MUSEUM FRIEND
Newsletter for the Friends of Lyme Regis Philpot Museum
Issue no. 29
January 2017
Registered charity number 278774
THE MARY ANNING WING: PROGESS REPORT from our Director, David Tucker
So far, even with delays caused by the town centre being closed for a week in September, and technical troubles with piling eight metres into the ground, we are on schedule! The site now looks like a large Meccano set, as like many modern buildings it is being constructed around a steel frame. A flight of stairs is in place and the first floor’s metal layer (onto which the concrete floor is poured) is in place. This meant that after donning the safety gear – and overcoming my fear of heights – I walked out onto the first floor of the Mary Anning Wing. When one walks out to the seaward side of the first floor meeting room, the view is spectacular. A loo with a view….. Our architect has pointed out that the best view (eastwards) will actually be visible from the new toilet. Current plan is to allow volunteers access to the new first floor as soon as possible now that Christmas is over and 2017 is well and truly under way. ************************** What will the Mary Anning Wing look like? It will stand on the Museum’s terrace on the seaward side of the building. However, it will look very different as it will be built of zinc and glass. Traditionalists may well have a problem with that, but zinc is in fact an ideal material for coastal locations – it doesn’t slowly dissolve like the local limestone, nor does it rust as it has no iron content. Our zinc will be the colour of the “blue lias”, the local stone visible in the cliffs that dominate Lyme Regis. And glass? Well, we want to ensure that as many people as possible enjoy our fantastic view of Lyme Bay.
1 OUR LITERARY DINNER
The Friends were delighted to welcome novelist Tracy Chevalier as guest of honour at their Literary Dinner, held in October as part of the Lyme Regis Arts Festival. Tracy is a long-standing supporter of the Museum and like Sir David Attenborough is a Patron of The Friends. Outside of Lyme Regis she is probably best known for her novel “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, inspired by the famous Vermeer painting. More than five million copies have been sold world-wide, and it has been translated into eighteen languages, as well as being made into a hugely successful film. Dinner guests were curious to understand the thought processes which took her from 17th century Amsterdam to fossil hunting on West Dorset beaches! Nor did she let them down, keeping her audience enthralled as she explained how Mary Anning’s portrait in the County Museum roused her curiosity as to how someone of such humble origins went on to become the greatest fossil hunter who ever lived. There followed two years of intensive research leading to the production of her novel, “Remarkable Creatures” with Mary Anning as one of the two central characters. No wonder it has been said of Tracy that she makes history come alive! In her book she was generous in acknowledging the help she had received from many people in and around our Museum, none more so than Paddy Howe, “fossil hunter extraordinaire, who gave me many fossils and took me to the beach between Lyme Regis and Charmouth to find more, teaching me with patience, intelligence and grace”. She was delighted, therefore, when Paddy presented her with a very special fossil! It looked much like an ordinary stone of the kind to be found on the beach any day - until it was opened up to reveal numerous fossils inside, small but beautifully formed More than £1100 was raised for Friends’ funds on this extraordinarily happy occasion, made possible by Tracy’s continuing and generous support.
2 A VISIT TO THE MET OFFICE A Grand Day Out!
A small party of Museum Friends enjoyed a tour of the Met Office last September. The Exeter site was custom built in attractive grounds and comprises a main thoroughfare known as ‘The Street’ with working pods on both sides and a restaurant. We were split into two groups for tours of the building and, separately, the library. The Library, with Anne Shotton as our guide. The first mention of the ‘National Meteorological Library’ was in 1870. It was originally based in London; moved to Bracknell in 1962 and then to its present site in Exeter in 2003. This public library is open on weekdays as a reference and lending library. One wall of the library houses an historical ‘Time Line’, starting with Vice Admiral Fitzroy and the first weather forecasts. Fitzroy was, of course, Captain of HMS Beagle on Darwin’s famed voyage. Beneath the Time Line there is a copy of the first daily weather forecast for the general public, published in 1861 in the Times on the 1st August. A display on ocean weather ships describes how observations were made in the North Atlantic to assist our convoys in WW2 but the operation was abandoned after two ships were sunk and many lives lost. After the war the British Ocean Weather Service was inaugurated on 31st July, 1947. However, the impact of satellites, together with advances in drifting buoy technology, led to the phasing out of the service and the final observation was made in May 1996. Popular with visitors is a facility to look up the weather on one’s birth date! Continuing the wartime theme, pride of place goes to a framed copy of the D-Day weather chart for Operation Overlord. The invasion was scheduled to take place on 5th June, 1944 but Met Office forecaster, James Stagg, advised Eisenhower that the weather would be too bad. Forecasters then received observations from a ship in the Atlantic indicating a ridge of high pressure developing which
