Discovering the Landscape #18: From Devon to Derbyshire, the Shell Guides to Great Britain

Shell Guides on the shelf

Shell Guides on the shelf

Written by Claire Wooldridge, Project Senior Library Assistant: Landscape Institute

The Shell Guides, published between 1934 and 1984, were designed to be light hearted but engaging guide books to the countryside and historical sites of Great Britain for the growing number of mid twentieth century car owners.  Published by the Architectural Press and funded by Shell-Mex (more driving = more fuel…) the Shell Guides were intended to tag along with day-trippers, being less than 50 pages long they were ideal for a glove compartment.  Bold and visual, each guide contains an introduction to the area covered and descriptions of each place or landmark to be found there.

From Dorset to Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire to Cornwall, the guides covered most regions of Great Britain.  Different regions were studied by different writers, including a host of well know names including John Piper (artist, 1903-1992, writer of Oxfordshire published in 1938) and Paul Nash (artist and painter, 1889-1947, writer of Dorset published in 1935).  Paul Nash went to live in Swanage for a year to work on the book, suffering from shellshock from WW1, this was an opportunity for Nash to find peace in the countryside.  Sir John Betjeman (poet, writer and broadcaster, 1906-1984) edited the series and also contributed several titles, most notably Cornwall (1934).

Selection of Shell Guide covers

Selection of Shell Guide covers

We received several editions of the Shell Guides from the Landscape Institute library, some which were new to us and some which are different editions of titles we already hold.  Several of these were presented by Shell-Mex and B. P. Ltd to the Landscape Institute.  These new additions to the collection will sit alongside our existing ones in our Printing Collection (part of our Special Collections) with Landscape Institute provenance recorded in the catalogue records.

Shell-Mex presentation book plate in Shell guides received from the LI library

Shell-Mex presentation book plate in Shell guides received from the LI library

The guides have an enduring popularity (such as being the focus of books and two TV series, one featuring Richard Wilson and another with David Heathcote, a cultural historian who has written about the Shell Guides) and are very collectable today.  Thirteen Shell Guides were published before the outbreak of WW2 and were reissued after the war.  Different editions within the Shell Guides series, with contemporary typography and images, were published in later decades – making collecting all the different copies something of a challenge!  The Shell Guides from the Landscape Institute Collections make a wonderful addition to our existing holdings.

For more information see David Heathcote’s (2010) A Shell eye on Britain: The Shell County Guides 1934-1984 (Libri).

Rural Reads Plus book review: The Prodigal Summer

Rob Davies reviews The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kinsolver

During the humid month of July we read The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, a suitably clammy read for the climate. This book is a mammoth read set within Zebulon Country in America, following three narratives that are tenuously connected to one another but tell the story of the land.

The Prodigal Summer is a perfect read for Rural Reads Plus; it is packed with contemporary rural issues that span agriculture universally. Kingsolver used the narratives to explore these themes such as hunting, genetics, isolation within the countryside, inheritance and family, along with many other smaller but still significant themes.

The first narrative called ‘Predators’ follows Deanna who is a park ranger living an isolated life on the side of Zebulon mountain. Her voluntary isolation is broken when the hunter Eddie Brando walks into her life. This narrative isn’t just about the developing relationship between Deanna and Eddie Brando but also about the issue of hunting. As a group we had conflicting opinions on this narrative, I enjoyed learning about coyotes but the characters were too flat for me.

The second narrative is entitled ‘Moth Love’ and follows Lusa who was widowed one year into her marriage; she now finds herself lost in an enormous family who don’t particularly like or trust her, one of the reasons is because she is from outside of the county. To make matters worse for Lusa she has inherited her husband’s farm which is in a lot of debt and she refuses to grow the local crop, tobacco. This was my favourite narrative, Kingsolver writes about grief, loss and surviving so vividly, I was almost going through the emotions as well.

The third narrative ‘Old Chestnuts’ took the longest to warm up and develop. It’s about two elderly farmers who are neighbours with very different farming methods, in fact it comes down to organic vs GM crops. However, it’s also about disease within trees and the loss of species.

This was the second consecutive book we unanimously enjoyed and would recommend it to everyone. This August we’re reading A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair.

