Wymondham Heritage Museum - Welcome to Wymondham - Part 4

Welcome to Wyndham Heritage Museum. The museum hosts a series of themed displays that explain aspects of the life and times of the people of Wyndham. The Wyndham Heritage Museum has been set up by Wyndham Heritage Society to keep the history of Wyndham and its people alive. Wyndham Bridewell was the local prison in Wyndham Norfolk. The site was in use as a prison from as early as 1619. Since then it has had various uses including police station and courthouse. In 1832 the Bridewell would have reopened as house of corrections for women. Although the Bridewell was a woman's prison it was sometimes used to house men awaiting transfer with even quite dangerous prisoners kept there. As we enter the building we can see the old magistrate's bench with the history of the Bridewell timeline. We will first take the stairs into the old dungeons where in the 17th century this would have held prisoners in the original medieval house. In the 18th century the old building was demolished, rebuilt as a model prison, and the design used as the blueprint for prisons throughout England and also in the United States. Firstly we can see a display of an Anderson shelter used by civilians in the UK during World War II to protect themselves from enemy bombing raids. Typically they were installed in gardens sunk about three feet into the ground and covered with earth. While intended for safety they were often described as damp, cold and uncomfortable. Some even tended to flood in wet weather. The second display in the dungeon leads us to a crime and punishment display. This is where you can imagine the conditions of the original prison when it was visited by John Howard who declared it to be one of the vilest prisons in England. We next visit the brush making room. Brush making in Wyndham was a major industry in the middle of the 20th century. It had two major factories, the Britain Brush Factory and the Cooperative Brush Company. These would have been the main employers in town. The display contains numerous tools that were used in the manufacture of brushes through the ages and also has an interactive operating 1890s gain brush filling machine. During Victorian times brush making was at the heart of South Norfolk's economy and social prosperity. Brush making then was tough work. There was a lot of women working the line and the conditions were too noisy for some, often dangerous such as dipping the brushes in boiling hot pitch. There were a lot of burns. The next exhibition to witness is Robert Kett display. Robert Kett is famous for leading Kett's rebellion, a significant uprising in 1549 against land enclosures and perceived injustices by the gentry in Norfolk, England. It is remembered as a major event in Tudor history and a powerful expression of popular discontent. Heading into a generous size room we can witness American flags which is part of the next display, the Friendly Invasion. This display is dedicated to when more than two million Americans came to Norfolk between 1942 to 1945 and the impact it would have had on the town. It is noted that this display is listed as temporary, so depending on when you are watching this video it may or may not still be present in the museum. The next display brings to life how shopping would have looked in Victorian times. Two replica shops have been built in the main gallery based on original stores that would have operated in the town. The Damgate stores stood in the museum's main gallery for several years but has now been revised as we see today. It is based on local shops including slaughters that once stood in the town's Damgate. A number of the items on display were donated by Maurice Dale, son of Ruby Brighton, who ran the General Cash stores in Silfield in the 1930s. Here we can see a model of the town's market cross. We have featured this iconic building in our last episode of this series, Part 3 of Welcome to Wyndham. Coming to one of the last displays, Agricultural Heritage, based on farming in Wyndham in the 1940s. This display reflects the area's rich agricultural heritage with artefacts from farming of yesteryear. A feature of the display are the memories of Percy Corbald who kept diaries of his life as a worker on a farm at Broick, just outside Wyndham. His diaries reveal how hard life was for a farm worker in the 1940s, working a six-day week with only two weeks holiday. The working day was long and consisted of hard manual labour and the work was mainly outside in all weathers all year round. Our last display of the video, the Remand Prisoner's Cell. The museum also features a cosy tea room in which serves hot and cold drinks, homemade cakes and freshly baked scones. The tea room is based in the original exercise yard for the prisoners being held in the police remand cells like the one we just saw. Throughout the year, the tea room also hosts exhibitions of work by local artists. Noted, there is an entrance just for the tea room along Broick Road, the road to the right of the museum. The museum features a courtyard garden in which was originally the exercise yard for the new bridewell and later became the airing yard for the women's prison laundry. Entrance to the garden is included in the museum admission price. It is noted that some exhibitions are subject to change in this museum and there are some areas undisclosed in this video. This is our fourth part of Welcome to Wyndham, a short series in which we discover Wyndham and what it has to offer for tourists and residents alike. Be sure to check out our other parts of the small series and we hope you enjoyed this part of Wyndham, the Wyndham Heritage Museum. you