Strike Factory

Local Museum Challenge/ 5. Anne of Cleves House, Lewes

Next up after the tiny but pleasant Crawley Museum it was off to the County Town of East Sussex sadly home to the scummy Lib Dem controlled Lewes District Council. To visit Lewes Museum and then attend the Towns main football ground the Dripping Pan to watch Andy Rumbles R.E.M.F team face the Croy*on clowns. 

Mode of transport:

I travelled straight after finishing Haywards Heath College, getting the good old Southern train from Haywards Heath that went non stop to Lewes. But after the football, was a bit screwed as seemed to be no trains that would take me to Gatwick after 11.00pm so got the train to Brighton and stayed round a friend’s house for the night there. 

Location of museum:

It was actually near the station being a five minute walk on Southover Street the otherside of the road to a priory. 

Staff friendliness: The staff seemed quite friendly the guy at the front was very knowledgeable about the Sussex museums especially.

Museum Highlights

• Was actually the first museum I had to pay to get into. Though went to the fine organisation that is Sussex Past ( Behind my legendary trips to Fishbourne Roman Palace, Chichester as a kid) as a kind of donation was £3.50
• First off was the former Queen consorts bedroom, which looked shockingly ordinary, though had some fine Tudor clothing to mess about with. I tried on a hat to look like a young Henry VIII
• Next off was to the kitchens to see how the fine tudor cuisines were done in the 16^th Century
• Then I was in a upstairs room with collections of Victorian toys with a floor that appeared to be falling apart with holes (There was even a sign warning even) and I was concerned I would fall through into the East Sussex archive office (or something like that below), would have been hilarious in fact thinking about it stunning the people working in the office.
• Similar to the Horsham museum it also had a fine garden. That you could have a rest in after gaining some much information on the town.
• There was a good section on the history of Lewes featuring a fine trophy that was famously stolen years ago that was used for a major horse race that the town hosted.

Great stuff, I ended up leaving the museum with a replica knights ring which fits in with my fictional title of Earl of Trumpton. Was a good visit, and despite paying was quality.  

Crawley Museum

After visiting the two museums of the fine twin city of Brighton and Hove, it was off to Crawley Museum, how would Charles Ball fare in the same town where he was born, and it would be the museum that would mark halfway for Charles and his museum challenge. 

Mode of transport: I decided as it was a fine Sunday Afternoon with the sun out and that most of the local chavs were most likely still recovering from hangovers at Liquid and Envy, to walk to Goff’s Park from home.

Visitors: Charles 

Location of museum and type of building: It was located at a connected annexe of the fine Goff’s Manor House, at Goffs Park, Crawley the area seemed a bit Life on Mars like, it seemed like you were in Old Crawley before 1947.

Staff friendliness: The Staff (which consisted of just 2 men and one young lady), were helpful and full of information on Crawley and its history. Good work despite how busy the place got. 

Museum Highlights:

·                    It was a bizarrely small museum mostly consisting of just 2 rooms, though the Museum Society are hoping to move to much bigger premises nearer the centre of Crawley soon.

·                    There is currently a special exhibition on one of the towns most famous sons the former World Champion Boxer Alan Minter (who was in the same school class as my dad would you believe).

·                    The museum focused a lot mostly on the wonderful pre-1947 history of Crawley, before the New Towns Comission decided to chuck a ton of concrete and Londoners on the once legendary village.

·                    Apparently former Crawley resident Mark Lemon (former Punch magazine editor), had a daughter who ended up having Alice in Wonderland based on her.

·                    Oscar Wildes boyfriend (whos name escapes me)lived and is buried in Crawley.

·                    Other notable names include the legendary Norman Wisdom the lifelong Albion fan and former director of the Seagulls. Notable for his slapstick acting, lived and worked in Crawley at one point in his life. Ironically no mention of the Watford born ex Palace Player now managing Middlesborough Gareth Southgate anywhere in the museum. lol

·                    The Quaker House next door to me gets a special mention for being a major place in the early years of the Quaker faith with notable Quaker figures such as Cowfold man William Penn, who attended meetings here and founded Pennsylvania in the USA, boy I am honoured my home has a connection with the birth of a major US State, watch up for a link up with a site there very soon.

