Location: Leisure and Culture » Museums and Galleries » Windsor & Royal Borough Museum » News from the Museum

News from the Museum

Special Temporary Display

Visit the museum and see this impressive horse skull on loan from the Horniman Museum. The horse skull will be on display between 30th April and 30th June 2013. An interesting talk on 'The Horse: A Natural and Social History' will take place on Sunday 9th June. See below for details.

New Temporary Exhibition: The Clewer Collection

Clewer Museum came about through the enthusiasm of Reverend Denis Shaw, Rector of St Andrew, Clewer, from 1972 to 1992. In 1978 his sons Michael and Nicholas, discovered a Victorian rubbish dump in the rectory garden and they began a collection of finds which attracted a lot of local interest.

Eventually the collection was put on display in the Church Lodge and was officially opened as a Museum by HRH The Duchess of York on 21 June 1989.

Joyce Sampson took over as Honorary Curator when Denis retired and in 2000 she mounted a very successful exhibition '1000 years of Clewer' In 2001 the Lodge urgently needed re-wiring and refurbishment, and all the museum artefacts were removed to storage in the church shed.

In 2010, the collection was offered to the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum and the Clewer Collection of over 400 items was unpacked in St Andrew's Church, sorted, photographed, re- packed and acquired into the main museum collection. This work, which took two weeks, was done by a group of parishioners and museum volunteers led by museum staff.

Above, Joyce Sampson, in 2010, as part of the volunteer crew, helped in the church with re packing and sorting, and on the right, Beryl Hedges, one of the Friends of the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum, also assisted. The display now in the Museum is spread over 3 cases and features some of the most interesting items from the collection, a Victorian Family Bible, a baptismal shell, with intricate carvings, and a replica of the wax seal of Sir Bernard Brocas.

New Display - Out of the Toy Cupboard

What's in your toy cupboard? We asked our museum volunteers to hunt out toys to show in our new case at Dedworth Library. Mary Skelly, Supervisor, invites you to come and enjoy the display there! Toys from the 1950s - 1980s, owned and loved by museum volunteers and staff, have been collected and displayed by Amelia Evans and Cassandra Tavares. The display is on at Dedworth Library, Smiths Lane, Windsor, SL4 5PE until the end of May 2013.

Come and see how toys have changed over the last half of the 20th Century.

Toys in the 1950s reflected the traditional roles of men and women during this decade. Boys played with carpentry sets, while girls enjoyed dolls and dressmaking toys.

Things changed throughout the later decades. More toys started to be produced which boys and girls could share. Toys also began to reflect popular children's programmes, films and comic books. My Little Pony and The Wombles were great toys that both featured on TV.

Action figures and super heroes became all the rage. However, traditional toys such as dolls and guns have continued to be popular and are still being made.

In the 1980s electronic games began to be sold. Visit the library and compare the 1980s games with the iPads, tablets and computer games of today.

Bronze Age Jewellery

Come along and see these beautiful finds from 3,000 years ago
Small gold rings made between 1300 to 1150BC from Celtic gold
Purchased with the help of funding from V&A, Headley Trust for Archaeology and Friends of the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum

The Headley Trust Fund logo V&A Purchase Grand Fund