A rather hatty post with some Bramhall bits too.

Hello!

This update has been in my drafts for a good few weeks.  A lot has been going on at Cheadle so I haven’t had chance to finish and publish it!

Apologies label

A month or so ago, the ITV programme Dickinson’s Real Deal came to Stockport Town Hall.  Because of Stockport’s strong link to the hatting industry and obviously boasting the UK’s only hatting museum, a scene was filmed for the show with David Dickinson interviewing one of the Hat Works tour guides and demonstrators, Sue Lea.  For this scene, some of the hats at the Hat Works were taken off display by myself and Janny,  to be handled by David and Sue (in gloves of course!).

Wrapping a Stove Pipe Hat ready for transporting to the Town Hall

Katie was there on the day to oversee the care of the collection objects.  The hats taken for the filming were a selection of miniature hats (Trilbys, Top hats, and a Straw boater), an exaggerated 18″ high Stove Pipe Hat made by Woolfendens of Denton to celebrate the centenary of the company in 1913, and a ‘normal’ 7″ high Stove Pipe Hat.

Miniature Trilby made by Attaboy of Denton

David Dickinson was apparently a very lovely gentleman, and was impressed with the Hat Works guided tours being priced at £2.65 per person, calling it ‘cheap as chips!’ – hopefully the scenes make it to the final cut.  We should find out when it airs on the telly soon – I will tweet or blog about it as soon as I know!

View 1 – Woolfendens centenary Stove Pipe Hat

View 2 – Woolfendens centenary Stove Pipe Hat

We have a few new acquisitions,  the first being a Walmar hat from the 1950s/60s.  This hat was kindly donated to the museum service in excellent, possibly unworn condition – it still has the original label on!  The hat is a straw turban style hat, with peach satin material, feathers, and clusters of pearls and gold beads with a single teardrop pearl. This hat is now on display at the Hat Works museum, in the Fantastic Hats case.  I love it! I also got the chance to write a short article for the Stockport Heritage Magazine, on my favourite object in Stockport’s collection.  I chose this hat – and from these photographs, I’m sure you will see why.

Walmar hat

Pearl cluster detail

Hat as worn

The other new acquisition is a hat previously on loan from Rachel Trevor-Morgan, which has been converted to a gift.  Rachel Trevor-Morgan is a milliner to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II so it is excellent to have a contemporary hat from a prominent designer in the collection.  It is a two-tone dusky blue and gold taffeta pillbox fascinator hat, with rosebud and leaf detail.

Rachel Trevor – Morgan Pillbox hat

Now onto the Bramhall part of my post.  A couple of weeks ago, Janny and I visited Bramhall Hall to return some objects to their previous locations.  They had been in storage elsewhere in the house, whilst the christmas decorations were up for the festive season.  During the visit, we went up into the roof space.  I thought I would take some photographs to show the wall paintings that are on the inside of the roof, and also a photograph of the quatrefoils.

Quatrefoil

Wall paintings in the roof

We also brought back a sword and a musket back to the stores, to be safely packed away for the time being after being in the house for a long period of time.

Sword

The sword and musket are now stored in the locked ‘gun cage’, where all of the weaponry in the collection is safely kept. A museum which has weaponry in the collection must hold a firearms licence.  Here is some information from the Home Office:

“What a museum licence allows
[…] The 1988 Act provide[s] for the issue to a museum of a museum firearms licence. The grant of a licence permits the persons responsible for the management of the museum and museum employees to possess, purchase or acquire, for the purposes of the museum:
a) firearms and ammunition which are, or are to be, normally exhibited or kept on its premises, without holding a firearm certificate or shotgun certificate; and
b) where the licence so provides, prohibited weapons and prohibited ammunition which are, or are to be, normally exhibited or kept as aforesaid, without the authority of the Secretary of State or Scottish Ministers under section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968 (as amended).

Requirements for a museum licence to be issued
A museum licence may be granted only to those major national museums listed in the Schedule or to any other museum or similar institution which either:

a) has as its purpose, or one of its purposes, the preservation for the public benefit of a collection of historic, artistic or scientific interest which includes or is to include firearms; and
b) which is maintained wholly or mainly out of money provided by Parliament or a local authority; or
(c) is accredited by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) or its successor bodies, Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales or the Scottish Arts Council.”
(see the full document here – opens a PDF file entitled Firearms Law; Guidance to the Police).

Next I will be posting about the Air Raid Shelters redevelopment, a visit to the Imperial War Museum North and meeting Sally Smith, the HLF Grant Officer who came to visit all of the Stockport trainees to see how we were getting on and what we have achieved and thought of our year so far.

a bit of a catch up… starting with the filming at Bramhall Hall

Hello there

I have a bit of blogging to catch up on to say the least, having not done a post since August.  Lots has gone on since then, which I have tried to tweet about as much as I could along the way.

In September, ITV used Bramhall Hall as one of the locations for a one-off period drama, which will be shown on Boxing Day this year.  It is a screen adaptation of the 1901 novel ‘The Making of a Marchioness’, by Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett; a Manchester-born writer most famous for ‘The Secret Garden’.  Bramhall Hall was used for two weeks, with filming taking place in many of the rooms. Two members of the curatorial team needed to be present at all times.  This was to be on-hand in case any of the collection objects, small or large, needed to be moved by the prop team or others; to monitor what was being used during filming (making a note of the change in location for objects) and behind scenes (lots of moving laptop cases off the settles etc.), as well as conservation issues (lighting candles for only short period of time before being snuffed out with a damp cloth to minimise the smoke).  Once filming had ceased in a particular room, we were able to give the rooms a good clean, re-display the objects, and update MODES as to which items had been used in the filming and where they were now being put back to.  I worked on the laundry room – displaying flat irons and linen sheets alongside wooden washing dollies and wicker baskets.   It was such an interesting experience to see a period drama being filmed, a real eye-opener for the work that goes into producing a period drama.  I haven’t been able to watch Downton Abbey in the same way since, thinking about the props team who set up the scene, for the curatorial staff at Highclere Castle guarding their collections, or for the endless times someone will have shouted “quiet please, turning!”.

Some of the actors we saw filming scenes were Linus Roache, Lydia Wilson, Hasina Haque, James D’arcy, and Souad Faress.  A few photographs were taken by myself and Janny during our ‘shifts’ at Bramhall, including the dressed rooms, rehearsals, and during the publicity photograph shoots. I will include some here.  Make sure you watch ‘The Making of a Lady’ on Boxing Day! In some of the scenes, I may have been on the other side of the room….

Rehearsals with input from the Director Richard Curson Smith, taking place in the Withdrawing Room. Seen here are the actors Lydia Wilson as Emily, Linus Roache as Lord James Walderhurst and two young actors as the children.

Filming in the Great Hall.

Filming in the Kitchen.

My re-display of collection items on the table after filming in the Kitchen had finished.

My re-display of items in the Laundry Room after filming had finished.

Photographer Stuart Wood taking publicity shots of some of the cast in the Withdrawing Room; Hasina Haque as Hester and James D’Arcy as Captain Alec Osborn.

Publicity shoot – Hasina Haque as Hester.

Publicity shoot – Lydia Wilson as Emily.

A false wall in the Neville Room

The Anteroom (a small but beautiful room adjoining the Neville Room) was used for a scene where Emily writes a letter.  Here you can see the props used in the scene.

Take one! L-R, Helen, Janny and Katie with ‘The Making of a Lady’ clapperboard.

Lots of time was spent setting up the Library by the props team. It was even painted red for the purpose of filming. The room was used for a scene but probably won’t be shown in-depth in the final cut.

Another view of the props in the Library.