Issue 3 - Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council

Barbara Cartland
The Dresses and the Dame: a grand occasion
at Mill Green.
The evening of Thursday November 13th saw the launch of
an exhibition at Mill Green celebrating a notable aspect of
one of the area’s most prominent citizens. I say “a notable
aspect” because, to the world at large, the late Barbara
Cartland was the world’s most prolific romantic novelist. This
exhibition however celebrated a more personal aspect of
Dame Barbara – her love of glamorous exotic clothes and
the colour pink.
Following an introduction by Caroline Rawle, Curator
at Mill Green, the exhibition was opened by Dame Barbara’s
daughter, Raine, Countess Spencer, the step-mother of the
late Princess Diana, accompanied by other family members.
The gathering of over 100 guests heard Countess Spencer
reminisce about the mother she described as “an
extraordinary personality” who, as a County Councillor,
enjoyed “helping the people of Hertfordshire”. Dame Barbara
was, she further averred, “a great uplifter” whose motto was
“Get up and walk on”.
Countess Spencer went on to thank, on behalf of the
family, the Museum for laying on the exhibition. She wished
all present a “Happy 2004”.
Her brother Ian McCorquodale described the
exhibition as “the essence of my mother”. He traced her love
of the colour pink to the days of her youth when she met the
Egyptologist Howard Carter. She was invited by Howard
Carter to visit the tomb of Tutankhamen where she was
deeply impressed by the presence of pink and turquoise blue
in the tomb, she remained closely attached to these colours
for the rest of her life. He said that during her life of writing
from the age of 21 to 97 she wrote 723 books. At the age of
76 when writing ten books a year she was asked by her
publisher to increase her output following which she stepped
up her writing to twenty books each year!
Barbara Cartland believed that “All women should
make themselves glamorous and beautiful”. Coming from a
woman who, while pursuing these aims, built her world wide
reputation on other foundations we can all say Amen to that.
Bernard Williams.
Barbara Cartland; the Dresses and the Dame runs at
Mill Green until 8th February 2004. Entrance free.
Teas in the garden next year!
We have stop-press news for readers of our
announcement Teas in the Sun on page 1. A meeting at Mill
Green called by Museum Director Carol Rigby in November
produced promising results: The thirty-four museum
volunteers and Friends who attended came up with lots of
support. Carol had explained that the plan was to set up a
rota so that teas could be served every Sunday and Bank
holiday from April to September. For volunteers it would
involve helping up to five times each year. Carol also sought
help in the garden. The heavy work would be done by the
Council but help was needed for pruning, weeding and
watering.
There was a good response to both pleas: twentyone filled in forms offering help with teas while fourteen
offered help in the gardens. So it looks all go for next year
and yes, we’ve all heard the jokes about the café with a
good museum attached. So be it, visiting our museum
should be an enjoyable thing to do and if that means tea in a
lovely river-side garden we’ll gladly lay it on – thanks to our
volunteers!
Mill Green Museum Events.
Till 8th February 2004. Barbara Cartland - the
Dresses and the Dame. Come and see Dame
Barbara’s dresses, some designed by Norman Hartnell,
and find out more about this amazing woman.
Friends’ Forum
Saturday, 6th December. Festive Fair.
Christmas gifts, craft, refreshments, cake & sweet stall
with festive music. Museum.
The Newsletter of the Friends of Welwyn Hatfield Museums
No 3 Winter 2003/4
Saturday & Sunday 27th & 28th December. Dolls’ House. See
Dennis Currell’s Georgian style dolls’ house with decorations and handmade furniture.
Editorial: Feel the quality?
Saturday 14 February till Sunday 9 May. Bread & milling –
the staff of life. The history of milling and bread-making over the past
5000 years. Opportunities for tasting bread of different eras.
Other historical organizations’ events.
Stevenage Museum St Georges Way, Stevenage. All wrapped
up, Sat 13th Dec 11am – 1pm or 2 – 4pm. Learn the art of giftwrapping. Bring some of your most awkward presents and challenge
the experts. £5 (£4 concessions). Includes materials but bring anything
special you wish to use. Best to book in advance on 01438 21881.
Lantern making & procession of light. After school activity.
Stevenage Museum, (as above) Thurs 18th Dec. Come and make a
magic lantern then join a procession through the town 5 – 7pm. Age 5
upwards. Free.
Hertford Museum ‘ Victorian Christmas’ Display from Fri
28th Nov, in the museum's first floor activity room, Sat 13th and Sun
14th Dec - taste authentic Victorian food, make Victorian gifts and
watch the Victorian Craft of lacemaking (time to be confirmed), also
Dennis Currell with his amazing Doll's House! Free.
Father Christmas will be visiting Hertford Museum Nov :Sat 29th
Dec: Sat 13th, Sun 14th, Tues 16th, Wed 17th, Thurs 18th, Fri 19th and Sat
20th From 11am-1pm and 2pm-4pm, £3 per child (includes gift)
Your editor Bernard Williams and/or the Friends Committee would
like to hear from you. Contact us at Friends of Welwyn/Hatfield
Museums, c/o Mill Green Museum, Hatfield, Herts AL9 5PD.
