A new and unusual exhibit is a collection of small shoes made by boys learning a trade in the workhouse, including one found deposited in a chimney as a good luck charm, in the redecorated and refreshed Weobley Museum which re-opened at the beginning of April.
There’s a lot of new content showing this year following an exploration of artefacts stored by Hereford Museum which have been brought out of storage. Other new displays include Victorian-era baby clothes — including a lace christening veil — and a wall panel about Garnstone Castle, the village’s grand estate house remodelled by architect John Nash in the castellated style popular in the early 1800s, that overlooked its park under Garnstone Hill, until it was demolished in the late 1950s.
Some new 20th-century items include household food storage tins, and cigarette tins, mostly dating around the 1930s-1960s, a selection of beautiful hats donated by Weobley people, ladies’ delicate evening bags, including a gold-coloured silk evening purse with white bead-work dated 1896.
A hallmarked silver finger purse, or reticule, was carried by ladies in the 18th and early 19th century. The display also includes a fox stole, from a fox shot on the Brinsop Estate around 1910.
There’s an exhibition of Weobley-at-work, with photos of local people working in various mainly-agricultural occupations and the wall space is full of early farm implements which gets one thinking about long days of working in all weathers — and the skills needed in countryside occupations.
Weobley Museum also has an interesting location, the former courthouse and police station in Back Lane, shared with Weobley Library. It is open Mondays 10am-1pm and Thursday 2pm-5pm and the curators are Sue Hubbard and Carole Page.
