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<< Our Photo Pages >> Royal Albert Memorial Museum - Museum in England in Devon

Submitted by AngieLake on Thursday, 15 December 2011  Page Views: 18789

MuseumsSite Name: Royal Albert Memorial Museum Alternative Name: Exeter Museum, RAMM
Country: England County: Devon Type: Museum
Nearest Town: Exeter
Map Ref: SX922929
Latitude: 50.725689N  Longitude: 3.528646W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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I have visited· I would like to visit

ForestDaughter visited I have visited many times in the past, although not since it's re-opening, which I look forward to seeing.

Andy B AngieLake have visited here

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : The imposing Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Queen Street, Exeter. "RAMM was built as a memorial to Prince Albert and its reopening in December 2011 coincided with the 150th anniversary of his death." (Quote from free exhibitions and events guide.) (Vote or comment on this photo)
Exeter and Devon's main museum - The Royal Albert Memorial Museum - set in an imposing old Victorian building in Queen Street, just off the main high street in Exeter's vibrant city centre, is a great place to while away a day and learn more about the history of the county.

It has extensive Prehistoric, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, geology, zoology, natural history, Egyptian, etc, etc, areas, and hosts varied exhibitions. Because Exeter was a Roman city 'Isca', there are interesting artefacts, excavation photos, and often re-enactment 'Roman soldiers' to enjoy.

Fully refurbished after a multimillion pound redevelopment, the new displays showcase the collections and collectors that have helped RAMM to become one of Britain’s finest regional museums. They tell the story of Exeter and Devon from the prehistoric to the present but, more than a local museum, its internationally important world cultures and natural history collections also tell a story of global exploration and collecting in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The splendid Victorian building on Queen Street has been repaired, refurbished and extended preparing it for the 21st century. Original architectural features have been revealed allowing visitors to experience the splendour of the original Victorian spaces and the extension includes a suite of modern, flexible exhibition galleries allowing RAMM to bring to the South West loans and exhibitions from national partners.

A new garden entrance links the Victorian museum to its historic surroundings and the neighbouring gardens. This new entrance offers a leisurely approach to the museum and easy access to the arts centre, library and castle. A new bridge from the entrance leads visitors to the Roman wall and panoramic views of the gardens and the city.

Link to the official Web site

Note: Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum has just reopened following a multimillion pound refurbishment
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Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Queen Street, Exeter. (NB: Closed while undergoing improvements. Due to re-open in 2011, meanwhile small displays next to the library in Devon Local Studies library.) (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : The Coffinswell Hoard. Iron currency bars at RAMM Exeter. The display read: "Hoard of Iron Bars. 2,000 - 2,200 years old. From Coffinswell. This mass of corroded iron was found by a farmer and metal detectorists. Detailed analysis revealed 80 iron bars tied together in bundles placed into a bracken lined pit. Julius Caesar mentioned the British tribes used iron bars as a form of currency... (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : The original entry from Queen Street, with banner over the road announcing its reopening on 15 December. On 17th (today), people streamed in and out of these doors to admire the impressive newly-refurbished interior. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : The Xitherixon (or Zitherixon, depending how it is captioned) Idol .. a wooden figure found in the claypits area of Kingsteignton near Newton Abbot. This figure, photographed here in the old Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, is back on display in its new showcase in the newly refurbished museum. (Another photo on the site page gives more details.) (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : This is the new entrance to RAMM, taken in August 2012. I don't know how many visitors come in this way, but it is a short cut from the central library, avoiding busy shopping streets.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : The bottom part of the tall display case of handaxes to left of the doorway shown in the artists impression on site page. A similar one flanked the right side of the doorway.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : The description of this item is: "Burial Chamber 3,300-3,500 years old From Upton Pyne Barrow 248b This barrow had a series of cremation burials and a stone-lined burial chamber near the centre. This urn had been placed upended in the chamber."

