It's Good to Hoard...

Back in 1856 a hoard of three Bronze vessels dating to the Roman period was discovered by chance near to the town of Sandy. Roman and Anglo Saxon artefacts were almost constantly being recovered whilst workmen were digging the railway line between Potton and Sandy. Most of these items were found in burials and included many personal items such as jewellery, pottery, keys and toilet sets. So the discovery of this group of rather fine bronze bowls instantly stood out as something very different.

The bowls are roughly the same size; the largest has a rim diameter of 32 cm and the smallest a rim diameter of 22cm. The only decoration appears on the top of the rim as delicate fluting creating a sort of pie crust effect.

Bronze Bowls of this high quality are rare and unusual from any period but for them to have survived for so long since Roman times and to still be in such a complete state is really very special. The original owner of the bowls would have been an individual with serious high status and maybe even have been a Roman official involved with some aspect of commerce and trade in Sandy.

Though hoards of bronze bowls are not common they are not unique either. Very similar bowls have been recovered nearby at Irchester, Northamptonshire, and further away at Sturmere in Essex and Knaresborough in Yorkshire.

Research carried out by DH Kennett and published in 1969 clearly shows that these hoards found in Britain are not unique within the Roman Empire. Similar bronze bowls have been found in Germany, Holland and in northern France. Nearly all of these continental bronze bowls have been found in the graves of wealthy Romans and from the coin evidence have been firmly dated to the late fourth century.

It is very sad for us today that so little is known about the Sandy bowls other than that they were found together as a hoard during the construction of the railway line a little over one hundred and fifty years ago. This is so very different to modern day excavations which routinely accurately record the exact location and the context of where and how objects are found.

It is tantalising to wonder who these bowls belonged to, how they got to Sandy and why were they buried. It is possible that like the examples from the continent these bowls were buried with their owner for use in the next world and that this information was not recorded by the workmen. Or what seems more likely, given the probable late forth century date of the hoard, is that the owner of the bowls buried them at a time of stress for safe keeping hoping to retrieve them later. The late fourth and early fifth centuries saw the collapse of the Roman Empire and it may be that the disintegration of law and order in the community in and around Sandy provoked their owner into the desperate act of hiding them in the ground.

Liz Pieksma
Keeper of Archaeology

Reference.

D H Kennett, “Late Roman Bronze Vessel Hoards in Britain, Jahrbuch des Romisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 16, 1969, 123-148

Object of the Week: The Eglinton Tournament Jug

In 1839, after what some considered a meagre Coronation for Queen Victoria, one man, Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, decided to stage a medieval style tournament to right this apparent wrong.




View of the Tournament

 
Held at the Earl’s ancestral home, Eglinton Castle in Ayrshire, the tournament attracted over 100,000 visitors travelling from as far a field as America and Europe, and many dressed in the themed medieval costume. Unfortunately, what had promised to be a great event was literally a wash out; a torrential downpour that did not let up for the entire three days of the tournament caused the ground to turn into a quagmire. The jousting pavilion and the roofs of the stands collapsed, and the banqueting tents and ballrooms began to leak. Visitors who wanted to leave, some of whom had been sleeping in the open air due to the lack of available lodgings, had to walk through mud and rain to the local village after heavy flooding stopped any form of transport having access to the castle.

On the third day, with a smaller number of spectators and some hasty repairs, aspects of the tournament still managed to go ahead, but the damage had been done and the press had a field day.

Although the event had not been the success it was hoped it would be, it captured the public’s imagination and was reported across the globe, shining a light on Scotland and making a hero of Lord Eglinton for his chivalrous attempts to help the stranded crowds. And for those who had been unable able to attend the actual event, adaptations of the tournament were staged in London theatres.

Jug, William Ridgway, Son & Co, c.1840, white stoneware with relief moulded decoration.

This jug was one of the many souvenirs of the tournament. Made by William Ridgway, Son & Co it is decorated with knights in armour similar to those that would have taken part in the tournament.

Victoria Partridge
Keeper of Fine and Decorative Arts

Cecil Higgins and the Arctic Explorer

One of the nicest things about the redevelopment is that the curatorial team now share an office. In the past I would have to walk from my office in the old Higgins House on one side of the site to offices in the attic of the brewery on the other side to see Lydia (Keeper of Social History) and Liz (Keeper of Archaeology). This meant I tended to only see them when I had a specific purpose, so didn’t get the chance to talk to them about what we were up to with our work.

