Latest news with #DorsetMuseum
BBC News
13-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Crichel Hoard: Dorset Museum to acquire Bronze Age gold
A hoard of "exceptionally rare" 3,000-year-old gold ornaments, found by metal detectorists in Dorset, is the subject of a campaign to keep it in the three Bronze Age objects were found in March 2022 and date back to about 1400–1150 as the Crichel Hoard, the bent ornaments have been valued at £9,000 and Dorset Museum is fundraising to acquire, conserve and display museum said they shed "new light on Bronze Age life in southern England". The collection is made up of a twisted gold ribbon torc bracelet, a gold strip thought to be part of a larger piece of jewellery, and a spiralled gold bracelet weighing 46g (1.6 oz).Jon Marrow, of Dorset Museum, said: "One of the most interesting things about this hoard is that the gold twisted torc is of a type normally found further north and west. "It's also intriguing that such objects are so often damaged before burial, as though this was done ritually but it's hard for us to discern what the beliefs were behind this practice."The museum said £8,000 had already been raised through the Arts Council England and V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and The Headley Trust.A spokesperson said: "Artefacts like these are exceptionally rare in this region and significantly deepen our understanding of early gold working, social structures, and cultural practices over three millennia ago." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Last in England' smashed medieval statue recreated
A 15th Century statue that was found smashed into 170 fragments behind a church wall has been painstakingly pieced together using computer animation. The painted statue of The Mass of St Gregory was found during restoration work in the 1970s, behind a wall at St Peter's Church in Shaftesbury. Dorset County Museum teamed up with Bournemouth University to restore the statue - thought to be the last of its kind in England - digitally after fitting the fragments back together by hand proved too challenging. It took several months for Adam Redford and Martin Smith at Bournemouth University to recreate it using visual effects software and thousands of images of the fragments. Dorset Museum said it was thought to have been "smashed to smithereens and hidden by parishioners" behind a wall at the time of the Reformation - a religious movement which challenged the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Claire Ryley, from the museum in Dorchester, said putting the statue back together digitally had been possible after the museum secured a grant to fund the project. She said the complete statue would have stood about 6ft (1.8m) high and was "thought to be the only one of its kind in England". "A lot of pieces are really heavy and fragile - working with Bournemouth University is a marvellous opportunity to look at the pieces safety without lifting them," Ms Riley continued. "This has been an intriguing but also a very rewarding jigsaw puzzle." The largest statue pieces are on show at the museum along with the digital reconstruction. Another 50 pieces are set to be made into 3D images for visitors to try and work out where they go, via a touch screen. You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Naked viewing hosted at museum Dorset giant fossil is monster attraction Bournemouth University Dorset Museum
BBC News
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Gay couple's archive reveals 'peaceful life' in 1920s Dorset
The lives of a gay couple who lived in a Dorset village for nearly six decades have been turned into an Notley and David Brynley moved to Corfe Castle in 1923 and lived openly as a couple, despite homosexuality being illegal at the two men were successful musicians who sang together in Britain and the United States and they had many friends in the art world. Photographs and diaries on display at Dorset Museum reveal they lived peacefully with the local community for 57 years until their deaths. In 1973, local people organised an event for the couple to celebrate their 50 years in the director Claire Dixon said: "They were known as 'the boys' quite affectionately by the community. "They didn't throw the party, the community threw it for them."When lots of people were having to hide the fact that they were gay, or think about their behaviour in public space, it seems that they were able to live quite a peaceful life in the village." The couple shared a passion for creating art as well as collecting and Notley bequeathed his collection of paintings to Dorset being able to live authentically, the only image in the collection of them being affectionate to one another is a photo of Brynley kissing Notley on the died in 1980, aged 90, and Brynley a year later, aged Ball, an archaeology student at Bournemouth University, began digitising the couple's photographs and transcribing their journals and letters as part of a work placement at the museum. She said: "Being able to share their story has been so important as there are not many collections like this that give a glimpse into the lives of LGBTQ+ people from this time period."The photographs that have stuck with me the most are the ones with their many dogs and the rare few of Norman on his own, where you get to see a glimpse of his personality."The display, curated by Ms Ball, with advice from Prof Jana Funke of the University of Exeter, is on display throughout February to coincide with LGBT+ History Month.