Discovering the Landscape #17: Sylvia Crowe

The ‘Discovering the Landscape’ series continues with a profile of Sylvia Crowe, ending with an overview of our Crowe collections.  Written by Claire Wooldridge, Project Senior Library Assistant: Landscape Institute

The landscape architect has to understand what the people want and to understand what the wild life wants, as well as understanding the function of whatever it is you are undertaking.  There is a great deal to think about…’

(Crowe quoted in Harvey, 1989, p. 51).

Trawsfynydd nuclear power station, AR CRO DO1 P 3

Trawsfynydd nuclear power station, AR CRO DO1 P 3

Dame Sylvia Crowe (1901–1997) was a landscape architect and writer.  She was a significant figure in the promotion of landscape architecture in the UK and internationally, through her involvement with the Institute of Landscape Architects (now Landscape Institute) and the International Federation of Landscape Architects.  Crowe was an active member of many prestigious organisations, such as being president of the Landscape Institute 1957-59 and of the International Federation of Landscape Architects in 1969.  She was granted a CBE in 1967 and a DBE in 1973 (at which time the last landscape architect to receive such an honour had been Sir Joseph Paxton in 1851).

Crowe trained in horticulture at Swanley Horticultural College (1920–22), going on to complete an apprenticeship with Edward White at Milner, Son and White (1926-27).  Crowe then worked as a garden designer for William Cutbush & Son’s nurseries (winning a gold medal at Chelsea in 1937) until the outbreak of World War Two.  In 1945 Crowe established her own private practice as a landscape architect.  Although they were not in partnership, Crowe was given a room in the offices of Brenda Colvin and in 1952 they moved together to 182 Gloucester Place where Crowe remained until 1982 with various staff assisting her over the years.

Drawing showing Cumberland Basin Bridges, Ashton Gate, AR CRO DO1_R2_1

Drawing showing Cumberland Basin Bridges, Ashton Gate, AR CRO DO1_R2_1

Crowe worked on a great range of diverse projects; from small gardens, to new towns, forestry initiatives and power stations.  She authored many influential books confronting the challenges of new landscape issues and garden design, such as Landscape of Power and Tomorrow’s Landscape in the 1950s.  Urban development Crowe worked on included Bristol in the 1960s.  Crowe also designed the landscape around Wylfa power station, Anglesey and Trawsfynydd nuclear power station, Gwynedd, Wales (at the top of this post).

In 1964 Crowe became the first landscape consultant to the Forestry Commission, a role she worked in until 1976.  During this period, Crowe revolutionised how the need for timber production can be balanced with retaining the beauty of the landscape, publishing Forestry in the Landscape in 1966.  She commented: ‘I think that aesthetic and ecological principles are inseparable, certainly in afforestation’. (Harvey, 1987, p. 34).

Sylvia Crowe signature in Dale's 1944 Towards a plan for Oxford City

Sylvia Crowe signature in Dale’s 1944 Towards a plan for Oxford City

 

Crowe, Landscape of Roads, 1960

Crowe, Landscape of Roads, 1960

The Sylvia Crowe archive and library collection at Reading contains drawings by Crowe and some of her staff, photographs and negatives, and correspondence.  The archive collection has been catalogued with the reference AR CRO and a handlist of the collection is available here.

Books from Crowe’s personal library have now been integrated into our MERL Library.  We also have books written by Crowe that she gifted to other prominent landscape architects, such as the copy to the above of her Landscape of Roads (1960), with the inscription to the Jellicoe’s reading: ‘To Geoffrey & Susan, from Sylvia.  A memorial to our battle of the roads?’.

As mentioned above, Crowe had many connections within the world of landscape architecture; for more information on our Sylvia Crowe, Milner White, Geoffrey Jellicoe, Susan Jellicoe or Brenda Colvin collections please

contact us at merl@reading.ac.uk.

For more information please see Hal Moggridge’s entry on Crowe in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Harvey, Reflections on Landscape (1987) or Collens & Powell, Sylvia Crowe (LDT monographs 2, 1999).

Work experience in a Museum? Really?

Katie completed a week’s work experience at the museum and during this time planned her own mini exhibition, helped with a VIP visit and press photo shoot and attended a social media planning meeting! Here are her thoughts on her week – it looks as though she might be a convert!

