“It was just us, some blue tack and a roll of sellotape,” said the representative from the Mansfield Museum today before he announced the winner of this year’s Family Friendly Museum Award. You see, the Mansfield Museum won the award last year- a tiny little museum, which despite limited resources, has had a massive impact….
Toy Story
To begin this adventure I’d like to introduce you to someone very special indeed. He has lived a long and interesting life.How long, I cannot say because I’m not sure if Bear Years are the same as Human Years. What I can say for certain is that his name is Panda and he looks after…
I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost…
The sun was slowly sinking below the horizon as I made my way towards one of the oldest and most haunted buildings in Brighton: Preston Manor, the Stanford stately pile since 1764 and with a history going back to before the Domesday Book. Sweat started to inch its way down my brow. It was getting…
In which the Adventurer visits a celebrity badger…
Taxidermy might, to some, represent all that is wrong with museums. Beautiful specimens are ripped from their natural habitat, stuffed and placed in a glass cabinet to be gawped at as they accumulate dust. To others, taxidermy can represent all the positive aspects too; the preservation of beautiful specimens. A chance to see an animal…
Brighton Rocks
“So many steps are involved in the preparation of a really splendid lobster thermidor” trills Julia Child, “No wonder it costs a fortune in any restaurant!” However, I was not ordering from a fancy eatery when I was lucky enough to sample this most luxurious of sea-meats, no, instead it was a birthday treat from…
Put Money in thy Purse! Shillings and Shakespeare
Today, 23rd April, is a significant date for Shakespeare, and scholars and lovers thereof. Not only was it the day he died, but also the day he was christened. So, Happy Shakespeare Day everyone! 23rd April is also a significant day for the English as it marks the feast day of St. George, our patron…
London’s Secret Museums: The Grant Museum of Zoology
I really love the word ‘Zoology.’ It has all the best bits of the alphabet in it; all the letters that just make words fun, and somehow, it manages to have both too few and too many vowels at the same time. Have a go saying it… it is just fun isn’t it? You can…
London’s Secret Museums: The Petrie Museum
“Dearer to me than all the rest of my curios are my Egyptian antiquities: and of these… I have enough to stock a modest little museum,” declares the staircase as it leads you up to the reception. But to whom are these numerous curiosities precious to? Well, that would be Amelia Edwards, the founder of…
London’s Secret Museums: Musical Museum
I was expecting jazz hands. I was expecting feather boas. I was expecting a chorus line. What I actually got was a look and listen around one of the world’s foremost collections of automatic musical instruments. So, yea, it is a museum-that-is-musical rather than a museum-of-musicals. I suppose the logo rather gives that away if…
London’s Secret Museums: Kew Bridge Steam Museum
Kew is an area of London most often associated with fragrant flowers, blooming blossoms and all things horticultural. I dread to think how the big botanical gardens cope during a hosepipe ban, what with all those plants to water. Actually, how would they get the water into the hoses to begin with… well, today’s Secret…
Jack's Adventures in Museum Land 