3 could provide a brief break in the weather and so the decision was made to attack on the 6th June. The rest is history! On display are models of aircraft used over the years by the Met Office Research Flight, some of the aircraft having supported WW2 air operations. Today the Met Office works in collaboration with the National Environmental Research Council to provide data for the entire UK atmospheric research community. In preparation for our visit, Anne produced various items of interest, including an article describing an extreme weather event in Dorset, with headlines such as, ‘Soggy Day in Dorset’. On 19th July, 1955 eleven inches of rain fell on Martinstown, near Dorchester, during a period of nine hours, a UK record at that time and causing severe flooding. It was thought to be due to a ‘Spanish Plume’, in which hot, humid, air is drawn northwards from Southern Spain, producing severe instability when it meets cooler Atlantic air and giving rise to concentrated rainfall. The Main Building Our tour of the main building was conducted by our host for the day, Ben Brooks. The Met Office was formerly under the Ministry of Defence but now comes under the ‘Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’. Such is progress! Ben told us that there were 1,700 employees based in Exeter. Ben explained the operations taking place in the various hubs which include a business section responsible for weather-based contracts throughout the world. There is also an education and training centre used for both internal staff training and for external groups. Most interesting was to peer into the Operations Centre; a large space divided into sections, each operator with a computer desk. The chief forecaster for today’s weather has a central space and nearby are the forecasters responsible for the next few days. The 3- day forecast is now as accurate as the old one-day forecast. Other sections include flood defence, providing forecasts to fire services and local government and forecasts for airlines and shipping. A business section provides forecasts to supermarkets, for example, 4 enabling them to predict peaks in demand for weather-dependent products such as salads, BBQs, suntan lotion etc. Winter forecasts are provided to local councils to allow decisions to be made regarding the gritting of roads. A space forecast centre monitors electromagnetic radiation from the sun and solar flares. In 1859 there was a powerful geomagnetic solar storm which caused telegraph systems to fail all over Europe and N. America. It is known as the Carrington Effect after the English astronomer who observed and recorded it. A solar storm of this magnitude today would likely cause widespread technology problems. A Hazard Centre was set up following the Chernobyl disaster to predict the likely wind-based spread of radioactive debris. More pertinent to us, our local authorities were alerted during the recent Lyme Regis cinema fire, providing guidance on staying indoors with closed windows for those downwind of the toxic smoke. Other forecasters monitor the jet stream, providing a high altitude forecast for airlines. By quizzing Ben we learnt that monitoring devices in the nose cones of commercial airliners produce large volumes of weather data; that satellites monitor ocean waves to estimate wind strength and improve the modelling of forecasts; that operations staff do 12 hour shifts with a 1.5 hour break. Accurate forecasting depends on the ability to process vast amounts of data to produce the forecast models. We visited the computer room and learnt that a new super-computer will soon be available and will be the world’s biggest; for about a couple of weeks, according to Ben! Our final port of call was the outside weather station comprising an array of rainfall, wind speed, sunshine and temperature measuring devices, many of which are experimental and undergoing assessment. And finally, a very big thank you to Ben, who gave up a day’s leave to give us such a Grand Day Out. David Cox 5 TREASURER’S REPORT: JANUARY 2017
Well, after the long gestation period, construction of the Mary Anning Wing extension to our museum is underway, with completion due in mid-year. We, the Friends and supporters of our museum, can feel justifiably proud to be contributing £68,000 to the building fund, well in excess of the £50,000 target that we were set. Our sincere thanks go to all of you for your generous support, without which this would not have been possible.
