COTSWOLD Feature
The 5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, Dursley Company, Marching up Long street in Wotton in 1914
A step back in time Wotton-Under-Edge Heritage Centre will be marking the centenary of the First
World War in its exhibitions for 2014, and it also has another important anniversary to highlight. By Joanne Collier
IT IS 20 years since the present centre was opened, in 1994, and there is much to celebrate in the dedication of the teams of volunteers who have founded it and continued to expand its collections, and who welcome its visitors during opening hours and at other times by arrangement. “This is a small town, but we have got
a big history of it,” says David Baird, the museum’s curator. The collections now contain several
thousand items. “When they were relatively small
everything was on show. But as they were growing bigger and
bigger we decided three years ago to display just selections in themed
42 COTSWOLDESSENCE | March - 2014
exhibitions,” he explains. “This means that people can view the
whole exhibition in a single visit, and come back another day to see a display on a different theme. We have four exhibitions a year,
changing every three months. “But all our items are always accessible
on request, if people come to us wanting to research a particular subject. “We have photographs and objects
illustrating the history of the town’s churches and its organisations, and on its schools including the Katherine Lady Berkeley School, the original grammar school which dates back to the 13th century.
“And we have connections with
inventors and other famous people.” Among these is Isaac Pitman, who
invented shorthand writing during the time that he was headmaster of the Church of England school. He later moved to Bath, but his
residence in the town has been recorded by the presence of a plaque on his former home, now a private house, which was erected on the centenary of his birth in 1913. “We have a large amount of
information on all aspects of his life,” says Mr Baird. Dr Edward Jenner, who developed the vaccine for smallpox, was a pupil at the
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