum, who is looking forward to developing the museum’s relationship with the local community in particular. Mark has worked in museums in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and London before moving up to the beautiful Peak District. He commented: “Look out for new exhibitions, talks and other events – especially at Halloween and Christmas.”

Much of the focus of the museum last year concentrated on the Queen’s 70th Jubilee. This season, we have our “Celebrating 70: Gems of the Collection” exhibition, which showcases some of our volunteers’ favourite items from the costume collection. Children have been colouring-in bunting and people of all ages have been writing about their thoughts and memories tied in with the Queen’s 70-year reign.

In June, we had over 60 neighbours at our Jubilee Street Party. Fabulous homemade food was created – all with a red, white and blue theme, of course!

As well as museum visits, we provide engaging guided tours of Bakewell for groups of all ages. These cover AngloSaxon, Tudor, Medieval, and Victorian Bakewell. And all this is on top of our weekly “Secrets and Legends” tour on Thursdays and some Tuesdays. Bakewell has so much to offer.

The museum provides an active and friendly environment, so if you’re looking for some volunteering opportunities, there’s something for everyone. Similarly, the Bakewell and District Historical Society, which operates the museum, is a wonderful way of meeting like-minded people who are passionate about the Peak District.

Contact Mark Copley email: markc@bakewellhistory.com; Tel: 01629 813642 or see our website www.oldhousemuseum. org.uk for information on the various volunteer roles and details on how to join the Society.

From plasterwork to POWs

RUTH MORGAN goes out and about with the Hunter Archaeological Society

The Hunter Archaeological Society, active across South Yorkshire and north-east Derbyshire, takes seriously its role in keeping members up to speed with current archaeological work in the region.

Throughout the year, in addition to a programme of talks, we arrange visits to fieldwork projects and excavations, and benefit from the effort site managers put in to give us a comprehensive overview of their work. Sometimes they can offer members opportunities to dig or help in other ways. For example, a volunteer group is currently helping with postexcavation work by washing bones and measuring glass.

So, to give a few examples of visits we did last year: In the spring, we visited the World War 2 Prisoner of War camp at Redmires, high up on the western edge of Sheffield, where University of Sheffield archaeology students were working on projects they had devised. A repurposed World War 1 training camp, from 1939 to 1947 it housed several thousand German and Italian PoWs. The concrete hut bases are still very clear, though badly in need of more protection. The students later did a poster presentation of their results.

In June, our new President, Ken Smith, took us on a tour in his familiar Derbyshire territory – around the Roystone Grange trail near Ballidon. The earliest monastic site by the pumphouse was overgrown with grass but the layout of the buildings was still discernible. The sequence of occupation and the wall typology across the valley were intriguing.

July saw us back in Castleton to see Colin Merrony’s site at New Hall, a now demolished 17th-century house. Numerous fragments of plasterwork suggested fine ceilings. The walls however have been thoroughly robbed, making it difficult to disentangle the sequence of events.

In these ways, the Society supports archaeological research and gives its members some memorable days out by raising members’ awareness, understanding and enjoyment of the wide range of accessible cultural heritage around the region.

Archaeology students working on one of the concrete hut bases at the Redmires PoW camp