Happy St Withburga's Day

My apologies, St W's Day was actually yesterday, July 8th. But I only discovered that at 5.30 in the afternoon. This saint is not particularly well known outside of East Anglia - but she came to our town 1350 years ago and founded a nunnery. And she is commemorated on our town sign, which spans the road leading into the Market Place.

Her story goes like this ...Anna, king of the Angles had four daughters. He died in 654, and one daughter, Withburga came to Dereham. Here she founded a nunnery. The women cared for the community and built a small church. They had little money or food. One night the Virgin Mary appeared to Withburga, saying ‘Send two of your women down to the stream every morning, where two does will stand to be milked’. This they did, and so there was milk, butter and cheese for all. The news spread, many came to ask for help. The Reeve became jealous and set off with his hounds to kill, or drive away the deer, but his horse stumbled and threw him, and his neck was broken.

The years passed, Withburga died, and was buried in the churchyard until a suitable shrine could be built. When the time came to move her to her final resting place, the coffin was opened, and her body was found to be whole and uncorrupted as on the day she died. One story tells how one of the men reached and touched her cheek with his finger – whereupon the maiden saint blushed at the sacrilege! Then came the Danish invasion. The nuns were scattered, the nunnery destroyed. But the church and shrine escaped, and when peace returned, became the parish church. Many pilgrims came to pray at the Saint’s Tomb

In 870 King Edgar gave all the monasteries destroyed by the Danes, and the cathedral at Ely., into the care of the Bishop of Winchester. The bishop suggested that Withburga, should lie at Ely with her three royal sisters, but Dereham folk did not wish to lose their saint. So Ely monks gave a great feast to the men of Dereham and when they were all drunk, they stole the Saint’s coffin. Next morning, they found the grave desecrated, the coffin gone. They chased after the monks, but it was too late. Returning to Dereham, they found the empty tomb had filled with a spring of clear water. Pilgrims continued to come to pray, and drink the holy water, which to this day has never run dry.

Years later, at the end of the eighteenth century, a Bath-house was built over the spring, in the hope that the town would become as famous as Buxton nor Bath. Described as ‘a hideous building of brick and plaster’, it was never popular and in about 1880 it was removed and replaced with iron railings and for years was smothered in ivy and ferns, the water green with duck-weed. 

Since 1950 it has been cleared, the ivy replaced with climbing roses and rock plants, and the water kept clean. Every year on a Sunday near St Withburga’s Day, a special service is held. In a few week's time, Katie is organising an event at the museum, and wanted a Withburga Mouse to head up her display. So I have been busy today creating the Saintly Mouse. 

So now you know!
Does your town have a special Saint?

Well Hello, Dolly!

Thank you for all your kind words about the mice🐁🐁🐁🐁 

I mentioned yesterday that it is a hundred years since Brian Aldiss was born in Dereham. At the same time, the townsfolk were celebrating their first cinema. The Old Corn Exchange had been built in 1857 and used for various purposes until the first world war. This photo dates from about 1880.  In September 1915, it was slightly damaged in a Zeppelin Raid. 

Here it is as the cinema.You will notice that the statue on top has disappeared - it was destroyed when struck by a bolt of lightning in 1950. The Museum is featuring a special display - including the original ticket machine [which had never before left the building! 

Katie asked me for an usherette mouse. So here she is [the current manager is Olly, so K thought Dolly would be a good name] I had fun with her outfit!

Her tray of choc ices is made from a small pill box, cut down and covered with washi tape - and the choc ices are tiny 7mm long sections cut from a cheap chopstick, coloured with brown felt pen, and also wrapped in washi tape. The original girls sold cigarettes, and popcorn came much later - so choc ices seemed a good option!

Here is that ticket machine, a news report, and some vintage posters from the Museum display. I know I visited a few times in my teens, but cannot remember what I saw. I was always amused by the letters they used to spell out film titles. They never seemed to have a complete set for the longer titles [or perhaps they fell off in the wind]. Mary Poppins was OK - but occasionally they displayed things like

-NOW--HIT--AND-THE-EVEN--WA-FS
I will post pictures of my final mouse later - after Friday's Grand Re-Opening ceremony.

