Catalogue
Patrick Forsyth explains why a small suburban museum trust has been getting in with the inn crowd
When the Bushey Museum Trust was founded in 1983 it had no premises or collection, and one of its first actions was to publish a book, From the Wheatsheaf to the Windmill, written by three local historians and founders of the trust, Tim Groves, Grant Longman and Bryen Wood.
This was a well researched, very readable account of 50 or so known pubs or ale houses in Bushey, illustrated with historical photos of 35 of them. The book has long been out of print, and the number of pubs still open has dwindled to 10, but we still get requests for it, and it provides a fascinating history of the village of Bushey – and of the growth and decline of the public house.
We decided to issue an updated version of the book, and to launch it with a small exhibition of photos of some of the pubs from the book, contrasted with how they appear now. When we announced this in our Friends’ newsletter, a local artist, Gordon Metcalfe, revealed that 20 years ago he had started a project, encouraged by the late Bryen Wood, our museum director, to document the interesting buildings in Bushey, from Bushey Arches in Watford to The Alpine restaurant on the border of Greater London. The museum promptly bought about 32 unmounted watercolours from Metcalfe, including depictions of many of the pubs described in the book. We have a set of temporary frames for exactly this use, so we were able to mount the watercolours rapidly for the exhibition. We already had another 20 or so paintings related to our pubs in our collection, so the exhibition is growing and now fills one of our larger galleries.
The MCC Museum, at Lord’s cricket ground, advertised in Museums Journal that it needed to dispose of a group of three mannequins, one of whom was holding a glass of Pimm’s. This gentleman now holds the introductory text to our exhibition in his other hand. Then two A-level students from Bushey Academy called into the museum to use some photos from our collection for a photographic project about the passing of time. We gave them some of our pub images, and some of their work is now also in the exhibition.
The updated book was published a few weeks before the exhibition, with an initial print run of only 100 copies – a quite feasible number in these days of digital printing. The layout was done by a volunteer who is a professional graphic artist. The books sold out soon after the exhibition opened, and we are now on our second run.
By the way, the two students got their photography A-levels, and one of them now volunteers regularly in the museum.
Patrick Forsyth is a trustee of Bushey Museum Trust. The exhibition Bushey Pubs – Then and Now is at Bushey Museum and Art Gallery, Hertfordshire, until 19 March
This was a well researched, very readable account of 50 or so known pubs or ale houses in Bushey, illustrated with historical photos of 35 of them. The book has long been out of print, and the number of pubs still open has dwindled to 10, but we still get requests for it, and it provides a fascinating history of the village of Bushey – and of the growth and decline of the public house.
We decided to issue an updated version of the book, and to launch it with a small exhibition of photos of some of the pubs from the book, contrasted with how they appear now. When we announced this in our Friends’ newsletter, a local artist, Gordon Metcalfe, revealed that 20 years ago he had started a project, encouraged by the late Bryen Wood, our museum director, to document the interesting buildings in Bushey, from Bushey Arches in Watford to The Alpine restaurant on the border of Greater London. The museum promptly bought about 32 unmounted watercolours from Metcalfe, including depictions of many of the pubs described in the book. We have a set of temporary frames for exactly this use, so we were able to mount the watercolours rapidly for the exhibition. We already had another 20 or so paintings related to our pubs in our collection, so the exhibition is growing and now fills one of our larger galleries.
The MCC Museum, at Lord’s cricket ground, advertised in Museums Journal that it needed to dispose of a group of three mannequins, one of whom was holding a glass of Pimm’s. This gentleman now holds the introductory text to our exhibition in his other hand. Then two A-level students from Bushey Academy called into the museum to use some photos from our collection for a photographic project about the passing of time. We gave them some of our pub images, and some of their work is now also in the exhibition.
The updated book was published a few weeks before the exhibition, with an initial print run of only 100 copies – a quite feasible number in these days of digital printing. The layout was done by a volunteer who is a professional graphic artist. The books sold out soon after the exhibition opened, and we are now on our second run.
By the way, the two students got their photography A-levels, and one of them now volunteers regularly in the museum.
Patrick Forsyth is a trustee of Bushey Museum Trust. The exhibition Bushey Pubs – Then and Now is at Bushey Museum and Art Gallery, Hertfordshire, until 19 March