Museums hold key to region's past (From Salisbury Journal)

Museums hold key to region's past

11:47am Thursday 28th January 2010 in Entertainments By Anne Morris

If ever a reason was needed to visit museums on your doorstep, then it is now.

Thanks to Neil MacGregor, the British Museum’s director whose History of the World in 100 objects is being broadcast daily on BBC Radio 4, museum directors up and down the country have selected various objects to tell a history of their particular locality.

Of the ten objects selected to tell a history of Wiltshire and its place in the world, four are held in Salisbury museums and, each in their own special way, tell a rather special story.

In the main picture, Adrian Green is holding this rather wonderful walrus ivory chess piece, part of Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum’s permanent collection.

The chessman was found in the former drainage channels of Salisbury (the old open sewers that ran through the streets of the city).

These channels were found to be a major health hazard and were filled in during the 19th century, but not before some rather special medieval finds were given a new home. Salisbury Museum was founded in 1860 to provide a home for the hundreds of medieval finds from the city’s drainage channels.

Probably made in Germany or Scandi-navia, the chess piece depicts a king on horseback. Mr Green thinks it is one of the finest of its kind dating from the medieval period to be found in England, and its inclusion in the history of the world project is a pertinent reminder of the many treasures on display in Salisbury’s museum in The Close.

Another survivor from the medieval period and the second Wiltshire object at the museum is the Salisbury Giant. He was originally used by the Salisbury Guild of Tailors for its annual celebration on the eve of the feast of St John (midsummer’s day) and was still in use until the museum moved to its current home in the Kings House in 1979. Since then you will find the giant as the centrepiece of the Salisbury gallery.

The other two objects can be found in The Wardrobe, the museum of The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire).

Assistant curator Jackie Dryden is pictured holding a bolt mechanism from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The Wiltshire Regiment, was one of the first to liberate the camp in April 1945, as part of the allied advance into Germany at the end of the Second World War.

There are several artefacts at the museum acting as a stark reminder of the terrible crimes perpetrated by the Nazi regime.

A quite stunning embroidered Chinese silk robe, which once belonged to the Empress of China is also at the museum. It was taken from the Imperial Palace by Captain Henry Ely of the 99th Regiment, an antecedent regiment of the Wiltshire Regi-ment.

And, of course, while viewing these four objects as part of the history project, you can enjoy the rest of the collections of both museums.

Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum is open from Mondays to Saturdays, 10am to 5pm (an annual ticket of £12 gives you unlimited access to the museum for 12 months from date of admission).

The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum is also in The Close and opens for the season next Tuesday, February 1. Opening hours are 10am to 5pm from Tuesdays to Sundays.