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : This display shows what remains of a bronze dagger [3,600-3,800 years old] from Farway Barrow 32, which was found with the more damaged shale cup on the left [3,600- 3,750 yrs old]. The shale cup at front right is from Farway Barrow 24 and a similar age. The black one at rear is a modern replica.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Now re-christened 'The Kingsteignton Figure', the wooden Zitherixon Idol has a new home. [See Newton Abbot Museum site page for one of its temporary 'holiday homes' while RAMM was closed for refurbishment.]

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : A constantly-running video showing flint-knapping was played in this cabinet, with flint tools, etc., on display. Another visitor remarked on how good it all is, and we agreed on how much we'd missed the museum while it had been closed. [When I find my Lotto numbers haven't come up yet again, this is a consolation .. knowing the museum benefitted from Lottery funding.]

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Many collections were enhanced by audio-visual display. This was one of the largest and most popular, in the first room with the three displays of ancient tools, rocks and fossils. The museum was very well attended today, despite Christmas shopping!

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Though it looks quite bright here, the coloured background did not detract from the items on display. Sometimes I wished the lights in the cases were slightly brighter while trying to read the item numbers.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Another showcase in the first main room. (I didn't notice the strength of these background colours while studying the artefacts.)

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : One of the first rooms in the prehistoric section had showcases of artefacts on three walls, while a video ran continually on the fourth wall, showing earth's geological formation and progression to mammoths, and men.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : One of the first displays I came across in the ground floor display area was this wall to floor showcase of samples of artefacts held at the museum.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by Andy B : The new entrance to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Image copyright Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Exeter City Council

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by Andy B : An artists impression of the new ground floor galleries. Downstairs, visitors can discover Devon and Exeter from the dawn of time to the present through the geology, archaeology, art, costume and local history collections. The journey starts 400 million years ago with a dramatic story of geological events and traces the arrival of people and their effect on the landscape. Why did the R... (9 comments)

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Neolithic Flint Scrapers, c.4000 BCE, from Baggy Point, North Devon. "A good tool for scraping flesh off animal skins to make clothing, or used to build a shelter." Baggy Point is the headland that juts out into the Atlantic between the popular surfing beaches of Croyde Bay and Woolacombe Bay. One of my childhood haunts.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Neolithic Flint Scrapers from Colyton, Devon. About 6000 years old. "These three scrapers have been very carefully made from flint. Scrapers were probably used for a variety of tasks such as working animal skins or woodworking. The technique used to make these tools is called 'Knapping'. The people that made these tools were experts at knapping. If you look closely you can see that the edge...

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Palaeolithic Handaxe. Chert. About 250,000 years old. From Broom, Devon/Dorset border. "The handaxe was a multi-purpose tool, the 'Swiss Army Knife' of the Stone Age."

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Bronze Age Spearhead, c.3000 years old, found in the South Hams. "This spearhead is made of copper alloy. Spears such as this may have been used in hunting or fighting and may even have had a ceremonial kind of use. It dates from a period in prehistory known as The 'Bronze Age'. It was during this time that humans first discovered the use of metal. Therefore, this is one of the oldest metal ...

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Neolithic Flint Adzeheads, c.6000 BCE. Found at Stockland, East Devon. "These would have been used by p...[prehistoric?] carpenters to shape wood." (Cut the 'p'-word off in photo.)

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Neolithic Flint Axeheads, c. 4000 BCE., from Berry Pomeroy, Chudleigh, and Hartland, Devon. "It would take many hours to make these axeheads. First a rough shape is made by chipping off pieces of flint, then it is carefully polished to give the fine finished shape."

Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Royal Albert Memorial Museum submitted by AngieLake : Stone Axe c. 4500 years old, found in Colyton, Devon. "This axe fragment is made of local flint and has been carefully polished. It is thought that polished axes like this one may have had a special significance, as it would have taken a lot of time and effort to polish the flint surface."

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"Royal Albert Memorial Museum" | Login/Create an Account | 19 News and Comments
  
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum & New Roman Discoveries in Exeter by AngieLake on Tuesday, 31 August 2021
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Archaeologists have completed a study into the remains of a Roman Fort discovered underneath the site of Exeter's new bus station - and concluded that it was an "important and fascinating" find.

