Museum

The exhibits were in chronological order which made things a bit easier. A photo showed the Howick Hut (7000 BC) that was unearthed between 2000 and 2002. It looked like something Bear Grylls might knock up for a wildcamp. A display case showed some Mesolithic flints from Howick (10000-4000 BC). I was quite surprised at the good quality of the Bronze Age axe and spear heads (2000-900 BC). There was a Stone Age hammer that had a carefully made hand grip to it. The associated  note said that the exact function wasn’t known ‘...but may have been used to slaughter cattle.’ My guess is that it could have been used for a lot of things. 

The next cabinet showed a stone and metal cannon ball. There was also a cuirass, which is a 16th century piece of armour to protect the front of the body. I’d never heard the word cuirass before and I put it in my Scrabble mental dictionary. Having said that, it’d really be a waste of 2 ‘s’s. I can’t 'unforget' it now though. 

An information board told me about how King John fell in a bog near Alnwick in 1209 when he was out hunting. He was so angry that he took away the town’s Royal Charter and privileges. This was only 6 years before the Magna Carta which may have something to do with why he relented by granting them a new Royal Charter a little time later. He stipulated that each newly appointed Freeman should plunge into the same bog as he had. The tradition became known as ‘leaping the well’ and lasted for 600 years before some spoil sport stopped it in 1854. 

There was quite an interesting fire engine from 1797 on display. I wouldn’t have had much confidence in it putting out a serious fire. Apparently some houses in Alnwick still have metal plaques on their houses saying they have fire insurance. This meant that the firefighters would be reimbursed for tackling the blaze. I kept a canny eye out to see if I could spot one during my stay in Alnwick...I didn't see one.     

There were quite a few exhibits related to Northumberland’s agricultural heritage. I was slightly disturbed by the sheep castration tool. It brought tears to my eyes. . 

I’d never heard of William Thomas Stead, but an information board enlightened me. He was born in Embleton and was an internationally famous newspaper editor. He pioneered investigative journalism and was a promoter of human rights. In 1912, he was invited by US President William Taft to speak at a Peace Conference at Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately he boarded RMS Titanic to make the journey there. 

The Rothbury Football (used until 1867) was on display in one cabinet. This was a leather ball (I’d say a quarter of the size of a modern football) and was stuffed with hay. It was used for the annual Shrovetide match between Thropton and Rothbury. The goals were 2 miles apart which must have made VAR very difficult in those days. 

The Northumbrian Pipes looked like an old vacuum cleaner. I must admit that I prefer their mellow sound compared to those monstrosities found further north. 

In the WWII cabinet I was interested to see a 16mm film camera that they’d used to get footage from planes. It was a lot smaller than I thought it’d be. There were also some rather basic goggles and a gas mask. 

I went downstairs to the small basement area and found the mining exhibits. There was a mock up of a domestic kitchen with a miner sitting in a bath tub. There was plenty of equipment on display such as knee pads, an explosive case and a basic looking respirator (it gave oxygen for 30 minutes). A sign invited me to experience 19th century mining by crawling into a mock up of a small mine tunnel. I felt claustrophobic just looking at it and so left it for the kids to explore. 

That was the basement covered and so I climbed up to the first floor to the current Exhibition. 

Exhibition

The ‘Intimately Connected’ exhibition was by artist Claire Ward with exhibits displayed over most of the floor. They were all sculptures formed from waste such as plastics and cardboard. It was actually a bit more interesting than it sounds. Some of the sculptures were formed by sticking the plastic and cardboard together into layers, much like a Vienetta icecream. They were quite colourful and unusual. I quite liked the garden fork that had layers of coloured textiles placed between the prongs. Some of them were a bit basic…a ball of black plastic that she’d extracted from the branches of a Hawthorn tree. 

A large organ was at one end of the room. This was the original church organ. I wondered if it still worked. 

Any Man's Kingdom

A TV was set up in one corner of the floor. A two seater settee was placed in front of it for those that wanted to view the footage on the TV. I’d been attracted to the display by the wonderful narrator's voice of the film that was showing. There was a Scots fellow already sitting on one half of the settee and I felt a bit uncomfortable sitting down next to him and so I asked for his permission first. 
‘You’ve missed the first 15 minutes’ he informed me. I told him that I’d rerun that bit when it came to the end. 

The film was Any Man’s Kingdom and was filmed by British Transport Film in 1953. It was all about Northumberland, its culture, history, industry and people. It had lovely saturated colours and gave that nostalgic impression of when the world was a better place. It brought a tear to my eye. It was hard to believe that the film was made only 8 years after the end of a world war that had culminated in the use of a nuclear bomb. Why did all the people in the film look so much happier than those of today?  What really made the film though was the narrator’s dulcet tones. It was Lincolnshire born Stephen Murray who was given the job of telling us about Northumberland. He sounded RARDA, rather than Northumbrian. He made the most of the poetic script. About the countryside he said…’...cattle country, bull-savage and calf-sad, but the mincing sheep have civilised it.’ The River Tweed was described as a ‘...water-wall, where the clansmen leaped like Salmon.' I Googled Stephen Murray and found, not surprisingly, that he was a stage, screen and radio actor. He was actually a great uncle of the comedian Al Murray.    

I’d spent an interesting couple of hours touring the museum. The displays were well presented and provided a good narrative. It was definitely worth a visit.    

I called in at Barter Books on the way back to the hotel. It is a large second hand bookshop based in Alnwick’s old railway station. You can browse books as model trains chug along rails above your head. They also have a fire in the front entrance hall which was quite a bonus on a wet day.