Murmurings in Millbrook

I was planning to do a 'packing by numbers' post today to share some of the frankly astonishing figures that have come out of our big collections packing project. I decided this could wait for the time being, though, as I was really taken by a little set of images I came across while doing some research into the origins of the museum - so here's the story behind them.

Back in April 1919, Percy George 'Piggie' Langdon, a teacher at Bedford Modern School and curator of the school museum, got together a group of boys who were interested in archaeology to investigate a mystery surrounding the churchyard in Millbrook, Bedfordshire.

According to local rumour over the previous 60 or 70 years, two effigies had been removed from an altar tomb in the chancel "because strange sounds proceeded from them". It was said that the effigies had been taken to the rectory cellar before being buried in the churchyard - where presumably the strange noises stopped!


St Michael and All Angels Church in Millbrook, Bedfordshire,
photographed in the early years of the 20th century



Undeterred by the ghostly stories, Langdon got permission to excavate in the south-east corner of the churchyard. After three days digging, during which, if the photographs are anything to go by, the poor boys had to remain in their school uniforms, portions of the smashed tomb were discovered along with the broken remains of the effigies.



The boys digging - uniform must be worn at all times!



Proudly showing off their discovery to the local press -
'Piggie' Langdon is on the right-hand side



The effigies, which commemorated William and Mary Huett (the latter of whom died in June 1602), were re-set into the chancel of the church.

The success of the excavation attracted local and national press and helped to make a name for what became the Bedford Modern School Archaeological Society. The Society went on to help Langdon reorganise the school museum displays, ridding it of much "junk" along the way, including "moulting birds and a moth-eaten stuffed lion".

It's nice to think that, all these years later, the museum is still helping to get children involved in archaeology. In a couple of weeks time, at The Making of Bedford event in Bedford's Priory Country Park, children from Saturday Archaeology Workshops (SAW), which is run by the museum and Albion Archaeology, will be displaying the results of some on-site test pit excavations.


Tom

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!