This week I have been doing my Year 10 work experience week at the MERL (Museum of English Rural Life.) This has exceeded my expectations of museum work and I have been given the opportunity to explore the background and workings of a museum – from social media and marketing to learning about the archives and different objects in the museum and how they are preserved! I have been reminded that a working environment can be fun and here at the MERL there is a strong relationship between staff members and volunteers. With a coffee break at 11am every day staff members are given the ability to catch up on each others’ work and socialize. I love the idea of bringing people together as they may not see each other throughout the day with such spread out offices throughout the museum.

The museum is currently undergoing a redesign and extension of its original galleries, with a grant of £1.7 million from the Heritage Lottery fund. The museum’s aim is to attract more visitors from the general public with a wider range of new audiences from different communities and ethnic backgrounds, with an exciting new opening of the building in 2016. I am confidently certain that they will be able to achieve this aim; this is just by working alongside them for one week and seeing all the hard work that they put into the MERL and the future plans.

Rural Life clothing exhib

Katie chose to focus her exhibition on rural clothing as she felt it was something that may not automatically spring to mind when speaking about the countryside. Smocks, baskets, a tailoring bag and even goffering irons; which were used for creating decorative crimps and frills on women’s clothing, would all be included

What intrigued me the most at the Museum of Rural Life is their use of social media; as well as the general use of Facebook, the MERL is also on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and even has a YouTube channel, you name it! With regular posts on each social networking site, followers are able to keep up to date with the ins and outs of the museum, with many pictures, gifs and hashtags included in posts, such as ‘#throwbackthurdsay’ and ‘#ilovemuseums!’ The social media and marketing team are devoted to these social networking sites and work hard to keep them going by researching the most popular hashtags and ones that are to do with the countryside, along with the themes of the museum. I think that the social media really benefits the museum in many different ways especially as most people nowadays are on at least one social networking site!

I have enjoyed my time at the MERL and plan to visit when it reopens in 2016!

My favourite object: the Shaplands and Petter sideboard

As she comes to the end of her internship (where did those 6 weeks go?!) Lisa has discovered an object from in the MERL collections which has special personal significance…

Being proud to call myself a Devonian (I moved to Reading for university), I was determined when picking out an object from the collections to find something relating to my hometown of Barnstaple in North Devon. Interestingly, I came across an oak sideboard made around 1905 by Shapland and Petter of Barnstaple. Shapland and Petter was a prominent furniture company and has been for over 100 years the town’s largest employer up until recently, with the company having quite a personal meaning to me which I will explain later.

Shaplands factory

Here you can see the factory in Barnstaple as it once was

The company was originally set up by Henry Shapland, a cabinet maker who joined forces in 1865 with Henry Petter. From manufacturing wardrobes to bookcases and chairs, the company’s products were sold both around the country and Europe. In addition, it also had a shop in London and even created furniture for the writer Edgar Wallace. Known for their high quality craftsmanship, they catered for the popular tastes of a burgeoning urban middle class and later merged to form Shapland Leaderflush in 1998.

Sideboard

This oak sideboard was acquired as part of the Museum’s Collecting 20th Century Rural Cultures project and was designed by William Cowie who had been a student at Barnstaple School of Art. Designed in the ‘Arts and Craft’ style that was popular at this time, it is a beautiful example of craftsmanship, with its focus being on rural romanticism. The relationship between the town and countryside can be seen with this object particularly; the farmhouse dresser at the beginning of the 20th century had become a fashionable piece of furniture for the urban Edwardian home. It has three glazed cupboards, along with decorative metal work, a geometric arch and cut out hearts.

The Shaplands factory in Barnstaple has a personal meaning to me as not only did both my parents work there for many years when I was younger, but also my grandparents. I even have vague memories of my mum dropping my dad off at the factory at 7:30 when he would start work. (I hated having to get up that early!) Sadly, the factory closed in 2012 due to the effects of the recession, with the company moving the manufacturing side of the business to Nottingham. Hundreds were affected by the factory closure, with many people having worked there their whole life.

