Curatorial Corner - 27th April 2011



Loaned print of Maidenhead Bridge

 The Railway meets the River

The Curatorial Department took a visit to the River and Rowing Museum at Henley on Thames yesterday.  What has a museum like this got to do with the Great Western Railway?  More than you think!

Last year we were contacted by the team at Henley who were in the process of putting together a new exhibition on the Victorian's growing interest in the Thames as a holiday and tourist destination.  The Great Western Railway served Henley, as well as other places along this famous river.  Before the coming of the railway it could take 5 hours to reach Henley by stagecoach, but the building of the GWR allowed ordinary people the chance to travel to new destinations in a much shorter time.  The Thames at places like Henley, Windsor, Marlow and Pangbourne was a lot more idylic and cleaner than it was in the capital, London.  During the 19th Century the Thames in London was a busy shipping port and extremely dirty.  It wasn't a tourist destination like it is today.



Picnic basket, truncheon and other
loaned objects


The exhibition, Escaping the City - The Victorian on the Thames, borrowed objects and archive material from the collection at STEAM to help illustrate the railway's involvement in tourism on the Thames.  It was great to see our objects in a different environment!  Some of the items on show were a GWR picnic basket and tea pot.  These would have been purchased at one of the major stations, like Paddington, and filled with lots of goodies to keep day trippers happy as they lounged on the banks of the Thames, or took a ride on a river boat.  We also loaned a GWR Policeman's truncheon.  The railway police had a presence at the Henley Regatta and ensured people got to and from the station without incident.

The Curatorial Department had a great time at the River and Rowing Museum and enjoyed seeing STEAM's objects displayed in such a fascinating exhibition.  Escaping the City closes on Monday 2nd May 2011.

River and Rowing Museum website - www.rrm.co.uk



Escaping the City exhibition



Collections Officer, Elaine, by the Sydney
Olympic's winning GB coxless four boat

Events Diary - Railway Festival Update

Swindon Railway Festival 10th - 11th September 2011

Ian Surtees, Commercial Manager, gives an update on the forthcoming Railway Festival.



Layouts at the 2010 Railway Festival



The planning for this year’s Swindon Railway Festival is already gathering pace, and I can confirm 12 of the country’s finest GWR and BR (W) layouts will be attending this year’s show on 10^th and 11^th September sponsored by the Hornby Magazine. The Swindon Railway Festival brings together the country’s best layouts, demonstrators and traders – with nine of this year’s layouts making their first time appearance at Swindon! In addition to the fabulous model railway layouts will be impressive displays from model giants Hornby and Bachmann and celebrity modeller, pop music legend and Museum Patron Pete Waterman OBE will be at the show.

2011 marks the 25^th anniversary of the Swindon Railway Works closure and we’ll be paying tribute to the men and women who worked ‘inside’ at the famous Swindon Works which now houses the stunning Museum collection. We are currently working on assembling some poignant photographic displays for the show that will showcase the Swindon Works both in its heyday and during its sad decline in the mid 1980s.

And if that’s not enough, we are planning a ‘live steam and real ale’ arena outside the Museum’s recently refurbished Great Western Hall, comprising of traction engines and road rollers courtesy of Hatch Steam Heritage, extremely rare Stanley Steam Cars courtesy of the Steam Car Club of Great Britain and an outdoor bar selling the Museum’s fine range of real ales courtesy of Box Steam Brewery.

Prices for this year’s show will be held at the 2010 rates, but following demand we’ll be issuing weekender tickets for visitors wishing to join us for the whole weekend.

Admission: £8.50 for adults; Seniors and Concessions £5.50; Family tickets £24.00 (two adults, two children) and £27.00 (two adults, three children), Weekender Tickets: Adults £12.00, Seniors and Concessions £8.50. Under three go free. Swindon Card discounts available

Confirmed Layouts 

7mm

East Wheal Dream

Knockley Gate

Dainton Bank

Test Track (to showcase models)

4mm

Mythur Riverside

Llanryglyn – Cambrian period railway

Oldbury Junction

West Cliff

Cwmderi

  

S Scale

Kilbrandon

Aston Magna

2mm Fine Scale

Highbury Colliery

Events Diary - 30th March 2011

Station Platform shoot

High Fashion comes to STEAM!

 Last week saw the Museum transformed for an exciting fashion shoot.  Duo, who specialise in boots and shoes, came to STEAM to shoot their Autumn/Winter range of footwear.



The Museum provided a wonderful backdrop for a 1930s inspired shoot, full of glamour and intrigue.  The shoot took place in and around our Station Platform, on our buffet car and by Caerphilly Castle.  In person the scene shots looked great, but seeing them on screen made the Museum look amazing!  The lighting looked moody and evocative and the special effects brought the photographs to life.  The late night shoot based by Caerphilly Castle used dry ice to create the effect of live steam.  The photographs gave the impression of a dark and atmospheric station at night. 



Special effects under Caerphilly Castle



Duo brought with them a team of stylists, make-up artists and a photographer.  And of course the model, Lisa, who made all the outfits and footwear look stylish and chic.  The shoot took 2 full days and the team photographed approxiamately 10-15 different styles of boots and shoes.  The Museum was priviledged enough to see a sneak preview of the new range, but we won't be able to show you what we saw just yet! The new range is launched in July 2011.

Duo specialise in special fit boots and shoes and can offer boots in up to 21 different calf sizes.  Check out their latest collection at http://www.duoboots.com/ and go online in July to see STEAM featuring in their promotions.



Lisa having her make-up applied



Sean, the Photographer, at work



Curatorial Corner - 10th March 2011

A Charitable Find!

