The Great Norris Museum Launch

Queens Elizabeth I and Boudicca comparing notes on ruling England

Set off early today to catch the guided bus to St Ives for the first public open day of the Norris Museum. Seeing Captain America with her shield taking the bus into Cambridge seemed a good portent for the day to come. When I arrived early at the Norris at around 9am, the team were already in full swing getting volunteers sorted and I was soon assigned to help out on the plaza beside the museum. Face-painter Jeanette hijacked my services to make her gazebo safe and painted a Mammoth on my cheek in return.

Visitors soon started arriving and there was s steady stream all day. After a stint on the Rattle production table, I ended up helping as part of the T-shirt and bag printing team. I was on the sales table with Ann, directing people next to the 'make your own design and cut it out' table from where they then joined the queue for the actual screenprinting. With the white T shirts resplendent with bold designs in blue to blue green gradients, we volunteers also succumbed to the magic and made our own when there was a lull in customers!

Since the Norris is at one end of the town, there was a parade in which practically all visitors joined in, taking banners and various large models on sticks. The mediaeval drummers led the procession and the children enthusiastically shook their button and bead rattles as we temporarily brought the town to a festive halt and distracted people from the competing beer and music festival on the Market Place. After a minute's silence at the war memorial we all marched back again, dragging along some new visitors in our wake. I ran around a bit with my camera to try and get some good pictures of the momentous day and someone else was also doing video and photography.

It was a great day, where I learnt a lot about mediaeval potters and how a new class of traders arose, discovered spectacles were being mass produced in the Netherlands/Belgium in the late 1500's and imported into England, and learnt from no lesser person than Queen Elizabeth I herself, with Queen Boudicca in attendance, that underwear was a late entry to clothing, not becoming established till the Victorians.

A brilliant event with over a thousand visitors, I returned suitably exhausted after helping pack up at the end of the day.

Photo Albums available:

• Renactments: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7H9P3rVtBT1hUu2t1
• T-shirt printing, face and cookie decorating: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WjyQxhtYfAVzrX803
• In and around the museum: https://photos.app.goo.gl/W2FWyrfXGL4vDRQE3
• The Norris Museum Procession: https://photos.app.goo.gl/j32IbdKPnL0NONvH3