A Running Mill once again

Recent visitors may be aware that recently we were unable to offer a working demonstration of our watermill. The Alton Watermill was moved from its original location, west of Ipswich, in the 1970’s to enable the construction of a new Reservoir. After a period of 7 years, the Mill was reconstructed here at the Museum, and we've been running bi-daily demonstrations as well as a guided mill talk. Recently we encountered problems due to the Mill wheel shifting on its axis, and were unable to run the mill for a period of about 2 weeks.

Alton Watermill

Thankfully we can now say that our Mill is running once again! After some clever work by our Estate team, we can once again show the process of how the Mill works, how we pump water from the mill, and the fantastic demonstration of seeing that water wheel turning! Once again we should be running the mill twice a day, so check with our Whats On board as you come into the museum to see what those times are.

Animal location changes

We know how much everyone loves to see our animals, so an important update regarding the location of the horses and donkeys. Major and Tyson have moved from their paddock, to the field behind the wind pump, there's plenty of grass for them to eat, and loads of space for them to enjoy!

Tyson

Major

Our donkeys have also had a move! The three donkeys can now be found just in front of the wind pump, and the five have been put into the field where Tyson and Major used to be. Lots of happy animals, now with plenty of grass to enjoy.

Alan

New Life at the Museum

Here at the Museum we do love something small, cute and fluffy and as you can see below, our little chicks fulfil the criteria perfectly!

Our new arrivals!

What's even more special about these chicks is their breed, the Mantes is an old French breed that was extinct for 50 years, but which was recreated in around 1960. Originally developed through crossing Houdans with Brahmas.

As you can see from the chicks, they have a black patch, as the plumage will eventually be black with white mottling.

The chicks are located next to the allotment, and are very cute and growing fast, so make sure you come and have a look at them.

(Thanks to the feathersite.com for information on the Mantes breed)

Fun and games the Victorian Way!

Hannah in full Victorian gear, demonstrating the hoop and stick!

Today we had our annual Victorian fun and games day, and what fantastic weather for it! Children had the opportunity to step back in time this half term and join in with some traditional games such as croquet, cricket and the potato race. There was also Ludo, Snakes and Ladders and Draughts and they could try out some Victorian toys such as the hoop and stick. As well as making ‘East Anglian’ paper dolls and discovering the art of decoupage.

Little one trying out the hoopla!

A giant size game of draughts! 

Discovering what toys used to be like