What next, I hear you say! In the first instance the Friends committee has decided to set up a Reserve Fund that could be used in the future to help, for example, with an important acquisition or with some feature of the refurbished museum that could be associated in perpetuity with the Friends. So our fund-raising will continue! The Friends balance sheet for 2016 is a work in progress but I can give some idea of our achievements during the past year. Our building fund appeal in June produced a tremendous response, with £21,255 donated thus far. When other donations are included the total exceeds £24,500. Our sales of donated good quality second- hand books have exceeded £3,000, a new record. We shall be pleased to accept further donations of books from around Easter time. John Marriage’s slide to digital photography service continues to provide significant sums of money, with more than £800 raised in 2016, almost £1,000 with added Gift Aid. We urge more members to take advantage of this highly competitive offer. Lastly, but by no means least, the Help Us Grow (HUG) team raised a magnificent £3,830 from their various activities. 6 Subscription Reminder •Single membership: £8.00 pa •Family membership: £12.00 pa •Subscriptions are due in January each year; cheques, payable to ‘Friends of Lyme Regis Museum’, to Sylvia Oliver, 3 Barnes Meadow, Uplyme, DT7 3TD. If you wish to pay by bank transfer, our bank details are: NatWest: ‘Friends of Lyme Regis Museum ’. Sort Code: 60-13-57; Account No. 73484172. • Most members pay by standing order, which is simple and really helpful. If you wish to do this, please contact Sylvia on 01297 445537 or by e- mail: [email protected] N.B. Before paying your sub. by cash or cheque, please check that you do not already pay by standing order! David Cox We are always delighted to welcome new members and hope even those who do not live locally will occasionally get the opportunity to come to one of our talks and/or the coach trip, and meet new Friends. So a very warm welcome to: Dr A and Mrs J Leeds of Ruislip; Wendy Jotcham of Lyme Regis; Mrs L and Mr S Kearsley of Feltham
7
Friends of Lyme Regis Philpot Museum
Registered Charity No. 278774
PATRONS
Tracy Chevalier Sir David Attenborough Minnie Churchill
Annual General Meeting of The Friends of Lyme Regis Philpot Museum 6th April 2017 at 2.30 pm AGENDA
1. Apologies 2. Minutes of the 2016 AGM 3. Matters arising 4. Director’s Annual Report 5. Presentation of Annual Accounts 6. Election of Auditor 7. Committee’s Annual Report 8. Election/re-election of Committee Members: (a)Existing committee members, with the exception of Margaret Rose, have indicated their willingness to stand again: David Cox, Sylvia Oliver, Richard Wells, Alison Mitchell, Joe Tesoriere. (b)The committee is nominating Valerie Hayward and Angela Main for election: they were co-opted in November 2016. 9. Any other business 10. Date of next annual general meeting: To be advised. 8
Friends of Lyme Regis Philpot Museum
Registered Charity No. 278774
PATRONS
Tracy Chevalier Sir David Attenborough Minnie Churchill
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at Woodmead Hall on Thursday, 7th April 2016 at 3.45 pm 1. Those present and Apologies: 15 Friends were present. Apologies were received from Alison Mitchell and John Lello. 2. Minutes of the 2015 AGM These had been included in the January 2016 Newsletter and were approved. Proposed: Ken Gollop; seconded John Marriage. 3. Matters arising. None. 4. Directors annual report David Tucker said that this would be the most challenging year in the Museum’s history. The Stage Two Pass from the Heritage Lottery Fund had now been received as had planning consent for our listed building. The Museum would be closed between September 2016 and June 2017, but a small shop selling books and carrying displays about the Museum’s future would be located in the downstairs unit at the Guildhall. Fossil and town walks would be continued as would the popular fossil polishing events. A new website was being introduced plus a wide range of activities sponsored by HLF.
9 5. Presentation of annual accounts: 2015 David Cox summarised the main points. Subscriptions were up, reflecting a steady increase in membership, whilst an increase in donations was due to contributions via the Local Giving “Grow Your Tenner” scheme, and to the generosity of many donors. Almost £1,000 was raised from book sales, good quality book donations being always welcome. John Marriage’s ‘Slides-to-Digital’ service has raised approximately £4,000 over recent years. Total funds on 31st December 2015 amounted to £36,494.11. The audited accounts included the December 2014 interest on our Deposit Account (approximately £20), which was not present in the unaudited accounts, published in the January 2015 newsletter. From 2016, audited accounts only would be published, and would appear in the July newsletter. Ken Gollop proposed that the accounts be adopted; seconded by Val Doney. Agreed unanimously. 6. Election of auditor David Cox proposed that Richard Gullock be asked to audit the 2016 accounts; seconded by Val Doney. Unanimous agreement. 7. Committee’s Annual Report The report as published in the January newsletter was approved. 8. Election of Committee Members All of the officials had agreed to stand for re-election. Duly and unanimously elected were: Margaret Rose (Chairman); David Cox (Vice Chairman & Treasurer); Sylvia Oliver (Secretary); David Edwards (Minutes Secretary); Alison Mitchell (Database Manager). Proposed by Ken Gollop; seconded by John Marriage. Committee members Richard Wells and Joe Tesoriere were then unanimously re-elected. Proposed by Val Doney; seconded by Molly Spencer. 9. Any other business: None; meeting closed at 4.10 pm. 10. Date of Next Meeting: Thursday 6th April 2017
10 YOUR COMMITTEE’S ANNUAL REPORT