A new report into the findings from two years ago concludes that what lies beneath Exeter continues to have the "capacity to surprise".

The report is set to be published in the Devon Archaeological Proceedings Journal and will be made available to the public in the future.

Finds recovered from the Roman defences - including coins and local pottery made in the area and fine red Samian tableware imported from France - have been handed over to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.

Read more here: https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/important-roman-find-under-exeter-5840078

(PS: The new bus station is very smart, and it's about time the city had a decent modern building. I've used it twice recently and was very impressed after the disgraceful old draughty, grubby one!)
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    Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum & New Roman Discoveries in Exeter by AngieLake on Tuesday, 31 August 2021
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    Admins:
    Can you please turn that link to the story blue for me? Sorry, but I've tried the edit and it won't change!
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Roman fort or military site discovered during Exeter bus station development by AngieLake on Thursday, 26 September 2019
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Interesting discovery in the centre of Exeter. During the development of the long-awaited new bus station, Roman ditches have been found, which may be part of a fort or other military site in this already well-documented Roman settlement of Isca.
Read more here:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/roman-fort-been-discovered-under-3362806
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum's 150th Anniversary Celebrations by AngieLake on Friday, 20 April 2018
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Carnival of the Animals - Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery
21 April 2018 21 April 2018
When: 21 April 2018
Where: RAMM
Time: 11am - 6pm
Cost: Free
Suitable for: Especially for children, Family friendly, Any age

Everyone is invited to join RAMM's 150th anniversary celebrations. Our Carnival of the Animals will take place exactly 150 years after the original parade through Exeter to celebrate the opening of the museum.

Internationally-known carnival experts Shademakers will be creating spectacular kinetic puppets to move through the streets. There will be a party atmosphere with city-centre activity hubs, music, and late night opening at the museum. If you would like to be part of the action, take part in one of our Carnival activities in the lead up to the event or turn up on the day to enjoy the fun.

The event will start on the Cathedral Green at 11am and continue throughout the day in the city centre, ending with events in the museum from 4 to 6pm.
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum by AngieLake on Tuesday, 07 August 2012
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NB: the Museum doesn't open on Mondays, which made me feel a bit foolish this afternoon! (Note to self: Engage brain before making plans!) It's very good that it is free entry on every other day of the week though.
(Dublin's National Museum of Ireland, with its fabulous Celtic gold artefacts was closed on a Monday, too, I remember, when I last tried to visit. [Probably in 2001?] Luckily I'd seen the wonderful displays on a previous visit.)
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum - Museum of the Year 2012 by AngieLake on Sunday, 05 August 2012
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While searching for an artefact at Exeter's museum, I found this good news:

"RAMM - Museum of the Year 2012 20 June 2012

Praised by the judges for its ‘ambition and imagination’, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum was last night crowned 'Museum of the Year' and awarded the £100,000 Art Fund Prize for its redevelopment project.

Council Leader, Pete Edwards, said: “We are absolutely over the moon at winning the Art Fund prize. RAMM’s redevelopment has been a labour of love and shows what can be done when popular support is backed by the local council and aided by central government and the HLF. Together we’ve taken a great museum, made it even better, and now with this award have really put RAMM on the map

“This is an honour for the people of Exeter, Devon and the Southwest and I hope also a source of inspiration for all the far flung parts of Britain that like us have the ambition and drive to compete with the best. Exeter has a long and rich history which is well recorded in RAMM. It’s great that today it’s the museum that is making history.”

Chair of Judges, Lord Smith of Finsbury, said of the Museum, “The new Royal Albert Memorial Museum is quite simply a magical place. The Victorian aspirations to bring the world to Exeter are stunningly realised through some of the most intelligently considered displays on view in any museum in the UK. Every exhibit delights with a new surprise, and provokes with a new question, and at a time when local authority museums in particular are in such danger, this brilliant achievement proves how daring, adventurous and important such institutions can be.”

