Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk
The interpretation at this museum about life in East Anglia is firmly focused on involving the visitors, an approach that Jane Weeks enjoyed greatly
Though the Longe family bequeathed the Abbot’s Hall house and estate to the Museum of East Anglian Life in 1967, it was only in 2004 that the house was finally reunited with the rest of the estate. Following a major refurbishment, it is now part of the museum and provides a fascinating new dimension.
Taking as its starting point oral history pioneer George Ewart Evans’s belief that “the main components of history are not things but people”, the seven permanent exhibitions in Abbot’s Hall explore ideas of home and belonging in East Anglia: “Home is not just where we live, but also the sense of belonging to a place. This can be formed by our attachment to landscape and traditions, the preservation of memory, and the friendships we make with other people.”
It’s clear from the outset that this is going to be more of a conversation than a didactic experience, and that visitors are going to be encouraged to think and respond. Quotations from real people cover the walls, and visitors are almost as much part of the exhibition as the displays.
In A People’s Peculiar, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, visitors are asked to contribute to a cache of local stories and knowledge, prompted by symbols of East Anglia. And there are lots of questions. They include: What does your garden mean to you? Who would you like to invite to dinner? What five things contribute to your mental well-being?
Reading other visitors’ lists revealed some surprises: many include family, friends, sunshine and music as contributing to their well-being, but the inclusion of pigs was more unexpected.
An eclectic approach is taken to interpretation. The drawing room, which tells the story of Abbot’s Hall and its people, uses a timeline graphic, a listening chair, a “playing” piano, a display case with pull-out drawers, a framed video screen over the mantelpiece, QR codes, toys and dressing-up clothes for children, and books to read – in fact, something for everyone to enjoy on different levels.
Throughout, the domestic, intimate feeling of the house has been retained, with the original purposes of the rooms reflected in the themes. Even the labels are chatty: “It was almost unheard of for a lady to leave her house... without a hat, gloves and a handkerchief.”
There are few iconic objects and relatively few graphics in the displays. The study, dedicated to Ewart Evans, displays his desk and his typewriter, as well as copies of his books and the chance to hear his revealing conversations with a range of local people.
In the dining room, the message is that food and farming shaped the landscape of East Anglia. Eight places are set for dinner; seven are for local “food heroes” such as Mrs Beeton and Lady Eve Balfour, one of the founding members of the Soil Association.
Information on each guest is printed onto the dinner plates, a clever idea that removes the need for intrusive graphics. The last place is reserved for an invited guest.
When I visited it was the turn of Martin Neumann, a pioneer of the East Anglian sugar beet industry and grandfather of actor and television presenter Stephen Fry.
Visitors are asked for nominations for future guests; suggestions range from George III to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and even Ronald McDonald.
The Gypsy traveller community once played a key role in local life by providing much of the itinerant labour. Here is the idea of “home” not as a place, but as a community and a tradition. The Home on the Road exhibition is housed in an outhouse, underlining the gap between the Gypsy traveller and the settled community.
A huge floral tribute to Danny Buckley, a respected Gypsy community leader, dominates the space, but otherwise there are few objects, the result of a life spent on the move. This is summed up by a quote that says: “There’s no doubt that one day there will be a Gypsy on the moon.”
People approach
Also part of the project is the Settling House, the 19th-century payment office from Bury St Edmunds’ Cattle Market, and 18 and 20 Crowe Street Cottages, which were built in the 18th century to house workers on the Abbot’s Hall estate.
The last occupant of the cottages was Emily Wilding, wife of the last horseman of Abbot’s Hall. She donated all her belongings to the museum, and her story is told through the minutiae of her everyday life: her teapot, biscuit tins, battered bone-handle knives, even her styling lotion.
Open-air museums have tended in the past to focus on buildings rather than people, and the approach taken at Abbot’s Hall marks a new departure. It’s impossible to visit without thinking about how and where you belong.
But will this innovative interpretative approach be adopted for the rest of the museum, much of which now looks uninspiring by comparison? This is work in progress. For the moment, the division between the house and the estate remains.