Overall: Was a nice little museum, with first class staff. Despite being small had all kinds of displays and some fine models on old Crawley buildings long gone. The museum seems to make out that Crawley was once some fine cosmopolitian mini- Brighton like village with all kinds of the finest in society ranging from authors, editors, actors, and even prominent homosexuals rather than the overgrown mini-London town it is today, if only!  Next up in the next week I will hopefully with one or two others be visiting the fine museum of the Seaside Resort of Wonderful Worthing to kick off of the second half of The Strike Factory Local Museum Challenge feel free to come date is not set as seeing when people are available.

Brighton Museum

Once I finished at the fine Hove museum it was off down to Hove’s larger than life twin sister Brighton to visit the fine cosmopolitan large museum they had. Welcome to Part 2 of Charles’s adventure in Brighton and Hove’s main town museums. 

Mode of transport: Rather than get a bus from Hove Museum I decided to walk all the way seeing as it was just straight up Church Road, Palmiera Squire and Western Road, and I would be at Brighton Museum in about 20-30 minutes by foot, but I came home by train via First Capital Connect from Brighton to Three Bridges then the Southern train to Ifield. Would have been mental to decide to walk 20 or so miles from Brighton to Ifield.

Visitors: Charles 

Location of museum: The museum appears to be in what was originally farmland that became royal’s property on North Street, with the museum being virtually in the grounds of one of Brighton’s most famous landmarks The Royal Pavilion. The museum itself is quite large, and is a fine 19^th century building. It is also near some of Brighton’s most notable theatres such as The Theatre Royal and The Dome.

Staff friendliness: Bizarrely I did not speak to the staff much even though there were some nice girl tour guides around the museum. But they seemed nice and friendly and found one or two of the tour guides tasty even if they had unique hairstyles, so common of Brighton. 

Museum highlights:

• Like its smaller neighbour Brighton has a massive art section with international and local art, I found the hand sofa quite fascinating.
• There seems to be a good African culture theme exhibition going on at Brighton museum at the mo. I was fascinated by the Nigerian masks, and the Egyptian mummies.
• The Discovery room was very bizarre with a weird fireplace, and an equally quirky mirror, had I walked into the legendary Peter Crouch’s living room if so good taste Sir Peter.
• I love the room on Brighton’s history showing maps of how the town developed, old locals discussing their experiences of town life when they were younger and how they saw the town change, to the fine bikes and of course the special Brighton and Hove Albion section. SEAGULLS! Also the section on religion in Brighton was interesting ranging from Judaism to the Christian Korean Church.
• Good section on the Cosmopolitan culture of Brighton, featuring the clubbing and raving side of Brighton down the years, the Gay Lesbian side of Brighton and other stuff that makes Brighton a open minded caring and forward thinking city. It had some fine models of the early Royal Pavilion and the old Chain Pier.
• Upstairs was all about Brighton fashion and art, and included some of the African stuff common in the museum. Showing all kinds of outfits to astonishing the seemingly ordinary to some interesting Goth outfits.

Overall: By and far the largest museum I am likely to visit out of the 8 museums around Sussex as part of the challenge. Was interesting and curious and you could not seem to get bored more amazed. Great stuff. LOL

 

Next: Will be museum No.4 at creepy Crawley, found out about what is fascinating about this fine 'little' museum and the little known connection that Crawley has with Alice in Wonderland.

Hove Museum

Next up for Charles was his spiritual home the fine legendary twin towns of Brighton and Hove, first Charles travelled to Hove Museum where Charles found there was more to Brightons quiet twin than he realised 

Mode of transport:  Good old Southern (no I am not a official promoter of Southern trains) trains served me well again, got the train to Three Bridges, then the train to Haywards Heath where my season ticket takes me to, for a return ticket to Hove, I then caught a train that took me straight to Hove. The museum was about a 5-10 minutes walk from Hove Station though Aldrington Station appears to be nearer (locals correct me if I am wrong.).

Visitors: Charles 

Location of museum and type of building: It is located near Hove Town Centre but seemed a sleepy part of Hove compared to the nearby town centre, on New Church Road, the building was a fine attractive large Victorian Villa.

Staff friendliness: The staff and security were pretty friendly and helpful. Pointing me in the right direction of things, and even taking the picture of myself. Though was a bit worried at first when they told me not to take pictures in the art gallery and looked like chucking me out but was ok to take pics in other gallerys. 