From: http://rammuseum.org.uk/news/ramm-museum-of-the-year-2012
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum Reopening by AngieLake on Thursday, 22 December 2011
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Have just heard on the local 10.30pm news that over 3,000 people visited the museum last Saturday, two days after its reopening.
I thought it was busy!
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Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum has just reopened! by Andy B on Thursday, 15 December 2011
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I'm sure you will be pleased to hear of the reopening of Exeter City Council's Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), the first day was Thursday 15 December. The museum is open from 10am to 5pm every day except Mondays and Bank Holidays and entry will still be free.

Fully refurbished after a multimillion pound redevelopment, the new displays showcase the collections and collectors that have helped RAMM to become one of Britain’s finest regional museums. They tell the story of Exeter and Devon from the prehistoric to the present but, more than a local museum, its internationally important world cultures and natural history collections also tell a story of global exploration and collecting in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The splendid Victorian building on Queen Street has been repaired, refurbished and extended preparing it for the 21st century. Original architectural features have been revealed allowing visitors to experience the splendour of the original Victorian spaces and the extension includes a suite of modern, flexible exhibition galleries allowing RAMM to bring to the South West loans and exhibitions from national partners. Modern services will improve the care of visitors and the collections alike.

A new garden entrance links the Victorian museum to its historic surroundings and the neighbouring gardens. The area is one of only five sites classified by English Heritage as an Area of Archaeological Importance.

Contrasting with the city-centre bustle of the Queen Street entrance, this new entrance offers a leisurely approach to the museum and easy access to the arts centre, library and castle. A new bridge from the entrance leads visitors to the Roman wall and panoramic views of the gardens and the city.

Council Leader, Pete Edwards, said: "I am proud and delighted to reopen the Museum after its multimillion pound redevelopment. With the galleries, facilities and services expected of a truly modern museum, RAMM is now set to regain its place as Exeter’s most visited attraction. Its world-class collections trace the history of the city and this redevelopment shows Exeter to be the developing, dynamic and forward looking city that it is today.

"Over the last 140 years RAMM has become one of the city’s most cherished institutions and it has been sorely missed during the closure. On behalf of the City Council and the people of Exeter, I would like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund and all who have helped us make RAMM fit for the 21st century. The Museum is now home to over a million objects, and I would like to invite everyone to join us over the coming months to explore these stories and make RAMM home to a million thoughts."

The Heritage Lottery Fund stumped up £9million to add to funding from Exeter City Council and other sources. This has allowed RAMM to move much of its collection to a new purpose-built off-site store, expand its public areas at RAMM and redisplay the majority of galleries.

Nerys Watts, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said: “We are delighted by the reopening of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, which means that visitors from near and far will be able to explore the transformation that has taken place. This museum is of huge regional significance, providing a wonderful insight into the rich, natural and cultural heritage of the South West. Through redesigning the galleries and improving access the museum has dramatically improved opportunities for visitors to learn about and enjoy the collections. We want to congratulate the team on their dedication and hard work.”

RAMM will launch its busy programme of exhibitions and activities with artworks by some of the most prestigious names in art, many on loan from national and regional collections. Into the Light is an exhibition of French and British painting from Impressionism to the early 1920s. It includes paintings by Monet, Renoir, Stanhope Forbes and Pissarro. The exhibition, The Road to Rome: Artists and Travellers on the Grand Tou

Read the rest of this post...
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Egyptian coffins catalogued by Andy B on Thursday, 15 December 2011
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The Royal Albert Memorial Museum’s ancient Egyptian coffins and coffin fragments have been researched and a complete catalogue is now available online.
http://www.bris.ac.uk/archanth/staff/dodson/ecpuk_files/exeter

The research was carried out by Dr Aidan Dodson of Bristol University as part of the Egyptian Coffins in Provincial Collections of the United Kingdom Project.
http://www.bris.ac.uk/archanth/staff/dodson/ecpuk

RAMM’s Egyptian coffins were donated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Using our archives of paper and photographic records, as well as studying the objects themselves, Dr Dodson has pieced together their stories. He has reinterpreted some items and put the objects in their regional and national perspectives. The results will be published in book format when he has completed the research in the Southwest.

