How this Exhibition arose

THE STORY OF HOW THIS EXHIBITION WAS CONCEIVED AND CREATED

Three strands came together to generate the conception and creation of this Exhibtion

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Thanks to the Heritage Lottery funding (requested to repair the church), we were encouraged to do something to involve the community in the life and history of this beautiful Grade A listed church building.  We couldn’t really contemplate making major alterations just to to provide ‘community facilities’, but we recognised that the Stonehaven community does have as one of its strategic aims the increase of one its main economic activities – namely tourism.   So , building a suitable ‘visitor attraction’ would help with this aim.

INFORMATIVE ARTEFACTS

In reviewing what we had in the building, partly as a result of the Diocesan requirement to have an inventory of our assets, we discovered a number of artefacts (bibles, prayer books, silverware and pewterware) that were of considerable historic value, but were languishing unseen and gathering dust in cupboards.  Looking at them closely revealed a wealth of information, a good deal of which is now in display.

THE NEED FOR EXPLANATION

Whilst working in the church during the week, it became obvious that many visitors who came into the church (we have always prided ourselves in the church being open all day, every day), remarked what a beautiful church it was, then turned round and left, none the wiser about the fascinating history that the Episcopal tradition in Stonehaven represents, and significant of the historic Wadsworth organ, and its builder, John Wardle.

Once the idea had been explained, developed and agreed, we had to undertake a considerable amount of research.  Fortunately, two other phases of work took precedence (the elimination of dry rot in the roof of the church, and the upgrade of the utilities (electricity, water and communications).  So we had time to research to content.  The research centered on

  • Establishing the provenance of every artefact, as much as possible
  • Completing the family trees of the people involved, especially those annotated in the Bibles and Prayer Books
  • Photographing, cataloguing and researching all the people remembered in the various items in the church
  • Creating a complete history of John Wardle’s activities, never previously documented
  • Researching the history of the various Wadsworth companies and the people involved

The design of the exhibition had to take into account that

  • the Exhibition would be permanent, with few ongoing changes needed
  • It would be unmanned, and so have to be self-explanatory and low maintenance
  • It must be seen as part of the church, and be sympathetic to the church’s existing architecture.

The detailed design became an iterative process, looking at each set of artefacts and how best to display them.

We a very grateful for the contributions of many people to this Exhibition.  Their names are recorded in the Roll of Honour.

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