Phone: 01707 271362; Fax: 01707 272511. E-mail:
<[email protected]
Looking at our last issue we decided that improvements in
graphics quality were needed, so, with ideas from John Deans, we’ve
made some changes in production. We hope you notice the
improvement. Indeed, as editorials are necessarily written before going
to press, we sincerely hope that we notice too!
Jubilee Gardens; Teas in the Sun from the Friends?
On Heritage day Sunday 14th September the Jubilee Gardens were the
place to be. The many visitors were relaxing in the sun at tables
enjoying cream teas next to the river. Some had visited the Lone-Star
exhibition, some had been on a heritage walk, others had just dropped
in. This was Mill Green at its very best – a place for people of all ages
to visit and enjoy. We cannot organize the climate to behave like this
every day but we can make plans to take advantage of this wonderful
spot throughout the coming year whenever possible.
Now there are exciting plans for the Friends to run these events.
We are, as many of you will already know, closely linked to the
Museum but as a voluntary organization we are actually financially
independent. That means all the income raised, and as important the
kudos of providing teas in a lovely location, would belong to the
Friends. So what would we need to do the job? The answer is simple:
More volunteers, this time to help with the teas at weekends and on
special occasions. Training would be given.
Please don’t get us wrong; you have supported the Friends by
joining and we are certainly not going to pursue you to volunteer for
something in every issue of Friends’ Forum. But if you fancy some
congenial work (and free teas) in a lovely place for about half a day
each month we’d like to hear from you. Write, e-mail or phone the
Friends if you’re interested.
Friends’ round-up.
Forthcoming Friends’ Events.
Please don’t think we are
into sales pitches but our
first two evening talks
attracted capacity
audiences of forty – be
warned therefore - we sell
tickets on the door but only
if there’s room! At Polly
Bishop’s talk on The
gardens of Hatfield House
and the Tradescant
Connection on 17th September we viewed magnificent slides of the
Hatfield House gardens and of the Museum of Gardening at Lambeth
accompanied by a fascinating commentary from Polly Bishop. Our first
afternoon talk on October 15 was also popular when members came to
hear John Higgs give a fascinating talk about the shooting down of the
Cuffley Airship in 1916.
HertBeat: Caroline fields the questions.
Interviewed on HertBeat FM on 13th August Mill Green Curator
Caroline Rawle started off by dispelling an evidently popular myth put to
her by her interviewer. “No” Caroline asserted, “the Roman Baths do
not owe their discovery to the building of the A1 (M)”. She explained
that the original discovery of the baths site took place in 1960. A
second question expertly fielded by Caroline was “Do you take your
bikini” to the Roman Baths?” “No”, replied Caroline, “there is no water
there and you would be very cold if you did!”
Caroline went onto describe children’s’ holiday activities at the
Museum. Answering a question about museum objects she talked
about plastic washing bowls, there because they were made of ICI
plastics (then a major local company), Shredded Wheat cartons
[remember Welgar shredded wheat -Ed?] and the carving knife and fork
with handles made from goat’s legs (designed to put you off your meal
presumably). She also touched on the murdering miller – when the
Hatfield miller murdered his competitor from Stevenage.
It’s unlikely that many curators could equal Caroline’s light touch
when interviewed on pop radio.
Wednesday 21st January, 2.30 for 3.00pm. Robin Webb.
Windmills and watermills. An illustrated talk on the development of
windmills and watermills in Hertfordshire and surrounding areas
including East Anglia.
Wednesday 18th February, 7.30 for 8.00pm. Philip Birtles.
The de Havilland aircraft company, Hatfield. Geoffrey de Havilland
was one of the aviation pioneers who designed and built his own
aircraft in 1909/1910 powered by an engine of his own design. He was
designer and test pilot with the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough,
followed by Airco at Hendon in World War 1. He formed his own
company in 1920 and moved to Hatfield in 1934. Wartime production
included the Mosquito, followed by the Vampire jet fighter and the
Comet – the World’s first jet airliner.
Wednesday 17 March, 2.30 for 3pm. Clare Fleck. Knebworth
House and the Lytton family. This illustrated talk from the archivist at
Knebworth House traces the architectural development of the House
from Tudor Courtyard to Victorian Gothic fantasy with particular
emphasis on the decorative changes of the 19th century. The parallel
story tells of many notable
members of the Lytton
family to whom it has
been home since 1490 –
an early feminist, a literary
giant, a Viceroy of India, a
militant suffragette and
more besides!
All talks are held in the seminar room of the Store building at Mill Green unless
stated otherwise. Tickets are available in advance or, if there is space
available, at the door (numbers are limited to 40). Members’ tickets £2.00,
guests £4.00. Afternoon events include tea/coffee. Evening ones wine or soft
drinks. Museum galleries are closed in the evenings.