In At The Deep End

We had to go to Nottingham on Tuesday, so asked around for suggestions as to what to do in the afternoon. Wollaton Hall came highly recommended, so we made our way there, through horrible roadworks and traffic, then had trouble finding the park entrance and almost gave up, but once there we were very glad we had persevered

The children started by running off some of their traffic jam induced grumps in the park and then we made our way over to the hall itself (and discovered that there was a car park rather nearer than the one we were in. Tant pis.) passing a large stag on the way, which we thought must be stuffed or a statue until it moved. Apparently he likes to lurk there and survey the visitors, and is especially partial to scones.

We started in the great hall with pictures to colour, which kept A, L and K busy while J and I read information boards about the origins of various Hallowe’en related traditions. From there we moved on through a doorway which gave an enticing glimpse of lion. It turned out to be a room full of cases of preserved and stuffed animals, which reminded me a great deal of visits to the natural history museum at Norwich Castle. I guess it’s from much the same era. We managed to be fascinated rather than saddened – it was all very well laid-out and carefully arranged yet somehow rather forlorn looking too.

The next room was full of birds, some of them in naturalistic settings, many with their eggs (which was fascinating in itself) and with exotic specimens from far-off lands arrayed alongside birds of prey and seaside scenes. The children were entranced, especially A and K, while J was rather taken with all the assorted trophy heads which adorned the walls above the display cases. There was pretty much a whole safari park worth! He wasn’t quite so sure when he realised they were all real though…

Upstairs we found insects: wasps, bees and beetles with their habitat and some utterly beautiful butterflies, all pinned to display boards… again a mixture of fascination and melancholy. The lighting was very well done to show off colours and shapes and there was also a spinny thing to make up your own insect by mixing and matching features, which A rather liked, and a creepy-crawly sentence generator which L enjoyed.

My favourite room was full of minerals and crystals – absolutely stunning! Many of the colours looked just too startling to be natural and we lingered over our favourites only to have our eyes caught by another and another.

There was also a room with cushions, but not enough for all the children to sit on them, and video playing, but so quietly that it was pretty much inaudible, which was frustrating on both counts so we moved on and instead watched a different video with a presentation on taxidermy – specifically how a badger was rebuilt, for want of a better word. The video was accompanied by a partially made badger framework and a finished stuffed badger. After that there was much looking for seams on other animals

From there we stepped into a little part of Africa, including a rather lovely giraffe, a pair of elephant tusks of rather impressive size and George the Gorilla, with his rather sad story (he was the first gorilla to be caught and stuffed and was displayed in the Paris Exhibition in 1878 before being bought for £5000 and brought to Nottingham). There were also books to read (which of course the children greeted as a major attraction!) and some footprints to match with their owners

Another favourite was the display of jellyfish and similar sea creatures, made of glass because obviously they can’t be stuffed, and described as being not quite art and not quite science but “with a tentacle in each” Leopold Blaschka, a glass blower with a keen interest in natural history, first started by making glass models of flowers and was then commissioned to make a display of marine invertebrates for Dresden museum – the start of a whole new direction for him and his son Rudolf.

A quick pop to the shop and we were off back to the park… only to return a few minutes later when the boys realised they had left their diabolo somewhere in the museum. This gave the girls a few more minutes of colouring (and me a few minutes of peaceful sitting) and then we really were off, via an ice-cream and a play in the park, to home.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 10:44 pm and is filed under Home Education, Katy's day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.