Top Ten Posts of 2022

 This is one of the things I like to do, look back at the page views for the posts published the previous year. There were 31 posts published in 2022, and by far the most popular were those concerning the plans for the new Museum and Art Gallery in the Civic Offices, and also the future of Apsley House, the former home of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. I think we could all have predicted that as we eagerly await the opening of the Museum and Art Gallery, and fervently hope that Apsley House does not face further dilapidation before entering its next incarnation. 

I'll list the posts in order of popularity with links to the posts. Coming in at number one was the post about the public engagement exercise at the Civic Offices held on 19 October:

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: Public Engagement Event 19 October to Share Plans (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

Followed by: What is Happening with our museum?

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: What's happening with our museum? (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

At third a piece in the Advertiser entitled 'Work Starts on New Home for Swindon Museum and Art Gallery'

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: Work Starts on New Home for Swindon Museum and Art Gallery (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

Next marking the 2 year anniversary of closure of SM&AG:

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: Two Year Anniversary of Closure Marked (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

In fifth place:

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: A Celebration of Colour: A Display of Artworks and Ceramics in the Civic Offices (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

Sixth place:

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: Art on Tour Exhibitions and Talks (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

Seventh place:

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: Questions and Answers (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

Eighth place:

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: August 2022 (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

Ninth:

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: Christmas meal (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

and lastly a piece about Ken Stradling:

Friends of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery: Remembering Ken Stradling (friendsofsmag.blogspot.com)

Fenella Elms Remembered

 It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Fenella Elms, a wonderful ceramicist, we are lucky to have at least two of her beautiful pieces in the Swindon Collection.

I met Fenella Elms twice, once when she came to the grand unveiling of her 'Large Flowpot' seen above when Grant Aston also came along to reveal 'Radioactivitat', both ceramicists chatted about their influences and how pleased they were to have their works picked for inclusion into the Swindon Collection. They came in April 2015, here's the post written at the time, where you can see the Flowpot.

Subsequently in July 2016, Fenella came and gave a fantastic 'in conversation' with curator, Sophie Cummings. On this occasion she brought a huge number of pots with her so we could see the progression in her work. Here's a link to that post.

Letter of Support for Plans

 In the previous post, I gave an update on the situation regarding Apsley House since it has been put on the market. The hope is that the building will remain in community use rather than be converted into apartments. You can add your comments by clicking on this link: We need your support | Apsley Corner — APSLEY CORNER 

This is what I posted as Chair of the Friends:

'When Friends learned that Apsley House was being sold by Swindon Borough Council, we were concerned that this historic building, open to the public since the 1930s, would no longer be generally accessible. Our hopes for the potential buyer included: someone with a creative vision and a track record of imaginative work who could improve the appearance of the building and include some public access, while providing opportunities for employment, for independent retailers and increased footfall to Old Town. Arthur Dallimer's proposals chime with everything we would hope for the building; breathing new life into it, and improving the Old Town offer; this aspirational plan is very positive for Old Town. Let's do everything we can to make this happen.'

Plans for Apsley House Released

 Last week, the Swindon Advertiser ran an article entitled 'Swindon Museum could become shops and restaurants under plans' with some architect's impressions of how the outside of the building could be enhanced. Local property developer, Arthur Dallimer has put forward plans to buy and develop Apsley House, once home of the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, closed for Covid on 21 March 2020, and closed for good in June 2021. Swindon Borough Council had failed to maintain the building and decided it needed too much investment to bring it back into use, and put it on the market. The Friends successfully applied to have it listed as an Asset of Community Value, and it was accepted as one;  South Swindon Parish Council triggered a 6 month moratorium on the sale by expressing an interest in buying Apsley House, but after looking into the business case, and having the building surveyed, it was decided that the parish could not move forward with the project. Other people interested in buying it have until 5 January 2023 to submit their bids to SBC.

Fears were expressed initially that Apsley House might share the fate of the Corn Exchange and the Oasis, or that it would be converted into HMOs and fall further into disrepair. The building has been in community use as a museum for 90 years and as a gallery for 60 years, and occupies an important position at the heart of Old Town and needs to remain accessible to the community.

There is a page where you can add your comments on the plans for Apsley Corner here: 

https://www.apsleycorner.com/news/support-us 

Architect's impressions of how the building could look are shown below, courtesy of the Swindon Advertiser:

Another article has appeared in the Swindon Advertiser today and can be read here.

Remembering Ken Stradling

 On a recent visit to the RWA, as we passed the Ken Stradling Collection premises; a miniature Kettle's Yard, I thought about Ken Stradling, and how old he might be now. We visited the collection as a Friends' group in July 2014, during that visit, Ken showed us around and talked about how he had been MD of The Bristol Guild, which involved travelling round Europe buying delightful things, many of which he would buy for himself. Here's the blogpost from 2014, and a photograph of Ken from that post, among the ceramics and coloured glass he loved so much:

When I looked him up, I discovered he had died this year on 31 July, aged just over 100, and thought I would recall via this post how much we appreciated the visit, and what a special place the Ken Stradling Collection is. It's well worth looking at the website for more information on Ken Stradling. I have booked Cleo Saunders from the Ken Stradling Collection to come and talk to us about Ken and his legacy on 28 June. It's also worth reading his obituary in the Guardian

I'll add a few photos of  the building which anyone familiar with Bristol will recognise, it's 48, Park Row, BS1 5LH

Below a ceramic teapot

and the inside of the shop

a poster now out of date, the website will give you opening times and more information about visiting

I thought I'd also include the building which used to be His Master's Voice in Bristol with a carved dog above the doorway. The dog, called Nipper, was apparently born in Bristol

Christmas meal

 It's always difficult to arrange talks in December because people are so busy socialising, we decided to have a Friends' social instead. Apart from trips, there have been very few opportunities for Friends to meet up face to face. A computer screen prior to a Zoom talk isn't very sociable, so it was excellent to use the opportunity of a Christmas meal to talk to each other for the first time in almost 3 years. 

We chose to eat at Fabios on Bath Road,  where the service and food was excellent. I'd thoroughly recommend it as a place to take a group, here are some photos taken on the night:

A lovely evening, thank you to all those who came along and made it such a memorable evening.

November talk

Our November talk was to have been given by Richard Osgood, but he has had to reschedule and is coming to talk on 25 October 2023. Angela Atkinson, FSMAG committee member looking after our website content wrote this about Richard:

'Back in 2019, Richard Osgood won the Current Archaelogy Live’s, Archaeologist of the Year award.

Richard is the co-founder of Operation Nightingale – that’s an initiative that uses archaeological fieldwork to aid recovery of wounded veterans.

‘Operation Nightingale is a military initiative developed to use archaeology as a means of aiding the recovery of service personnel injured in recent conflict, particularly in Afghanistan. 

The huge range of sites on Salisbury Plain, many of them remarkably well-preserved within the Ministry of Defence training area, has provided an ideal opportunity for Operation Nightingale to engage in archaeology.

For over two decades Wessex Archaeology has been helping the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and its predecessors protect sites on Salisbury Plain, excavating and recording them where necessary, for example in advance of construction of new hard tracks which allow modern tanks and heavy equipment to be transported across the Plain …’

We look forward to his talk next year very much, meanwhile we have been given permission to use this photo of Richard with Prof Alice Roberts:

We will be releasing details of our whole 2023 Pearl Anniversary talks programme in the New Year