A recent find in a charity shop in Swindon has got the Curatorial department buzzing with excitement!  Last Monday a call from one of the Museum's volunteers alerted us to a GWR inkwell set sat in the window of the Prospect Hospice Shop on Victoria Road, Swindon.  A frantic call to the shop confirmed the inkwell set was still for sale and the Curator and Collections Officer rushed on over to take a look.



The complete GWR inkwell set



We were staggered by what we found.  A near perfect GWR inkwell set, complete with three glass inkwells sat in a lovely wooden stand.  The stand still had the brass pen holder attached.  Two of the glass inkwells are branded with the letters GWR, and the third with the slogan Go Great Western. The publicity slogan Go Great Western was introduced in the 1920s and the style of the script on the inkwell dates the set to 1926.  Both the stand and the pen holder are stamped GWR too.

We settled up with the shop and took our prize find back to STEAM.  We do not know where the inkwell set came from, but like to think that it sat on the desk of an important Works Manager or Station Master!  I guess we will never know.



A close up of the "Go Great Western" glass inkwell



The Museum hopes to display the inkwell set in a new display over the summer.

Events Diary - 22nd February 2011

Cupcake Passion!

So many cupcakes!

It’s been cupcake crazy today at the Museum with "Design your own Cupcake" sessions taking place in STEAM’s Caerphilly Castle Hall, and the whole event has been an overwhelming success! The sessions have been run in partnership with Swindon based Cupcake Passion who had baked and brought in 500 Vanilla, Lemon, Chocolate, Coffee and Strawberry cupcakes for visitors to decorate.  Children and adults alike have been creating their own unique cupcake masterpieces, using colourful piped icing, sparkly sprinkles and cut-out iced shapes. Even our Curator and Collections Officer had a go!  Check out their efforts below.  I don’t think Delia Smith needs to be worried just yet!



The Collections Officer, Elaine, getting cupcake crazy!



The whole Museum has been buzzing with half-term visitors today and we’re geared up for a busy week with the STEAM Smiley Cats kids club taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. There’s also an Odd One Out trail running this Half Term with a treat for all those that take part.







The efforts of the Curatorial Team



Making decorations







So, if you have not been already get to STEAM for some Half Term fun!

Curatorial Corner - 15th February 2011

A Titanic Find!

We always come across interesting finds at STEAM.  But sometimes you find something that makes you stop in your tracks (if you excuse the pun!).  Recently we had one of those moments when we uncovered some paperwork relating to the RMS Titanic.

Everyone knows the story of the ill-fated ship that sank on 15th April 1912 so when we discovered the documents with the word Titanic printed on them we really took notice.

The first document is a letter dated September 1910 from the GWR's District Goods Manager's Office in Liverpool to James Inglis at Paddington.  It confirms the building of the Titanic and her sister ship, Olympic.  The GWR were obviously intrested in the White Star Line's new liners for a purely commercial reason and probably were hoping to provide the passenger transport to and from the proposed ports.  The GWR had been advertising with the White Star Line since the late 1890s.

The second set of documents is on a more personal level and relates to a passenger who died on the Titanic.  The passenger in question was Christopher Head who was a shareholder in the GWR.  The letters between the GWR and a London based firm of solicitors are confirming the death of Christopher when the Titanic sank, so the the shares could be released.  We know from passenger lists that Christopher was a former mayor of Chelsea and he boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger.  He paid £42 10s for his ticket and occupied cabin B-11.  His body was never recovered.



Christopher Head



Curatorial Corner - 2nd February 2011

This is the first update from the Curatorial department at STEAM and we have some exciting new objects to share with you.

We are always trying to fill gaps in our collection and acquire interesting and unique objects that allow us to tell the story of the Great Western Railway and preserve its legacy.  Railwayana auctions are always full of wonderful items and it is often the place that we will find ‘something special’.  Over the past couple of months we have bidded successfully (and unsuccessfully!) at various auctions and the items below are some of the items we won.

Cup and Saucer

The GWR had an active Hotels and Refreshments department that used all sorts of china and cutlery in its ventures.  Some of these items that have survived are more common than others, but this cup and saucer from Paddington Station is one we have not seen before. 

The cup and saucer dates from the early part of the 20^th Century and was made by Grindleys Hotel Ware of Holburn, London.  It is a sturdy piece and designed for on-the-go passengers who were passing through Paddington Station – an early version of the cardboard take-away cup I suppose!

The cup and saucer can be viewed at STEAM in the Station Platform display.

Photochrom Carriage Prints

Another great object that we were lucky enough to win at auction was a mounted set of Photochrom Carriage Prints.  To find these prints in a mounted set is quite unusual.  We have some loose prints in our archive already, but this was that ‘something special’ that we couldn’t resist.

We can date the carriage prints to between 1886 and 1898.  This is when the company, Photochrom, were producing them for the GWR.   The images are actually colourised lithographs produced from black and white negatives and the GWR used these carriage prints as an early, and inexpensive, means of publicity that promoted the destinations on their network.   Photochrom was a Swiss company that had a branch in London.

West for Winter poster

The Curatorial department always has an eye for glamour and this poster definitely caught ours!  This vibrant and glamorous poster dates from the late 1930s and advertises the benefits of West Country resorts in the winter.  The artist is Raymond Sheppard, who produced a number of posters for the railways in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Bold, colourful and attractive images were used heavily by the GWR’s publicity department during the 1920s and 30s.  There was also strong shift towards advertising locations and activities.  This poster is modern and sophisticated and would have appealed to the masses.