Petworth Cottage Museum
The First Twenty Years
In 2016 we were able to stage an exhibition to celebrate twenty years of the museum. Extracted from the Petworth Society's scrapbooks of cuttings, the pictures and transcripts collected here occupied three sides of the exhibition hall. Five years on we cannot stage another physical exhibition but we can show these cuttings here. Unless otherwise stated the cuttings are all from the Midhurst & Petworth Observer. Click on the pictures to enlarge.
29 Homemade
Welcome for Visitors at Town Museum
2nd April 2009
Mrs. Cummings has spring-cleaned her house in High Street Petworth. There are boiled eggs, hot cross buns, homemade cake and bread on the tea table and a jar of homemade gooseberry and elderflower jam. There is a welcoming fire in the range, the gas lights are burning and she is ready to welcome visitors at the start of a new season at Petworth Cottage Museum. This unique little museum at 346 High Street opened for its 13th season yesterday after months of loving preparation by the woman behind the project, Ann Bradley and an army of volunteers. Together they give visitors an insight into how Leconfield Estate employees lived nearly 100 years ago in a cottage where time stands still at 1910. It is the gas-lit Leconfield Estate cottage where Mary Cummings, seamstress at Petworth House, lived until the 1930s [1930]. It has been carefully furnished and fitted with all the things she might have had around her, from the specially-selected wallpaper in the sitting room to the clothes hanging upstairs in her bedroom. And one of the first visitors this year was Paul Over, director of employment and prosperity at Chichester District Council. He is responsible for tourism and is eager to promote the cottage as well as the town. “What we have here is the opposite end of the tourism spectrum,” he said, “to places like the gallery and the theatre in Chichester. It is valuable because we don't get these personal histories in other places. Many tourists like to make historical connections with people's lives and Ann and her team have done that here, they have brought this building back to life. The reason this is so important is most of Chichester district was made up of estates - Leconfield, Cowdray and Goodwood. These supported whole communities, a very large part of the employment in the communities related to the estate, and that is what makes this district special.” he said the Petworth museum showed what life was like for these employees at a certain point in history. “We can't afford to lose it. I don't know anywhere else where tourists could come and see a worker's cottage like this.” So Mr. Over's team are currently looking at ways of promoting the town and its cottage museum. “We are looking at tourism generally in Petworth because what we have is a wonderful town with one million tourists visiting Petworth House. We want to get a proportion of them visiting the town to experience places like the museum.” A link to Petworth carrying details of the cottage museum can be found on the website www.visitchichester.org. Visitors to Petworth will also be able to print out a walking tour of the town pointing out the places of interest as well as highlighting restaurants and shops. In addition Mr. Over hopes to bring in new signing: “At the moment there are fingerposts , which are getting long in the tooth.” He is looking at providing new signs which would point out local attractions as well as retailers and give a town map. Petworth Cottage Museum is open until October 31, Tuesday to Saturday from 2pm-4.30pm and on bank holidays. It will also be open on easter Sunday and Easter Monday, April 12 and 13. Adults tickets are £2.50, children under 14, 50p. For more information about the museum call Mrs. Bradley on 01798 343533 or 01798 343590.
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