The majority of nets for fishing, gardens, football goals and tennis courts in Britain are produced in Bridport. Even the safety nets for a few Nasa space shuttles were made there. But driving around the town, there is no evidence that it is a centre of net making. This industry grew out of the town’s rope production and has always been one of Bridport’s most important businesses.
Evidently the origins go back to 1211 when King John, fearing a French invasion, ordered ropes to be made in Bridport 24 hours a day. With the raw materials being grown in the surrounding Dorset countryside, ropes continued to be made there until the navy began to make its own in dockyards at Chatham and elsewhere. Throughout the 19th century, net making developed in the town and this continues today.
The museum is in central Bridport, housed in one of the town’s oldest buildings. Entering through the 16th-century frontage, visitors are greeted by a well-lit and attractively displayed area introducing the collections.
The centrepiece of Bridport Museum, which reopened at the end of May after a complete refurbishment, is material from the Sanctuary Rope and Net Collection, which has been given to the venue. The collection was built up over many years by Anthony Sanctuary, a former director of Bridport Gundry, one of the town’s net producers.
At the heart of the display is a working ropewalk – a simple machine that twists separate fibres into rope, which at times visitors can see being used; at other times a video demonstrates its workings.
Elsewhere in this gallery there is a restored Ackerman loom, a model that revolutionised net making in the 19th century and was a vital contributor to a boom in the industry. However, the outworkers still had to finish off the nets, a process that is explained in the museum through oral history recordings.
Also on display are the bells that were used for communicating above the level of noise in the ropewalks – noise that led to deafness in many workers. With displays of the raw materials such as hemp and flax, all grown locally until the 18th century, and samples of rope made from sisal, manila and cotton, the gallery shows the whole rope-making process.
More than a bit of old rope
Although the history of rope and net making is the heart of the museum, there is more to see. For example, I found the displays about the development of Bridport and nearby West Bay as a tourist destination through the 19th and 20th centuries engaging. Interestingly, Bridport Harbour was renamed West Bay when the railway line was extended to the coast.
Other cases show examples of the eclectic collection typical of a town museum – objects from Bridport’s history, stuffed birds, fossils from the Jurassic Coast, dolls and even a tiger’s head.
Upstairs, the museum’s displays go into more detail about the history of the town and the surrounding area. These include an introduction to local geological development. The museum has a collection of several hundred specimens from the Jurassic Coast – inevitably there is only space to display a small sample, but they enable visitors to gain an insight into the significance of the world heritage site on which Bridport is situated. The story continues through human occupation in prehistory, from the palaeolithic era onwards.
The museum also has a collection of artefacts from the Roman occupation, including body armour components that are cleverly displayed on a reconstruction of a tunic.
An interesting panel reveals the terrible housing conditions that existed in the town in the 19th century, with national newspapers describing Bridport as a “national ulcer”. At the time, as many as 15 houses in the town shared two toilets that emptied out into cesspits, which often overflowed into the drinking water.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Samuel Roberts, a local man, opened a chemist and apothecary in the town. Described as “the poor man’s friend” and the inventor of an ointment of the same name, Roberts was appointed as a medical attendant to the poor and provided free consultations weekly. In the 1970s, the museum acquired dispensing cabinets and other items that had been saved from Roberts’ shop and these form another display. Visitors can try to figure out what some of his medicaments would have been used for.
Noteworthy art
There is only space to show a small sample of the art collection, including works by the founder of the museum, Alfred Codd. The museum’s art collection is significant and features works by Fra Newberry, a former director of the Glasgow School of Art, Henry Walton, FE Tighe, A Hodder, George Biles, Eric Bray and Reynolds Stone.
The majority of those on display depict local scenes and I hope that at some point the museum will be able to find room to put more of its artworks on show for the public to see. The present display does not do the collection justice.
A small room downstairs tells the story of the redevelopment of the museum, which took five years, and is quantified with some fun statistics: 596 pages of documentation in two application stages, one baby and 10,000 biscuits. It is important for visitors to understand this process, but presumably this room will eventually be used for changing displays of other items in the museum’s collection.
Not all the interactive displays were working when I visited but this will no doubt be rectified. However, with a small attractive shop and welcoming volunteers, Bridport Museum is a delight to visit and its varied collection has something to offer every visitor.
This is the latest in a series of exciting developments along Dorset’s Jurassic Coast with the opening of Seaton Jurassic and the Etches Collection last year, and the reopening of Lyme Regis Museum later this year.
