Up to £11,698 pa

Fixed Term Contracts commencing April 2012 for 12 months

2 Posts :  Heritage Estate Management and Environmental Conservation

 ‘Learning from the Past – Skilled for the Future’ is a training programme running from April 2011 to March 2014. The programme is being run jointly by Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum and the Museum of East Anglian Life and is supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Its aim is to develop museum based traditional skills.

We currently have vacancies for two 1 year internships commencing April 2012 for people with a passion for heritage, conservation and the environment and who are interested in pursuing a career in the heritage sector or in traditional skills.  Interns may be able to works towards NVQ Level 3 in Environmental Conservation. You will need to be a team player, enthusiastic, flexible, a good communicator, with good practical skills, able to work outdoors and have a ‘can do’ attitude. Above all you will need a positive attitude to learning in a heritage setting.

There are also Skills for the Future opportunities available at our SftF partner museum Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, for details please visit our Skills for the Future page Skills for the Future

Part Time Seasonal Museum Assistants – 3 posts

Up to £6.08 per hour

The Museum of East Anglian Life is looking for enthusiastic and motivated people to work as Museum Assistants. You should have an interest in local history or conservation, be able to interact positively with the public and be fit and able to work outdoors.  Some weekend work will be required.

Museum and Marketing Assistant (Abbot’s Hall)

Starting salary £12,500

To help Museum Visitors enjoy Abbot’s Hall, to provide security and protection for Museum property within Abbot’s Hall and to keep galleries in a clean and tidy condition. To provide marketing support to the Visitor Services Manager.  Some weekend work will be required.

For an application pack  for any of the posts contact Patsy Cane at the Museum of East Anglian Life on 01449 612229 or enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk.

 Closing Date 10 February 2012 at 12 noon

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We recently had a walk past our winter wheat which is growing very thickly, an indication that we may have put too much on. However, it will probably have to suffer some proper weather and plenty of pigeon attention during the winter so there should be plenty left for spring growth and harvest next year.

In the shed the main focus has been to make progress on the Fordson Major E27n tractor. Having got most of the engine assembled it was time to start some checking. The first job was to look for water leaks before filling the engine and gearbox with oil. With a hose which seemed to go half way round Stowmarket we started the filling process. It wasn’t long before we had the floor awash with water and the engine dripping from every joint around the radiator and cylinder-head gasket. There were some very long faces that morning with the realisation that all the gaskets we had taken as ‘old but OK’ were in fact falling to pieces. A modern radiator is a fairly lightweight affair made of aluminium and plastic but our piece of work has a cast iron frame, is made of copper, and can just about be lifted by two stout fellows with another giving instructions! So the front of the tractor had to be jacked up, the front axle removed and the whole cooling system taken off to be cleaned and new gaskets fitted. This took the team a whole day and another half day to put it all back together. After another wrestling match with the hose, the cooling system was filled and the number of leaks, thankfully, could be counted on one finger.  We are in business! The old tractor has an electric starter which had be untried, but a hook up to a battery seems to show that all is well. We all take electric starting for granted on machines these days but in 1945 it was a bit of a luxury; when the day of the big start up arrives, the starter button should surely save much cursing, swearing and cranking.

Beside the Fordson sits the Smythe seed drill. We have started taking some bits off in order that an assessment of what needs to be done may be made. An initial examination reveals plenty of rust requiring some tinwork repairs, however we expect to see it in action in the spring. At the moment the implement is set up for a crop with a large seed; probably beans or peas. This means that we must search our collection of spare parts to see if we can find or adapt a seed barrel with smaller cups suitable for sowing wheat and barley.

We have regular visitors to the museum who have spent much of their working lives operating machinery like ours. They never miss a trick if they think we’ve ‘got it all wrong! We have many most enjoyable discussions with them, learning about what they did and sharing fond memories of time past.

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It’s a very special building, not just to all of us here at the Museum, but also to the people of Stowmarket, and we know that when we open the doors to this Eighteenth Century Queen Anne style house, many will be be waiting to see what has been achieved using the Heritage grant which has helped fund this ambitious project.

