Bath Medical Museum is celebrating its first year at its new premises, The Hetling Pump Room.
Paul Thomas ,one of the volunteers, is enthusiastic and full of admiration for all the help the museum has received from so many different people – both locally and internationally!
He’s put together an account of that first year – coupled with a plea for more medical stories and – maybe – more volunteers and visitors too.
He writes:
“We like to get people involved in fun activities as well as offering a variety of exhibits in glass cases, so we are really pleased with over eight thousand participants since we opened in such a small space.
It’s not just about the building either, because we’ve got out and about too. From up to Odd Down and across to the Bath Cricket Pavilion, The Little Theatre, The Hub at Foxhill and many more places.
We’ve created and devised 9 city trails which visit sites associated with a variety of different medics, inventions and treatments. We’ve even got into joining in with – or at least contributing to – research projects. We were featured in the University of Bath’s Doctoral College programme and had a video made about it which was screened at Komedia. This all happened this year thanks to all our volunteers – because we have no paid staff.
We want to involve as many people as possible and look forward to meeting up with more people who are willing to share their knowledge, enthusiasm and skill. And our museum is about something that all of us know a lot about! So there’s lots of knowledge and information out there…. if people would just share it.
Volunteers don’t have to just sit in a corner and watch visitors. although we do have a stream of visitors from all corners of the world.
We have also had the benefit of very active volunteers from Hong Kong to California, from Tibet to The Netherlands, From Japan to Venezuela from Odd Down to Lansdown and of course from the green fields of Somerset to the Banks of the Avon in Bristol!.
We’ve been lucky in that various universities and – in particular – postgraduate students from UoB and BSU have helped us a lot by curating exhibitions, devising workshops, sharing their research, getting us involved in patient trials, giving talks and demonstrations.
Above all having fun in helping us to find out so much more about Bath’s 2,000 years of Medical History.
We started with an exhibition about Wellbeing in Roman times and the work of a Roman Eye Doctor. Then there was the visit from 11th century scholar Adelard and his mentor Dr Bishop John of Tour who built his leper hospital next door to Hetling Court. We walked across the city to the Beazer Maze/Labyrinth to find out how it can contribute to our wellbelng and its 5 millennia history.
Amazingly we discovered in two exhibitions that there were three Dr Olivers – Dr ‘feather’ Oliver Dr ‘biscuit’ Oliver and Dr ‘rejected’ Oliver.
As well as all the wonderful modern medical inventions from a Bath company, Designability and the story of the Bath based hydrotherapist who was around when the then prime minster Edward Heath opened the ‘cutting edge’ hydrotherapy pool at The Min in 1972 and the University of Bath Professor who did all the modelling for Covid.
All this knowledge from our volunteers and over thirty students from eight different universities, the help of over 20 local museums, groups and organisations and even advice and encouragement from the Mayor who came along to our exhibition about disability and aids.
We’ve had fun trips to the city archives to help with our researching, and as part of wellbeing sessions been ‘forest bathing’ in a Wiltshire Woodland, learned origami, acquired the skills of indoor gardening, picked up tips about curating an exhibition, found out where various medics, through history, lived and worked and how they practised.
And listened in admiration to our local students tell us about their ‘cutting edge research’ – including finding out some of the most effective ways of exercising and gaining relief from aches and pains.
So, all in all it has been an encouraging start. We are learning all the time and want more and more Bath people to join in with the fun.
And what have we got to look forward to in a couple of weeks? A fascinating afternoon with the recorder group from U3A telling us the story of Dr Claver Morris of Wells and Bath (1659 to 1727 who was not only an outstanding GP but a very competent musician who set up one of the first music societies in England and joined in with the Harringtons of Kelston Hall concert parties.
That’s on October 22nd from 2pm to 4pm. And Millie a student at Bath Spa University will be showing off her exhibition for the whole of the school half term. It’s about The Morris Family – the first Apothecary at The Min in 1742.
And there’s more to come. That is, if local people share their memories, knowledge and skills with us. We are The Bath Medical Museum and that’s what we are about.
Just pop in to The Hetling Pump Room (close to The Cross Bath) any Saturday afternoon between 12pm and 4pm or visit the Wellbeing sessions 2pm to 4pm on Tuesdays or go to the BMM website – https://bathmedicalmuseum.org/ – and leave your contact details at ‘enquiries’.
Thanks for that Paul, and happy anniversary!
