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Objects reveal Berkshire's unique history Reading Post

22.01.10

BBC Berkshire and museums across the county have revealed the list of 10 objects they have chosen to tell a history of Berkshire and its place in the world.

The list of 10 objects for Berkshire is part of the wider A History of the World project formed out of a unique partnership between the BBC, the British Museum and 350 museums and institutions across the country.

Listeners and viewers will be asked to suggest further objects and can actively participate by uploading photographs of their own objects that have a local or global appeal.

At the end of February 2010 it is hoped that each BBC local website will have an additional “People’s 10 Objects” telling the history of their region and its global connections.

Find out more about the project at BBC Berkshire

The list of 10 objects across the county are:

Silchester Eagle –Reading Museum

This Bronze figure of an eagle was found in the Basilica of the Roman town of Calleva, near Silchester on the Berkshire/Hampshire border. It was later immortalized by Rosemary Sutcliff in her children’s books The Eagle of the Ninth and The Silver Branch.

Reading Abbey Stone Capital –Reading Museum

Carved Caen stone capital from the cloister of Reading Abbey, founded by last Norman king Henry I in the 12th century

Huntley & Palmer African Thumb Piano –Reading Museum

Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin reused as the sound box of an early twentieth century African thumb piano. Huntley & Palmers exploited Britain’s empire to expand the markets for their products.

Dunton’s Ledge Caravan - Riverside Museum

Dunton & Sons built this caravan in 1914 at Crane Wharf in Reading. Romany Gypsies started to live in caravans, which they call vardoes, in the 1850s. Several types of caravan were developed in the nineteenth century including the Reading, the Ledge, the Burton and the Bowtop.

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