Thirsk Museum Society Newsletter January 2010

Dear Members,

Our calendar tells us that our new millennium is now ten years old; difficult as it may be to realise, though, our Museum celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary this year. There are still some of our members who were in at the start, but many of us do not go back that far and from time to time we are asked about the origins of the Museum Society. With that in mind, our first talk in the 2010 series will be given by Vice-President, Trustee and Founder Member Philip Lawson. “Thirsk Museum - How did it all begin?” will be the subject for our first meeting on Tuesday, 26th January.

“Trees in our landscape” is the title of the talk to be given on Tuesday, 23rd February. Our current Chairman, Susan Stephenson, will share the floor with Mike I’Anson to give an illustrated survey of trees in our neighbourhood, looking both at the pattern in days gone by and at current tree-planting projects.

“The pig got up and slowly walked away” is the intriguing title of the talk to be given on Tuesday, 23rd March by librarian John Luckett from Leeds. He will be looking at the history of books, ranging from the earliest Babylonian inscriptions to the invention of modern printing by Gutenberg.

Audrey Dewgee is an authority on the history of Black and Asian people in Britain. Born in Yorkshire, she spent twenty-five years in the London area, but returned to her northern roots in 1990, working with research groups in Leeds and Hawes. On Tuesday, 27th April, she will give an illustrated talk “Roots Unexpected”, revealing echoes of the African slave trade and the British Raj in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

All four talks will take place in the Old Court House in Westgate, starting at 7.30 pm. Admission for members is Ł1.00 with a valid membership card and Ł2.50 for members of the public.

The Museum will reopen to the public on Monday, 29th March. In the meantime we are undertaking a major refurbishment of the Shops Room where the existing display cases date from the early days of the Museum and no longer adequately meet the demands of our collection. One case will be designed to give us the facility of “full height” mounting of costume displays and all the cases will be fitted with professionally-glazed sliding doors. Elsewhere our regular programme of cleaning and redecorating will be put in hand by some of our volunteers; their help is greatly appreciated.

Finally, look out for the third book in our series based on early photographs from the Museum’s collection. This time the theme is “Then & Now”, with modern colour photographs showing views and activities featured in old postcards and prints. To be published early this year by Amberley publications, the book is entitled “Thirsk and Sowerby through Time”. It will be on sale in our two local bookshops and (from Easter onwards) at the Museum.