Great War exhibition success
Bradford on Avon Museum’s exhibition about the Great War has now closed and has been a great success. Just under a thousand visitors were counted during the times when a Steward was on duty and there must have been many more uncounted when it was not stewarded too.
A special event was the opportunity for children to dress up in military and nursing uniform and to be instructed in drilling and bandaging. More than 120 children and their parents attended. We are grateful to staff from Trowbridge Museum who staged the event.
The exhibition was based around two displays from “Wiltshire at war -community stories” which told how the First World War affected the people of Wiltshire. They were assembled at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre with sponsorship from Wiltshire Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Athelstan Museum at Malmesbury, Trowbridge Museum and Chippenham Museum & Heritage Centre.
Bradford on Avon Museum added photographs and objects from its own collection. These included photographs from the Red Cross Hospital at Avoncliff that was established 100 years ago in 1917 and of the Church Lads Brigade, many of whose members went on to fight in the war and some to die in it.