Walsall Museum facts for kids
Walsall Museum was a small museum in the middle of Walsall, a town in the West Midlands, England. It focused on the history of the local area. The museum had many different items, from old fire marks (metal plates on buildings) from the 1600s to posters from the 2000s. It also had a big collection of clothes and fabrics. A very special part of this was The Hodson Shop Collection. This was a unique group of clothes that were never sold from a shop, showing what ordinary people wore from the 1920s to the 1960s. The museum closed its doors for good in March 2015. All the items are now kept safely by Walsall Council's Museum Service.
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Discovering Walsall's Past
The Walsall Museum had many interesting things in its collection. These included items made by local factories, especially from the 1800s and 1900s. There were also unusual objects and historical clothing.
Metalworking Marvels
The museum had a very large collection of items made from metal. This included lorinery, which are metal parts for horses' harnesses and saddles. There were also many locally made locks, shiny brass items, and chains. These show how important metalworking was in Walsall's history.
Cool Creations from the 20th Century
You could find some really cool and new household items from the 1900s. These included clever stainless steel products made by a company called Old Hall in Bloxwich. There were also items from Gaydon and Beetleware, which were made from plastic by BIP's Streetly Plastics. These collections show how local companies were at the forefront of design.
Walsall During Wartime
The museum displayed objects from the First World War and the Second World War. These included things like gas masks, which people wore to protect themselves from harmful gases, and equipment that soldiers used during these big conflicts.
The Hodson Shop: A Fashion Time Capsule
One of the most important collections was from The Hodson Shop. This was a small clothing shop in Willenhall that closed down, and all its unsold stock was kept. It's like a time capsule of everyday clothes from the 1920s all the way to the 1970s. These are the kinds of clothes that usually get worn out and thrown away, so it's rare to find such a complete collection in a museum.
Unusual and Mysterious Objects
The museum also had some very strange and interesting items. One was a scold's bridle, which was a metal device used in the past to punish people who gossiped too much. There was also a preserved crocodile and a preserved child's arm. The arm was found in a chimney in 1870 and people thought it might be a 'hand of glory' (a magical item from old stories). However, tests showed it was a medical specimen preserved with formalin. A doctor used to live at the White Hart Inn where it was found, but how he got the arm remains a mystery.
Famous Faces of Walsall
The museum also kept a few items connected to famous people from Walsall. These included the local writer Jerome K. Jerome, who wrote funny books, and Sister Dora, a pioneer in nursing. There were also items related to John Henry Carless, who received the Victoria Cross (a very brave award) during the First World War.
