Wednesday 22 April 2015

Newton Abbot Museum

I'd been waiting to visit Newton Abbot Museum for a while. Waiting until we next went to Devon, to see my mum in the Easter holidays, as quite a few local museums in Devon are closed for the winter. 


It didn't bode well at first when, after we'd parked very close by, we asked someone where it was and they "didn't even know Newton Abbot had a museum".

It was so well worth the wait.
It was one of those museums that gives you a tingly feeling, a sense of excitement as it draws you in.
We were given the warmest welcome, in the smallest room, with the largest fire surround.


This is the Sandford Orleigh overmantle. Made in the sixteenth century from over twenty carved oak panels. It has been recently restored through the Heart of Oak project.  
We were invited to see if we could work out which wooden figures were new and which were original. You could sort of work it out. This didn't detract from the wonder of it. We just gained great admiration for the craftsman who re-carved the missing parts. 


In Newton Abbot Museum there have been other craftsmen at work, making things from wood. This time an eighteenth century replica diving machine, designed to be used to recover valuable cargoe from sunken ships.


John Lethbridge, a pretty unsuccessful local wool merchant, designed and used the original machine, becoming a successful salvage diver in his forties.


 This automation helps you get the picture.


However it could go down to depths of 22 metres.
"Apparently people died because of the pressure they experienced on their arms."


Not as far as a Sperm Whale,


and a military submarine knocks spots off that, at 3000 metres.


Fortunately you don't have to go to any depth for the obligitory museum selfie.


Absorbed in John Lethbridge's story, I lost the kids but I could hear bells, train signals.
I followed the sound to the most amazing room.


 Under the watchful eye of an encouraging volunteer, signals were being pulled...


...and bells rung.



There weren't any tracks to move but, spot the difference,


the signal moved.

I loved this signal. Undeterred by having to fit a full-size train signal into a downstairs room of, what was effectively, a large town house, they just dug down to get it to fit in.


We had such fun in this room with civil engineer dad sharing his stories of times
on the tracks.
"I've pulled those levers for real, in a signal box in Sussex. You have to put your weight behind them and pull really hard. They even use a tea-towel in an actual signal box, to protect your hands."

"I used one of those horns, working on the tracks, you have to blow really hard. When you hear the horn 'blow up' you stand clear, there's a train coming. Site wardens are trained to 'blow up', to keep look-out. Site wardens are a 'walking, talking fence'". Yes really.
That's the horn on the left. 


Dad's can be quite boring and they're more impressed with the Brunel hat!



The GWR room is jam packed with social history and stories of the impact the railway had on the local area.
My mum and I loved this book.


These photographs, the volunteer told us, were the views from both sides of the railway, so it sort of makes sense to have one view upside down.


Of course, we had to find Teignmouth. Still recogniseable today.
"There's the Ness and Shaldon Bridge."


A train spotters paradise. Even photos in 3D.



They really did look three dimensional, but not digitally photograph-able.


Then there's Newton Abbot's history of the First World War.




And the 'Noteable Newtonians', of which there are many.


What a tour, from sixteenth century wood carvings to the bottom of the ocean
to Brunel's Great Western Railway.
I would like this post to be widely read, not so much for the benefit of my blog, but for the benefit of this most lovely museum, telling genuinely local stories of achievement and history. Staffed by volunteers with such energy and enthusiasm. It does regional museums and Newton Abbot proud.

Check out the Newton Abbot Town & G.W.R. museum website, here, for opening times
as well as a wealth of information about what they've been up to.
Open mid-March until October.
And if you bump into a local who, "didn't even know Newton Abbot had a museum",
take them with you, they should know about it.  

34 comments:

  1. Hello Katharine, Local museums like this often have the best mix of displays, providing the unexpected. I just read that they are restoring the old station at Painesville, Ohio (a city I have written about before) into a train museum, so it will be interesting to see how that turns out.
    --Jim

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    1. I love local museums. Particularly when you get to meet locals who volunteer in them. You learn so much more.

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  2. Have you done the Taunton museum? (http://morningaj.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/coincidence-is-there-such-thing.html) Forgive me if you have and it's in a past post. Unlike your experience, people in Taunton actually suggested to us that we should visit (we were on holiday). They told us about what was there, how it was set out, which were their favourite bits. It was encouraging to know that they clearly loved their local centre.

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    1. Hi. Your link didn't work but I'll check out Taunton Museum. Love a local museum!

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  3. Hello Katharine,

    Well, we have to confess that, before this delightful virtual tour, we would have been amongst those who did not know that Newton Abbot had a museum. And, what a treasure trove it is.

    We particularly enjoyed looking at the railway memorabilia. We have several items from a signal box, just like those you picture, and now we have spotted other things that would be good to add to our collection. However, we shall not try to recreate a full working signal box in our Drawing Room, we shall visit Newton Abbot instead!

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    1. Yes, Newton Abbot Museum is part of the council offices in a beautiful large town house. It really was strange to see the signals sunk into the floor. I was just so pleased that they had put them in whole, not cut them to size, and that they worked and even more impressed that visitors could have a go. Win win.

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  4. What an interesting museum, and I am sure the children loved it. Strange that it is not better publicised, as it deserves recognition. Love that beautiful carved oak fire surround.

