Emma O'Connor, who manages the house and also Sussex Archaeological Society, gave a talk. She spoke about items within the archaeological society and what they do about accepting donations and rationalising the collection. I found that I could relate to it being part of Camberwell Historical Society (i.e. receiving donations which have no relevance to the area). She also said that Arthur Canon Doyle was a member of the Society which was interesting.
She gave us a tour of the house. It is a medieval house and an example of a 15th century Wealden Hall house.
It has been a Museum for the past 95 years.
They gave us afternoon tea which were scones and cake. Then we had time to explore the house. Upstairs in the bedroom there were costumes so we tried them and took photos.
From there we headed to Windsor. We spent a day at Windsor Castle. First we each got an escorted visitors pass and then walked over to the Castle. It felt great being able to walk past the long line of people and go straight in.
The Learning Curator Richard Williams took us into the Rampart Room (above) which is in the Middle Ward. The castle comprises of three wards: the lower, middle and upper. He gave us a history of the Castle. I didn't realise that it is almost 1000 years old. He talked about the castle's transformation over time, and much of this was due to George IV (a familiar name from visiting Brighton Pavilion) who made some changes, including doubling the height of the main tower in the middle ward (below).
He also spoke of the transformation of St George's Hall from Baroque to Gothic style, and the restoration that happened after the 1992 fire which caused great damage to the Hall.
After that, Painting Curator Lucy Peter gave an introduction to the paintings in the Royal Collection. Having studied Art History I found her talk very fascinating.
The Royal Collection consists of works that have been collected since Henry VIII's time. It is divided into three curatorial sections: paintings, decorative arts, and library, print room and photographs.
Most of the collection is on display and it is spread across the UK in the Queen's private residences.
She talked about the role of the curators at Windsor and also the collection care stewards.
They are trying to promote their art collection because currently only 2% of people who visit the Castle come to see the art.
They also have to try to balance between a Museum and a private residence. Because it is the Queen's home, they try to avoid text panels on the walls next to paintings and objects as this gives the appearance of a Museum as opposed to a residence. If they do use text panels, they have to be easily removed.
Lucy gave us a tour of the paintings in the State Apartments. It was interesting that pre-2015 no-one was able to enter the Waterloo Chamber because they wanted to preserve the carpet. However, they came up with a solution so that visitors can now walk on this space by adding a thin layer of mesh and then another carpet on top.
We walked through King Charles II's rooms: his bedchamber, dressing room, closet and dining room. We got to go behind the rope barriers and get a close look at the paintings and furniture.
After a break for lunch, there was a time for group discussion about displaying and interpreting the paintings in the State Apartments. We gave feedback to Richard Williams and discussed what improvements could be made to the way the space was interpreted and paintings hanging there. One of the problems, for example, is that the State Apartments are massively overfurnished because they have such a large collection of items to put on display.
We were given time to explore the Castle so I went in St George's Chapel and saw Prince Albert's memorial, then went to Queen Mary's dollhouse, before boarding the bus to Oxford.
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