Now that we are so close, and can bounce ideas off each other at the turn of a head, we have found lots of links between our collections we never knew existed. For example, if I didn’t share an office with Lydia I would neverhave heard her talking last week about how she is researching into Arctic explorers from Bedford, and she would never have known that a few weeks earlier I had come across a medal in the Cecil Higgins Collection given for Arctic Exploration. This led to Lydia finding the name Henry Piers on the rim of the medal, me remembering that Cecil Higgins had an uncle by the name of Henry Piers and Tom (Head of Collections and Exhibitions) googling Piers and finding that not only did Piers’ dates, name of wife etc. match the Higgins Piers, but that he had been on the boat in 1851 that had discovered the North West Passage. Meaning, we had found an Arctic Explorer with a Bedford connection that was related to the Higgins’, which in Curatorial terms is like discovering gold.

Obverse and Reverse of the Campaign Medal awarded to Henry Piers, Assistant Surgeon on the HMS Investigator

Since the 15th Century explorers had been trying to find the North West Passage, a navigable channel that was believed to connect the North Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. By the early nineteenth century the eastern and northern ends of the passage had been charted, with only the link between the two to be found. In May 1845 Captain Sir John Franklin of the Royal Navy with 127 men set sail on the Erebus and the Terror to discover this last remaining part. By 1848 no word had been heard from the expedition and the search for Franklin and his crew became a national priority. In the course of a decade almost 40 expeditions were sent out on the search, and although none were successful in bringing Franklin home (sadly, he and his entire crew had long since perished), major explorations of the Canadian arctic were made; including the discovery by Robert McClure in the HMS Investigator, of the Prince of Wales Strait, which was the last link of the fabled passage.

Henry Piers an Assistant Surgeon had volunteered along with 66 officers and men for McClure’s expedition, which set sail in 1850. What Piers can’t have imagined when he left Woolwich, was that he would not return to England until 1854, after spending three harsh arctic winters trapped by ice onboard the Investigator before abandoning the ship and walking with the remaining crew for fifteen days across the ice to rescue. Although the crew’s original mission to find Franklin had been unsuccessful, during the first year that they were trapped they made several explorations by sledge and on the 31st October an entry in the ships log stated that the existence of a Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean had been established.

On his return to England he married Ellen Colburne, Cecil Higgins’ maternal aunt in Bedford and a year later continued his naval career as surgeon various ships before retiring in 1873.

Colburne and Higgins Family Tree

What makes finding Henry Piers even more interesting is that unlike the Higgins, who we have very little personal information about, Pierce kept diaries of his travels, which are now in the National Maritime Museum.

More research needs to be done, but Henry Piers is turning out to be a very exciting member of the Higgins family.

Victoria Partridge
Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art

Thanks to Jane Wickenden the Historic Collections Librarian at the Institute of Naval Medicine and Jean Forshaw at the Institute of Naval Medicine for all their help with the research into Henry Piers.

Remembrance Day 11-11-11-11: Sergeant Henry Hector Manton

As we will be commemorating Remembrance Day tomorrow on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day, of the 11^th  month, of 2011, today's blog is dedicated to a local Bedford family and a man who courageously served his country during World War I.

Henry Manton Senoir and his wife Kate outside the Woolpack Public House,
Commercial Road. Landlord for 28 years.
Picture Courtesy of Colin Manton.

I am sure that many of our reader’s local to Bedford will recognise the name Manton, after which the road Manton Lane is called. The Manton family had been potato, pig and cattle dealers and farmers connected with Bedford from 1652. Descendant Mr Henry Manton (1845 -1922) was also a farmer and pig dealer, occupying the Hoo Farm and lane up the hill to the waterworks Reservoir off  Clapham Road. One son of a family of seventeen Mantons.

Image of Mr Henry Manton Snr with his eldest daughter, Doris,
Courtesy of Bedford Times and Citizen, Beds Times archive, obituary printed, 5.4.1922.

Henry farmed at Brickhill, Turvey Park, and Rookery as well as the Hoo. At one time he had quite a substantial property portfolio and lived in a large house in Alexandra Road. He later turned to the licensed trade as one of Charles Wells respected landlords. For over forty years he was landlord of the Swan at Clapham, the Woolpack at Commercial Road and the Hop Pole in Cauldwell Street, respectively.

