Rural Museums Network

The RMN is pleased to announce that it will be putting records from the AHDNC online.

Over the next few months Isobel Keith will be preparing records for inclusion on Culture Grid, the digital UK collections resource operated by Collections Trust. This will give the material a significant online presence and also create a base from which we can develop the AHDNC. The project is supported by Arts Council England.

As our digital consultant, Izzy is likely to be in touch with the museums referred to in the original reports for further information and possibly images.

A steam ploughing cultivator and harrows have recently been transferred from the Museum of Lincolnshire Life at Lincoln to the Museum of East Anglian Life at Stowmarket. The equipment was surplus to requirement at Lincoln, but just what MEAL needed. Both museums have pairs of steam ploughing engines. Lincolnshire Life’s were made by Fowler and MEAL’s by Burrell.

Cultivator and harrows arrive at MEAL © Museum of East Anglian Life

Transporting heavy equipment is expensive, and the move was grant aided by the Rural Museums Network and the Friends of MEAL. The Network’s contribution was itself funded by from the Museums Association’s Effective Collections programme.

A rare threshing machine that was at the Vale and Downland Museum at Wantage, Oxfordshire has been given a new home at the Brown and May Trust at Devizes, Wiltshire. The machine was made by Nalder and Nalder of East Challow, in what would have been Berkshire, but is now Oxfordshire. 

The thresher is dated at around 1900 and is typical of threshing machines. However, Nalder and Nalder patented a unique adjustable grading screen which could be used for other things – for example stone and coffee, as well as wheat. These threshers were exported to the British Empire and also Russia, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, USA and South America. More than seventy gold and silver medals were awarded to their products in the first 50 years.

Conference delegates will have an opportunity to catch up with the Network’s recent activities and plans at a fringe meeting of the Museums Association Conference and Exhibition on Thursday 8th November 12.30 – 14.00.

http://www.museumsassociation.org/conference/fringe-meetings-conference-2012

Two members of the Network receive attention in this months edition of the Museums Journal. Louise Grey interviews The Yorkshire Museum of Farming at Murton for the series on UK specialist collections, and Jane Weeks reviews the new Abbot’s Hall displays at the Musuem of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket.