Celebrating Clun Museum: 1932-2003

by Jean Withers
(Clun Courier Issue Number 156: July 2003)

Introduction

Clun Museum was opened in the Town Hall just over 70 years ago. Early in the 1930s, the Parish Council agreed that one third of the Town Hall's ground floor should be set aside for museum use. This was to be at the east end, which had once been used as a prison. A stout length of chain still hangs there in one corner, a reminder of those earlier times. The museum was to be answerable to Clun Town Trust, created some years earlier in 1924. There were five Trustees. One, Ex Officio, was the Earl of Powys, the Lord of the Manor of Clun. The other four were Representative Trustees, chosen to voice the interests of the people of Clun. The Trust was responsible for the safe keeping of property owned by the former Borough of Clun, principally an Elizabethan Seal and two small Elizabethan Maces.

The administration of Clun Museum was added to their duties and its Curator became a Representative Trustee. The museum was opened formally on 2nd September, 1932, during a Field Study Outing of The Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club. On that day, the club's members explored the Castle Mound, visited Trinity Hospital, and enjoyed tea at Castle Cottage. Finally, they went to the museum for its official opening. They were shown a display of over 1,000 flints, all collected in and around the Clun Valley by two of their members, Thomas Hamar, Museum Curator and Herbert C. Jones, a Trustee. The flints were all prehistoric tools, mostly dating from the Bronze Age and thought to be at least 4000 years old. There were awls, saws, axes and knives, and scrapers of all shapes and sizes. Especially prized, were finely crafted pear and arrow heads.

The two men had realised a long held dream. They had combined their collections and set out their flints in a permanent display, to be seen and appreciated more fully. Their exhibition was judged to be historically important and attracted many visitors. In the years that followed more flints were donated, many of them thought to be fine examples of the Bronze Age period. Once established, Clun Museum began to attract other curiosities and treasures. These were bygones from local houses and inns, farms and workshops, school and church. Nothing seems to have been turned away. Even a man-trap was accepted and proved to be a popular, if awesome, exhibit! As the years passed, more and more of the ground floor of the Town Hall was needed and gradually taken over. Finally, recognising the growing number of visitors, and the requirement for even more space, Clun's Parish Council granted the museum's present Curator, Kent Tomey, and his Trustees, the use of the Town Hall's upper floor from 1st March, 2002.

Seventy years on, the project dreamed about and begun by Thomas Hamar and Herbert Jones has been well supported. It has grown and prospered and is a success story which deserves to be celebrated. Like many success stories, it owes a great deal to those who went before, especially to those who first studied the significance of the prehistoric implements to be found in the Clun Valley.

The Early Flint Collectors: Schoolmasters, Scholars & A Draper

Thomas Hamar (pictured left), draper, and Herbert Jones, teacher, improbably met when Jones was Clun's Schoolmaster in the 1920s. They became close friends, with shared interests in the history of the town, particularly in its ancient past. They continued to meet regularly after Herbert Jones moved to Clungunford, where he took up the post of Schoolmaster I and Church Organist, in January, 1927. The two men I knew, from discoveries made 'by earlier flint collectors that prehistoric tools, entire, chipped or broken, could be found on the hillsides overlooking the Clun Valley. These tools had been knapped from nodules of flint which had come from the chalklands of England, many miles away from Shropshire. Flint implements could be found in surprisingly large numbers near Twitchen, Llan and Pen-y-wern, Rockhill, Spoad and Anchor. These six locations, linked today by minor roads and forest pathways, were thought to have been on the line of an ancient, hillside trackway. For much of the way, the route would have provided long views of the way ahead, reassuring for those early travellers. Flint nodules from the chalklands would have been in every man's pack. Tools and weapons were probably fashioned when needed, leaving debris and discarded implements around the site. This was an ancient 'litter problem' which delighted the early flint collectors.

George Luff, Clun's Schoolmaster, was the first person known to have collected flints in the Clun Valley in any a serious way. He started his collection about 1877 and, over a period of ten years, he discovered a great many flints in a field he called Camp Field (SO 293788). This is near Rockhill, close to the place where the lane from Pen-y-wern meets the A488. There, George Luff discovered flints in the subsoil beneath gorse, heather and coarse grass. After ploughing, even more flints could be found. He left Clun to become Curator of the Shrewsbury Museum, taking his collection with him. Exploring the same site, and at about the same time, was W.E. Deacon, Schoolmaster at Clunbury School, 1877-1919. He left no records, but he gave his collection of 260 flints to the school. His successor, Jonas Cooper, 1919-1950, was another keen flint collector. Enlisting his pupils, he showed them how to look for flints in freshly ploughed fields. They took great pride in their school collection, mounting the flints on cards and labelling them with great care. This Clunbury Collection was given to Clun Museum in 1955. Herbert Jones collected flints with his scholars at Clungunford School. In Clun, the scouts collected flints for their Scoutmaster, Tom Hamar. They filled in questionnaires for him, noting where, and at what depth, each flint was found. He rewarded them with sweets or pennies and spotted anyone who tried to cheat!

