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Animals in War Memorial with a dog.

Animals in War Remembrance Weekend Memorial

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Come along to a Remembrance weekend event with a difference. We will be having short remembrance service for all the animals who have suffered in war. This will take place on Saturday the 9th of November at 3pm at the Animals in War memorial outside the Devils Porridge Museum. The event will be organised and led by young people. We would welcome people to bring along their pets: dogs, cats, horses – whatever you like really (as long as you keep them under control!) Purple poppies will be available (via donation) for you to put on your animals collar. We hope to see lots of people and animals there! After the ceremony, you will be welcome to visit the Museum (normal admission charges apply) and see our Animals in War Exhibition which runs until December.

 

We will be joined by a group of World War One historical re-enactors. They will be bringing their horses who will be equipped as horses were in World War One. There will also be wreath laying and remembrance service.

Stop Motion Animation Workshop.

Family Friendly Museum

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This was sent to us by a parent who wanted to endorse our nomination as ‘The Most Family Friendly Museum in the UK’. We thank her for her kind words of support and we’re pleased that her son found the experience so rewarding.

 

“In the last few months I have been attending some of the fun sessions at the Devil’s Porridge Museum with my 9 year old son. My son is a wonderful young boy, kind, happy, brave and strong and has a particular fascination for the history of both World Wars. At the age of 4 my son was diagnosed with Severe Asthma and has had numerous stays in hospital due to severe problems with his breathing from chest infections which became very risky at times. His health particularly in the last three years has become more problematic which again has resulted in numerous hospital stays and numerous hospital appointments and continuous blood sampling all of which have taken their toll on my son’s physical and mental well-being. His medication is very strong and can have side-effects on a daily basis too which has meant plenty of time absent from school and friends and teachers who all miss my son when he is not at school. No matter how positive and happy we try to be at home in the last 12 months alone, being his mum, I have watched my son’s usually ‘bright spark of light’ dimmer due to his health which is very distressing to observe as a parent too.

 

However, recently Judith at The Devils Porridge Museum Team invited my son and I along to the ‘Stop-Motion Animation Workshop’ over the course of a full weekend my son absolutely loved every minute and is still talking about the workshop. Judith and the team embraced my son and welcomed him (irrespective of his health needs) into the museum to just be like any other child and young adult there within the group. My son et new people, learned new skills such as camera function and equipment and discussed the history of both World Wars, he was in his element! I could not thank Judith and The Devil’s Porridge team enough, a huge thank you doesn’t even seem to be enough when they have brought back my son’s bright spark of light. Tears of joy! Thank you Thank you.

 

The Devils Porridge Museum and the team deserve to win this award, it is a tremendous place, a place of respect to all those involved in both World Wars.

 

Kindest regards

Kate

A Very Proud Mum

Half Term Clubs at the Museum

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Here are the activities which will be going on at the Museum after we re-open in January.

All clubs will start on the week beginning January 13th and run until Sunday February 16th. The clubs will restart after the half term on Monday February 24th and run until Sunday April 5th.

 

Mondays: Arts and Crafts (3:15-4:15pm)

Join Alison and Wendy each week for different creative projects. Open to all ages

Tuesday: Drama Workshop with Helen O’Grady Drama Academy (5 – 6pm)

Booking essential – in 2x 5-week blocks

Block 1: Jan 14th – Feb 11th / Block 2: Feb 25th – Mar 24th

Open to Primary 4 and above.

 

Tuesday: Study Club (6 – 8pm)

Homework and revision sessions. Open to S4 and above!

 

Wednesday: Creative colouring (3:15 – 4:15pm)

Relax and enjoy the simple pleasure of colouring in! This session is open to all ages and is a great activity for the whole family.

Creative Colouring

Thursday: Young Historians Club (4-5pm)

Explore different historic time periods and find out about what it is like to work in the museum. Open to Primary 4 and above!

Young Historians Club

Thursday: Life Skills – Lets Cook!

Find out more about healthy eating and cooking on a budget. Block booking essential!

