Museum News £1.50 Help to Keep Admission Free Issue Number 23 April 2009 the Eden Valley Museum – Everywhere Has a Story to Tell EVMT WHO’S WHO
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Museum News £1.50 Help to keep admission free www.evmt.org.uk Issue Number 23 April 2009 The Eden Valley Museum – everywhere has a story to tell EVMT WHO’S WHO President: The Lord Astor of Hever Executive Committee Chairman: Alan Smith Treasurer: Vic Jennings Secretary: post vacant Curatorial Adviser: Dr Ian Beavis Cheryl Bell - Education courtesy of John Topham / TopFoto courtesy of John Topham Michael Cottrell – Parish Councils At time of publication the Crown had lost its crown. Phyllis Grainger – EDHS Anna Griffin – Curatorial Committee Chairman DIARY DATES Barbara Hale - Brenda Hillman - Lord Mayors and Royal Connections Julie Johnson – 18 March – 27 September Barry Neville-Robinson - Edenbridge T. C. John Scholey – Sevenoaks D. C. Coffee Morning / Art Exhibition and Richard Lewis – Independent Examiner Lord Mayors Launch 2 vacancies remain 4 April – 2 May Alan Davies – Lease Trustee Edenbridge Twinning Association Don Garman – Lease Trustee Exhibition Dennis Leigh – Lease Trustee Extended run for 3 weeks Rosemary Millen – Minutes Secretary Saturday 9 May - Sunday 7 June Curatorial Committee Anna Griffin - Chair Knickers and Things! Underwear from Mary Cunnington – Shop Manager 1850-1930s: A talk by Jean Bruce Bob Orridge – Maintenance 5 June Helen Jackman – Cataloguing Group Leader Half Term Activity Cheryl Bell – Education and Children’s Activities 28 May Peter Lewis – Publicity Distribution Honorary Curator: Jane Higgs The Great Migration Deputy Hon.Curator: Joan Varley 27 June – 19 December Behind the scenes: Heritage Open Days Cad Cust – IT 12 September Pat Crocker – Membership Secretary Stuart Saunders – Webmaster Edenbridge Afternoon WI 90 years Alan Layland – H&S and lighting TBC October Lyn Layland – Research Lesley Martin – Rota Organiser Half Term Activity Barbara Hale – Archives 29 October Sheila Summers-Asquez – Collection Monitor Michael St. Clair Hannah – Newsletter Editor Front cover picture: A portrait of Dick Whittington with his cat: And our loyal and dedicated team of coloured aquatint, 1813 Courtesy of Granger Collection NYC / TopFoto volunteers, Museum Assistants and the Back cover picture: “Dick Whittington on his Death-Bed, 1423.” Children’s Activities helpers. From an original document compiled shortly after his death, now in possession of the Worshipful Company of Mercers in London 2 FROM THE [NEW] EDITOR There is also an outreach service and volunteers can visit schools to give talks on Michael St. Clair Hannah specialist subjects. I must confess when I volunteered to edit EVMT relies heavily on its team of the EVMT Newsletter I knew very little volunteers, who devote significant time to about the Museum. Like many people my helping out either administratively or with ideas about museums and how they operate research. So far as the local community were somewhat shallow. The focus was on is concerned many newcomers to the area historical artifacts and their display. have found the museum to be a mine of Of course, themed exhibitions are indeed useful information about such matters as the the main public face of any museum, but history of heritage properties, or in tracing the value of a small local museum such as family histories of local names. ours goes way beyond the exhibition. After The archives are treasure troves of just a few weeks into the job I am still interesting reports, facts and photographs learning about all the different aspects of of local events stretching back to Victorian the museum’s work and contribution to the times, and in some cases much earlier. local community. However, we do rely heavily on the local First of all there is the educational function population to provide such sources. So of EVMT; many local schools arrange if you have an interesting story to tell formal visits where the children can view (and many of us do), or perhaps some special exhibitions, particularly where photographs of past events we would love this ties in with on-going curricula. The to hear from you. Please write to me at museum can help either individual children EVMT, and I will be pleased to help you or groups with research assistance for share your stories in future issues. special projects of an historical nature. The Lost Manor of DE-LA-WARE THE LOST MANOR OF Delaware, also called Pawlin, Edenbridge DE-LA-WARE by Helen Jackman The search for this lost manor, sited between Edenbridge and Hever, came about when local historian Alan Dell discovered an inventory of 1605 amongst the papers of Gordon Ward in the Sevenoaks Library. Using this as a guide Doug Griffin and Alan used historical precedent, architectural records from the 13th Century and Church registers to build a conjectural picture of how the mansion might have grown over the following 