Over 38 million standard civilian gas masks were distributed during the war. This child’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ Gas Mask (1) was given to children between two and five years of age in the hope that the bright colours would make it less frightening. Children carried their Gas Masks everywhere with them in a cardboard box (2).
Babies and children under the age of two received special Gas Masks. The Baby Protective Helmet (3) required a parent to constantly pump in filtered air for their child, to keep out poison gas.
Sometimes entire schools were evacuated to camps or evacuation hostels where they lived and were taught. The Evacuation Hostel Scotland Badge (4) was worn to identify staff working in the hostels.
We have developed some foreign language guides which visitors to the Museum can borrow from the desk at reception. They contain brief introductory information to each of the areas of the Museum’s displays. We currently have guides in French, German, Spanish and Mandarin. We hope to add guides in other languages in future. Thanks to Nicola Bogle for helping to arrange these translations.
Also now available to borrow from the Main Desk is a large print guidebook for visitors with visual impairments. We hope this small addition will help them to enjoy their visit to us even more.
When you visit the Museum, our volunteers and staff will do everything they can to make you welcome. We are always being praised on our excellent customer care. If there is anything we can do to make your visit more enjoyable or if you have suggestions on other actions we could take to accommodate your needs, please do let us know (email: info@devilsporridge.org.uk or phone 01461 700021).
Thanks to Graham Croft for putting up the display in reception.
Finally, a placement for me!
My name is Andrew Dill I am 26 years old. I started volunteering in August of 2019 after months of looking for a suitable placement.
In my short time here I have already taken part in so many activities, exhibitions and other tasks. I helped to finish and dismantle the where’s wally trail (so had to find wally first). I help with the general day to day maintenance of checking lights and if tablets are working, helping in the café and meeting and greeting visitors to the museum.
I have frequently done research on different flags from around the world and helped to display these flags and give information for visitors about the flags.
My biggest involvement so far has been on the animals at war exhibition. I done a lot of research about animals at war, finding stories on cats, horses, pigeons and dogs that were shared in the exhibition. I helped to pick out objects like medals and photos that were used in the exhibition. I helped to design a leaflet that was use to tell people about the animals at war memorial that was taking place at the Devil’s Porridge to remember all the fallen animals that helped in the war. I also took part in the filming for iTV border life about the exhibition meeting Stephen Glenncross who told us all about the pigeons and their roll in the war
I love history and I love helping at the museum as I can share my knowledge and I learn new things all the time.
The staff here at the devils porridge have been great and very helpful they have played to my strengths and helped me when needed.
I would like to work in a museum as it involves a lot of my interests. After a couple of other placements that haven’t worked out for me I am now very settled and enjoy the work I do.
I love talking to people especially about history and love to take part in different exhibitions furthering my knowledge and interests.
Judith, the Museum Manager and John, one of our Trustees had an interesting visit to Brampton in Cumbria on Monday. John had heard on the grapevine that Brampton Community Centre was housed in an unusual historic building which it is said was the original Gymnasium for workers at HM Factory Gretna in World War One (the Devil’s Porridge Museum’s main focus is on this Factory and the 12,000 women who worked there).
Photos above show the inside of the main building today.
Judith and John managed to contact the people at the Centre and arrange for a guided visit. The building is very impressive and certainly would have been an excellent gymnasium. It is now used for woodwork and art classes. The Devil’s Porridge duo were shown around by two representatives from Brampton and an interesting discussion took place about the building: where was it located in the War (Gretna? Eastriggs?), when was it sold and transported to Brampton (1918? 1921? 1924?) and how was it transported? We will continue to explore these ideas and see what our research yields.
Below: these photographs show the corridor and inside the rooms which are said to have been the changing rooms for the Gymnasium (you can still see a bench which ran around the edge of the room).
It certainly is a well preserved and interesting building as these photographs testify. Our thanks to Brampton Community Centre for being so welcoming and helpful.
Below: this cupboard inside the building is certainly old, perhaps its lock will help us to date the building?
