10th Birthday, 10 Highlights

Posted on September 17, 2021 by beth

The Museum of Somerset re-opened in September 2011 following a £6.9 million refurbishment. This year it will celebrate its 10th anniversary.

These ten highlights celebrate some of the best bits from the last ten years.

1. Somerset Remembers

Somerset Remembers was a focal point for centenary commemorations of the First World War in Somerset. It provided thousands of people with an opportunity to learn about the war and how it changed Somerset forever. A flagship exhibition ran from July 2014 to January 2015, exploring life on the home front and the story of Somerset’s county regiments. The wider project was supported by 45 research volunteers and included a touring exhibition, talks, family events, school sessions, a blog and a community archive that connected the present generation to untold stories of bravery, common purpose and loss.

2. War Stories

In 2015 the South West Heritage Trust collected the memories of Somerset people who had experienced the Second World War. As part of the ‘War Stories’ project, a specially created film won the Audience Award at the Imperial War Museum Film Festival, 2016. The film included interviews with Paul Heim, an Austrian refugee and Colin Criddle a soldier who served with the Somerset Light Infantry during the campaign in France and North West Europe.

3. Oyster Dredgers at Porlock Weir

In July 2015 the museum acquired a large oil painting, Oyster Dredgers at Porlock Weir, by the Cornwall-based artist Charles Napier Hemy. Oyster dredging was still an important industry at Porlock Weir, on the West Somerset coast, when this handsome picture was created in 1890. By that time Hemy’s pictures of marine subjects were increasingly prized, three of his works eventually being added to the collections of the Tate Gallery. The Museum of Somerset acquired Oyster Dredgers just as long-vanished oyster beds in Porlock Bay were being revived as part of a community project.

4. The Alfred Jewel

The Alfred Jewel was found near North Petherton in 1693 and is probably the most famous archaeological object to survive from Anglo-Saxon England. In February 2015 the jewel came back to Somerset for the first time in 297 years, on loan from Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. It aroused enormous interest and in the space of a month 24,500 visitors came to see it. The jewel’s inscription – ‘Alfred ordered me to be made’ – connects it with King Alfred the Great (reigned 871–899), making it among the most memorable of royal relics.

5. Victor Ambrus Exhibition

The artist and illustrator Victor Ambrus, who died in February, was a friend of the Museum of Somerset over many years. In 2016 his achievements were celebrated with an exhibition that featured 90 original works created over a period of nearly 60 years. Victor was one of Britain’s foremost illustrators of history, folk tales and children’s books and well known for his archaeological reconstruction drawings created for Channel 4’s Time Team. He also worked with the South West Heritage Trust to create his final book, Drawing Somerset’s Past: An Illustrated Journey through History.

6. The Frome Hoard

In 2017 the Frome Hoard was voted the nation’s top treasure find of the last 20 years. It is the largest hoard of coins ever found in a single container in Britain and was discovered in April 2010 by metal detectorist Dave Crisp. Excavation showed that the 52,503 coins were contained in a large pottery vessel which had been carefully buried in a pit. The coins range in date from about 253 to 290 AD, the period when the hoard is likely to have been buried, probably as a votive offering.

7. A Life in Colour: The Art of Doris Hatt

An uplifting exhibition of works by the 20th-century artist Doris Hatt (1890–1969) captured the imagination of visitors when it opened in March 2019. Doris Hatt was a Somerset pioneer of British modernism who exhibited her vibrant landscapes, portraits and still lifes over almost five decades. The exhibition shone a light on a woman who was ahead of her time – a feminist and socialist whose remarkable life and artistic achievements were previously little known.

8. Tristram Hillier: Landscapes of the Mind

Tristram Hillier RA (1905–1983) was one of the most accomplished and distinctive 20th-century British artists. Painting for many years from a base in Somerset, he created pictures in a uniquely intense and memorable style. In November 2019, the Trust launched the first retrospective of Hillier’s work in more than 30 years. It was one of the most ambitious exhibitions the museum had ever staged and involved sixty paintings from public and private collections. The exhibition was a powerful expression of the Trust’s ambition to ‘bring great art to Somerset.