Henry Hector Manton (1895-1917).
Picture Courtesy of Colin Manton

Henry Hector Manton (known as Harry) was born in 1895, the first son of Henry Senior and his second wife, Kate. Harry was educated at Bedford Modern School, sited then at Harpur Street with the Blore Façade (now the Harpur shopping Centre). The school now resides, rather ironically, at Manton Lane having moved in 1974 to land that was once owned and farmed by Harry’s father. 

The First World War broke out in 1914. Harry decided to join the Army Veterinary Corps (AVC) in January 1916, receiving his training at Milton Ernest. He would have experienced training with horses, perhaps something like the AVC recruits featured here in this film from the Pathe archive.

Click here to see the Pathe AVC Film

Henry Hector in his Military Uniform c.1916
Picture Courtesy of Colin Manton.

This was probably a good fit for a young man who was used to being around a farm and was experienced with horses. The AVC was well tested in WWI and were responsible for the welfare of the cavalry horses when they were injured on the Front.  There were 2.5 million injuries treated, mainly on the Western Front and 80% of injured animals were treated and returned to duty. Without these men taking care of and treating the horses, the Allies may not have won the battle.

Picture of 'Harry Hester' Manton on a motorbike outside the Hop Pole Inn with his mother, father and youngest brother. Courtesy of BLARS, ref: Z50-142-809

Sadly Harry was in France just eight months, in that time receiving a promotion from Private to Sergeant, credited for his skill and knowledge of treating horses. On the 16^th January 1917, only a year after he had been recruited into the Army, it was reported (according to the obituary in the Bedfordshire Times) to the family that Harry had undergone what was believed to be a successful operation for appendicitis. However, just 2 days later, further news came that he had unfortunately not recovered following the surgery and had in fact died on the 12^th January, age 22. He is buried at Heilly Station Cemetary, Mericourt – L’Abbe, Somme, France.

An  AVC decorative badge passed down the generations of the Manton Family and recently donated to Bedford Museum, these types of objects were often given by the soldiers as presents to their loved ones.

It seems likely that, although he was not directly killed in action, in being based at the 2^nd Veterinary Hospital at the Somme he would have witnessed many casualties of men and horses coming from the Front over the months preceding his death, requiring both strength and bravery on his part.

His obituary in the Bedfordshire Times on the 28^th January 1917 stated; ‘He was a promising young man, and in the town and county was well known, and very popular’.

A decorative embroidered hankerchief, these hankerchiefs varied in quality, this one appears to be factory made,
 and sold to troops, with the relevant 'arms being added 'AVC' in this case.
This one was bought and given by Harry Manton to his family during the war.

Many families must have been relieved when the Armistice was signed between the Allied forces and Germany at Compiègne, France, marking the end of hostilities on the Western Front. This historically took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. Following the end of the War the AVC was credited for its outstanding contribution and became known as the Royal Army Veterinary Corps on 27th November 1918. 

The Manton family grieved for their son, as have many who have lost loved ones through both World Wars and other military engagements over the last century. Give them and their families a thought and your gratitude this remembrance day for their bravery and courage to fight when our country needed them. A minute or two's contemplation seems the least we can do considering the sacrifices that have been made by these men and women. Remember 11-11-11-11.

Lydia Saul
Keeper of Social History

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Colin Manton and the photographs and the family tree information.
Thanks to BLARS for the photographs of Henry Manton and information.

Thanks to Bedford Times and Citizen for the article 'The Man of Mantons Lane', printed May 1967 and picture of Henry Manton Snr printed in his obituary in Beds Times, 5.4.1922.

Object of the Week: Medal for a Hero in the Mist

 Our object of the week is a special First World War medal, awarded to Sergeant Augustus Edwin Brawn. Sergeant Brawn was the only person in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry to be awarded both the Military medal and the bar (in addition) to the medal during the First World War.  During the war Sergeant Brawn was attached to the 15^th King’s Hussars, a cavalry regiment serving on the western front.

Family photograph of Augustus Edwin Brawn of the 15th Hussars, Bedfordshire Yeomanry

Brawn was Lance-Corporal in 1916 of the 9th Cavalry brigade, and was one of a number of people who received a personal letter on the 15th February 1916 after returning from 6 weeks at the front, receiving thanks from the Brigadier General.

"I wish to convey to all ranks of the brigade my high apprecaition of the way in which they carried out their many duties. Nothing could have exceeded the keeness, energy and high state of discipline of all ranks.

The excellence of the trench discipline was undoubtedly in part responsible for the low percentage of casusalties incurred by the battalion."



The Military Medal, awarded during the First World War to Sergeant Brawn. The bar above the medal was given in addition to mark his bravery in battle.

