Behind the scenes at Newton Abbot Museum

A talk and PowerPoint presentation by the curator Felicity Cole, for the Kingskerswell Conservation Society, at the Community Hall, Kingskerswell, on Tuesday 21 September.

A most interesting talk. Newton Abbot has a small museum in Devon Square. Admission is free and there are many mini exhibitions house there.

There is a Great Western Railway room which has memorabilia from the days when the railway was an important part of the life of the town (including old signals).

This year there is a Domestic Violence Exhibition and a Two Stories Exhibition – about the Polish in the Second World War and how they came to live in Newton Abbot. Many moving stories have been revealed.

Perhaps the most interesting is the John Lethbridge exhibition about a local man who invented the dive machine. A replica of that machine can be seen. The museum won an award for this exhibition. John Lethbridge was buried in Wolborough Churchyard.

Next year – 2011 – there is to be a small exhibition called Notable Newtonians. One of these is Frank Matcham, a theatre designer who among others designed the London Palladium.

There is also to be a heritage trail around the town with numbered slate markers.

The Heart of Oak Project is about raising money to restore the Sandford Orleigh Screen from the renaissance period. It was donated to the museum in 2008. George Templar had re-built Sandford Orleigh House and had the screen put in.

It has Tudor panels and looked beautiful, inlaid with birds, flowers and goblets. They need to raise £66,000.

Mrs Cole is very enthusiastic and would like the museum to be regarded as a community museum.