“Now that we are getting closer to our ultimate goal of contributing £50,000 towards the final cost of the Mary Anning Wing, we are relying more than ever on your continuing and generous support.” Well, that statement was made in last year’s report and you did indeed continue to be generous: so much so that by the time building work began the Friends were able to donate not £50,000 but £68,000 to the projected £1.5M cost, a magnificent achievement of which we can all be justly proud. There was of course help from some of the smaller charities, who gave generously; from our Patrons, including Sir David Attenborough and Tracy Chevalier; and from the Royal Society which, in 2010, listed Mary Anning among the ten women who had contributed most to the development of science in this country. We made our request - and their cheque was received by return! True to tradition we had some interesting talks in the course of the year, including one from Stephen Locke, Chairman of the Trustees, who took us on a trip through Jordan in search of the Black Iris. In contrast, Tales of the Deep by Professor Denys Brunsden took us on a spectacular sea-floor survey of the world’s oceans, including Weymouth Bay. The imagery was incredible. Our summer outing took us to Dunster Castle and the lovely medieval village in which it stands – we reached this by steam train on a day of dazzling sunshine in Somerset when it was pouring with rain in Lyme! Our Patron, Tracy Chevalier, was guest speaker at the Literary Dinner we held as part of this year’s ArtsFest which raised over £1100. Our popular Minutes Secretary, David Edwards, resigned in November after many years of loyal service – we wish him well as he pursues the numerous other projects in which he is involved. Margaret Rose will not be seeking re-election, deciding that the time has come to make way for an infusion of new blood on to the committee. Happily, two active members of the HUG group were co- opted in November - Angela Main and Valerie Hayward. They will be seeking formal election by the Members at the AGM, and will certainly be introducing some interesting new ideas. They are most welcome.
11 HUG REPORT
In our last newsletter we wrote about the fund-raising activities of the museum’s Help Us Grow (HUG) team. Set up by Director David Tucker in February 2015, its main purpose was to raise funds for the Mary Anning Wing, whilst increasing the profile of the museum with visitors and locals alike. To this end HUG organised: 5 cake sales 6 quizzes 7 second-hand book sales 7 craft events for children a jazz evening a skittles event 3 competitions inside the museum As a result, HUG contributed over £5500 to the Friends’ fundraising target during 2015 and 2016. HUG’s most recent event (held in October 2016) was a Film-Theme quiz, run in conjunction with the Lyme Regis Film Society. The killer questions were set by David Johnson, Chairman of the Film Society: his encyclopaedic knowledge of films is legendary. David also acted as Quiz Master and very good he was too! We had a brilliant turn- out with 56 people competing for bottles of Prosecco (given to us by the Film Society), plus some amazing film-based prizes very kindly donated by Scott Cinemas. This was in every sense a community event – sponsored by the Film Society, held in the Marine Theatre, and all in aid of the Museum. The Big Society in action! With building work on the Mary Anning wing now well underway, the HUG volunteers have taken the decision to amalgamate their ongoing fund-raising activities with those of the Friends, so October’s quiz was in fact the last event run under the HUG banner. But fund-raising will continue through 2017 with more book sales, quizzes and children’s events being planned for this year. And two former HUG-gers, Angela Main and myself, have been co-opted on to the Friends’ committee with a view to being elected at the AGM in April. So it’s R.I.P. to HUG and welcome to new Friends! Valerie Hayward
12 NEW YEAR, NEW PROGRAMME
Thursday 2nd February: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Devon. Presentation by historian Sarah Bennett covering his early days as a doctor in Plymouth; Dartmoor and the “Hound of the Baskervilles”; his publisher in Lynton; and his cricket in Sidmouth! Thursday 2nd March: A Correspondent’s Life. Talk by the well respected journalist and broadcaster Kate Adie, who has worked in conflict zones all over the world. (N.B. Her autobiography, “The Kindness of Strangers”, although published in 2002, is still a remarkably good read.) Sunday 5th March: Under Shady Tree by Ken Gollop. More reflections on Lyme Regis past. Admission for this event will be £3, with all proceeds going to the Museum. There will also be a raffle organised by The Friends, with proceeds to the Mary Anning Wing. (Donations for raffle prizes would be much appreciated – please contact David Cox on 01297 443156). This talk will begin at 2.30, and the venue is Woodmead Hall. Thursday 6th April: AGM at 2.30pm. Refreshments will follow, after which there will be a presentation by our Director, David Tucker, taking a brief respite from Museum matters to talk about Ian Fleming’s inspirational brother: the man behind Britain’s most famous fictional spy. A tale of WW2 derring- do – and more! Wednesday 14th June: Coach trip to Sherbourne. Please see enclosed 2017 Programme card for details Thursday 5th October: Living in the South West. Our weather and climate explored by Dr Felicity Liggins. Felicity is a senior Applied Climate Scientist at the Met. Office in Exeter. Thursday 2nd November: Dr Erasmus Darwin and the Lunar Men. We look forward to a return visit by our ever popular speaker, David Croman. He will be talking about the grandfather of Charles, a physician, inventor, and, with Josiah Wedgewood and James Watt, a pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. Thursday 1st February 2018: Topic to be advised.