Two other research projects, both by the University of Manchester, have benefited from RAMM’s ancient Egyptian collections being in store during the redevelopment and therefore more accessible for detailed study. One is investigating our mummified hawks, the other our mummified human remains.
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum Re-opens Dec 2011 by AngieLake on Monday, 31 October 2011
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I was passing the Museum recently and saw workmen outside, so asked them if they knew when the Museum was re-opening. I was told "on 15th December".
Have just checked this out on RAMM's website (link listed under Andy's 10 July 2010 comment), and this is accurate (at the moment!)
I see that entry will still be free, so that's good, too.

Have missed this interesting diversion whilst shopping in the city, and can't wait to see what they've done inside that lovely old building.

(Seeing posters about the 'new' museum in the foyer of the City library gave me the impression it had already opened.)
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Bronze Age Life and Landscapes, Exeter Cathedral Chapter House. Wed 28 July by Andy B on Saturday, 10 July 2010
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Bronze Age Life and Landscapes

Wed 28 July 10.30–12.30 & 13.30–15.30

Explore Bronze Age culture with special reference to sites on Dartmoor. A partnership between RAMM and Dartmoor National Park. …

Explore Bronze Age culture with special reference to sites on Dartmoor. See how researchers identify pollen grains which indicate how the landscape has changed and been altered by man. Make Beaker pots with burial goods to place in a cist and decorate your own bronze dagger. Perhaps follow this up with a trip to Dartmoor or come on our Bronze Age on Dartmoor Day. A partnership between RAMM and Dartmoor National Park. Free.

Location: Exeter Cathedral Chapter House.

O: Royal Albert Memorial Museum
N: Philippa Wood
T: 01392 665780
E: philippa.wood@exeter.gov.uk
W: http://www.exeter.gov.uk/RAMM

Festival of British Archaeology 2010
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum [RAMM in Library NOW CLOSED] by AngieLake on Saturday, 03 April 2010
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RAMM IN THE LIBRARY CLOSED ON 27TH MARCH 2010.

Museum due to re-open in its original refurbished building in 2011.

Preparation of artefacts continues at the Ark, RAMM's off site store, where conservators are preparing all the objects that will be on show when RAMM reopens in 2011.
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum Re-opening delayed by hailstones on Tuesday, 28 April 2009
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Thanks Angie! What lovely flints and axe heads. Thought I'd missed a museum in London at first, bit I see it's Devon!
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    Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum Re-opening delayed by AngieLake on Wednesday, 29 April 2009
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    Thanks for that Hailstones. I did wonder if I'd overdone it a bit, but then, the place needs to be kept in the public eye while the actual museum is undergoing refurbishment, so anything that will encourage numbers of visitors to go along to the new smaller venue in the library in Exeter must be a help.
    I rarely visit museums, but can recommend the original Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Truro's Royal Cornwall Museum and Cardiff's too. Though I have yet to visit Torquay's, don't forget we've got one of the oldest sites in Britain at Kent's Cavern there! (And of course Dartmoor has the finest collection of stone rows, etc., in the country I reckon.)
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum Re-opening delayed by AngieLake on Tuesday, 28 April 2009
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See also 'Nineveh' site page for marble cuneiform tablet on display at 'RAMM in the library'.
I asked permission to take these photographs on 18th April, incidentally.
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum Re-opening delayed by AngieLake on Thursday, 23 April 2009
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On a visit to the temporary RAMM display in the Local Studies Library in Exeter on 18th April 09 I asked the man on the reception desk if the Museum is likely to open in 2010, as planned, but he said this had now been put back to 2011.
It is still worth looking in at the small exhibition if you're shopping in Exeter, as there were some interesting artefacts on display.
For those with youngsters, I imagine they'd have great fun playing with the dressing-up items in the childrens' area!
If you're not sure where to go, anyone will direct you to the main library (behind the shops on the Boots side of the north end of the High Street), and when there, look to the far right of the building, where steps lead up to this section (Ramm is left inside the door on the ground floor.)
The Local Studies library has a great selection of books for research too.
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum by AngieLake on Sunday, 31 August 2008
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Parts 3 and 5 (4 was the Zitherixon Wooden Figure) of the list of artefacts relevant to Meg. Portal in the collection of the Exeter City Museum, as shown in 'Treasures of Ancient Devon', Devon Books, 1996 Edition.

