A lucky tale

Here at the Museum we preserve the past in lots of different and interesting ways. We have a keen interest in the Suffolk Trinity and we always like to report on any activities of developments to do with the animals we have here on site.

So it's with great pleasure I bring you the story of a new calf here at the Museum, born last Wednesday, the first heifer calf on the ground. It's the story of a calf that nearly didn't come to be, and a very lucky mum with a lucky name to match!

The Calfs mother, is very aptly name Lucky Stripe. Aptly because Lucky was, before she came to the Museum, in the fattening pen at Downham market. Things weren't looking promising, the future was looking bleak, until a breed secretary on Dartmoor got in contact with Jeremy Perkins, who owns the herd who graze here at the Museum.

A frantic race to save Lucky was underway and after a few phonecalls to a cattle dealer, Jeremy became Lucky's hero and the deal was done to save Lucky from the butchers knife, and bring her into the herd. Despite being a black Riggit, Jeremy knew that she carried the red gene, and gave her the name Lucky Stripe because it was her Riggit markings that saved her from the chop!

Lucky Stripe and Rosy

Lucky's luck still hasn't run out, and her beautiful calf is proof of that. Named Rosy, even the new calf has an interesting story behind her name. The name Rosy was given to Jeremy by a wonderful family of visitors he encountered here at the Museum, the little girl, Kelsey having the honour of naming the calf.

Beautiful Rosy!

Rosy has been registered as Two Mills Rosy, and will go in a separate group of Red cows to be started at the Museum. Eventually she will be mated to Rugus of Hindhope, a very handsome, solid red, shaggy bear of a bull calf, brought from a Mr. Elliot at Hindhope,  Jedburgh on the Scottish borders.

Rosy and Lucky can be found on the Nature trail here at the Museum and are definitely worth a look!

Thanks to Jeremy Perkins for all the information http://twomills.weebly.com/

More trainee news

Another week, another blog from another trainee. This time it's the turn of Jed one of our Collections trainees, who's put together this piece for the Association for Suffolk Museums newsletter, which he's kindly offered to share here on the MEAL Blog. It's fantastic to share some of the day to day life of a trainee, and to highlight just how interesting and rewarding the schemes being offered here at the Museum are.

'We’ve now been at MEAL for four months and we’re amazed not only by how quickly the time has passed, but by how much we’ve already done in this short time. Over these four months we’ve attended numerous training sessions, teaching us the expected standards relating to documentation, handling, and conservation to name but three. Significantly though, this traineeship has not just been a prescribed set of training days but a flexible learning experience, and most of our time at the Museum has been spent not in meeting rooms but getting on the job experience.

Fellow trainee Laura labelling an object at the Labeling and Marking objects training

The main focus of these four months has been getting involved in the everyday management of the museum’s collections; using the cataloguing system, finding items in the stores, and adding items to the database. We’ve also been heavily involved in the museum’s HLF project, inventorying items, conducting research, and contributing to interpretation. Alongside our work in the collections, however, we’ve had the chance to get involved in the museum’s events, including the Beer Festival, On Landguard Point and the Steam and Crafts Weekend.

Jed pouring a pint at the beer festival

More recently we have begun to get training as Museum Assistants, looking after the museum’s day-to-day operations but more importantly looking after the museum’s visitors. All of this has been great experience to count towards the Cultural Heritage Venue Operations NVQ we are undertaking over the course of the year.

Visiting the V&A, who are running the NVQ programme

Overall, it’s been a busy but rewarding four months!'