(The Let’s Cook sessions will not run on the 3rd Thursday of every month!)

Open to S4 and above!

 

Friday: Cartoon Workshops (3:30 – 4:30pm)

Draw your own cartoon characters with local cartoonist Jack O’Hara. 5 week block – Booking essential!

 

Saturday: Games Club (10 – 12)

Devils Porridge Games Club everything from traditional board games to trading card games like Pokémon, and phone and tablet base gaming.

10 – 11 open to primary 6 and above, the everyone welcome from 11 – 12.

Games Club

Sundays: Green Devils Eco Club (1 – 3)

Take part in eco projects around the Museum and learn about how we can benefit the environment. Open to the whole family (starting January 26th!)

Gardening Club

All clubs are completely free! Contact steven@devilsporridge.org.uk for more information.  An A5 leaflet with all the clubs on is available from the Museum’s main reception desk.

 

 

Two young people dressing up inside The Devil's Porridge Museum.

It’s just once week until Kids in Museums announces the winner of the Family Friendly Museum Award

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It’s just once week until Kids in Museums announces the winner of the Family Friendly Museum Award!  The Devil’s Porridge Museum is delighted to have made the shortlist and a week today (on Monday October 14th) three representatives of the Museum: Chairman Richard Brodie, Access and Learning Officer Steven Bogle and Manager Judith Hewitt, will be travelling down to London to attend an event where we will meet the other shortlisted Museum and hear about their projects (and also hear which Museum has won, of course!)

It has been a big thing for us to be shortlisted and is a credit to the dedication of our team: staff and volunteers.  We have a very supporting community who appreciate the work we do and we thank them for nominating us.  Seeing what could be perceived to be a ‘small’ and comparatively new Museum on such a big stage is great.

We studied the Kids in Museums Manifesto quite seriously before signing up to it (and displaying it in our foyer and creating a mammoth trail based around it).  It really chimed with the Museum staff.  It has helped motivate us to take action or clarify things such as our breastfeeding policy, our approach to people bringing packed lunches to eat with them and our provision of steps for younger children to use when they visit the Museum and in the toilet facilities as well.  Our Kids’ Secret Chill Out zone worked so well in the summer that we have kept a relaxation area as a permanent feature of the Museum.  We’ve been paying attention to the best practice of other museums and this has led to resources such as our Museum Story, touch and sound tour maps.  We look forward to meeting with the organisation Autism in the Museums when we are in London in the next few days.

We try to the best to serve the  people of our community and we’re particularly pleased that we have such a large number of young people involved in the Museum now in one form or another.  They may attend our afterschool or holiday clubs, come along to our Halloween or Christmas party or visit as part of a school group.  We also have young people woven into the life and work of the Museum as volunteers,  apprentices, work experience students, interns and as the curators of our current ‘Animals in War’ exhibition.  Their presence in the Museum is increasing and so is their voice.  We are delighted to have had Katie and Carrick as Junior Representatives at our Board Meetings for the past few years and the new Youth Council with Calum McDougall as Youth Representative is a really positive step forward for us.  The Youth Council have lots of ideas for projects which we are looking forward to pursuing.  We enjoyed our Social Media takeover day back in July and are taking part in November’s Museum Takeover Day: we’re delighted that both our local primary schools are going to be involved.

We’ve been working on some great projects and we would obviously love to win to get recognition for all that we have done but to demonstrate to people that you don’t have to have endless resources or lots of staff to achieve great things.  A team with a can do attitude and energy can get you there as well.

Museums can be perceived as elitist but we believe that access should always be their watchword.  What are museums for if not the public and the future?  Getting young people to engage with their heritage, to visit a museum, to come to it repeatedly, to see it as an active and integral part of their community which enriches their life and provides them with new and stimulating experiences is very important to us at The Devil’s Porridge Museum.  We are a proud to be a community museum with young people at its heart and we thank Kids in Museums for the opportunity to share our work with a wider audience.  Fingers crossed for Monday!

