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.
32 A
mythical riddle that left historian stumped
24th
March 2011
[Nothing
to do with the museum although Don Simpson is one of our veteran
stewards and is still volunteering. We have included it because in
2012 the museum acquired a rare all-Petworth collection of Goss
china souvenirs marked with the Gog & Magog coat of arms. The
museum already had one piece - donated by another museum and soon
afterwards managed to buy one more piece on eBay.]
A history of Petworth Town Council since it was formed nearly 120 years ago has been compiled by former clerk Don Simpson. But he has so far left one question unanswered: Just how did the familiar figures of Gog and Magog come to be associated with the town? The two figures have been sitting on top of the stone pillars either side of the huge wooden gates which form the main entrance to Petworth House for well over a century. They have been the centre piece of the Petworth Town Council's logo since it was formed. “When the parish council was formed in 1894 the then Lord Leconfield presented a seal to members. He was very particular about the design and wanted it done to his exact specifications with the figures of Gog and Magog depicted,” said Mr. Simpson. The seal was made by the printing company Waterlows. “They asked for a drawing or photograph of the figures to work from,” said Mr. Simpson, “and so Lord Leconfield tried to get them photographed at the entrance to Petworth House, but they couldn't get a good image because of the trees behind them so a huge white sheet was strung up for the photo.” Gog and Magog, the daughters of the mythical emperor Diocletian [?], were first seen outside the Guildhall in London at the time of Henry V. They were destroyed in the Great Fire of London and later re-created and put back only to be destroyed again during the second world war and again re-made and remain there today. They were believed to have stood for all things bad - the sources of havoc and mayhem. “But the question is why did they come to Petworth,” said Mr. Simpson Now he has enlisted the help of Lord Egremont to help him try and solve the mystery. Mr. Simpson who was clerk to the council from 1972 to 2000, when it was a parish council, has his history to the current councillors. He became clerk when Petworth Rural District Council made way for Chichester District Council. It became a parish council and Mr. Simpson who was then postmaster at Petworth was its first clerk in the days when only four meetings a year were held. It became a town council two years ago. Mr. Simpson told town councillors: “When I retired I said I would write the history from 1894 to 2000 and it is now finished. I don't use computers and so it is all in long hand. I have taken the information from the minutes so it is all factual. It is the history of the people and what they got up to.” Vice chairman of the council Gordon Allan thanked Mr. Simpson for his hard work.
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