Blue, blue electric blue..

Bluebells at Godolphin, Cornwall

Once again I headed west to Godolphin, and was greeted by an electric blue carpet and a heady scent of bluebells, I felt like sitting under a tree and daydreaming the day away. I was down in the far West doing a handful of small jobs. At Godolphin I had more empty museum archive boxes to deliver, an appropriate task as  I have a red Berllingo and am called Post Man Pat by many NT Rangers  and small children, but my car cat is white not black and white! 

Objects found at Godolphin that can be handled by visitors

I also wanted to see the new  hands on archaeology activities  that Siobhan had created in the King’s room. They are proving a great success with the visitors, with lots of activities to go with them, including sets of dominoes for families to play. I remember playing with my grandpa who use to knock the table to make all the tiles fall over and he could then see what we all had!

The Kings room at Godolphin

Jim the National Trust Archaeologist based in Cornwall with his organized paper archive.

I visited the NT archaeologist based in Cornwall to audit his  finds and paper archive, it’s all part of the national archives work I told you about  in the February  post The future of the past. As well as our own archaeologists I am checking with museums what the have that has come from NT sites, especially from before they came into NT ownership. I had the pleasure of visiting Helston Folk Museum, the front looks like a very small building but once inside it is a Tardis!  full of social history, archaeology and so many interesting tools to keep all happy! There is an upstairs with a sloping floor due to the original use of the building as a meat and butter market.

The entrance to Helston Museum

The value of visiting  local museums are many fold, I was hoping to familiarize myself with the local  pottery and objects from excavations, and also what industries took place and any unusual tools and equipment we may find when working on a site. I was very excited to see in one of the displays a bone spoon almost exactly like one we had found at Godolphin and which was now in the handing collection in the Kings’s room!  it was part of a collection of bone spoons made at a farm just across the fields from Godolphin, whether the people on the farm made them for sale was not clear but the connection with our spoon was intriguing,  the moral of the story is visit your local museums you may be surprised! 🙂

Bone spoon found at Godolphin

Finally I had to include a photo of a very popular attraction at Godolphin, Gollum the Turkey, hopefully visitors will remember the archaeological  finds and not just dear old Gollum!

Gollum the turkey another attraction at Godolphin!