A History of Ancient House in 100 Objects – Ancient House Museum of Thetford Life

A new exhibition opening on Saturday 23 November is set to celebrate Ancient House Museum’s fascinating and eclectic collection – from a 100,000-year-old hand axe to a 1990s Skid Lid bike helmet, and anything and everything in between!

A History of Ancient House in 100 Objects exhibition kicks off a year of celebrations as the museum marks the centenary of its opening on 11^th December 1924. The exhibition and the centenary celebrations are supported by National Lottery players through The National Lottery Heritage Fund, alongside support from Breckland Council, Thetford Town Council and the Friends of Ancient House Museum.

To commemorate this important milestone curators at the museum have worked with local school and community groups to create the exhibition which focuses on the importance of the museum’s ever-evolving collection of more than 7,000 objects.

Each group has chosen ten items which came into the museum collection during each decade the museum has been open, from the 1920s to the 2020s. Delving into the museum archives, the community curators researched hundreds of objects to come up with their final shortlists to go on display.

The resulting displays contain a huge range of objects from the ancient to the modern, from the humble to the elaborate, and from the famous to the obscure. What unites them is they are all, in their own way, ‘treasure’.

Examples include the death mask of Thomas Paine – possibly Thetford’s most famous son – appearing alongside a humble 16^th century clay cooking pot from a chalk mine on Station Road. A famous hoard of Roman silver coins, discovered by a detectorist from Thetford bypass excavations in 1989, is complemented by a hand-made nail which caught the attention of one community curator because it’s bent and had a ‘hard life’.

Items like wig curlers, lace bobbins and dress pins and tools like an ancient quern stone or postal scales reveal details of people’s everyday personal and working lives, while the public life of the town is revealed in objects such as a poster for Town Hall entertainments (featuring a ‘laughing horse’ and ‘the Wonderful Whistler’!) or a Coronation Medal of Edward VII.

The range of objects on display provides a snapshot of how the museum’s collections have developed over the past hundred years, whether through the generous efforts of local donors like George Wild Staniforth, purchases supported by the Museum Friends and others, or in more modern times, through fundraising to acquire important items.

The history of the collections is also a history of the museum’s development, a story the exhibition also tells alongside the displays of objects – from its origins as a gift to the town from Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, its expansion through the dedication of curators and volunteers, to the major redevelopment in 2004-2006 and the vibrant community museum Ancient House is today.

A History of Ancient House in 100 Objects is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the museum’s collections and history as we look forward to the next hundred years and imagine what might enter the collections in the future.