Bumper Season for Magical Martinborough Museum

A young visitor tap-tapping on a vintage Museum typewriter.

By Winifred Bull

“A fantastic place,” “wonderful displays,” “well curated,” “I remember visiting my grandmother as a very young girl and seeing tea sets like this,” “so different to the large museums we have been visiting” … 

These comments are some of those recorded by nearly 800 visitors over the summer break when the Museum opened for extended hours. They came from far and wide. Besides visitors from our own shores, others came from Australia, Canada, the USA, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, England, Wales, Scotland, and Japan.

There is no doubt that many felt the “WOW” factor that stepping into a drawing room of days gone by can create. The specially designed wallpaper is something that captures the imagination. 

Wonderment is also expressed at the tiniest corset that many have ever seen, with a waist of 54cm. “How could anyone fit into that” said one woman, “With a great deal of difficulty and pain I would have thought” replied her husband. An inspection of the lovely dresses on the models beneath which this, and similar corsets, would have been concealed shows that women were certainly a lot smaller at the turn of the 19 th century.

There are interactive exhibits to interest young and old. It was particularly delightful to witness the pleasure experienced by many of the younger visitors, “the kids loved the typewriters.” For some, it was something of an ordeal to drag their children away from thumping on these ancient predecessors of the modern computer keyboard. 

The moa bones were another display that enthralled “the Moa bones were so cool.” The “Treasure Hunt” was also fun for many children: they have to find objects tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the Museum. Some had never heard of a mantelpiece (where one of the treasures was sitting); another relic of the past as central heating and heat pumps have replaced the open fire.

If you have people staying bring them to visit for an enjoyable step back in time or a chance to catch up on some local history.

The Museum is No.7 The Square. It opens 10.30 – 2.30 Saturdays and Sundays and public holidays. It has been open every day from 26 December until 6 February.