We’ll be revealing a nine-room exhibition centre which celebrates everything that makes East Anglia special, and all of those figures that are entwined in the rich history of this part of the country, from Robert Ransome to Lady Eve Balfour, George Ewart Evans and beyond. We’re looking at what East Anglia means to the people that live there, with powerful and meaningful displays which capture the heart within the history.

As well as the house itself, we’ve also seen the restoration of Crowe St Cottages, which housed workers from the house. The cottages will represent the lives of those that lived there, giving an physical example of social history.

We cannot wait for the grand opening next year, years of preparation and hard work are finally coming to fruition in a project which is giving a whole new lease of life to a brilliantly well deserved building. We hope that our supporters and current visitors, will join the many new visitors that are sure to visit the house, in showing your support with a visit to Abbot’s Hall in 2012. We’ll keep you informed on all the dates closer to the time.

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Our trainer for the course is Jim Kemp who is an occupational therapist instructor in Ipswich.  He has been teaching in this capacity for the last 12 years and through this he has qualified as an art instructor.  He has been teaching art in many mediums for the past 7 years.  Prior to his teaching experience he has been an amateur painter for over 40 years specialising in watercolour landscapes.  He has worked professionally with various well known artists in Suffolk.

Jim is very enthusiastic and especially likes teaching beginners; he almost always helps them see their potential even when they lack confidence.

For a full schedule of what the course will include you can access our outline here Watercolour Course Level 1 INFO

The course will cost £115, for more details contact Paul Palmer either by phone 01449 612229, or by email enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk

Details of further courses will be added when they become available

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Gates open at 6:30pm when you will be able to enjoy the sights and smells of traction engines in steam, and a selection of Old Tyme Amusements from an East Anglian Fairground Family. The bonfire will be lit on the top field at 7pm and the fireworks will start at 7:30pm.

Food and refreshments will be available throughout the event.

Tickets will be available in advance from the Mid-Suffolk Tourist Information Centre in Stowmarket – Adults: £4, Children: £3, Special Family ticket: £12 (2 adults and up to 3 children) or alternatively buy your tickets on the night – Adults: £4.50 and Children: £3.50 (no family ticket on the night).

For further information about this or any event at the Museum, please contact:

Tourist Information Centre, Phone:  01449 676800

OR

Patsy Cane Office Manager

Phone: 01449 612229 or email: patsy.cane@eastanglianlife.org.uk

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Come along to two grand days out at the Museum of East Anglian Life this half term!

On Monday 24th of October from 10am ‘til 1pm, see Wallace & Gromit in their cracking film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)! The film follows Wallace and his loyal dog, Gromit, as they set out to discover the mystery behind the garden sabotage that plagues their village and threatens the annual giant vegetable growing contest.

Alongside the film showing there will be two Were-Rabbit Walks and a Gromit Aeroplane Art workshop. The walks will involve surprise and humour, strange vegetables, and tactile touchy things ….all linked to the Were-Rabbit! Children who join us in the hunt will be given a map and an Anti-Pesto Rabbit Round-up Bag to help catch the crafty carrot cruncher.

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit will be screened in Abbots Hall Barn from 10.45am-12.00am, with walks taking place at 10.00am-10.30am and 12.15am-12.45pm. There are only 25 children’s places per walk so please book in advance through the Tourist Information Centre in Stowmarket on 01449 676800. This event is part of Film Flurry – a Suffolk-wide, two week event celebrating children’s films, cartoons and animation.

Get your pencils at the ready on Thursday the 27^th of October when the museum will be holding its annual Big Read, Big Draw in the BIG Barn, 10am – 3pm. This year children’s author and illustrator Lorna Murphy and artist Laura Haines will be running art workshops in Abbot’s Hall Barn based around the book ‘Maisie’s Mountain’ by Lorna Murphy.

‘Maisie’s Mountain’ tells the story of Maisie, a little girl who can’t stop collecting things and never, ever, throws anything away. In fact she collects so much that she creates a mountain of objects that stick out of the roof of her house!

