Taking Shelter at the Under Fire Museum

Last week, we transferred the Anderson Shelter that used to be on display in the museum courtyard to Under Fire Museum at Twinwood, Bedford, which explores the story of the Wartime fire service.

The Anderson Shelter was not formally part of the museum collection, but had been a popular display item since being salvaged from a back garden at Queens Park, where the owner had converted it into a tool shed in the years after the Second World War.

Under Fire Museum have been preparing for their own re-display, due to open later this summer. The new displays will include an ARP wardens hut and a Morrison Shelter - they just happened to have display space where the Anderson Shelter will fit in perfectly with the overall scheme.

Unfortunately, the Anderson Shelter was not in tip top condition following years of weathering from the elements, so we were not sure if we would succeed in removing the shelter without it buckling or being damaged in the process.

The initial plan was to attempt to place straps around the shelter to secure the structure together and then attach the straps to a winch to draw the shelter up onto a trailer.

The plan was going well until Roy and Neil, our friends from Under Fire who were collecting the shelter, saw that the corroded corrugated metal was not strong enough to cope with this and could not support the extra strain being place onto it. Plan A had to be aborted to avert potential disaster.

Plan B then came into operation. This meant separating the shelter into its three sections – front, middle and back – and laying these down in the trailer. A grinder had to be used to cut the corroded bolts holding the metal panels together to free the individual sections. This seemed a reasonable compromise as we knew of some historical replacements that were in better condition than the sorry looking originals.

With a bit of manhandling and persuasion, the sections came apart and slotted together on the back of the trailer without too much difficulty.

We hope to post a picture of the shelter in situ at Under Fire in due course, once it goes on permanent display later this summer. We’re thrilled to have found the shelter a safe new home at a museum, where it will still be able to be enjoyed by the public for years to come.

http://www.twinwoodairfield.co.uk/fireservice.html

How to move a mummy...

Earlier this week we tackled a job that we've been putting off for a while now...packing and moving the museum's mummy.

Actually, to be accurate, it's a mummy case (we checked and it's definitely empty). Unfortunately, we know very little about it. A trawl through our collections records hasn't revealed who donated it to the museum and it's also hard for us to date it. This is partly because, sometime ago, it was given a thick coat of varnish. Although this was probably done to try and protect the surface, the varnish has turned a murky, dark brown colour, through which there are tantalising glimpses of painted decoration.

The idealised face is described on the label as having been 'much re-gilded' and there's a nice rumour that the boys at Bedford Modern School (from whose museum much of the collection here originates) were allowed to practise their gilding skills on it!    



The mummy case


Generally speaking, it's a good idea to try and actually handle an object like this as little possible when moving it, to reduce the risk of causing damage. Opening the display case the mummy has been in for the past few decades, it became clear that removing it entirely would be extremely difficult.

Because we only needed to move the mummy case a short distance by hand into temporary storage, we decided the best option was to pack it in situ. There's often no 'right' or 'wrong' choice in collections problems like this, instead it's best to think in terms of what works for the particular challenges you're facing. Had we been moving the mummy case offsite by vehicle, we would almost certainly have made a different decision.

Firstly, we wrapped the mummy case in a special breathable fabric to protect its surface.

Wrapping it up

    
The next step was to pad out the inside of the display case with wadges of acid-free tissue, helping to stop any movement.

Making up the tissue wadges

Er, whose hand is that?

After that, we put glass tape and corrugated plastic across the surface of the glass, to add an extra layer of protection (both for us and for the object!).



The finished article - ready to go!

 The display case itself has its own wheels. As the mummy case was now well padded and protected, it was simply a case of wheeling it away...just a short distance to where it would join the rest of the archaeology collection in temporary storage while the redevelopment of the Art Gallery & Museum takes place.

Off to the stores

The mummy case was one of the last really awkward objects to move before we hand over the museum to the builders, and there's a definite sense of relief that the end of the packing project is in sight!  

Hello.

Welcome to our brand new collections blog. While the Art Gallery & Museum are closed for a major redevelopment project, this is where you can keep up to date with news and views from the curatorial team, as well as get involved with the process of interpreting and redisplaying the collections.  

The curatorial team taking part in Curators' Question Time
during the Castle Quay Weekender



A great deal of our energy at the moment is being taken up by the mammoth task of packing and moving collections so that the building work can begin. Over the next few months we'll be writing about our experiences of this, so keep your eyes peeled for posts on moving mummies, grasshoppers masquerading as locusts, and how to fit a fire engine into a lift.

We're moving out

We'll also be encouraging our fantastic volunteers to share some of their experiences of working on the collections.



Bill Knight, our longest standing volunteer, examines
Palaeolithic flints



As well as regular 'object of the week' posts, the curatorial team will be posting updates on our work in designing the new displays that will be at the heart of the redeveloped Art Gallery & Museum. We're hoping that sharing some of the excitement we’re feeling at the prospect of this, as well as the challenges that we’ll be facing, will encourage you to get involved in the process too. We’d love to hear your comments, thoughts and ideas.