York Museums Trust Blog

Choosing a low-energy light bulb is about as frugal as we get these days when cutting costs on lighting our homes.

But back in the 1800s many homes were lit using only rushes picked from nearby rivers.

These “rush lights” were so common that an industry sprung up making special holders for them. We have examples of these at York Castle Museum and during the half-term week visitors will be able to see daily demonstrations of how rush lights were made in our Kitchen Studio.

It wasn’t very complicated – they were stripped, then dipped in melted meat fat, then clipped in their holders and lit.

They only lasted for about 15 minutes, and it was often the child of the family’s job to keep checking on the rush lights, replacing them and relighting them where necessary, while the adults of the family got on with jobs like sewing and mending.

Rush lights saw a surge in popularity when a new candle tax was introduced in 1709 and they were very popular in the North Yorkshire countryside around York. Families would pick large numbers of rushes in the summer and autumn so that they had enough to see them through the winter.

Ironically the very poor still had to shell out for candles for their homes as they couldn’t afford the meat that provided the rush light’s coating.

Find out more about our half-term events on our website.

Natalie Kingston strips a rush ready for coating

Coating the rush with melted fat

Emma Burbidge lights the finished rush light in its holder

The mounting excitement gathering  prior to our exhibition of Hockney’s Bigger Trees near Warter reached fever pitch today when the man himself popped into the gallery for an unannounced and unexpected visit.

Guide Chris House, working on reception, had a shock when Hockney walked in with his assistant and pointed him in the direction of the main gallery, where the painting has just been mounted.

Our chief executive Janet Barnes and curator of art Laura Turner just happened to be in the gallery doing an interview with local journalist Elly Fiorentini, co-ordinated by our press officer Lee Clark.

Hockney agreed to chat to Elly, from BBC Radio York, before talking to our staff about how his painting looked. He stayed for about 20 minutes then went back home to Bridlington.

The painting, made up of 50 canvases, took three days to mount in a jigsaw-puzzle style process (see pictures below) and will be revealed to the public on Saturday. Don’t miss it!

The Burton Gallery reopened this weekend after a major refurbishment and redisplay, writes Laura Turner, curator of art at York Art Gallery.

We had a whopping 1700 visitors into the gallery and there was a positive response to the space. The redisplay features over 70 paintings, sculpture, ceramics and costume from York Art Gallery’s fantastic collections and we’ve tried to include a balance between old favourites and works of art which haven’t been seen for some time.

One of the highlights of the redisplay is Richard Jack’s enormous painting, Return to the Front which depicts a scene at Victoria Railway Station in London during the First World War. This was conserved a few years ago with a grant from the Friends of York Art Gallery and we’re delighted that it’s back on display.

We’re also busy preparing for our next exhibition – David Hockney’s Bigger Trees Near Warter which opens on 12th February.  We usually have a two week turn around for exhibitions, but we’ve had to allow three weeks for this change over, as it’s such a huge task. In order to display the painting (Hockney’s largest and most ambitious work to date), we needed to build a false wall.

The wall was completed on Saturday and we’re now busy raising the lighting track and repainting the gallery. The next step will be the  installation of the paintings…

Visit our website for more details on Bigger Trees Near Warter and The Burton Gallery

Collections Snapshot

Thanks to Jenny Alexander, Assistant Curator of Fine Art for this Collections Snapshot from the York Art Gallery collection.

Portrait of Catherine Davenant, wife of Thomas Lamplugh, 1664 by an unknown artist. Oil on canvas. Presented by Mr R.M.MacColla in 1959.

Thomas Lamplugh was a Yorkshire-born clergyman who became Archbishop of York in 1688.  This charming portrait of his wife was probably painted to mark his appointment as Archdeacon of London in 1664.

Until the 18th century, women’s hats were modelled on men’s designs. Her costume is orthodox restoration period and puritan in style, reflecting the austerity of Cromwell’s commonwealth. She wears a high-crowned black hat made of beaver fur worn over a limp hood. The style is very similar to that worn by the Dutch at the time, when most people in England were starting to sport more flamboyant fashions. The painting is currently featured in the Hats exhibition at York Art Gallery (until 23rd January 2011).

If you like Christmas pudding, head over to York Castle Museum where they’re making them nearly every day until Christmas Eve!