Plans are already underway for the building of an Asda where the factory once stood. Along with a supermarket, a hotel, 350 houses, shops and cafes will also be built on this site. Whilst this will create more jobs, there is already a huge Tesco five minutes away from this site which raises the question, why do we need yet another supermarket? You can even see the Tesco in the background of this photo which shows just how close the supermarkets will be! Perhaps this is simply me not wanting my hometown to become a concrete jungle and my inner ‘countryness’ raging out of me, not looking at the positives that it will bring. But in all seriousness, is it right that the countryside is being inundated with more supermarkets that we don’t need at the expense of a town’s heritage and landscape?

Shaplands site
Nonetheless, it was lovely to find an object in MERL’s collection that relates so much to me and where I am from, it’s just a shame that the factory is no longer standing.

Click here to find out more about the sideboard on the Collecting Cultures blog.

I Love Museums

If you’ve been on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram today, you may have noticed the #ILoveMuseums hashtag trending all over your timelines. Musuem staff, volunteers and visitors across the country, including our own University Museums and Collections have been tweeting their personal reasons for loving museums, but the press release below explains what’s behind the hashtag…

CHIEiYNW8AAXXBO

Assistant Volunteer Coordinator, Rhiannon and why she loves museums

Today is the launch of I Love Museums, a new campaign led by the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC) to demonstrate the depth of support for UK museums by empowering the public to share why museums are important to them.

Museums and galleries are more popular than ever – last year there were 66.8 million visits to the national and major regional museums in NMDC’s membership alone, and over half of adults and two thirds of children visited a museum. Museums play a vital role in the lives of individuals, families and communities across the UK, and make a key contribution to our society and economy. But our museums are facing challenging times, with local and national governments making tough decisions about funding. I Love Museums will show funders and policymakers how much museums matter by celebrating the UK public’s support for our wonderful cultural institutions.

I Love Museums provides museums with the tools and resources to turn their audiences into active advocates, as well as adding their support to the nationwide campaign for national and local government support and funding for museums. The campaign is led by the NMDC with support from Arts Council England, the Art Fund, Association of Independent Museums, Culture24, the Museums Association and the University Museums Group.

Diane Lees, Chair of the NMDC and Director-General of Imperial War Museums, said: “We know that museums are incredibly popular, as ever-increasing visitor numbers attest, and the public are our most powerful advocates. I Love Museums will enable us to measure and demonstrate the depth of that public support and show politicians and policymakers how much the UK public values our world-class museums.”

More information about the campaign can be found on the website: www.ilovemuseums.com

Discovering the Landscape #15: The Chelsea Flower Show

Written by Adam Lines, Reading Room Supervisor 

As the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is on (19-23 May 2015) is on – what better time to delve into our Landscape Institute collection for some garden inspiration!

AR JAK PH5_1982_Sculpture Garden Chelsea

AR JAK PH5_1982_Sculpture Garden Chelsea

AR JAK PH5_1982_Sculpture Garden Chelsea

‘Paola’ by Aldo d’Adamo: AR JAK PH5_1982_Sculpture Garden Chelsea

AR JAK PH5_1982_Sculpture Garden Chelsea

AR JAK PH5_1982_Sculpture Garden Chelsea

These beautiful images show a Sculpture Garden for Chelsea Flower Show designed by Preben Jakobsen (1934-2012) in 1982.

Preben Jakobsen was an award winning Danish landscape architect and member of the Landscape Institute, first studying at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew before studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. He designed many gardens throughout his career including this, his Sculpture Garden for Chelsea Flower Show in 1982.

The garden features a fireplace designed by Jakobsen specifically for Chelsea, as well as a range of contemporary Japanese and Italian sculptures which were flown over from Florence.

The construction team lowering Giulio Ciniglia’s ‘Night-swimmers’ into place. This sculpture was created without any design or models and depicts two tomb robbers submerged by waves in a stormy sea: AR JAK PH5_1982_Sculpture Garden Chelsea_3

The construction team lowering Giulio Ciniglia’s ‘Night-swimmers’ into place. This sculpture was created without any design or models and depicts two tomb robbers submerged by waves in a stormy sea: AR JAK PH5_1982_Sculpture Garden Chelsea_3

The garden at Chelsea was influenced by another of Jakobsen’s designs – a domestic garden in London from 1979, recently rediscovered by landscape architect Karen Fitzsimon – which won the British Association of Landscape Industries ‘Garden of the Year’ Award in 1981. Jakobsen worked with the same construction team, C. M. Brophy Ltd., when putting together his Sculpture Garden for Chelsea in 1982. Early designs had to be altered when the plot they had hoped for was allocated to another garden, and Jakobsen and his team were presented with an embankment plot. An original plan to incorporate a waterfall was eventually replaced by the fireplace shown in the photograph above.

