What do an 18th century chest used to select jury members, a Crimean war medal, and a box of mouches (beauty spots) from Paris have in common?
Each of these items is stored in an independent museum or archive in Wales which is receiving funding to ensure the artefacts in their care are preserved for the long-term and that they have enough space to keep adding to their collections.
The Welsh Government is investing nearly £500,000 in eight conservation projects across Wales to ensure thousands of objects (and the local stories behind their existence) are kept safe and available to view for generations to come.
Many local and independent museums are situated in historic buildings like lifeboat stations, mines or stately homes. The nature of the buildings often makes it difficult and costly to maintain the conditions needed to care for collections. The funding will focus on improving storage facilities to better protect objects.
One of the grant recipients is the National Trust-run Llanerchaeron estate in Ceredigion. The Georgian house was designed by Regency architect John Nash and displays over 5000 items of the Pamela Ward collection of antiques and furniture (including the box of mouches). The funding will be used to create two new collection spaces and improve the existing storage. One of the new spaces will be an open viewable store providing more public access to collections.
The home of the jury selection box and the war medal is the Judge’s Lodging, Presteigne, a fully restored nineteenth-century former courthouse which also houses an ever-growing local history collection. The grant will be used to relocate the collection within the building, to a space three times the size of the existing store, and to add a new collections workspace / research area in an adjoining room.
Culture Minister, Jack Sargeant, said of the Collections Management Capital Improvement Programme:
“Local museums and archive services are valuable repositories of local community stories and Wales’ cultural history. They look after documents and objects that help us understand our past and inspire us in the present.
“I’m delighted our new grant will help to build capacity within local museums and archive services to protect our heritage and make their collections more accessible to the public.”
National Trust Collections and House Manager for Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, Heddwen Cadwallader, said:
“The grant for this project will enable us to unlock more of the potential of Llanerchaeron’s historic collections to engage and inspire people as well as enhance our ability to conserve the items we care for in a sustainable way into the future.”
