At the tail-end of the nineteenth century, it was a matter of some pride for village organizations of all sizes that they were able to afford there own
bespoke crockery. We have several surviving items in the Museum’s collection, not least of which is that of the building which today houses the Museum. In
those days the building was correctly called The Workingmen’s Institute which was set up to improve the lot of the village folk. As I mentioned in an earlier
Exhibit of the Month (March 2001) the room which houses the Museum itself was a concert hall. Downstairs, where the Wiltshire County Council Library is today,
was a reading room and a coffee tavern. The picture shows a cup and saucer from the coffee tavern.
In the same set are several plates, bowls, serving plates etc used for special functions, but it is perhaps most appropriate to show these two since they were the first items to be catalogued in the Museum's collection when indexing was started in 1984: they were marked as a pair with the reference number T1.
Also in the collection are cups, saucers and plates from the Purton Wesleyan Chapel and from the Primitive Methodist Church.
Click here to see more detailed pictures of the crockery: Coffee Tavern Wesleyan Chapel