3): The Prehistoric Gold Hoard from Colaton Raleigh (c. 1000 - 650 BC)

"The hoard consists of three gold bracelets, accompanied by a small folded sheet of gold. The bracelets are of two sorts. Two are formed from flat bands of metal, the terminals simply being folded over. The third is worked from a rod of gold of D-shaped section, with expanded terminals. Both types are characteristic of Late Bronze Age finery; they are datable to c. 1000-650 BC.
The hoard is the only surviving find of prehistoric goldwork from Devon (an amber dagger pommel inlaid with gold pins from a Dartmoor barrow".. [see Hameldown site page] .."was destroyed during the Plymouth blitz). Comparable hoards of Bronze Age gold are, however, known from Cornwall. The Colaton Raleigh find was discovered by chance in 1986 when a man collecting firewood spotted them protruding from the ground beside a path near Colaton Raleigh in east Devon. He took the bracelets, which he found to be packed one within the other, to Exeter Museum, where they were identified as a hoard of Bronze Age gold-work, an opinion later confirmed by the British Museum. At a coroner's inquest in July 1986 they were declared Treasure Trove (ie Crown Property), and the finder was awarded an ex gratia payment. The hoard was bought from HM Treasury by Exeter City Museums with the support of Devon County Council in 1987.
Upon close inspection faint vertical ribbing and minor areas of raggedness can be seen on the inner faces of the flat-sectioned bracelets, suggesting that these remain unfinished. The presence of a small folded fragment of gold might also indicate that this is a smith's hoard. A small excavation on the site of the find showed that the original burial place of the hoard had been disturbed in antiquity."

5): The Coffinswell Hoard of Prehistoric 'Currency Bars' (Probably second or first century BC)

"This magnificent hoard of 'currency bars' (so-called because Julius Caesar in his 'Commentaries' observed that prehistoric British tribes used iron bars as well as coins for currency) is one of the most remarkable archaeological finds in Devon in recent years. It was discovered in 1990, after a farmer at Coffinswell had ploughed up a number of rusty iron bars. He reported the find to local metal detectorists, who in turn contacted Torquay Museum. A small excavation was carried out in 1991 to recover the hoard, since it would obviously suffer further damage if left in situ. The excavation, which was supported by Devon County Council, revealed a corroded mass of iron bars packed tightly into a small pit. It was therefore decided to lift it entire and transport it to Exeter City Museums, where Alison Hopper-Bishop of the museum's conservation department undertook the lengthy and laborious process of conservation and cleaning. Her work revealed that the hoard contains about 80 bars; the original deposit must have included 100 or more. They were arranged in eight tightly-bound bundles, each of between eight and eleven bars, whose twine wrappings could be discerned by careful cleaning. The bindings proved to be stems of fern, and further vegetable matter around the edge of the hoard indicated that organic material, possibly bracken, had been used to line the pit.
The bars are all plain rods, beaten at one end into a socket shape. The process of forming the rounded end requires a surprisingly high degree of smithing skill, and can only be achieved with high-quality malleable iron. The sockets, then, may have served to show off the high quality of the iron. In fact modern experimental manufacture of similar bars using traditional technology shows that the production of a single bar of this sort would require a great deal of work - 50 or more working hours.
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum by AngieLake on Monday, 25 August 2008
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A list of relevant articles with photos of artefacts in the collection of Exeter City Museum in 'Treasures of Ancient Devon', Devon Books, 1996 edition. Here are the first two:

