Wind Farm Grant Awarded

This month we are feeling grateful to the Burnthouse Farm Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund, a charitable fund managed by Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, who have just granted Whittlesey Museum £825 towards the cost of new shelving for Room 5! Updates will follow as the shelving is installed and filled up as part of our ongoing timeline of local history. We hope to be able to bring quite a few objects out of our stores as a result of this grant and cover topics such as The Draining of Whittlesey Mere, Traditional Fenland Life, Victorian Whittlesey and World War One.

Surprise archaeology at Whittlesey Museum!

Brushing away some loose soil immediately outside the back door of our replica Forge has exposed a lovely section of original brick floor from the time when the back buildings of the old Town Hall used to be a caretaker's cottage. 
We hope to be able to keep the bricks visible now to share them with the public.

Whittlesey Festival 2015

 A good day was had by all at the Whittlesey Festival 2015, with unseasonably sunny weather.  More than 200 visitors took advantage of free entry to the Museum to meet some real museum objects, get their faces painted and see parts of the 2016 Straw Bear being built to the accompaniment of some live music.

Full Accreditation for Whittlesey Museum

We are very proud today at Whittlesey Museum because we have just had our Full Accreditation renewed by the Arts Council for another three years!

The Accreditation Scheme sets nationally agreed standards for UK museums. To qualify, museums must meet standards on how they are managed, for the services they offer, and on how they care for collections.

Museum Shop Revamp!

The Museum Shop area has been revamped this week, with several exciting new products including Hedingham Fair greetings cards, museum badges and pencils and even a new Whittlesey Museum exclusive Straw Bear Dress-Up toy (only 80p!)...

Of course, you can still buy the previous range of local history books and leaflets including the ever-popular Millennium Memories of Whittlesey series, now only £1 per booklet.

Local Mangle Restored

After much work over the winter, volunteers have just completed the restoration of a large local mangle which will now be taking up a permanent home in the museum yard.

The mangle was made in Whittlesea during the 19th century and is decorated with ornate ironwork designs including suns and crowns.The pale green colour of the new paintwork was especially mixed to represent the original colour of the mangle, matched against flakes of the original paint.

Summer Exhibition celebrates 200th anniversary of Waterloo

Did you know that local celebrity Sir Harry Smith fought at the Battle of Waterloo during the early part of his career, or that his young wife Juana was told that he had died there and rode 60 miles over the battlefield searching for his body before the pair were reunited?

This summer's exhibition at Whittlesey Museum commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June using first-hand accounts of the battle written by Sir Harry Smith and Juana Smith. Come and find out for yourself about the role that the Prussian army played on the day, the looting of teeth from the dying to use in dentistry at home and Europe's first prisoner of war camp at Norman Cross in Peterborough.