From Flints To Fish And Chips - And Not A Speck Of Dust

The building North Somerset Museum now occupies was formerly ownedby Weston-super-Mare Gaslight Company. It is easy to find this out;all you have to do is look up at the front of the building and it iscarved into the Bath stone of the frieze.

Before the gas company took over the site, there were otherbuildings and trades operating there.

The last 200 years have seen substantial changes right across thecountry in almost all aspects of society. North Somerset was notisolated from these changes.

A recent talk by Sharon Poole to the Friends of the Museum on theGeorgian history of Weston highlighted the fact that Weston startedits development into the town it is today in the 18th century.

Although it evolved into a mass-tourism town in Victorian timesand in the 20th century, it owes its roots to an earlier time.

There are few buildings that continue operating unaltered for anylength of time these days. So I find it a little surprising that, assoon as a building is converted to a museum, there is an expectationthat it is suddenly fixed in time, with "dusty old cases".

The essence of the museum is the objects that are kept and caredfor. At the same time, we have to make those objects available,enjoyable, meaningful and relevant. And we need to change thingsaround and to find new ways to do it.

We have been very busy in the museum over the last few monthsdoing just that.

The result is a new display and an exciting addition to anexisting display.

Food is fundamental to existence. For many it is as much a leisureactivity as a necessity. Some of the earliest human artefacts - boneand flint tools - were used to catch or prepare food. For centuriesthe majority of people in the area were involved in producing food.

There are still many food producers locally, as well as all therestaurants and cafes. This heritage is important to North Somersetand we have created a new exhibition -Food, glorious food! - to tellthis story from flints to fish and chips, from Roman herbs to Italianice cream.

In addition, the exhibition has allowed us to put some rarely-seen material on display, such as a Land Girl uniform and paintingsfrom the collections.

Another way of getting more of the museum's material on display isby using "new technology", and we have done that in the SeasideHolidays gallery. Thanks to the Friends of the Museum, we now have anew computer interactive in the gallery, packed full of informationabout the growth of seaside holidays, with lots of local details.

We had to change the gallery around a little, but there is now amuch fuller picture of all aspects of seaside holidays.

There is even a sing-along song to try - karaoke comes to themuseum.

So, although we may be using old display cases, they aren't dustyand they are worth a second look - you don't know what you might seethere.