Winterbourne’s museum collection encompasses family archives, household objects, botanical and industrial history and fine art.  It’s an active collection, with new items being added all the time.  Here are some of the exciting objects we have acquired during the last few months! 

Garden archaeology

Over the years, various items have emerged from the soil at Winterbourne, including old plant labels, buttons and even a plastic snake.  A member of the garden team unearthed one of our most exciting ‘archaeological’ finds in the walled garden this summer.  The object was dirty and corroded, but its shape was instantly recognisable.  It was a fob – or pocket – watch.  A museum volunteer has cleaned it up as far as she can, but to go any further would mean inflicting damage on the object, so we are leaving some of its covering of dirt intact.  We have no idea how old the watch is, or who might have owned it.  Somebody must have dropped it while working in the garden, at any point between 1904 and the 1960s.

The GKN brand

Our deep historical link with Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds (GKN) continues to generate new donations.  GKN promoted itself through creating merchandise and branded items which were often presented to delegates at conferences or potential clients.  This propelling pencil in the shape of a screw was owned by a gentleman who worked in the automobile trade in South America.  It bears the inscription ‘Use Nettlefolds Screws’.

In the 1970s, female engineers were still few and far between.  The lady who donated this GKN-branded silk scarf was one of only two women to attend a GKN ‘Approach to Management’ course in 1973.  She later became a Project Engineer at GKN.  The GKN logo featured here was designed by the famous graphic artist Abram Games and was introduced in 1968.  The scarf is on display in the GKN exhibition.

Art, past and present

Margaret and John Nettlefold were both art lovers, and Margaret herself was an accomplished watercolour painter, so we can be sure that they would have filled their home with fine art.  We’re always on the lookout for items from the period, and this beautiful 1913 watercolour by Arthur Dickinson Brunton turned up in my local charity shop!  It’s the second work by Brunton that I have acquired in this way.  This Welsh view is particularly appropriate as the Nettlefolds regularly spent holidays in Wales.  Brunton had a good reputation in his time, and his daughter went on to become a very well-respected artist too.

Contemporary art also features in our collection.  Our recent exhibition ‘Much is Lost, Much Remains’ by Marian Edwards proved extremely popular with our visitors.  Some of Marian’s pieces were directly inspired by Winterbourne.  She focused on the lace collar that Margaret Nettlefold is wearing in Byam Shaw’s portrait and created linocuts based on the floral motifs in the lace.  Marian has kindly donated two of linocut prints to us.  We hope to put one of these on display soon, as a permanent reminder of Marian’s fruitful collaboration with us.

A future Prime Minister on a picnic?

During the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, several Birmingham families intermarried, creating a complex web of relationships.  Three of those close-knit families were the Nettlefolds, the Chamberlains and the Kenricks.  Margaret Nettlefold and Neville Chamberlain were first cousins.  Their fathers were brothers, and their mothers were Kenrick sisters!  John Nettlefold’s sister also married a Kenrick. 

It is through the Kenrick family that we have acquired a travelling knife and fork set, which belonged to Neville Chamberlain.  The two components slot together, and can be slipped into a pocket.  We don’t know exactly how Neville used this set, but it’s tempting to imagine him on a picnic with his cousin Margaret!

On active service

In our archive we have some fascinating letters from the Nettlefolds’ son Ken, written during the First World War.  He was posted to Salonika.  He mentions many of the interesting sites that he visited locally. 

Postcards of Salonika, dating to 1916, have been donated by someone whose family members also served in Salonika at the same time as Ken.  This Triumphal Arch is mentioned in Ken Nettlefold’s correspondence, on 14th Sept 1917:  “Looking up the street I saw the triumphal arch, called ‘of Alexander’ across the road. (When I can I will get a postcard of it). Round the lower parts there are 4 courses of sculpture, some well preserved, evidently representing the Emperor in his triumph. The costume of the soldiers seemed Roman, so I expect Alexander has nothing to do with it. The inhabitants seem to think his name will do as well as another for visitors.”   We don’t know whether Ken ever bought a postcard of this historic site, but if he did, it might well have been the same as this one.

Henrietta Lockhart, Curator