400 years - until it was lost forever in the 18th Century. The resulting booklet, written and illustrated by Doug, contains a wealth of supporting appendices which provide a comprehensive view of how this manor might have looked The booklet is on sale in the museum shop. during the reign of James I. 3 ANNE OF CLEVES (1497 / 1498-1543) (below)1 and that after Barthel Bruyn the Elder, whilst they show by Joan Varley, a relatively plain visage, in my opinion they Deputy Hon. Curator Eden Valley Museum show nothing so terrible or distinctive to warrant the denigrating ‘Flanders Mare’ nickname. courtesy of Hever Castle courtesy of Roger-Viollet / TopFoto courtesy of Roger-Viollet The image above is taken from a 16th The true causes of his aversion to her century portrait of Anne of Cleves after is probably more to do with the raising Barthel Bruyn the Elder (German, 1495- of Henry VIII’s expectations about this 1555) which forms part of Hever Castle’s Princess of Cleves prior to his seeing her collection of Tudor portraits, including all face to face; the fact that she spoke little or six of Henry VIII’s wives. Hever Castle has no English; her limited cultural knowledge kindly loaned a copy of this painting to the and; her own reaction at their initial meeting Eden Valley Museum for the duration of the in Rochester. ‘Royal Connections’ Exhibition. So where did Anne come from and what Rejected by a Kentishman (Henry VIII) events had conspired to bring her to England Anne of Cleves became the owner of the and into the bed of Henry VIII? Castle and manor of Hever in the Eden Valley in 1540. Hever remained in her She was born on 22 September 1515 in the ownership for 17 years until her death in small north German state of Kleve (Cleve), 1557. the second daughter of the Duke “Johann von Kleve” and his wife Maria, Duchess of Anne of Cleves was the fourth wife of Julich-Berg. Anne’s brother, Wilhelm, took Henry VIII and has been much maligned over the Duchy in February 1539, the year as ‘The Flanders mare’, yet historians can his father died. In the late 1530s a Cleves find no proof that Henry VIII ever called marriage suited the foreign and religious or referred to her in this manner. Indeed in policies of Thomas Cromwell (Henry’s the portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger 4 trusted advisor) very well. The Duchy of dead for two years, had all served to fire Cleve straddled the lower Rhine and could his enthusiasm for this new match. Anne, help to counter- balance England’s political however, spoke no English and lacked the isolation from the great European powers. charm and sophistication of the ladies of the The Duke of Cleves was also allied to the English court that Henry was used to. He Schmalkaldic League, an alliance formed came away from that first meeting decidedly by Protestant territories of the Holy Roman unimpressed by her physical charms, Empire as a collective defence against however it may well be that she was no attempts to force their return to Catholic more enraptured by the bloated personage practices. and fetid smells (due to a weeping leg ulcer) Hans Holbein was commissioned by Henry of Henry. VIII to go to Cleves and paint a portrait “The physical change [in Henry VIII] can of Anne, and her younger sister Amelia. be measured with precision from Henry’s Cromwell had already told Henry that he various suits of armour. He was 6 foot 2 had received reports that the Lady Anne inches tall; in about 1512 he was a trim 32 of Cleves was very beautiful ‘as well for inches round the waist, by about 1520 he the face as the whole body, above all other had filled out to 35 inches and by 1545 was ladies excellent’ and that she excelled a gross 54 inches” Starkey (2002). Christina, Duchess of Milan (a previous After the meeting, Henry is reported to have contender) ‘as the golden sun excelleth the said to Cromwell that she was ‘nothing fair silver moon’. Historians debate whether and have very evil smells about her’ … ‘I Holbein flattered Anne in his portrait, but like her not’. Despite his disappointment this seems highly unlikely as he must have in her looks and demeanour, and to avoid understood the risks of not painting an a diplomatic uproar, Henry was persuaded accurate likeness. He may, however, have to go ahead with the marriage which took endeavoured to make the best of her looks place on 6 January 1540 at Greenwich. by painting her full face. The ill portent of the first meeting led to In September 1539 the Duke of Cleve’s further disappointment on the wedding envoys came to London and signed a treaty night. Anne, it seems, had never been versed for the marriage alliance. A question had in the physical requirements of a bride or been raised concerning a previous marriage wife and Henry is reputed to have been contract between Anne of Cleves and the dismayed at his new wife’s personage and Duke of Lorraine’s son, the Marquis of lack of attraction.