13 IT’S OFFICIAL: Dippy is coming to Dorset
Most of us saw him first in the Natural History Museum – it was impossible to miss him. But now there are plans to bring Dippy (a.k.a. Diplodocus) to the County Museum in Dorchester in an exhibition which will be open to the public between February and May 2018. That’s 2018 – not this year; he’s not easily moved, and there will be a huge amount of planning involved.
At 21 metres long and more than 4 metres high, Dippy will be located in the Museum’s Victorian Hall. Says the Museum’s Director, Dr Jon Murden: “We are so excited to be welcoming him to the heart of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. As the birthplace of palaeontology there is nowhere in the UK more appropriate for Dippy to start his national tour, and we’re thrilled to have been chosen as the first host venue.”
“Dippy will help draw new visitors to our internationally important fossil collections,” says Dr Murden, “which will I’m sure inspire the next generation of scientists.” Equally enthusiastic is Doug Hulyer, Chairman of the Jurassic Coast Trust. He points out that they will be working with schools, community groups, local charities, children’s centres, and other museums (including ours, of course) along the entire length of the World Heritage Site to help people take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
So how old is Dippy? It seems that his species lived somewhere between 145 and 156 million years ago and belongs to a group called 14 sauropods, meaning “lizard feet”. His bones were unearthed in Wyoming in 1898 – by a group of railroad workers – and he was almost immediately being described as the most colossal animal ever on earth. The Scottish born millionaire business man Andrew Carnegie soon acquired the bones as a centrepiece for his new museum in Pittsburg. During the reconstruction of the skeleton experts discovered subtle differences from the two other Diplodocus species known at the time so the new species became known as Diplodocus carnegii in his honour.
So how did Dippy make his way from Pittsburg to London? When King Edward V11 saw a sketch of Dippy while visiting Carnegie in his Scottish castle, he apparently said that he would very much like to see a similar specimen in the National History Museum. No problem for a millionaire: he obliged by commissioning a replica cast, one of 10 replicas now in museums around the world including Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Moscow.
Dippy’s 292-bone skeleton arrived in London in 38 packing cases, and was unveiled to the public in a lavish ceremony attended by 300 people in May 2005.
What is being described as this natural history adventure will start in Dochester with a free exhibition running from February to May next year. But Friends living elsewhere in the UK need not miss out because, incredibly in view of the work involved, the exhibition will be moving on to Birmingham, Ulster, Glasgow, Newcastle upon Tyne, Wales, Rochdale, and Norwich.
Having made his first public appearance in 1905, Dippy was seen for the last time at the Natural History Museum in January this year. Now conservators have started on 12 months work in preparing the plaster-of-Paris cast for its journey round the country. The tour, with generous support from the Garfield Weston Foundation, will explore the UK’s past, present and future natural history, helping young people to connect with the natural world and gain a deeper understanding of it through science.
15 Museum Friend
is published by
The Friends of Lyme Regis Philpot Museum
Chairman: Margaret Rose (445503) Vice-Chairman and Treasurer: David Cox (443156) Secretary: Sylvia Oliver (445537) Publicity: Margaret Rose (445503) Newsletter: Margaret Rose/Alison Mitchell
Members: Richard Wells, Joe Tesoriere
Alison Mitchell (Database Manager) David Tucker (ex officio) Valerie Hayward (Co-opted November 2016) Angela Main (Co-opted November 2016)
The objectives of The Friends are to promote, support and assist the Museum in its educational and other aims; and to raise funds to help care for and improve the Museum.
Email: [email protected]
Contributions/comments from Friends at home or overseas are always most welcome 16