Museum highlights:

* Current art exhibition on ground floor looked impressive with art ranging from impressive to very bizarre indeed

* The main museum areas were on the first floor, and I first went for the history of Hove section, where I came face to face with Hoves oldest resident (see pictures), saw it how it developed from the obsecure villages of Aldrington, Hove, Hangleton and Portslade to the posh attractive home of Sussex sports twin of Brighton that it is today.

* The toy museum section was quite good with a impressive collections of things ranging from cars to a sleepy old man. One of the countrys largest vintage toy collections in fact.

* There were craft sections showing stuff by local artists

* The cinema/ filming section fascinated me as I knew little of Brighton and Hoves importance in British/ world filming in the early 20^th century, it had lots of intresting objects connected with early filming such as different kinds of cameras, it showed pre world war I mini films or scenes shot in Brighton and Hove, and mentioned a lot in the life of a few major film directors that were based in Brighton and Hove before World War I. 

Overall: Was a nice museum and showed there was more to Hove than I thought it was, and learn’t some new stuff about the area. Was a good museum in good settings, and the staff were first class and were curious about my own site.

Horsham Museum

Charles Ball, began his museum challenge by travelling to the home of charity shops, Yazoo drinks, and Carl Cox by visiting the fine Historic Market Towns museum. 

Mode of transport: Got the Southern train service from Ifield Station to Horsham Station where the train terminated, journey time was about 10 minutes, though can be a bit longer if you get a train that unluckily stops at the rail conductors favourite  place to chuck off yobbos the tiny rural Faygate Station (as a neighbour who works for Southern trains told me beforehand), used same transport to get back home.

Alone or with a party: Alone

Location and type of building: It is a fine former manor kind of house Causeway House, located on one of the most attractive and pleasant streets in Sussex The Causeway 

At the museum

I arrived at Horsham around Lunchtime. Sadly I was not able to bring a camara along so will have to describe, I got greeted by a friendly well spoken middle aged Horsham lady on entering the museum at the reception not quite the type that would go mad about Tim Henman I should note. 

One of the main features of the museum I noticed early on is its section on one of Horshams most famous sons the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, although because he was so much a part of life in Horsham that there are other areas that show Shelley related things. One example was the first room I walked into there were various portraits of notable Horsham nobles in the last few hundred years along with old objects. One portrait especially of one of the main vicars of Horsham in the late 18^th and early 19^th century that somehow put Shelley off religion. Was it because the vicar services were boring I wonder and hard to understand that made Shelley turn to the Necessity of Atheism? Also in the room was some fine knight armour that looked like it would lash out at you.

Next room I seemed to travel in time and found myself in what appeared to be a  major unoccupied Victorian chemist in the town. It had all kinds of drugs (legal and illegal), a massive tobacco pipe on one of the cupboards that appeared to be one of Vincent Van Goghs old favourites. On a serious note though was intresting to see the chemist was more advanced than I thought it was especially its till which was the forerunner to the modern till. This chemist was run by a major Horsham family and supplied drugs to other smaller chemists in town including Boots. 

Next up was getting a taste of the old Horsham Law courts, government and its infamouse Gaols, where all kinds of gruelling stuff happened and showed all the torture equipment used to punish or execute criminals from the Horsham area (including the proto-yobbos of old Ifield Village).Though the Gaols were modified to form the first modern kind of jails in England with a jail room built in the room I was looking in, with a life like model man, in a scary bizarre green and yellow rugby looking shirt.

After seeing the other various industrys that were prominent I finally arrived in the special section on the legendary Shelley, which mentioned his life and works and had some fine artwork of this fine gentleman. Was interesting to find out that most of the town Shelley would still recognise if he came back to life today. The house also had 2 walled gardens with a restaurant which I was not bothered to visit. 26 gallerys existed in the museum though I won’t be able to discuss or show all from this fine medieval timbered building. As there was a few temporary exhibitions, with old pictures. All in all a good insight into the history of Horsham. A nice way to start the challenege. Next up its Crawley Library where I hope to bring a camera this time.   

Boredom/ excitement meter: Had a lot of interesting displays and local history objects, and intresting learning the history though the odd display could seem a bit tedious

8/10  P.S This visit of this museum is dedicated to Horsham boy Tony Wales the notable Sussex Historian whose books and work on Sussex History and the infamous Sussex dialect influcenced me in my mid teens. RIP Tony Wales 1924-2007