Weeks One and Two

I must start off with saying that I have had a fantastic first week, I’ve been spending my days visiting the various venues and museums scatted around Brighton and Hove, also meeting the staff within them.

The places I have visited this week, Blatchington Mill, Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Museum, Foredown Tower, Preston Manor, and last but not least The Booth Museum.

I didn’t realise that there were so many different parts to Brighton and Hove’s Museums. So for the first week Cassie and I were shown many of the historic buildings that they look after.

Blatchington Mill is an old flour windmill that is no longer working but still has most of the original parts. I had no idea that it was open to public but is a really interesting place to visit in the summer.

Foredown Tower is somewhere that I actually hadn’t heard of before. It is a converted water tank that houses the largest camera obscura in South East England. I found the experience truly amazing and would recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different. It literally gives you a new perspective on the world.

Preston Manor is a manor house decorated in the Edwardian style. As soon as you walk through the door you are transported into another age. Preston Manor is used by many schools as a way of experiencing life as it used to be. One child visitor apparently didn’t believe that they did not have electricity in the old days.

The Booth Museum is slightly out of town but is well worth a visit if you are interested in animals and don’t mind them being stuffed! I met the team behind the scenes who told us all about the processes involved and the care and attention that all the exhibits need.

Hove Museum has a fun Toy section that is interactive that all the young children seem to really enjoy. There is also an exhibit about film, filmmaking and local pioneers of the art form. This is one of my personal favourites and the Tea Room is very popular too.

Brighton Museum is housed in the old stables of the Pavilion. It is full of interesting objects from Egyptian Mummies to fashion, local history and art and furniture. They have an exhibition at the moment about the Land Girls who worked the land during the Second World War and paid an invaluable part in the war effort.

Last but not least in my view is the jewel in the crown The Royal Pavilion. Every time I go there I learn something new and as a cultural apprentice get to see parts that the public don’t see. The servant’s quarters are virtually as they were and there is original wallpaper and gives you a small flavour of life above the Pavilion. Underneath the Pavilion there is a big basement where I was shown the original furnace that used to heat the floor of the Pavilion a very early form of under floor heating.

All in all I have seen some amazing things that have given me a new perspective on the buildings and history of Brighton. Above all I have met some incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated people that look after the whole lot and preserve it for future generations.

Roll on next week!

Zac

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We spent out first week looking around all of the council’s main venues – the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Museum, Hove Museum, The Booth Museum, Preston Manor, West Blatchington Windmill and Foredown Tower and meeting all the staff we could find. After being issued with our keys, door passes, ID and name badge, we were ready to be handed over to the ISO (Information and Security Officers) team where we are to spend the first month of our apprenticeship.

We were shown the fire procedures for the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum, all the different patrols and how to get from one end of the Pavilion to the other by Mark, one of the three duty managers. We were then handed over to Vanda and Terry to learn about being an ISO and about the history of the building. We’ve spent much of the second week shadowing various members of the ISO team, learning a lot about the two venues and trying to find the duck in the Music Room of the Pavilion! We’re on our own from next week!

We’ll be spending the next two weeks in the Pavilion and Brighton Museum, before moving between Hove Museum, the Booth Museum and Preston Manor in our forth week.

Cassie