1) Prehistoric Hand-Axes from the Axe Valley (Mainly c.250,000 - 200,000 years ago).
"Devon lay on the edge of the inhabited world of the hunters and gatherers of the Palaeolithic period (the Old Stone Age), and finds of Palaeolithic date are restricted almost entirely to the south and east of the county. Hand-axes form the most distinctive and prolific artefacts of this period, and have been found on some 40 sites in Devon, mainly in ones or twos. The major series of more than 2500 hand-axes recovered from the gravels of the River Axe at Broom on the Devon/Dorset/Somerset border is thus exceptional, and must reflect the repeated seasonal use of this favoured area on the edge of the Axe.
Many of these artefacts"...... "were discovered during gravel working in the nineteenth century.
Hand-axes in Britain can be roughly divided into two shapes - pointed and ovate (egg-shaped). At some sites one or other type will predominate. At Broom, however, there is a mixture of the two, and also great variety in size and condition. Some are fresh, others have evidently been rolled by river action from occupation sites further upstream. Most are of brown chert, but some are of flint."

2) A Prehistoric Cup from Farway. c.2000- 1500 BC.
"Small cups made of precious or exotic materials are rare but important elements in rich burials of the Early Bronze Age, both in England and on the Continent; their function is unknown. Examples are best known in gold, silver and amber; this cup, which is less than 10cm in height, is the best-preserved of such vessels made in black shale and is one of two examples to have come from Devon. The raw material almost certainly comes from Kimmeridge in Dorset.
It was found in 1868 during the excavation of a barrow at Broad Down, Farway, in east Devon, by the Rev. Richard Kirwan, the rector of the local parish of Gittisham." (Will post info on barrow on its site page).
"Cups such as this are little masterpieces of Bronze Age craftsmanship. The Farway vessel has long been believed to have been made on a lathe, but recent experimental production of a replica has demonstrated that it could have been made with quite simple hand tools. The late Dennis Sloper demonstrated this by making a replica in about 120 working hours."
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Re: Royal Albert Memorial Museum by AngieLake on Monday, 25 August 2008
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The Zitherixon Wooden Idol is a prehistoric wooden figure found in 1867 by workmen digging ball clay at Zitherixon, Kingsteignton, near Newton Abbot, and one of the most fascinating exhibits at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. [Closed temorarily for refurbishment.]
At the time of writing the booklet 'Treasures of Ancient Devon' (Devon Books, 1997) the authors tell us that only seven examples of these prehistoric wooden figures from the British Isles survive, spanning a period of more than 2500 years.
NB: The authors do not refer to it as an 'Idol' - that was my own description of it, after reading about the Colchester figure on Meg P.

Quoting direct from the booklet:
"According to one 19th century account the figure was discovered 'in a standing position 23 feet below the surface against a black oak tree which was embedded in mud, sand and gravel and lying on the deposit of large stones which overlies the clay here.'

"The figure, which is 34cm tall, is carved from the centre of a branch of oak. It is clearly male with stubby legs, long body and very long neck. A horizontal hole through the neck may once have held detachable arms. Professor Bryony Coles of Exeter University has recently undertaken a study of this figure and the other wooden figures surviving elsewhere in the British Isles. There has been great uncertainty about their date, so Professor Coles initiated a programme of radiocarbon-dating at Oxford University, taking tiny samples from each figure. The Kingsteignton sample was datable to c. 426-352 BC.

"In examining the formal characteristics of these figures, Professor Coles noted features common to several of them, such as sexual ambiguity, a tendency to asymmetry and scoring of the left side of the face. These are not characteristics of the Kingsteignton figure, whose purpose remains unknown. It is tempting to see it as having some symbolic significance; it was found against the remains of an oak tree, and we know thet trees and woodlands were objects of veneration in the prehistoric period."

It was loaned to the museum by owners Messrs. Watts, Blake, Bearne and Co. plc.
(I lived in Kingsteignton from 1988-2000, and have been in the Newton Abbot area - including Teignmouth, the harbour for clay exports - since 1978. The Bovey Basin is one of the best sources of ball clay, which goes into ceramics, mainly of the bathroom variety. WBB was/is? one of the biggest employers in the area for many years. Try Googling Watts Blake Bearne, or Bovey Basin for more info.)


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