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Ashwell Museum Auction of Promises & Things
Sat 15th June 2019
The Story of Ashwell Village Museum
What started in the 1920s as the local curios that some schoolboys exhibited in a garden shed has grown into the permanent home for a unique and important collection covering the long history of Ashwell.
Several pupils of the Ashwell Merchant Taylors’ School were inspired to collect by the headmaster. Their collection grew and grew, and in 1928 the objects were displayed at a church fête, creating such enthusiasm that a committee was formed of village elders to find them a permanent home.
The present building, then almost derelict, was chosen as most suitable, and the young curators, Albert Sheldrick and John Bray, were dispatched to bargain with the local butcher who owned it. It was thought they would get a better deal than the senior committee members, and indeed the old cottage was bought for the sum of only £25.
Then began the hard work of making the building fit to be a museum. The plaster was stripped from the outside, revealing not only a beautiful half-timbered Tudor building but also the true extent of the repairs needed.
Fortunately, an old Ashwellian, Sir William Gentle, was so moved by the project that he offered to pay for the entire restoration. The museum was opened to the public on 30th November 1930.
The museum is full of everyday objects representing life in Ashwell and the surrounding countryside, from the Stone Age to the present day. Collecting is still continuing. History has not stopped, and people feel confident to leave things in our trust because the museum is a constant in this ever-changing world. Two modern extensions have helped to cope with this influx, but it is the old building that is now in need of more care and attention so that we can look after everything to inspire and inform future generations.
The museum is proud of its place at the centre of the local community, closely involved in the ebb and flow of village life and contributing to traditional events as well as initiating many of its own. A programme of lectures and outings is a regular feature of the village calendar, and the museum played a central role in 2017 when Ashwell celebrated the 1100th centenary of its foundation. The children of the village school are regular visitors, and school parties also visit from surrounding towns and villages. The museum has a growing number of outreach box collections that are loaned to schools and others in the community.
As part of our work, we are cataloguing, digitising and photographing every one of the 16,000 objects, archives and pictures in our collection, which will eventually be made available for viewing online.
Our constantly evolving website routinely publicises the results of research by local people. During the period from 2014 to 2018 a centenary research project has enabled us to add many new details about all those from Ashwell who served in the First World War.
The original Museum building is Grade II* listed and is now on the Historic England “At Risk” register because of deterioration to the structural beams. It was erected in about the year 1500 on part of the old market place and was probably some kind of shop or office. Later it was known as the Town House. Churchwardens, parish constables, overseers of the poor and non-conformists all held meetings there. It has also been a plait school, a tailor’s shop, a dwelling house and a store room. Now it is our museum, the very heart of our village, both metaphorically and geographically.
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