Resources available to help plan your visit

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Our Access and Learning Officer, Steven Bogle, has reached out to different organisations and taken advice from different volunteers and users of the Museum to create a series of really useful guides to help you plan your visit.

These will be of particular use for people with Additional Support Needs or for those on the Autistic Spectrum.  For more details on visiting the Museum, please email: info@devilsporridge.org.uk or phone 01461 700021.

We will be making these guides available in the Museum and creating an online permanent space for them on our website.  We hope these guides will be of use to our visitors and help them to plan their visits according to their needs.

The first guide shows you where noise can be found within the Museum:

sound plan

The second guide indicates where you can touch and interact with objects:

Also available, a full ‘Museum Story’ which guides you through what to expect at the Museum.

Two members of the Women's Police.

Talk: The Women’s Police Service at HM Factory Gretna

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Talk: The Woman’s Police Service at HM Factory Gretna

October 15th 2019 at 7pm

£3 per person, payable at the door.

 

There were over 150 women police officers stationed at His Majesty’s Factory Gretna during World War One. This talk will consider their role policing female munitions workers suffragette connections.

Womens PoliceThis talk will be delivered by Dr Chris Brader who wrote his PhD thesis on female munitions workers at Gretna during World War One and is the author of ‘Timbertown Girls: Borders Women and the First World War’.

Womens Police

Wojtek the bear.

Wojtek the Bear talk by Aileen Orr

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This talk will take place on Tuesday 17th of September at 7pm.

£3 per person which is payable at the door.

 

The story of Wojtek is about a bear cub picked up by a group of Poles who had been released from Siberian gulags in 1942. He was then transported by them down to Iraq where the men joined the Polish army to fight with the Allies. He became their mascot and travelled with them to Italy where he was spotted carrying boxes of ammunition with the men at Monte Cassino. A war artist made a military emblem of the bear carrying a shell for them which became famous.

When the war was over, the same Poles were sent from Naples to Glasgow with the bear. They then ended their journey at Winfield camp in Berwickshire for two years until 1947 when the Displaced Persons camps were closed.

The bear was sent to Edinburgh Zoo until Poland became free, but he died in 1963 at the age of 21.

His story was witnessed and recorded by James Little KOSB from Moniaive. His granddaughter Aileen Orr wrote the story and her family helped erect the Wojtek memorial in Princess Street Gardens. Aileen is the author of Wojtek the Bear: Polish War Hero (published by birlinn, 2012).

The Devils Porridge Museum from outside.

Annual General Meeting 2019

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Eastriggs and Gretna Heritage (SCIO)

This event will take place on the 18th of September 2019 from 7pm.

The meeting will be located at The Devils Porridge Museum.

Everyone is welcome

NB: forms will be available for anyone wishing to join the SCIO, which would allow a vote in matters pertaining to the Eastriggs and Gretna Heritage Group (SCIO)

Here is the address of the event:

Annan Road, Eastriggs

DG12 6TF

you can also contact us via email: info@devilsporridge.org.uk or phone us at 01461 700021

Gretna or Eastriggs in the past.

Free walks and tours for Doors Open Day Weekend

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The Devil’s Porridge will be taking part in Doors Open Day weekend this September 7th and 8th. The museum itself will be open as normal (entry charges apply) but we will be offering a series of FREE activities throughout the weekend.

Please email: manager@devilsporridge.org.uk to book your place, phone 01461 700021 or message us through Facebook. Please book (don’t just show up) so we can plan for numbers. Please specify Gretna walk 1 (10.30 am), Gretna walk 2 (1.30 pm), Eastriggs Walk or visit to the pumping house when you book. You are welcome to come to more than one activity.

Saturday 7th of September

Guided walks around Gretna: a chance to find out about the World War One buildings still in existence with an expert guide. Hospital, doctors house, cinema, maternity unit, hostels, barracks and more!

Starts and finishes at St Andrews Church, Central Avenue.