He was promoted to Sergeant and it was reported that on 8^th August 1918, whilst mounted on his horse at Rosieres, Sergeant Brawn was seriously wounded, receiving a rifle bullet to his neck. He recovered surprisingly quickly from his injuries and just thirteen days later he took part in further action at Achiet-le-Petit.  The action started at 11.15pm on the 20^th August, the 15^th Hussars saddled up and started to approach Achiet-le-Petit via Souastre.  The following morning a thick mist developed and did not lift until late into the day, at least providing them some protection from enemy fire and as a result the cavalry suffered few casualties.   

Brawn's cavalry patrol proved their value in being able to communicate with the firing line and give them a constant stream of information about the enemy.  It was here that Sergeant Brawn displayed ‘conspicuous gallantry, courage and tenacity of purpose’.  During the fighting he went forward, despite his recent injury, four times under a very heavy barrage of shells and gas, facing enemy rifle fire and machine-gun fire.  The information he brought back was ‘of the greatest value’, earning him his commendation and medal.  Sergeant Brawn was one of the lucky ones surviving the war and having his bravery recognised, but it would seem the risks he was prepared to take to protect his men and his country went above and beyond a call of duty.

Lydia Saul
Keeper of Social History

Thanks to Mr Peter Brawn who gathered together much of the above information from "the Bedfordshire Yeomanry in the Great War", "The History of the 15th Hussars", as well as the King's Royal Hussars Museum at Newcastle, alongside family documents and photographs.

How I found out about Life in the Loop

All of the changes at the Art Gallery & museum over the past few years have led to a much closer way of working between all the areas of the collections. For the first 6 years I worked almost exclusively with the Fine & Decorative Arts collection, initially under James McGregor and since 2008 under the current Keeper, Victoria Partridge. Since the collections have been packed away and we all moved off-site I have been documenting and reconciling the Foreign Archaeology and Ethnography collections, working closely with Liz Pieksma, the Keeper of Archaeology. This post is also a collaborative effort  between the two of us.

One of the first things I had to learn about these kind of collections, in comparison to the art collections, is the importance of location context: where they were made or found is crucial to understanding. The location can be a very different kind of starting point for these collections. Of course with art, you can look at the output of a London art school between 1890-and 1910 or a Bedford Arts & Crafts furniture manufacture, but the whole process of engaging with an archaeological context is quite different. The objects in this sense are more important to archaeologists as carriers of information - a broken pot to an art historian needs repairing, to an archaeologist it reveals the material the pot was made of which can date or locate the origin of the pot which can tell you about trade, population migration or all manner of things.


View Biddenham Loop in a larger map




Mike Luke, Life in the Loop,
Albion Archaeology (Bedford, 2008)



I chanced upon all of this when while writing about architecture in Bedford. I was looking at an online map of listed buildings, and followed a link to a map of scheduled ancient monuments - archaeological sites registered as significant. This showed me far more sites in the Bedford area than I expected, including an oval barrow just west of Queens Park in Bedford, an area I once lived. I asked Liz about how to go about finding out about a site from the location and whether we had any finds, and this led on to the main point of this blog. The barrow, I learned, was on the edge of a very important area known as Biddenham loop, a landscape enclosed on three sides by the meandering River Great Ouse. The history of it I'll let Liz explain, but this led me on to the other organisations that the Museum works with with regards to archaeological records. The area has been well researched in the past 20 years or so, and was allready earmarked to feature in our new displays. The archaeology in the area has been done by Albion Archaeology and Mike Luke has produced a book, Life in the Loop, of their findings. When all the research is complete they pass their finds to the Museum and their records to the Bedford Borough Historic Environment Records (HER) department. The book sums things up nicely, but if we want more information or images for displays it will be HER that we go to. HER, as well as Bedford and Luton Archive Service (BLARS) will possibly also have records of more recent life and occupation of 'the loop' which can add to our understanding of the entire history of the site.

So now I'll hand over to Liz...

The recent excavations prior to the expansion of development  around Biddenham and the even more recent publication of all of this archaeological evidence and research has enabled a fascinating series of landscapes for the area around Biddenham to be understood.

Evidence for the earliest settlements in the Palaeolithic, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic is sparse. Concentrations of manmade flints along the edge of the river terrace but out of the flood plain, show human activity whilst several rectangular enclosures and an oval shaped monument strongly suggest ritual and funerary ceremonies took place.

