The MUSEUM of Farnham has been a part of our town’s life for 60 years, and on Saturday, September 18, we marked our diamond jubilee with a day of family fun and activities.

We were delighted to see so many people come along to get involved and make the day what it was.

Today the museum is very much community focused, and it was important to us that this event was not only a celebration of the history of the museum but also a celebration of the community.

We wanted to create an event that brought people together and allowed people to engage directly with our history, rather than simply observing it. We are thankful that our visitors on the day were as keen to get involved as we thought they would be.

We opened two small archaeology test pits in our walled garden for the event and Surrey Archaeological Society were there on the day to run a small dig.

Previous excavations of the museum garden have shown a Tudor structure beneath, and we were very keen to give visitors the opportunity to get hands on with some real history and see what they could unearth. The dig proved very popular with children and there were several small finds, including brick, tile and porcelain.

The children excavated the upper soil, which yielded post-medieval finds, most from the 20th century. These will add to the most recent chapter of the museum’s history, and we are pleased that our children could be the ones to find them.

Inside the museum we were able to collaborate with The Theatre Exchange and The British Dental Museum to tell the history of the house.

Actors portrayed scenes from John Thorne’s life, a hop merchant who had the house built in 1718, and visitors could even meet and talk to John Thorne and his fictional manservant, Simmons, in the garden. Dental items from the early 20th century were loaned from The British Dental Museum to tell the story of Sidney Longhurst, who established his dental surgery in the house in 1905, and we created a mini exhibition detailing the history of dentistry during this time.

On the day the museum also played host to ’The Big Draw’. This was a unique opportunity for visitors to work together to create a large-scale piece of art.

The activity was made possible by the Farnham Art and Design Education Group (FADEG), a community art group, and was led on the day by local artist Philip Ryland.

The event was a true demonstration of the wonderful organisations and individuals that we have within our community and was a real collaboration effort. It was heart-warming to see so many families showing support for these groups by getting involved on the day.

As we look forward to the future of the Museum, we hope to continue to work with local groups to create exciting opportunities for our community.

We would love to hear from anyone that would like to collaborate with us on future events.

Contact Josh Godfrey on [email protected] or call 01252 715094 to discuss further.