Liz mixing the wartime recipe pudding

Liz Page, one of the guides doing demonstrations of three historic recipes, said she was enjoying it so much she intended to make one at home.

“I have always made my own cake but this year I’m thinking of making a Mrs Beeton puddingl!”

Each day (apart from three special event days on December 3, 11 and 12) visitors can see watch ingredients being weighed and mixed, smell the aromas of cinnamon, orange peel and brandy, and then – the best bit – have a taste of the finished pud.

Liz weighing out brown sugar for Mrs Beeton's recipe

Liz said the firm favourite with the public was the Mrs Beeton pudding from her recipe book of 1923, and second favourite was medieval Frumenty, which she had been surprised by as it was a bit different, more like a porridge consistency, but flavoured strongly with cinnamon. Last, but not least, was the Second World War rations recipe, using powdered egg.

“There’s been a really nice atmosphere and it’s going down really well with visitors – but it’s a traditional thing isn’t it, making a Christmas pudding. I’m really enjoying it!” said Liz.

There are recipes to take away or you can download two of them here by clicking on each of the images below:

The Christmas pudding making in the museum’s Kitchen Studio is part of the Christmas at the Castle month at the museum. Visit our website for more information.

I love making things and I’m always making things at home – so when I was asked to spend a whole day at work  making Victorian-style tree decorations I was more than happy! writes Lynda Withers, education assistant at York Castle Museum.

A group of us got together in the Castle Museum’s Costume Studio with a big supply of card, ribbon, glue, fabric, pens, pencils and more to make decorations for the Christmas tree which will go up in our Victorian Street, Kirkgate, from next week.

Lucy Knock, assistant curator of social history learning, making a Cornucopia

First of all was a supply of Cornucopias. These are really easy to make – cut out a quarter-circle piece of card (use a compass to help you – we had it measuring 12cm), then glue the straight edges to make a small cone. Then stick Christmassy images on the outside, add some ribbon to hang it from the tree, and, if you like, fill with nuts and sweets as the Victorians did.

We decorated them with typically Victorian images of flowers, robins – and cats. Cats were particularly fashionable on decorations and Christmas cards in the late 1800s.

Lynda working on a Candelabra

An original Victorian Candelabra decoration

Another easy one was little Candelabras – we have got real a Victorian example on show in the Studio as part of a small display of Christmas decorations which will be open throughout the Christmas period. To copy this design, we just used glittery pipe-cleaners and birthday cake candles – great fun!

We also made little drums, using cardboard tubes covered with fabric and netting, and used fabric pens to make flags from the countries in the British Empire, also popular decorations at the time.

Mary Cox, volunteer, helping to make a drum

Work in progress - the flag of Aden

Elijah Chin with his Cornucopia

Visitors wandering through the Studio, on their way round the museum, were curious about what we were up to and quite impressed with our handiwork. They enjoyed looking at the old decorations on display, including some from the 1950s and 60s that they remembered from their own childhoods.

One young visitor, Elijah Chin, even sat straight down to join in. He made his own Cornucopia while his family waited patiently for him to finish!

“I like making things!” he declared as he took his seat.

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

A selection of our completed Cornucopias

Christmas at the Castle runs from 25 November – 24 December at York Castle Museum. Find out more on our website.

Collections Snapshot: Isaac Button Pottery

Isaac Button was Yorkshire’s last traditional country potter, making functional domestic pots from the red clay he dug himself. The site of his Soil Hill Pottery near Halifax produced pots since the 17th century until 1965, when he retired. At the height of his career, he could transform a ton of clay a day into pots. He still found time for enjoying himself though and is infamously quoted saying he “never left a pub the same day he entered it”.

Isaac is also the star of one of the most famous pottery films ever made. “Isaac Button: Country Potter” is 40 mesmerizing minutes of silent black and white film, produced by the amateur film maker John Anderson in the few years before Isaac retired. John died last year, leaving the film to the Yorkshire Film Archive. His widow has passed on to York Museums Trust a wonderful collection of photographs taken by him whilst he made the film. She has also given us two mixing bowls by Isaac, made of the rich red Yorkshire clay and decorated with the jewel-like yellow slip and galena glaze. The bowls are featured in the “Honest Pots” exhibition which is currently on display at York Art Gallery until October 2nd 2011, alongside some of the photos of Isaac and the famous film.