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    1. yes we all loved it. I love a local museum. x

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  5. What a brilliant museum. Fascinating!

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    1. Thanks. Do go if you're ever in the South West.

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  6. What a wonderful museum! We loved our visit to Dawlish a couple of winters ago where we learned about Brunel's ill-fated "atmospheric railway". My only trip on that South Devon line, excitingly close to the sea, was in the 1950s - at which time, I might add, my dad was a train driver and granddad was a signalman, so I know quite a bit about railway history myself!

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    1. Impressed! bByyour dad & grandad's jobs. There's a walkway in Teignmouth between the sea & the railway line where we wave at train drivers, And are occasionally rewarded by a train driver blowing the horn.

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  7. What a fascinating local Museum, looks full of interesting things to see and do. Your mention of Teignmouth and Shaldon brought back so many childhood memories for me - we visited the same B&B nearly every year and had a beach hut where the ferry used to cross to Shaldon. We returned a few years ago to see if the ferry and beach hut were still there - they were:)

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    1. That ferry is great. We sometimes do a circular route/walk. Those beach huts in Shaldon are worth a fortune now. We saw them building swanky new modern ones on a Channel 4 programme recently.

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    2. We saw those 'posh' beach huts in Shaldon and I had to go through the tunnel to the beach as we'd done that when I was a child. The beach hut we used to hire from the B&B people was on the Teignmouth side just near where the ferry left from. The people who ran it used to have an ice cream kiosk in the hut next door (I think) it was all owned by the same people who were related to the owners of the B&B we stayed in.:)

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  8. I think I would be very happy there. My uncle was the signalman at Lord's Bridge on the old Cambridge to Bletchley line - two trains every hour. So we got to pull the levers occasionally after the train had passed.

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    1. It's great when you talk about railways. So many people have personal stories to share. I didn't know unti that day at the museum that my husband had pulled railway signals.

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  9. What a cool place. You find all of the neatest museums! I can see why the kids enjoyed it. So did the Mr., too! :) That mantel piece is amazing. Such talented woodcarvers in the 16th century

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    1. I love it when we all enjoy a museum. I've got 4 kids so sometimes it's tricky. Usually though, despite ptotesting about having to go, everyone loves it. A big hit is the Design Museum. We'll have to go back soon.

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  10. It was a very cool museum, such a variety of themes in it. I hope more people visit it.

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  11. Without your showing the way, I don't think I would know of this place. Now I have become curious!

    I also enjoyed your report on the Fashion on the Ration exhibit. I was reminded of some British fashion magazines I actually bought during the early 1970's during a recession, that made much of repurposing existing clothes. This was obviously after ration cards, but way before today's trend of make do and mend.

    Again, thank you for visiting over at my place.

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    1. I really enjoy your blog and entertain fantasies about going to New York. I did visit in my early twenties and loved it. Of course you have some amazing museums to visit. I would love to see the Frick Collection if you ever go (& blog about it).

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  12. Super post about what is obviously a lovely and well cared for museum. Such a shame we have lost so many local railways, and the local stations, and jobs associated with them. Thanks for visiting over at mine, and commenting, very kind X

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    1. Thankyou. I feel inspired by this museum visit to see more of the old railway network and stations. I'm folowing your blog on BlogLovin'. Despite blogging about museums myself I love following other blogs, especially when the write about trips out.

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  13. All towns need good little museums to connect children to the Olden Days . And there's nothing better than hands-on steam train equipment !

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    1. Just being able to touch the original thing that actually works as it should was amazing. I love being allowed to touch objects in museums. I get a bit fed up with anything on a screen. Often you could be doing the activity at home.

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  14. Such wonderful historical riches in English museums.
    New York is wonderful indeed - but I'm thrilled to be coming for a visit home in May.

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    1. You'll have to make a list of all the places you want to see but I think perhaps it will be people, old friends, you really want to see. You could always meet them in museums.

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  15. How fabulous, a museum where you are encouraged to touch and play with things.
    That diving machine made me feel very clautrophobic!
    Hope you enjoy your trip to FT gallery, if and when you get there. I'm hoping for a trip there this summer hols.
    Lisa x

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    1. It was a lovely well thought out museum with such enthusiastic staff/volunteers. I've put the FT gallery on my list of places to visit. Glad you blogged about as I'd never heard of it before. You may get there before me, I'll be looking out for your post.

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  16. What a fantastic looking museum! It looks as if those running it have a genuine love of what they are doing and have thought really hard about how to get it over. I will tweet your blog post and hope that you will succeed in getting more people to notice this terrific sounding little museum.

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    1. Thanks so much for tweeting this post. What's your twitter name/address thingy? I've got into twitter recently, I'd like to follow you. Just have to stop myself wasting time & be disciplined to study.

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  17. What a serendipitous post. Fantastic. Yes we saw at first hand the effort it took to move the signals. They worked the level crossing gates by hand slowly with the train approaching too closely for my liking. I was as nerdily interested as the next man when the engine was uncoupled and brought to the other end for the return journey.

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  18. Morning, I don't mind you linking to my post at all, thanks for asking.
    Have a good day.
    Lisa x

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