AR JAK_PF_53 1

AR JAK_PF_53 1

As well as featuring sculptures by Aldo d’Adamo, Giulio Ciniglia and Rintaro Yari, the garden incorporated plant material provided by Bressingham Gardens in Diss, Norfolk, as well as furniture designed by Charles Verney (son of renowned garden designer and writer, Rosemary Verey) whose work had been exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show.

AR JAK_PF_53 2

AR JAK_PF_53 2

Correspondence contained in the Preben Jakobsen archive shows that an idea for a sundial garden was put forward by Jakobsen for the 1983 Chelsea Flower Show. However this idea fell through when detailed plans were not submitted on time, and they were unable to secure a plot. The idea was revived for the 1984 show, but the same problem occurred.

For more information on our Preben Jakobsen collection click here or contact us on merl@reading.ac.uk to arrange a visit to view archival material in our Reading Room.

You can also find lots of other Chelsea Flower Show material on our catalogue, including material from the MERL library, our Farmer and Stockbreeder Photographic Collection and Sutton Seeds Collection.

 

 

Discovering the Landscape #13: From garden space to masterplan

Seminar series round up: Written by Claire Wooldridge, Project Senior Library Assistant: Landscape Institute

Our captivating landscape inspired seminar series has drawn to an end.  We’re delighted the series has been so well attended; a testament to the speakers and to the fascinating subject matter.

If you attended any of the talks (or were unable to) and want to find out more, you can get in touch with us by emailing merl@reading.ac.uk.

Highlighted below are a few of the items from our collections which were mentioned in the talks:

Archives:

Audience for LI seminar

Audience for LI seminar

As part of ‘From garden space to masterplan: the Landscape Institute collections at MERL’ our deputy archivist Caroline Gould

and landscape architect Annabel Downs gave an insightful overview of the history of the Landscape Institute and to the collections here at MERL.

Our Landscape Institute webpages are a really useful starting point for research into our collections and as a source of background information and handlists for specific collections, such as the Brenda Colvin collection, Geoffrey Jellicoe collection and Preben Jakobsen collection (which Karen Fitzsimon used in her talk entitled ‘Rediscovering Preben Jakobsen’.

Our existing MERL archival holdings also hold many treasures to the student of landscape.  Johnathan Brown, in his talk entitled ‘Changing landscapes of farming and estates after the First World War’, used several images from the extensive MERL photographic collection to great effect.  A full listing of our existing MERL archives can be viewed using the MERL archives A-Z.

 

1000 books cataloguedLibrary:

The library of the Landscape Institute is being integrated into our existing MERL library, further adding to areas of strength within the collection, on subjects such as domestic gardening, land use and the environment and conservation issues.  Reference books within the MERL library are a great place to start research into all things landscape.

We were able to show case our Gertrude Jekyll books in a pop up exhibition following Richard Bisgrove’s talk such as Gardens for Small Country Houses, Colour in the Flower Garden and Home and Garden.

The talk from Giles Pritchard and Barnaby Wheeler entitled ‘Reading Abbey Revealed’ was another perfect opportunity for us to delve into our Special Collections and display some of our rare books relating to Reading Abbey.  We were also to display images from slides from the Moore Piet + Brookes collection relating to their work on the Reading Town Centre Masterplan and pedestrianisation.

The pictures below from Professor Timothy Mowl’s intriguing talk on ‘Pleasure and the Regency Garden’ enabled us to showcase some wonderful books featuring beautiful plates of the gardens at our very own Whiteknights (such as Hofland’s A descriptive account of the mansion and gardens of White-knights).

Pop up exhibition in our Staircase Hall following an LI seminar

Pop up exhibition in our Staircase Hall following an LI seminar

Plate of Whiteknights from Hofland

Plate of Whiteknights from Hofland

As above for more information please contact us on merl@reading.ac.uk, visit our LI webpages or search our online catalogue.

