BY JAN NARY
The Redland Museum, with its collection of more than 14,000 items, punches well above its weight.
Most items, from baker’s carts to kitchen appliances, have been donated. Appropriate items are accessioned into the collection, but they’re not always in good condition, and that’s when the museum’s workshop team springs into action. Most visitors are unaware of the fully equipped workshop tucked away in a corner of the museum where wonders of rescue and restoration are executed by a small team with a wealth of skills.
Rod Burke is a production engineer, fitter and turner – he recently constructed a solid safety fence for the vintage steam engine in the farm machinery section so that it could be operated safely for visitor demonstrations. Rod is currently working on the restoration of a rare and elegant 1880s boot sewing machine. “We’re the service centre for the museum; we do anything!”
At a nearby workstation, Ralph Gofton, one of the Indian Scout motorbike restorers, is sandblasting the treadle plate of the same machine, taking the piece back to bare metal ready to be painted. Ralph, a professional printer who’ll turn his hand to anything, also runs visitor demonstrations on the museum’s 19th-century Chandler & Price platen printer.
David Hopkins, a retired Telecom electrician, spends a lot of his time and expertise in fixing things in the workshop; he’s currently building a cage to house a compressor away from the general work area.
“Stuff just comes through that door and we have to work out what needs to be done with it and how to do it,” he says. “It can be anything that Collections think is worth restoring; we’ve got a pump and a wheel balancer to work on, and Bob Talbot is currently restoring an 1880s vintage camera. We’ve got a good team with a lot of skills – engineers, woodworkers, welders, even an artist – so we’ll give anything a go! If we can’t source a part we need, we’ll make it.”
Past President Ross Bower, explained that “the Collections team makes the decisions on which donations are accepted based on the relevance to the history and heritage of the Redlands”. After the item is photographed and described, if it needs conservation we pass it to the Workshop team to bring it back to working condition.”
With qualifications in electrical and mechanical engineering – and rocket science – Ross is a valuable reference point for the Workshop team.
As Ralph says: “The Workshop’s great fun; they’re a really diverse group of blokes, and there’s always something to talk about!”