Buying a quarter of sweets is a childhood experience that visitors love reminiscing about when they visit our Terry’s sweet shop in York Castle Museum, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, curator of history.

We’re hoping they’ll be able to re-live those nostalgic purchases when we start selling hand-made Victorian-recipe sweets next year.

Museum guide India Hood in our sweet shop

The move is part of a makeover we’ve given the shop over the last few months which has enabled us to try and make it as authentic as possible to the 1890s.

Visitors are amazed to discover the variety of sweets Terry’s were selling in this period – long before they became nationally famous for their chocolate products in the 1920s and 30s.

Popular choices which people still remember today were cachous, a variety of boiled sweets made in numerous flavours, as well as jujubes (jellies)  and sherbert.

A page from Terry's wholesale catalogue

But Terry’s were also producing a full range of pharmaceutical and hospital lozenges including a morphine variety, as well as a range of smokers’ cachous range – usually mints!

Our shop doesn’t go this far, but has a large selection of sweets which were made specially for the museum by Terry’s when the company was still operating in York. They don’t have flavourings in but were otherwise made to historic recipes. We’ve got them out on display in large jars behind the newly-lowered counter, where visitors can buy sugar mice.

Next year visitors will be able to buy a quarter of hand-made sweets, weighed out in old fashioned trading scales then poured into traditional paper cones to take home.

We’ve also tried to include more advertising material from Terry’s on the shop counter and in the window, including a great image which gave us a lot of inspiration for the  new look.

An original advert from the 1890s

It shows a happy young girl clutching her newly-bought cone of sweets outside Terry’s sweet shop, which was in St Helen’s Square  in the centre of York – and was discovered by my fellow curator Sherri Steel after a long search through our archive material from Terry’s.

The sign above our counter

Terry’s distinctive logo, which is still recognisable today, is emblazoned across the top and we were lucky that our maintenance technician Andrew Wilson also happens to be a trained sign writer, so he was able to recreate the 1890s design above our shop counter.

During the 1890s Terry’s shop served quite an upmarket clientele in York and was expanding with its new cafe and the advert shows the kind of image Terry’s wanted to portray as they branched out into a new cafe and expanded their range of confectionery.

Terry's shop in York

It’s been a team effort and we’re still adding to it, but we hope the new-look shop continues to be enjoyed by our visitors long into the 21st century!

STOP PRESS!

We’ve just confirmed that we’ll be selling hand-made chocolate Vanilla Creams in our sweet shop over the Christmas at the Castle 2010 period, inspired by an original Terry’s recipe!

For more about the history of Terry’s see our website.

Here’s an update on the refurbishment work in York Art Gallery’s Burton Gallery, from gallery manager Lorna Sergeant:

The Burton Gallery is really coming along now. We are currently well underway with the refurbishment. All the major repairs in the roof have been completed. The rotten truss has been treated and strengthened, 13 glass panels on the apex roof have been replaced.

The barrel glazed ceiling has been cleaned and a UV film has been installed over these panes to reduce UV light levels entering the now bright and sunny exhibition room. A walkway has been installed in the void of this ceiling for safe and easy access for contractors.

The barrel glazed ceiling before cleaning work...

...and after.

 We are currently underway with the relining of the walls with a special wall liner called FERMACEL which is a fantastic product that gives the walls a really flat finish but also allows us to hang works/paintings up to 200kg. The floor has had its first sand to reveal beautiful mahogany wood which will be sanded further and then coated in a matt finish.

Electricians have just completed the first fix of works which will enable us to have more access points to power, improved ventilation, a new lighting track and CCTV.

New wall lining is put up in the Burton Gallery

During the course of the refurbishment, the rip-out of the baize-covered walls has revealed that the gallery was originally tongue and groove all the way around and was painted cream and green strips in the 1950s under the instruction of then-curator Hans Hess. We have also found secreted in the wall an old cigarette packet dating back to the 1920s.

By December, the Burton Gallery will be an elegant and bright gallery which I am sure will become a favourite with all when it reopens in January with our new People and Places displays.

The tongue and groove panelling found around the walls

Cigarette packet from the 1920s