To continue discovering the landscape, FOLAR (Friends of the Landscape Library and Archive at Reading) are holding a study day on Brenda Colvin (with a talk from Hal Moggridge, our archivists and a pop up exhibition) at MERL on Saturday 21 March.  See here for more information or contact folar1234@gmail.com to book.

Discovering the Landscape #11: Great new seminar series

Written by Claire Wooldridge, Project Senior Library Assistant: Landscape Institute

Great news!  Our fascinating new seminar series entitled ‘Discovering the Landscape’ kicks off on Tuesday 10 February with an overview of the collections (‘From garden space to masterplan: The Landscape Institute collections at MERL’) with our archivist Caroline Gould and landscape architect Annabel Downs.

In 2013, MERL received the archives and library of the Landscape Institute. Our Spring 2015 seminar series focuses on these collections as well as the figures and themes which have shaped the English landscape over the past 200 years.

We hope to see you all there!

  • 1-2pm, Tuesdays (and one Wednesday) in February & March, 2015
  • Free
  • Register
  • Conference room, Museum of English Rural Life

Please see the seminar web pages here for further details on the ‘MERL Seminars: Discovering the Landscape’ series.

Dicovering the Landscape: seminar series poster

Discovering the Landscape: seminar series poster

Folklore & Storytelling: MERL and the Pitt Rivers Museum

Ollie Douglas, our Assistant Curator, gave a gallery talk at the Pitt Rivers Museum recently and naturally homed in on objects relating to rural life. Here’s what he found…

Copyright_PRM_OllieI recently had the enjoyable experience of giving a gallery talk at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, on the subject of folklore and object collecting. This formed part of an ‘after hours’ event themed around folklore and storytelling. I did my best to steer a rather large number of visitors on a somewhat congested tour of some the Museum’s most intriguing items. This began beside a case of lighting equipment close to the entrance where I chose to describe how numerous late-nineteenth century folk collectors spoke of the demise of traditional technologies under the ‘glare’ of electric lighting, using such examples to underline the importance of recording old ways of life. I highlighted a few objects gathered by prominent folklorists and that I think resonate powerfully with MERL’s own holdings. These included an English horn lantern similar to an example held here and of a type used commonly by shepherds because of their soft light and hard-wearing panes.

lantern

This is a farmhouse lantern made of sheet iron with horn panels. MERL 51/584

 

Further on I explored examples of hazel water-divining rods collected in rural Somerset by the prominent nineteenth-century thinker Edward Burnett Tylor (1932-1917). Tylor wrote about cultures from all over the world but often illustrated his arguments with examples taken from closer to home. Indeed, one explanation of his influential idea of ‘survivals’ (i.e. older ways of life seen to linger on in modern society) focussed on similarities between protective symbols seen on silver amulets from Italy and of shapes seen on decorative British horse brasses. Whether or not he was correct about this connection there are certainly many examples where amulets were used in England to protect animals from harm. One fear amongst stockmen was that an enemy might put the ‘evil eye’ on their dairy cattle and thereby turn the milk sour. This was a means of making sense of ailments that were not well understood at this time. Indeed, problems with milk stemmed more likely from mastitis than they did from witchcraft! Nevertheless, the emergence of modern veterinarian practice and greater scientific knowledge didn’t always stop our forebears from attempting to protect their animals in unusual ways. Further examples in the Pitt Rivers Museum (some collected by Tylor himself) show that when an animal died in unexplained circumstances, one common course of action was to cut out its heart, pierce it with nails, and stuff it up the chimney. As the heart blackened in the smoke of the fire, the person who wished harm on your herd would also suffer.

Copyright_PRM_Neil

The evening itself offered a brilliant context in which to promote the work of both the Museum of English Rural Life and of The Folklore Society, with which I also have connections. Alongside music, storytelling, and the dulcet tones of my tour, the event showcased the ongoing collecting practices of the inimitable Doc Rowe and a reading from the University of Reading’s own Obby Robinson. Obby read from his most recent collection—”The Witch-House of Canewdon and Other Poems”—which drew inspiration from English folklore practices and featured in a lunchtime recital at MERL in March of last year. This has left me thinking about creativity, storytelling and folk beliefs and of how we might begin to examine traditional forms of animal protection into our new displays. Check up your chimneys – I’m on the lookout for a heart stuck with nails!