Capability Brown

Wilderspin hosts Barton Civic Society’s February lecture by Andrew Robinson about the eighteenth-century gardener and landscape architect Capability Brown.

2pm – 3.30pm, Joseph Wright Hall, Non-members £4

Posted on:20th January 2024

Make Do & Mend

Join us for our final Winter Warmer Open Day before our reopening in the Spring, and sample a slice of the 1940s as we learn how recycling and repurposing is nothing new!

11am-3pm

Free admission and refreshments

Posted on:20th January 2024

Mother Goose

Our resident Community Theatre Group FRIENDS AT BARTON return with another family pantomime, transforming the Joseph Wright Hall into Witz End Farm.  Will Demon Vanity steal the golden eggs or will Fairy Virtue save the day?

Posted on:20th January 2024

Valentines Quiz Night

Book for our next popular general knowledge quiz.

Teams of up to six – or we can match you up with others.

£2 per person.  7pm start. Bar and raffle.

Tel. (01652) 635172 to book

Posted on:17th January 2024

Vere Foster- Changing lives for the Irish poor

Vere Foster was a Victorian philanthropist and educator described by the author Brendan Colgan, as an “English Gentleman and Irish Champion”.

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During the Great Famine of the 1840s in Ireland he set up an agricultural training school and assisted the poor wherever he could, and personally helped with the re-settlement of thousands of emigrants to North America escaping starvation and disease.

For those unable to emigrate he set his sights on improving their life chances by lifting educational standards in Irish schools, spending a vast fortune building and equipping schools and designing his own ‘Copy Books’ for the teaching of writing.

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Jean Cannon shares the story of one of the most remarkable and unifying figures in the history of post-famine Ireland. as part of our Barton Heritage Project partnership in association with Barton Civic Society.

Joseph Wright Hall, 2pm, free.

Posted on:2nd January 2024

Christmas Quiz Night

Join us for another popular quiz evening !

7pm (doors open 6.30pm)

Book your place or team (up to six) at £2 per person (01652 635172)

Bar.

Posted on:27th November 2023

Winter Warmer Open Day

We’re open on Friday 15th December between 11am and 3pm

Discover the Wilderspin Story – FREE museum admission!

School Life exhibition about the Barton Church School

Free Talk: “The Church School Archive” at 11am (doors open at 10.30 with refreshments)

Christmases Past in the Chatty Cafe 12pm – 2pm – reminisce and make a card with free refreshments

Posted on:27th November 2023

Marsh Award for Wilderspin Volunteers

We are thrilled that our Memory Café Project, launched in 2022, has been awarded a Marsh Award for Museum Learning by the British Museum and the Marsh Charitable Trust.

Our volunteers piloted a selection of objects from our collection to see how they prompted discussion and recollections among older people.  Then, Memory Boxes were put together for museum visitors to chat about over a cup of tea, and they were used too with residents from a care home as part of an intergenerational session with children from a local school.

A Chatty Café team has taken the project forward organising monthly drop-ins focussing on a theme for discussion and reminiscence.

The ‘Volunteers for Museum Learning’ Award forms part of a programme of awards presented by the Marsh Charitable Trust in the fields of science, ecology, conservation, heritage, literature and volunteering.  The aim is to recognise those volunteers who engage directly with museum visitors in any capacity.

The Museum was the winner for the East Midlands region which involved some of our volunteers attending an award ceremony at the British Museum.

Although the Museum is closed over the winter period as an energy saving measure our volunteers will be organising Open Days during which the Chatty Café will be operating along with other special family activities – and we’re putting together plans for special Chatty Café events over the winter.

Photo caption:

Wilderspin volunteers Ian Wolseley and (right) Jean Cannon and Rose Jackson with Project Coordinator Ali Bodley.

Posted on:5th November 2023

Safeguarding the Past – Shaping the Future

Barton Civic Society explores the pains and gains involved in building conservation projects, sharing the ups and downs of three restoration case studies – including the former Barton Church School, a domestic building project and the former Halls Barton Ropery.  The panel discussion starts at 2pm with a brief preview tour of the School looking at its conservation and restoration at 1.30pm.

Museum open 11am – 3pm

Posted on:29th October 2023

Winter Warmer

Half term fun for the whole family including Wilderspin’s Marvellous Menagerie trail and Schoolroom Puzzles for the whole family!

11am – 3pm, Friday 27 October

Click here for more details about our Winter Warmer Open Days.

 

Posted on:23rd October 2023