Jane Weeks is a museum consultant
Taking as its starting point oral history pioneer George Ewart Evans’s belief that “the main components of history are not things but people”, the seven permanent exhibitions in Abbot’s Hall explore ideas of home and belonging in East Anglia: “Home is not just where we live, but also the sense of belonging to a place. This can be formed by our attachment to landscape and traditions, the preservation of memory, and the friendships we make with other people.”
It’s clear from the outset that this is going to be more of a conversation than a didactic experience, and that visitors are going to be encouraged to think and respond. Quotations from real people cover the walls, and visitors are almost as much part of the exhibition as the displays.
In A People’s Peculiar, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, visitors are asked to contribute to a cache of local stories and knowledge, prompted by symbols of East Anglia. And there are lots of questions. They include: What does your garden mean to you? Who would you like to invite to dinner? What five things contribute to your mental well-being?
Reading other visitors’ lists revealed some surprises: many include family, friends, sunshine and music as contributing to their well-being, but the inclusion of pigs was more unexpected.
An eclectic approach is taken to interpretation. The drawing room, which tells the story of Abbot’s Hall and its people, uses a timeline graphic, a listening chair, a “playing” piano, a display case with pull-out drawers, a framed video screen over the mantelpiece, QR codes, toys and dressing-up clothes for children, and books to read – in fact, something for everyone to enjoy on different levels.
Throughout, the domestic, intimate feeling of the house has been retained, with the original purposes of the rooms reflected in the themes. Even the labels are chatty: “It was almost unheard of for a lady to leave her house... without a hat, gloves and a handkerchief.”
There are few iconic objects and relatively few graphics in the displays. The study, dedicated to Ewart Evans, displays his desk and his typewriter, as well as copies of his books and the chance to hear his revealing conversations with a range of local people.
In the dining room, the message is that food and farming shaped the landscape of East Anglia. Eight places are set for dinner; seven are for local “food heroes” such as Mrs Beeton and Lady Eve Balfour, one of the founding members of the Soil Association.
Information on each guest is printed onto the dinner plates, a clever idea that removes the need for intrusive graphics. The last place is reserved for an invited guest.
When I visited it was the turn of Martin Neumann, a pioneer of the East Anglian sugar beet industry and grandfather of actor and television presenter Stephen Fry.
Visitors are asked for nominations for future guests; suggestions range from George III to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and even Ronald McDonald.
The Gypsy traveller community once played a key role in local life by providing much of the itinerant labour. Here is the idea of “home” not as a place, but as a community and a tradition. The Home on the Road exhibition is housed in an outhouse, underlining the gap between the Gypsy traveller and the settled community.
A huge floral tribute to Danny Buckley, a respected Gypsy community leader, dominates the space, but otherwise there are few objects, the result of a life spent on the move. This is summed up by a quote that says: “There’s no doubt that one day there will be a Gypsy on the moon.”
People approach
Also part of the project is the Settling House, the 19th-century payment office from Bury St Edmunds’ Cattle Market, and 18 and 20 Crowe Street Cottages, which were built in the 18th century to house workers on the Abbot’s Hall estate.
The last occupant of the cottages was Emily Wilding, wife of the last horseman of Abbot’s Hall. She donated all her belongings to the museum, and her story is told through the minutiae of her everyday life: her teapot, biscuit tins, battered bone-handle knives, even her styling lotion.
Open-air museums have tended in the past to focus on buildings rather than people, and the approach taken at Abbot’s Hall marks a new departure. It’s impossible to visit without thinking about how and where you belong.
But will this innovative interpretative approach be adopted for the rest of the museum, much of which now looks uninspiring by comparison? This is work in progress. For the moment, the division between the house and the estate remains.
Jane Weeks is a museum consultant
Project data
- Cost £3m
- Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund £2m; Suffolk County Council £120,000; Abbot’s Hall Trust £110,000; Suffolk Environment Trust WREN (Waste Recycling) £108,000
- Exhibition design Bright 3D
- Architect Purcell Miller Tritton
- QS Davis Langdon
- Building contractor Haymills (now VinciEast)