Visitors will be able to hear Maisie’s story, meet the author, create their own characters and add drawings of their favourite things to a 3-D Maisie’s mountain. The Big Read, Big Draw is part of a nationwide event taking place throughout October by The Campaign For Drawing.

For all of October half term, fantastic free entry for children with a paying adult!

Admission £6.50 for adults, children age 6 –14 yrs FREE for October Half Term (no more than 3 children per adult). There is no extra charge for the activities.

For more details Tel: 01449 612229

Website: www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

Email: enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk

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The land in use has had a chequered past; sometimes it has been an arable field, at other times a meadow and also a car-park. All these activities have involved considerable stress to the soil which needs some revival from time to time. Our land is good but its strong clay base means the fine soil grains get very compacted with use. During the ploughing over the last couple of years it has become clear that we have developed a ‘pan’; in other words the soil below the vintage plough depth has been well hammered down, forming a crust. This prevents good cultivation and stops nutrients and moisture moving in the soil.

The first task then is to break up the pan. To do this we deployed my recently restored sub-soiler. This is a simple piece of kit which fits onto the three point linkage of the tractor. It consists of a frame carrying a single tine, or leg, which is pulled through the soil down to a depth of about 17 inches. A modern sub-soiler often has seven legs and is pulled by a four wheel drive tractor with a 200 horse power engine but we are operating in a gentler age! My one leg sub-soiler is pulled by my 60 year-old David Brown Cropmaster with only 35 horse power available. It is a slow old job and once the sub-soiler gets down to working depth it is like driving a subterranean ice breaker. You can see the land moving some distance from the implement as the underground crust is broken up. The size of some of the lumps pulled up by the tackle shows just how hard the underlying soil has become.

Once the land is loosened, it was time to make a seedbed for next years’ wheat. A pull through with the duck-foot harrows soon knocked the lumps out of the soil, levelling things off to resemble a half decent field. Our newly acquired Smythe drill is not yet ready for action  so, as in previous years, we did the sowing the traditional way, broadcasting the seed by hand. Another harrowing followed and finally a slow rib rolling put the seed in contact with the soil leaving a smooth surface for the binder next summer. We’ve become quite good at these jobs and are hoping for a decent crop next year.

We are really looking forward to getting the Smythe seed drill working for the barley and turnip sowing in the spring which will complete our crop rotation.

As we packed up for the day, we started putting a list of jobs onto the blackboard ready for our winter labours. It’s a fairly long list, we are in for a busy time!

As I drove home past the day’s cultivations, a small squadron of rooks had already landed to check out the new menu – twas ever thus.

Peter Gibbs – Steam Team Member

October 2011

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Throughout Abbots Hall, we are investigating the ideas of home and belonging. What makes us feel at home? Can we feel at home when we are not in our houses?

This is where you come in; we want to find out just how important the garden is to our sense of home. According to the National Trust’s Space to Grow report, published earlier this year, “Over 70 per cent of the population think that spending time in gardens is important for their quality of life.”

We want to hear from you! What does your garden mean to you? How do you use your garden? Do you garden for pleasure or is it a chore? What is it that makes you proud of your bit of garden space?

We’re looking for images of all types of garden, from large ornamental gardens such as Helmingham Hall, right through to terraces and allotments. But most importantly we want pictures of you actually doing things in gardens; throwing parties, mowing the lawn, working as a gardener, having barbeques, or just relaxing on a sun lounger! These pictures will help us to understand the importance of gardens to the people of East Anglia and will form the basis for part of our Garden Room display.

If you can help, please email jed.howlett@eastanglianlife.org.uk or write to us at How Does Your Garden Grow? Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 1DL

You can also contribute images through flickr, find out more at: http://flickr.com/people/howdoesyourgardengrow

For more details Tel: 01449 612229

Website: www.eastanglianlife.org.uk

Email: enquiries@eastanglianlife.org.uk

This article is copyright © 2012 

This article is copyright © 2012 

This article is copyright © 2012