The Parlour Gallery
This small room was remodelled in the 19th century to create a more comfortable parlour. It now houses the museum's collection of children's toys, domestic pastimes and activities.
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The Rocking Man
On the mantel piece of this cosy Parlour sits the oldest item in the room, a little wooden rocking man dating from the 1700's. He was made to amuse the baby and, unfortunately over time has lost both his arms, which would have moved as he rocked.
He was discovered embedded in a wall of ahouse in the town during renovations. Toys and small items, particularly shoes, belonging to the deceased infants were often hidden in this way. A quiet walk through the churchyard of Bishop's Castle will reveal the high rate of infant mortality in the town.
go back to topSmall Toys Cabinet
A number of small and miniature toys are displayed here. Of particluar interest is the performing bare-back rider, which may have belonged to a circus set popular at the time.
Less privileged children however had simpler toys. Tops and whips, yoyos and kites, or a small boat to sail on the Wintle Pools, many of which would have been home made, would have been more usual.
go back to topNoah's Ark
The Noah's Ark on display in this room is handmade and has passed down three generations of the same family. The arks were a poupular Regency toy, but by the Victorian Period were largely mass produced and sold widely. In many households the enactment of the Flood was considered the only suitable form of play for Sundays, due to the era's strict observance of the Sabbath. The Victorians also encouraged education and no child possessing such a toy and its animals and figures could have failed to learn something about counting, while the variety of animals must certainly have widened its general knowledge of the ever expanding world beyond the nursery or parlour door.
While the earliest arks date back to the 1700s, the making of the animals was revolutionized in the mid-1800s when craftsmen began using the lathe, which allowed workers to make these animals quickly with minimal waste. From the trunk of a pine tree, large rings were carved on a lathe. These rings were then cut into 60 pieces like a pie, each slice becoming an animal figurine. That’s why one end of the resulting animals was wider than the other. While this innovation greatly simplified the making of the menagerie each piece still needed to be individually sanded, primed, painted, and finished by hand.A real labour of love.
go back to topDoll's House
The Doll’s House dates from the 1920’s and was made locally by an elder brother for his young sister. Much of the furniture is original.
go back to topThe Mayflower Needlework
The needlework panel of the Mayflower found in this small parlour is a reminder of a less cosy domestic episode in the areas history, a tragic story that was not fully uncovered until 1958, when ironically during a bad winter, snow cut off Linley Hall from the rest of the world and Sir Jasper More discovered a crucial document from 1622, which explained the mystery surrounding the transportation of four children on The Mayflower in September of 1620.
In 1611 a 'marriage of convenience' was arranged to unite two local properties - Katherine was 24 and Samuel, her cousin, was 17.
In 1616 Samuel decided that Katherine's four children were not his and resulted in the four year marriage being annulled - Samuel claiming sole charge of the children. He then proceeded to be rid of the children. Samuel paid The Pilgrim Fathers £80 for each child to see that they "were suffieciently kept in meat, drink and clothing" and that after seven years in the new land they were to be given 50 acres to farm in Virginia.
In 1620 the four children aged between 4 and 8 boarded the Mayflower on the journey to America. One died on the voyage to Cape Cod, two died in the dreadful winter of 1621, only Richard survived to die a sea Captain of unsavoury repute in the 1690s.
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