Just over my left shoulder but still in earshot … the Town Hall has its own Jubilee Room
You might have spotted from my first blog that I’m seated centre stage in the Museum – honoured! Behind my head is the Arms of the ancient Burgh of Prestonpans which governed the town until 1975 when reforms consolidated most of the powers then held over to Haddington – the county town for East Lothian. [There’ll be more about that later this year as the Town Hall’s 125th Anniversary is about to be celebrated in August.] My picture here shows Museum Curator Arran Johnston with the Trust’s Chairman Gordon Prestoungrange in the foreground.
But … back to the Jubilee Room just behind me. It’s been elegantly refurbished lately and to coincide with the Platinum Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II it’s hosting a four month exhibition of 18 panels from the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry looking at ‘Royal Connections’ that have been stitched from Henry of Doncaster [1152] to Moors at the Court of King James [1513] and Princess Ka’iulani of Hawaii [1899] . Over the coming years equally intriguing clusters taken from the total of 310 will be displayed and interpreted each four months.
Foxie and Alex can’t hear what’s said in the Jubilee Room but they are close to the 500+ visitors who’ve already come since opening to the public. Alex and Foxie both caught the briefing session just for teachers which has been quickly followed by some 150 teacher led students; Archie saw them walking the battlefield as well. [Bringing school groups to the museum and linking that with battlefield walks Archie hopes to monitor has been routinely debated as a key priority by the Trustees!]
I’ve attached photographs of these three fellow mannequins at their own locations. We can’t move about [just yet] but we are in touch via Smart phones and across the dark web so we’ve been keeping notes, sharing stories and catching comments regularly. There’s a good few catch ups to share in the coming weeks.