The evidence for human activity during the later Neolithic/ Bronze Age is more abundant and the presence of pits and flint concentrations shows that the whole area within the loop of the river is being utilised far more. The presence now of three separate barrow cemeteries spread out across the woodland landscape shows the continuation ceremonial importance of the area.

Towards the end of the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age the settlement becomes more organised. A larger, main settlement on the western part of the loop becomes established with a smaller area is situated to the east. However the most interesting feature of this period is the establishment of a numbers of deliberately dug pits which form a line across the southern part of the area between the bend in the river .This line of pits would have been a very significant feature in the landscape and has been interpreted as a physical boundary.  

In the middle and later Iron Age the settlement pattern transforms into six separate farmsteads spread out along the river terrace. Several of the small farmsteads were found to have round houses and storage pits at their core and two of them were situated at either end of the earlier pit alignment.

The pattern of small farmsteads continues into the early Roman phase and becomes more formalised with the addition of individual enclosure ditches to demark space. The presence of individual burials on the outskirts of the farmsteads and a small cemetery next to one particular farmstead shows that the people farming in the area were also buried there. Overtime it seems that enclosures, boundaries and track ways around and between the farmsteads become more established in the landscape. The overall impression is that the small farmsteads situated close to the river terrace were using the interior woodland and grassland communally.

Evidence from the excavations shows that few finds or features dating to the Saxon period were recovered and this strongly suggest that whilst people still remained in the area it was at a much reduced level of activity.

The remarkable story to come out of this archaeological investigation is that people have been using a range of natural resources over and over again through time. The constant resources have been the river, the floodplain for pasture and the wooded interior for grazing. Amongst this landscape they have made farms, worshipped and buried their dead.

Kristian Purcell & Liz Pieksma

Object of the Week: 'Mary Boteler of Eastry, Kent', 1786, by John Hoppner

When I recently saw the new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery advertised I was immediately stuck by the painting of Mary Robinson as 'Perdita'. This was partly because it's a very fine bit of 18th century portraiture, with all bravura and richness that epitomises that era, but also because it was unmistakably by John Hoppner.

Hoppner (1758-1810) was one of the leading society portraitists of his day, and regularly patronized by royalty. Stylistically he was heavily indebted to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was dominated the art scene as the first President of the Royal Academy. Hoppner is no longer as well known today but anyone who has spent any significant length of time in the Victorian House displays at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery would have become very familiar with his striking portrait of 'Mary Boteler of Eastry Kent', 1786 (below).





John Hoppner, 'Mary Boteler of Eastry Kent', 1786, detail.



The portrait of Mary Boteler is not as opulent as that of Mary Robinson, but in its quietness and confident handling, the portrait is still very distinguished. The brooding clouds of the background were a regular feature in Hoppner's portraits:  here they add a melodramatic undercurrent to the mood of the piece. The palette and lighting is also carefully muted. The greys of the lace and silk merge into the clouds, framing and emphasising the pinkness of the lips, cheeks and eyes. Light falls most strongly across the silk bow on the front of the dress but it only serves to lead the viewer in to the picture and up to the clear focus of the picture - the face, and that marvellous open expression. It is an emotive and touching portrait, and draws a sympathetic response to the sitter. Mary (nee Harvey) was her husband's second wife. His first, Sarah Fuller had died following the birth of their first son, but in contrast Mary went on to give William a further six sons and five daughters.

The partner piece, a portrait of William Boteler, is far more serious in tone. With precision, Hoppner depicts Boteler's features and the details of his outfit. He pictured in a pose that is relaxed, but also professional, as if he has just turned from writing some official letter to give his attention to the viewer. Boteler was a surgeon and an amateur historian, a man whose brain was his sharpest tool, and the viewers focus is  drawn just above his expression to the light upon his brow, to reflect on the mind behind the brow. The unfussiness of Hoppner's depiction of Boteler gives us a very matter-of-fact character. Instead of a picturesque backdrop of brooding clouds, the eye is halted by the wall of his study, and brought back to the man in front of us. The red fabric of the chair seems to serve a purpose too: the brightest patch of colour in the picture, it serves to detract from the pinks in the face. Where Mary's femininity is expressed through the soft reds of the lips and, more subtly, of the eyes, which are strikingly emotionally communicative, William's masculinity is reinforced by his lips seeming comparatively paler than the fabric, and his eyes are engaged in intelligent enquiry, rather than emotional expression.

Kristian Purcell

Curatorial Assistant.