Category Archives: My Lincolnshire Collection

The Project Diaries: The Ghost of Gordon Boswell’s Romany Museum Part I

Posted on by
Reply

PART I

Ghost CoverIn a quiet corner of Clay Lake, a few minutes’ drive away from the hustle and bustle of Spalding High Street sits Gordon Boswell’s Romany Museum, founded and run by Mr Boswell and his family. The museum houses what is said to be the largest public display of traditional Romany Gypsy vardos (wagons), photographs and memorabilia in the world so, naturally, I called and made an appointment to visit the museum the second I found out about it.

It was on a blustery grey Thursday that I pulled into the yard of the museum and got out to find the front doors to the building locked. I was almost an hour early for my meeting with Mr Boswell so was unsurprised when my knocking went unanswered. Undeterred in my rudeness, I went and called at the front door of the house next to the museum (I had been reliably informed that this was where Mr Boswell lived), and was received by Mrs Boswell who kindly took me through to the back of the museum where we found Mr Boswell in the middle of his previous meeting. I (finally) felt bad. Especially when Mrs Boswell accused her husband of forgetting about his meeting with me. “No, no! I’m early, I’m very early.” I bleated, guiltily. Mr Boswell graciously ignored my bad manners and said that I was welcome to have a wander around the museum whilst he finished up his current engagement.

IMG_4482

The museum is packed with wonderful things to look at and learn about.

The Romany Museum, I discovered, is a difficult place through which to wander casually (or, indeed, quietly). There are so many vibrant and fascinating displays to see and read about that one ends up dashing from thing to thing, gasping audibly at the excitement of seeing so many beautiful objects in one place. Large vardos of every colour line the walls, making the entire space look like something from a fairy-tale. Ten minutes into my exploration, I was nosily poking my head around the inside a reconstruction of a fortune-teller’s tent (complete with mannequin dressed in traditional Romany fortune-teller’s garb) when I heard Mr Boswell calling me from the other side of the museum. As we went to sit down in the museum café, I apologised for my early arrival, and for intruding on the previous appointment.

“No, it’s fine. We’ve had lots of people coming and going recently.”

“Oh?” I enquired, “I thought you didn’t formally reopen for the new season until March?”

“We don’t!” He replied. “But we’ve had the ghost-hunters in several times over the past few weeks.”

“Ghost-hunters?!” Ever the sceptic, I stifled a chuckle.  “Don’t tell me this place is haunted?”

Mr Boswell didn’t return my light-hearted expression. The corners of his mouth turning down, I realised that he was quite serious.

I hesitated for a moment but, curiosity piqued, asked to hear more…

Read on, in The Ghost of Gordon Boswell’s Romany Museum Part II.

#OurLincolnshire: Top picks from Instagram

Gallery

Posted on by

This gallery contains 5 photos.

It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Our Lincolnshire project on social media. Having launched on twitter and Instagram just over a fortnight ago, we’ve received lots of fantastic photos of from across the county via the … Continue reading →

Now launched: My Lincolnshire Collection web app

Featured

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve just launched the ‘My Lincolnshire Collection’ web app!

Choose your favourite 10 images from a collection of 100, of objects from across the county that reflect Lincolnshire’s diverse heritage.

Submit your responses and find out where your favourite objects are located in Lincolnshire – we hope you enjoy!

For a bit of fun – have a go at our Buzzfeed quiz ‘Which TV Historian are you?’ Could you be Carenza…?!

You can still tell us your views on Lincolnshire’s heritage with the Our Lincolnshire Heritage Survey – please take part!

Start Survey

Tell us your views about your heritage.

Introducing: My Lincolnshire Collection

Posted on by
Reply

As part of Our Lincolnshire’s aim to engage digital audiences, the project is working towards the launch of ‘My Lincolnshire Collection’, a new web app that will enable users to access a virtual gallery of heritage objects complete with compact and informative descriptions.

Images of these objects are being collected from heritage sites all over Lincolnshire in the hopes that, in addition to the historical artefacts that draw thousands of visitors to our town and city centres each year, the collection will also represent the county’s lesser-known treasures.

Now for the fun part. From a panel of approximately 100 objects, users will be able to choose up to ten favourites, curating a collection to reflect their own tastes and priorities regarding Lincolnshire’s rural heritage. Objects can be selected by dragging the relevant thumbnail from the main gallery up into the green bar at the top of the page.

If users would like a closer look at an object, they need only click on its thumbnail to bring up a larger image of it. They will also find a description of the object beneath the image to help them in making the all-important decision of whether or not to include the item in their collection.

Indeed, we would love to hear about how and why our users have chosen their objects, so on the web app’s final page we have left a space for them to let us know their thoughts before their collection is submitted.

Our Lincolnshire will analyse submissions to ‘My Lincolnshire Collection’ regularly, so that we can keep track of any objects that are proving particularly popular amongst our users. We hope that the data collected by the web app will enable us to ascertain the areas of heritage that appeal most to the public. But, in the meantime we want our users will have a great time putting together their collection, so would love to hear any suggestions you may have on how we can make the experience more fun. Please feel free to voice your opinions in the comments box below!