More Mice For The Museum!

Last Summer I was asked to create some mice for our local Museum. Katie had suggested we had a mascot mouse called Bonnie [from Bishop Bonner's Cottages] and the idea sort of mushroomed - we ended up with seven on the mouse trail. A sleepy Victorian gentleman in a nightshirt, a kitchen maid, Ann who lived in one room in the cottages, Bonnie the mascot, Sam the grocer, Ellinor Fenn [local educator] and Jethro the farmer.

This year, Katie asked if I could dress a few more mice, as she wanted to have some different displays...
Knowing I was a little bit busy, what with a bear and a kitchen and stuff, she undressed three of the mice, so I only needed to make one new mouse and four costumes.

Yesterday I took them round to BBCM, ready for the opening on Friday morning. My brief was two guys and two gals. First, a general purpose "boy" mouse [I've called him Jake] who could be used in different settings.

He just had a simple pair of dungarees and a cap - and could probably be set in any period in the last 150 years. The second male mouse was much more specific. Could I make "Brian" to represent Brian Aldiss, who came from Dereham and became an award winning Science Fiction Author.  

2025 is his Centenary Year.
In many photos he is wearing colourful braces, and often a hat

Here's Brian, holding a copy of one of his books, "Comfort Zone". I confessed to Katie that I chose that title because I could make a tiny, but neat label on my Labelmaker. She was pleased, as it was not one of the titles in her display, so it was good to have it recognised.  I am glad it will be inside the glass cabinet - if anyone did flick through the pages, they would realise it has been made using an instruction manual from an IKEA flatpack cabinet [ the pages of small print] Making Mouse Hats is difficult, because of the ears!

I will post pictures of the girl mice later in the week

🐭🐁🐭🐁

Eureka!

The Back Bedroom is an absolute tip. I really must try and get things into some sort of order. Everything from the kitchen went in there in March, and I took the absolute minimum of crockery, cutlery and foodstuffs through to the Futility Room Temporary Kitchen. But every so often, I need something which has been packed.

It was lovely to receive flowers for Mothering Sunday and my birthday - but the boxes of vases was totally inaccessible, so they had to be displayed in a coffee pot and a kilner jar. I have put the two lids somewhere 'safe' but now I cannot remember where!

Monday night, we had some air-fried salmon with a sweet chilli coating, I thought I should add extra Blue Dragon Sauce, as it seemed a little dry. But I could not find it - Bob suggested a splash of the IKEA dill instead.

I got the jar out of the fridge., "This is almost empty, we must buy another jar in Nottingham" I said. But on Tuesday I was hunting for my book about felt mice - and I found two new jars of the dill sauce [I got them in Lakeside IKEA in February, and had forgotten about them] I did not find my mouse book. I spent an evening drafting paper patterns from scratch...

On Wednesday I was looking for my Mixed Herbs, and unearthed the pattern book underneath a bag of baking sheets...Along the way I am discovering kitchen bits and pieces I have not used for ages, and probably do not need any more. So I have a Charity Box in the corner which is filling up with decent, usable stuff to donate. And another box which is for rubbish.

I'm still not sure why the crown from the dressing up box was in with spare Tupperware though. I wore it all Thursday afternoon as it made me feel important [and made Bob laugh]

Refitting the kitchen is both a Steep Learning Curve and a Voyage of Discovery....

When Archimedes shouted "Eureka!" was it really because he'd discovered a new scientific principle, or was it that he had found his bar of soap?

There's A Mouse In The House

[Plus Six More Besides]

 Katie posted this on the BBCM Facebook Page over the weekend...

I cannot wait to take Jess on the Mouse Trail...

And So To Bed

Ebenezer Mouse likes to go to bed early with a good book. His current favourite is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens [because at the end of it, Ebenezer Scrooge realises the error of his miserly ways and becomes a good and happy man] But it is pretty cold sleeping in the Museum. so the little mouse has a long sleeved nightshirt - and a nightcap with a fluffy pompom to keep his head warm. The mice were delivered yesterday morning, and will be put in place in a fortnight's time, just as the children break up for the Summer holidays...