Welcome to Ditchling Museum. The downland setting and rural way of life inspired artists including Eric Gill, Edward Johnston, David Jones, and Ethel Mairet to settle in Ditchling in the early years of the 20th Century. The international recognition that followed, as a centre for print, calligraphy, weaving and other crafts, is reflected in the Museum’s permanent collection, and the programme of exhibitions and educational events.
The history of the village and its people is interpreted in the archive of Social History which includes the ongoing collection of oral histories. Ditchling History Project’s display for 2008 is We Were There! 7 Views of Ditchling.
Do you have a weird and wonderful collection?
Would you be happy to lend us your collection?
If yes Ditchling Museum needs YOU...
As we celebrate the museum Collection, we are also showing a series of small displays throughout the year that look at personal collections and explore what and why people choose to collect.
The first of these was the collection of Knitting Patterns belonging to Donna Steele, newly appointed as our Collections Manager.
This is followed by a display of Matchbox Labels collected by one of our volunteers Ian Clayton and his twin brother Geoffrey. They began collecting as boys in the late 1940's and have over 1,000 labels.
Other Collections to look out for are packaging, pepper-pots and handkerchiefs.
If you have a collection you would like to lend please contact Natalie Franklin (Assistant Curator) on: 01273 844744 or write to: My Collection, Ditchling Museum, Church Lane, Ditchling, East Sussex, BN6 8TB.
This year, as part of the plan to develop the museum's home, we are celebrating the Collection with one exhibition 'Art, Craft and the Village Life of Ditchling: A Collection Considered'.
Each carefully chosen object tells something about this remarkable village and the people who lived here. Tools of the artist can be seen alongside those of the village craftsman, Edward Johnston's calligraphy beside a school girl's copy book, a cup and saucer from the old Church Room with a tankard by Bernard Leach and the sign, by Eric Gill, for Ethel Mairet's workshop with the sign for the toll gate. Landscape is explored in a David Jones painting shown alongside the wartime map used by the Sussex Resistance and Louis Ginnett's portrait of his daughter hangs by the snapshot of a village child. No collection can tell a complete story about a community but what can this exhibition reveal about Ditchling?
The Exhibition will be accompanied by a range of events and workshops for children, adults and families marking Museums and Galleries Month, and Architecture Week.
Site © 2007-2008 Ditchling Museum.
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