Peter Mason is a local historian and writer on culture
Getting people through the door is what all of us in the museum sector are trying to do. So when we were granted £841,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), we had the biggest opportunity we’d ever had to get people engaged.
We immediately knew that community participation had to be one of the core driving forces. What was the best way to try and achieve our mission to be friendly, inclusive and accessible? Simple: ask people what they want.
Several massive evaluation plans later – you’ve got to love a spreadsheet – we started work. We asked more than 1,000 people what they thought, using questionnaires, focus groups and open days. My favourite event was the one where we got people to influence the interpretation strategy. They were asked to put stickers on the mood boards they liked, and ones they didn’t, to help the designer see what might work best.
We asked them what they thought about different objects too: the taxidermy inevitably stood out as that “Marmite” collection, but the curator always gets the final say, so our tiger has stayed. The process was a helpful way of grouping the 700 or so objects that made the final cut from our collection of 50,000.
As with any HLF project, we had to write an activity plan. Naturally, this had to have community participation at its heart. Our goal was to ensure that lots of the activities involved created something that would end up in the museum.
We commissioned local artists to guide children in painting murals on the hoardings around the building – now that the hoardings are down, we’ve hung the pictures in the museum’s toilets.
We also ran animation workshops in local schools, and the Horrible Histories-esque films that they produced are now on display in the museum.
We hope we have created a museum that the town can be proud of. Who wouldn’t feel proud to point to something on show and be able to say: “I did that.”?
Emily Hicks is the curator at Bridport Museum, Dorset
Main funder Heritage Lottery Fund; Dorset County Council; West Dorset District Council; Bridport Town Council, Garfield Weston Foundation; Fine Foundation; Jurassic Coast Trust; AIM conservation grant; Palmers Brewery; Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Foundation; Friends of Bridport Museum; Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Architect John Stark & Crickmay Partnership
Restoration Daryl Chambers
Collections consultant Tim Burge Museum Services
Conservators Wiltshire Conservation Services; Context Engineering
Exhibition design Smith & Jones
Display cases ClickNetherfield; Beaufort Bespoke; Renatus
Building contractor O’Brien’s
Fitout Beaufort Bespoke; Renatus
Audiovisuals Audionation
Lighting Illuma
Admission Free
Evidently the origins go back to 1211 when King John, fearing a French invasion, ordered ropes to be made in Bridport 24 hours a day. With the raw materials being grown in the surrounding Dorset countryside, ropes continued to be made there until the navy began to make its own in dockyards at Chatham and elsewhere. Throughout the 19th century, net making developed in the town and this continues today.
The museum is in central Bridport, housed in one of the town’s oldest buildings. Entering through the 16th-century frontage, visitors are greeted by a well-lit and attractively displayed area introducing the collections.
The centrepiece of Bridport Museum, which reopened at the end of May after a complete refurbishment, is material from the Sanctuary Rope and Net Collection, which has been given to the venue. The collection was built up over many years by Anthony Sanctuary, a former director of Bridport Gundry, one of the town’s net producers.
At the heart of the display is a working ropewalk – a simple machine that twists separate fibres into rope, which at times visitors can see being used; at other times a video demonstrates its workings.
Elsewhere in this gallery there is a restored Ackerman loom, a model that revolutionised net making in the 19th century and was a vital contributor to a boom in the industry. However, the outworkers still had to finish off the nets, a process that is explained in the museum through oral history recordings.
Also on display are the bells that were used for communicating above the level of noise in the ropewalks – noise that led to deafness in many workers. With displays of the raw materials such as hemp and flax, all grown locally until the 18th century, and samples of rope made from sisal, manila and cotton, the gallery shows the whole rope-making process.
More than a bit of old rope
Although the history of rope and net making is the heart of the museum, there is more to see. For example, I found the displays about the development of Bridport and nearby West Bay as a tourist destination through the 19th and 20th centuries engaging. Interestingly, Bridport Harbour was renamed West Bay when the railway line was extended to the coast.
Other cases show examples of the eclectic collection typical of a town museum – objects from Bridport’s history, stuffed birds, fossils from the Jurassic Coast, dolls and even a tiger’s head.
Upstairs, the museum’s displays go into more detail about the history of the town and the surrounding area. These include an introduction to local geological development. The museum has a collection of several hundred specimens from the Jurassic Coast – inevitably there is only space to display a small sample, but they enable visitors to gain an insight into the significance of the world heritage site on which Bridport is situated. The story continues through human occupation in prehistory, from the palaeolithic era onwards.