An Expert Offers Help

From the 1920s to the 1960s this search for flint implements in the Clun Valley received a great deal of support from Lily Chitty, a respected authority on prehistoric archaeology. She provided the flint collectors with 6" Maps, issued by the Archaeological Division of the Ordnance Survey, and showed them how to use the maps to record their finds. Their records helped her own researches into the prehistoric routeways between England and Wales. The ancient trackway from Twitchen to Anchor formed part of a route she called the Clun-Clee Ridgeway. She was an excellent artist and drew to size their most noteworthy flint finds, adding detailed written descriptions. For nine years, between 1926 and 1935, she authenticated all the 3000 flints collected by Jonas Cooper and his schoolchildren. Lily Chitty began to offer practical help to Tom Hamar and Herbert Jones in the 1930s. They showed her their favourite sites and she verified their finds. Aside from records made on map sheets, she encouraged them to make written notes. A Clun Museum Record Book was started but, sadly, never continued after the first few pages. Lily Chitty's own records cover only a small part of Clun Museum's large flint collection, but they do give some insight into how well it was regarded at that time. Some of the last drawings she did for Clun Museum were of flints found in fields at Llan Farm, donated by Mr John Morgan in 1954.

A Tragic Loss

After Clun Museum was opened to the public in 1932, Tom Hamar and Herbert Jones began to live much busier lives. Tom Hamar needed to be 'on hand' to show visitors around. There is no doubt that he enjoyed this, but it must have taken up a great deal of his time. He and his wife Mollie ran a Drapers and Outfitters at 29 High Street, in view of the Town Hall. When Hamar noticed visitors waiting on the museum's doorstep, he would I 'open up' and show them round. Herbert Jones faced different pressures. Already he was a popular lecturer, giving talks on the history of Clun and the Welsh Borderland. Now, his audiences wanted to hear about Clun Museum's growing flint collection.

In 1936, the two men were invited to carry out an excavation in Oaks Field, Bicton to investigate the origin of some huge stones, which had long caused trouble at ploughing time. Careful digging revealed the remains of a stone circle. It turned out to be the site of a Bronze Age Burial, with signs of a cremation at its centre. This exciting and rewarding exploration took two years to complete. Sadly, it proved to be one of the last they were to make together. On 1st May, 1940, Herbert Jones died unexpectedly, after a very short illness, aged 56. Thomas Hamar was devastated. Many months later he wrote to Lily Chitty, referring to 'the terrible loss of my dear friend the late H.C. Jones'. He described how he had become, 'rather ill with a complete breakdown and was unable to attend to anything for three months',

The Years That Followed

There is no doubt that the loss of such a great friend and colleague came as a great shock to Tom Hamar, but it did not stop him carrying on alone and making a success of their enterprise. In 1954-5 the museum was closed for some enlargement. Perhaps this was when it took over remaining areas of the Town Hall's ground floor. The museum was re-opened by Lily Chitty, who spoke highly of the quality and size of the Flint Collection, and praised Tom Hamar for his 'persistence and his enthusiasm'. He remained Museum Curator for 32 years, until his death in December, 1964, aged 78 years.

From the mid-1950s, Tom Hamar received loyal help from Tom Beardsley, Clun's retired policeman, who followed on as Curator in 1965. During Tom Beardsley's time, the Offa's Dyke Path was opened in 1971. This brought more holiday makers to the area, and the number of museum visitors increased. Fay Hudson succeeded as Curator in 1977. She was the great-granddaughter of one of Clun's last elected bailiffs, and had a great knowledge of the town's history. She organised a much-needed and substantial redecoration of the museum, and exhibits were rearranged. More prominence was given to the wide variety of agricultural, workshop and domestic bygones, which had accumulated over the years. These were the items new generations of visitors wanted to see. Fay Hudson received a great deal of support from Sheila Hamer and, together, they recruited more stewards and organised a rota system. Sheila Hamer stayed on when Fay Hudson retired in 1989, helping her successor, Ernest Baker. This was the period when museum publications were revised. More booklets were written and some were illustrated. In 1995, the south-facing entrance door, which opened onto a very narrow pavement and busy street, was closed permanently. It was replaced by a doorway in the west wall, which gave the museum access both to the Town Hall's entrance from Market Square and to its stairway to the upper floor.

By the time Ernest Baker, and Sheila Hamer both retired in 1997, Clun Museum had been given an entirely new look. Kent Tomey, the present Curator, has been able to take full advantage of the changes they made. The door which opens onto Market Square gives the museum a more inviting aspect. Displays are visible from the doorway and passers-by are tempted to enter and are pleased with what they see. The access to the stairs, leading to the first floor of the building, prompted the idea of allowing the museum full and permanent use of the Town Hall's upper room. Entirely new and imaginative displays are being prepared there now. Seventy years on, Clun Museum's two founders, Thomas Hamar and Herbert Jones, would be well pleased.

Sources: Museum Records; Articles by Thomas Hamar and Herbert C. Jones; The Lily F. Chitty Archive