Walk 1: starts at 10:30am

Walk 2: starts at 1:30pm

Walks will last an hour and a half

Sunday 8th of September

10:30am

Guided walk around Eastriggs: ‘the commonwealth village’: find out about the different World War One hostels and the workers who lived in them. See where the tennis courts were, the staff houses, the fire brigade, the cinema, the dance hall, the dairy, the police-cells and more!

Walk starts at The Green, Eastriggs and ends at The Devil’s Porridge museum. The walk will last one and a half hours.

1:30pm

A chance to visit the Pumping House with an expert guide. This is one of the only original World War One factory buildings left. We have been given the permission of the land owner to visit inside this building (which is not usually open to the public). Take a look inside the pumping house which was built to supply the Factory and its power station with the water it needed (5 million gallons a day!)

Where to meet,

If you are approaching the Pumping House from Gretna, travel along the A6071 towards Longtown. Turn left at the junction with the A7.

Travel along this road until you see the Pumping House on your right and then park in the layby nearest to the field on your right. Full images and maps will be published on this page nearer the time of the event.

young people playing board games in The Devil's Porridge Museum at Games Club.

Termtime Clubs

By Archive

After the success of our summer of fun we have decided to run a number of clubs during term time from the 24th of August until the start of the October holidays. We will be running a variety of clubs some of which are new and some of which are continued from our Summer of Fun.

Here is a list of the clubs which will be running and what dates and times they will be running from:

Arts and Crafts Club

Every Monday from the 26th of August from 3.15 PM to 4.15 PM, The Devil’s Porridge holds an Arts and Crafts club. With expert help, from Wendy and Alison, young people can learn new skills, develop their talents and make fantastic craft projects to take home with them. All resources are provided, and all sessions are free! No need to book.

Arts and Crafts Club

Learn the Ukulele

Learn the Ukulele will take place every Tuesday from the 27th of August from 4.00 PM to 5.00 PM. The ukulele is an incredibly social  instrument because its not intimidating at all and can be played by anyone, young or old, musician or non-musician. Its happy, joyful tone make it a delight to play and accessible for everyone. Our learn the ukulele sessions are aimed at beginners of all ages. Join Stephen Oswald for a 7-week block of exciting lessons and learn to play this fun and enjoyable instrument. Ukulele’s are provided, and all sessions are free. Booking is essential please contact: steven@devilsporridge.org.uk

Ukulele Club

Let’s Bake

Let’s Bake will take place from Wednesday the 28th of August from 3.15 PM – 4.30 PM. Have fun in the kitchen learning some new skills and try out some exciting recipes. Over this 6-week block of Let’s Bake we will be exploring The Great War Bake Off Recipe Book. All ingredients are provided, and all sessions are free. Booking essential, contact: steven@devilsporridge.org.uk

Lets Bake

Young Historians Club

Young Historians Club will be taking place from Thursday the 29th of August from 4.00 PM – 5.00 PM. A club designed for budding young historians. Join our young historians and take part in fun activities and projects all based around historical time periods and themes. We are going to start exploring Animals in War as part of the museums upcoming Animals in War pop-up display within the museums education room. All resources are provided, and all sessions are free! No need to book.

History books

Creative Colouring

Creative colouring will take place from Friday the 30th of August from 3.15 PM – 4.15 PM. The relaxation and therapeutic benefits of colouring are well documented. So, what better way to finish the week than spending an hour indulging in this simple pleasure. Bring your colouring book from home or use one of ours, along with our stock of coloured pens, pencils and crayons. This is an intergenerational activity and the whole family is welcome to come along and have fun! All resources are provided, and all sessions are free! No need to book.

Colouring in books

Also join us for some of our other clubs including Pokémon Club which takes place every Saturday starting on the 24th of August from 11 AM – 12 noon.  Games club which also takes place every Saturday starting on the 24th of August from 2.00 PM – 3.00 PM. Gardening Club also takes place every Sunday starting on the 25th of August from 11 AM – 12 Noon. These clubs do not need to be booked.

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