The Sandwich Guildhall Museum had an excellent company experience day lined up for the students involved! The students started off with a guided tour of the museum with Hank, a very knowledgeable volunteer. Hank provided us with insightful and detailed descriptions of the history of the town of Sandwich, the exhibits, and the Guildhall and students loved it. There was a temporary exhibition of Sandwich and the war which Hank described wonderfully.
Millie, the supervisor of the museum, gave us a tour of the behind the scenes of the museum and how they store artefacts they have had donated. Before lunch, she gave us a short talk on how the museum operates and how they categorise and log the artefacts & Millie answered questions we had for her. Our main task started just before lunch was going through and using the knowledge of how the artefacts were categorised and then doing that. We were given a few boxes of letters, posters and correspondences between Sandwich officials and the government in the late 1800’s.
This was such a unique experience which was given to us. We read documents from at least 100 years ago relating to the market and rules and regulations around them. It was fascinating to try and decipher what was written. As an ex-teacher, I have struggled with understanding handwriting in the past, but this was entirely something else. We had everybody try and read one document and still not understand it, aside from a word or two.
If you are interested in history or museum conservation at all, this is a fantastic opportunity to check out! The students had a fantastic time and we got a great insight into what is involved in museum curation and conservation. This is something I would highly recommend going to. I would also recommend visiting Sandwich Guildhall too – it’s free and you will have a great time. Check it out here: https://www.sandwichguildhallmuseum.co.uk/
