OCTOBER WORKSHOP

 

FINGER KNITTING with VERA SELBY

Friday 8th October   2pm – 5pm

[To be held in the Museum’s Wenham Study Centre]

Following the highly successful Summer Workshops, and at the request of the public, Richmondshire Museum will host another Workshop in October, before the season ends.

Vera Selby has agreed to demonstrate the art of Finger Knitting and has promised that all who attend the workshop will be able to make a winter scarf in the afternoon.  Who can resist that offer?
All material will be provided.  Lots of exhibits will be on show.

Booking is essential and there will be a small charge for the workshop.
For booking and further details contact:  07894668005

Vera Selby was born and brought up in Richmond. Not only is she an artist and designer but also, in 2009 she was appointed Master of the Fellmongers Guild, the only woman ever to hold that office in its long history. But her achievements range much wider even than that for she is both the Guinness and the Embassy Women’s World Snooker Champion, 9 times the British Women’s Billiards Champion and 5 times the British Women’s Snooker Champion as well as being the only Professional Billiards and Snooker Woman referee in Britain. She says that she held her first billiard cue at the age of six years – it’s obvious that she has never looked back!

The Roman Lions will be here for another 3 years : The British Museum has agreed to extend their loan of the Roman Lions until the end of October 2012 !

The two stone Lions on display in the upper gallery were found at Catterick Bridge in 1839 alongside Dere Street, one of the major Roman roads

The lions are well preserved and are thought to have been made from stone quarried near Melsonby, a few miles from Catterick Bridge. Stylistically they are of the 2^nd or 3^rd century AD period.  Each lion holds a bull’s head between its paws.

The lions will now be on display in the museum until the end of the 2012 season when they will be returned to the British Museum.

The fact that Richmondshire Museum was awarded Full Accreditation Status in March 2009 which put us in the same category as all the major national museums was a factor in the decision to extend the loan.

From the Hoss’s Mouth

‘The Poor Old Hoss’ is one of Richmond’s ancient customs that has pagan origins and dates back to at least the 17^th century.

The display in the upper gallery includes the ‘Old Hoss’ itself that plays its part in the Old Hoss re-enactment every year and a manikin dressed in authentic huntsman’s clothes worn by Mr Bill Ward of Richmond, who is the present custodian of the Hoss. The Hoss has been in his family from the 1840s, and possibly earlier.

The Hoss’s head is made of a genuine horse’s skull mounted on a wooden pole. At each enactment the chief actor is concealed under the attached cloak and operates the horse’s movements and snapping jaws.

The week before Christmas the Old Hoss is carried round the town and surrounding villages accompanied by a team of huntsmen who sing the sad story of “t’owd lad” and its fate, each verse having the refrain, ‘Poor Old Hoss’. It causes considerable disruption and a great deal of amusement.