Last week, our curatorial team volunteer, Natalie Baines, took our Historical Loans Box over to Bradford Academy for a reception class to take a look!
On Wednesday 16th October I brought a box of very special items from the museum’s collection to the Bradford Academy in Bowling, Bradford. About forty pupils aged 5 to 7 had the opportunity to uncover and investigate the boxes contents. They were able to inspect police headwear, uniforms, a truncheon, a rattle, a whistle, buttons, badges, and handcuffs. I had a very good welcome from the children, and they were extremely impressed to know I had access to all the rooms and glass cases containing hundreds of police objects.
First to come out of the box were four different types of police headwear: a Replica Victorian Top Hat (worn by Bradford’s Police constables in 1840s-1860s), a Traffic Cap (worn in the 1970s), a West Yorkshire Police Helmet (circa 2000s) and a Policewomen’s Hat (circa 1980s). The children had a wonderful time trying on the headwear, the police tunic, florescent traffic jacket and the cape.
Once the truncheon, rattle, whistle, buttons, badges, and handcuffs were shown to the pupils, they had many questions, especially when they saw photographs on how the designs for each evolved. The photographs of police buildings, police vehicles, police dogs and police horses displayed in the gallery were very popular among the students.
After the investigation of the boxes content, I gave the students a tour of the gallery, the cells, and the courthouse. While in the cells, many pupils very bravely assured me they could live quite happily in a police cell or police station for year! It was lovely to hear how much they loved the Police and how quickly they were able to identify every police item when I tested them on their police history at the end of my visit!
If you would like to enquire about a visit to your school with our Historical Loans Box, please do contact us!
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