The museum also has a collection of artefacts from the Roman occupation, including body armour components that are cleverly displayed on a reconstruction of a tunic.
An interesting panel reveals the terrible housing conditions that existed in the town in the 19th century, with national newspapers describing Bridport as a “national ulcer”. At the time, as many as 15 houses in the town shared two toilets that emptied out into cesspits, which often overflowed into the drinking water.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Samuel Roberts, a local man, opened a chemist and apothecary in the town. Described as “the poor man’s friend” and the inventor of an ointment of the same name, Roberts was appointed as a medical attendant to the poor and provided free consultations weekly. In the 1970s, the museum acquired dispensing cabinets and other items that had been saved from Roberts’ shop and these form another display. Visitors can try to figure out what some of his medicaments would have been used for.
Noteworthy art
There is only space to show a small sample of the art collection, including works by the founder of the museum, Alfred Codd. The museum’s art collection is significant and features works by Fra Newberry, a former director of the Glasgow School of Art, Henry Walton, FE Tighe, A Hodder, George Biles, Eric Bray and Reynolds Stone.
The majority of those on display depict local scenes and I hope that at some point the museum will be able to find room to put more of its artworks on show for the public to see. The present display does not do the collection justice.
A small room downstairs tells the story of the redevelopment of the museum, which took five years, and is quantified with some fun statistics: 596 pages of documentation in two application stages, one baby and 10,000 biscuits. It is important for visitors to understand this process, but presumably this room will eventually be used for changing displays of other items in the museum’s collection.
Not all the interactive displays were working when I visited but this will no doubt be rectified. However, with a small attractive shop and welcoming volunteers, Bridport Museum is a delight to visit and its varied collection has something to offer every visitor.
This is the latest in a series of exciting developments along Dorset’s Jurassic Coast with the opening of Seaton Jurassic and the Etches Collection last year, and the reopening of Lyme Regis Museum later this year.
Peter Mason is a local historian and writer on culture
Focus on: community involvement
Since taking up my post six years ago, the typical response from locals when I explained what I did, was: “Where is Bridport Museum?” Getting people through the door is what all of us in the museum sector are trying to do. So when we were granted £841,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), we had the biggest opportunity we’d ever had to get people engaged.
We immediately knew that community participation had to be one of the core driving forces. What was the best way to try and achieve our mission to be friendly, inclusive and accessible? Simple: ask people what they want.
Several massive evaluation plans later – you’ve got to love a spreadsheet – we started work. We asked more than 1,000 people what they thought, using questionnaires, focus groups and open days. My favourite event was the one where we got people to influence the interpretation strategy. They were asked to put stickers on the mood boards they liked, and ones they didn’t, to help the designer see what might work best.
We asked them what they thought about different objects too: the taxidermy inevitably stood out as that “Marmite” collection, but the curator always gets the final say, so our tiger has stayed. The process was a helpful way of grouping the 700 or so objects that made the final cut from our collection of 50,000.
As with any HLF project, we had to write an activity plan. Naturally, this had to have community participation at its heart. Our goal was to ensure that lots of the activities involved created something that would end up in the museum.
We commissioned local artists to guide children in painting murals on the hoardings around the building – now that the hoardings are down, we’ve hung the pictures in the museum’s toilets.
We also ran animation workshops in local schools, and the Horrible Histories-esque films that they produced are now on display in the museum.
We hope we have created a museum that the town can be proud of. Who wouldn’t feel proud to point to something on show and be able to say: “I did that.”?
Emily Hicks is the curator at Bridport Museum, Dorset
Project data
Cost £1.3mMain funder Heritage Lottery Fund; Dorset County Council; West Dorset District Council; Bridport Town Council, Garfield Weston Foundation; Fine Foundation; Jurassic Coast Trust; AIM conservation grant; Palmers Brewery; Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Foundation; Friends of Bridport Museum; Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Architect John Stark & Crickmay Partnership
Restoration Daryl Chambers
Collections consultant Tim Burge Museum Services
Conservators Wiltshire Conservation Services; Context Engineering
Exhibition design Smith & Jones
Display cases ClickNetherfield; Beaufort Bespoke; Renatus
Building contractor O’Brien’s
Fitout Beaufort Bespoke; Renatus
Audiovisuals Audionation
Lighting Illuma
Admission Free