Below: photographs showing the building exterior including a photograph showing the building’s brick foundations.
Below: some photographs of the building’s interior.
We were very happy to welcome some new young volunteers to the Museum yesterday. Andy and Jake have both been volunteering with us for a few months now (Jake first volunteered with us when our Access and Learning Officer, Steven Bogle, organised our Social Media takeover day) but they have both decided they would like to volunteer with us more to achieve their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. They have been volunteering in the office with Judith, the Museum Manager, where they have been helping her to sort our paper objects into the correct acid free storage as part of a major re-organisation of the Museum’s object store.
Alana and Finn volunteered with us for the first time on Saturday. Arna, our Office Manager, showed them the ropes in Front of House and she was impressed with how quickly they took to it and grasped how to operate the till and deal with customers.
We have another young Duke of Edinburgh volunteer starting with us today and we would always welcome the participation of more young people at The Devil’s Porridge Museum. To inquire, email steven@devilsporridge.org.uk or phone 01461 700021.
An interesting parcel appeared at The Devil’s Porridge Museum this week. Inside it was a signed copy of a book called ‘Magnificent Women and their Revolutionary Machines’ by Henriette Heald. The book chronicles the early days of the Women’s Engineering Society (or WES) and features biographical information about some of their influential early members (including women with local connections such as Dorothee Pullinger who built the first car ‘for ladies, by ladies’ in Dumfries and Galloway).
The book was donated to the Museum by Ceryl Evans who met Judith Hewitt, the Museum Manager in London in September at the Women’s History Network AGM. This lady spoke at the conference about a brilliant project WES had organised to celebrate the centenary of their organisation.
WES was established in 1919 to preserve the work done by women in engineering in World War One and to ensure that the gains made in women’s technical accomplishments were maintained in the post War world. We would be very interested to see if any of the women who worked at HM Factory Gretna were members and this is an area of research which we will be pursuing.
For more details on the History of WES see:
https://www.wes.org.uk/content/history
https://www.wes.org.uk/centenary-map
Twitter @WESCentenary
Instagram @wes_centenary
A talk by Dr Peter Hewitt
There is a field in Cornwall which is said to have been cursed by a witch. Accounts date back to the sixteenth century and the legend of Mother Ivey. In the 20th century, the water company tried to dig into this field but were unable to through a series of unfortunate events. In this talk, Dr Hewitt will focus on places which are believed to have been cursed by witches, explore the origins of this particular ‘witch’s curse’. His talk will also feature on the methods people have taken to protect themselves from witchcraft. This might be carving protective symbols in the wall of their houses, hiding things in wall or roof spaces or creating elaborate witch bottles.
Dr Peter Hewitt is a Folklorist who completed a Masters and PhD exploring folklore, magic and ritual in Museum Collections. He now works for Dumfries and Galloway Museum Service and was previously employed by Museums Northumberland and worked for many years as Collections Researcher at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall. His work has been published in various books and articles, he has delivered talks to different organisations and groups including the Folklore Society and the Hidden Charms conference, he is a regular writer for Paranormal Review and a collaborator with Folklore Tapes. His current research focuses on Holy Wells in Northumberland.
Mossband Clock Restoration
Over a hundred years ago, a clock was installed above Mossband House, one of the key buildings in the Longtown (or Mossband) section of HM Factory Gretna, the greatest factory on earth in World War One (The Devil’s Porridge Museum tells is story).
Several years ago, the building was demolished but the clock was saved and put in the care of The Devil’s Porridge Museum.
Now the clock is being restored by the original clockmakers (Smith of Derby) and will be installed within the Museum this year.
The clock was collected from us on Wednesday and Smith of Derby have already provided us with this update on the progress of the work.
“…two of our apprentices are currently working on cleaning up the clock movement, and will be stripping out the glazing of the dials later.”
We will keep you updated on how this work develops.
If you don’t know this is what it looked like back in the day.
Thanks to the Association of Independent Museums, Museums Galleries Scotland and Friends of Annandale and Nithsdale Museums for making this project possible.
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.
