Last week saw the 40th anniversary of North Herts. District Council. Before they left, our two much-missed interns prepared information for a display about the birth of NHDC, which Sian and I put up in the Council Offices for the anniversary Council meeting on Thursday evening. As well as information about the winding up of the previous councils (Hitchin Urban, Hitchin Rural, Letchworth, Baldock and Royston Urban District Councils) Emily and Vicki had copied old adverts from 1974, when a Council salary started at just over £600pa, and you could buy a nice house for £13,000. The museum has a copy of the menu for the last meal of Hitchin UDC, held at the Angel’s Reply in Hitchin, where the pudding was Pineapple Surprise, followed by Cona coffee. The top photo shows some of the local government material normally held in store, the lower photo shows a small selection of the images we displayed.
Now that I have come to the end of my internship with the North Herts Museums, and taken pictures of thousands of objects, I thought I would share my favourite object from the Social History Store at Burymead.
The object I liked most in the Social History Store was the wooden Bird House.
When we first discovered it in the depths of the store room, it was very dusty, and its only inhabitant was a lonely spider. But once we had taken the object out, dusted it off a little and taken the spider out it was clear that it was a very beautiful, decorative bird house.The birdhouse is very ornate and delicate, the bird house itself probably would have been a decoration in the front room.
In the 18th century, birds lived in dwellings that were similar of houses for people than for the birds themselves. Often made of expensive and exotic woods and built like miniature architectural models, these structures were found among the very rich and fashionable people of England and France. While structurally beautiful, most of these fantastic cages did little to support the needs of the bird. Often dangerous for the birds and difficult to clean, it’s amazing that the birds survived in these structures at all.
I particularly like the small set of steps leading up to the ‘door’, which were obviously useless for the bird, but make the entire cage look more like a house.
Finally I would like to thank everyone at the North Herts Museum Service for being so welcoming and giving me the opportunity to see the objects in storage. I look forward to visiting the new museum in 2015.
Now that I am coming to the end of my time working for the North Herts Museum Service I thought it would be a good opportunity to share with you what is my favourite object in storage at Burymead.
I have chosen a selection of ‘Home Cookery’ magazines which date from 1911-1919. My reasons for choosing these are simply because I enjoy cooking myself and found it interesting to see the recipes people were using 100+ years ago.
In the 1911 publication I particularly enjoyed the ‘Invalid Recipes’ which include Bovril Toast, Bovril Custard and Boiled Custard. I wonder which of those you would find most appealing? Personally I am not sure which I would prefer!
The second publication I have chosen is from the war period and is dated October 1915. The focus of this issue is on the cheap cuts of meat which can be found, and how to plan a week’s meals in advance. This includes substituting meat for other food stuffs including oatmeal and breadcrumbs to bulk out a meal.
Finally I would like to thank everyone at the North Herts Museum Service for being so welcoming and giving me the opportunity to see the objects in storage. I look forward to visiting the new museum in 2015.