A special tour by my fantastic manager Rachel Bagnall-Bray at Fulham Palace
Front of house volunteer Alexander Ogilvie-Graham’s pair of blog entries both explore hidden objects that carry interesting pieces of the past within them. March object of the month is also about behind the scenes finds!
Every month, we post two pieces by volunteers - one focuses on an object in the Palace and the other on a specimen in the garden. It is a great way to research something that has always interested you and dig into the history of the site, and share your interests with your fellow volunteers. There is no set format so the piece can take the form of creative writing, a reflection, a poem - or anything else!
My tour took place on February 18th, 2021 at 1pm in the afternoon. I was really looking forward to this tour of the barns because it had a multi-purpose facility.
I was a lucky devil indeed as during Lockdown most museums are closed. Yet on the 18th of February 2021, I find myself holding clay pipes from as old as the 1840s to even older time periods. The oldest clay pipe stretched as far back to 1580 which is defiantly older than I am.
Is it a monkeys head or a Lion?
During the third lockdown I was a volunteer field marshal like a security guard. It was Rachel’s idea and it became so popular among the volunteers. I held the post every Sunday during the whole month.
In 2021 we hope that most museums will bounce back better after the lockdowns. The tour of the barns was really inspiring as it showed Rachel on top form. She actually killed the tour of the barn.
I had been lucky enough to have done some mud lurking last some with my team leader Alexis Haslam and now I was with this Angel Rachel doing a tad of Archaeology with her in a grade 2 listed barn.
Here I am looking like an archaeologist glancing at some medieval potter that was found along the shores of Fulham Palace.
Here Rachel and I are trying on some funky hats. Keeping it cool at Fulham Palace. It’s all about the glitter and gold.
I liked the view of this window of Fulham palace. Are we in the city or in the country? Behind the scenes have their perks.
It was a privilege to have a special behind the scenes tour of the barns / the manager offices and have a thimble around the archaeology storage room
The star of Fulham palace in Lockdown is my manager Rachael Bagnall-Bray who has managed the palace and of course Edmund. She did a wicked reading of the new book about Edmund which is a must see.
Overall all it’s not every day I have a kindred spirit as a manager. Even as I was digging around with the Clay Pipes and comparing them to which century they were. I was thinking about reaching for the stars.
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Thank you Alexander for this fantastic blog post! :)