Home of the Infantry Regiments of Berkshire and Wiltshire
Museum Re-Opens After Winter Closing
The museum re-opened to the public today after a very busy winter closing. We have carried out re-construction work to some areas of the museum displays. Included is a new temporary exhibition related to the First World War, to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the start of the war. This is called ‘1914 – The Country Goes to War’ and covers a soldiers life from a civilian through to conscripts and serving on to the front line. It also includes some of the many artefacts that we have in our reserve collection that are not usually on display and relate to 1914. Also photographs from that year and documents are included and the original telegraphs sent to the various battalions informing them to ‘MOBILZE’.
The First World War permanent displays also got a makeover. We have included an exhibition about the machine gun and have used a Lewis, Vickers and two Maxim guns that were up until now been in the reserve collection. Also new is an exhibition called ‘A Close Shave’ and is made up of objects that have been involved with saving a soldiers life, such as a cigarette tin with a bullet hole through it and helmets.
There has also been a re-working of some other of the museum displays, they are; an updated exhibition about the Rifles Regiment, a new display case exhibiting artefacts related to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment involvement in Northern Ireland, a new Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment display case and a childrens handling area where they can try on uniforms and helmets from the First World War and the modern era.
The photograph shows the new machine gun exhibition.